Tim Rood Will Run for Piedmont City Council

Tim Rood, a member of Piedmont's Budget Advisory & Financial Planning Committee (BAFPC), today (Tuesday) announced that he will seek a Piedmont City Council seat in the Feb. 4, 2014 municipal election.

Rood also ran for a city council seat in 2012, losing a closely contested race to Bob McBain by 26 votes.

Three council seats are up for grabs in the coming election, as Mayor John Chiang and Councilmember Garrett Keating will "term out" after two four-year terms and Jeff Wieler completes a four-year term. 

Wieler has announced that he will seek reelection. (Wieler also served on the city council from 2002 to 2006. Under the City Charter, a councilmember may be elected for no more than two consecutive four-year terms of office.  However, after a full term has elapsed (4 years), councilmembers may again run for office.)

Teddy King, a member of the Piedmont Recreation Commission, has also announced her candidacy.

A certified city planner and licensed architect, Rood has led multi-disciplinary consulting teams and public outreach processes for numerous cities, including Oakland, Martinez, San Rafael and Healdsburg, and holds a LEED accreditation in green neighborhood design, his press release says.

He holds a bachelor’s degree cum laude from Columbia University and masters’ degrees in architecture and city planning from U.C. Berkeley. Rood is a partner in an award-winning urban design and planning firm, Community Design + Architecture, which specializes in the design and implementation of walkable, bicycle-friendly streets and communities. The San Francisco Better Streets Plan developed by CD+A has won multiple awards.

His community service includes six years on the board of the Piedmont Swim Club, serving as a precinct captain in the 2013 school parcel tax campaign, and volunteering with the League of Women Voters of Piedmont to register voters at the Piedmont Harvest Festival. He also volunteers as treasurer of Human Impact Partners, an Oakland-based 501(c) 3 non-profit organization.

A daily bicycle commuter, Rood also established and leads the Green Transportation interest group as a co-chair of Piedmont Connect, a local volunteer environmental organization.

Rood has been a Piedmont resident since 2002. He and his wife Muffy have two children who attended Wildwood from kindergarten and are now at Piedmont Middle School and Piedmont High School.

In the press release, Rood said that he has been endorsed by all his colleagues on the BAFPC: Chair Bill Hosler, Mary Geong, Steve Hollis and Tom Lehrkind.

Rood said his campaign steering committee includes Council member Garrett Keating; former mayor Al Peters, a member of the Task Force on Civic Governance appointed by the League of Women Voters of Piedmont; former Council member Walter Schey; former Planning Commissioner Melanie Robertson; MTRC members Michael Rancer and Eric Lindquist; Kathleen Quenneville, also a member of the Task Force on Civic Governance; and a diverse group of current and former parents of Piedmont schoolchildren, including former parents Diane Allen, Denise Bostrom, and Hingman Chan; PMS and PHS parents Bill and Tina Bocheff; Beach and PMS parent Jim Mitchell, and Wildwood parent Judy Richardson.

In addition to the BAFPC members and his campaign committee, Rood’s other endorsers include School Board President Rick Raushenbush, Recreation Commission Chair Nick Levinson, former mayor Nancy McEnroe, and Capital Improvement Program Committee member Ryan Gilbert, who was also a member of the 2011 Municipal Tax Review Committee, Rood's press release says.

“I’m honored to have been endorsed by all of my Budget Advisory & Financial Planning Committee colleagues,” Rood said in a statement.

"As a Council member, I will bring my in-depth knowledge of City finances, as well as my professional experience as a city planner, consulting to dozens of municipalities and leading community outreach processes to find consensus on difficult issues.

"I look forward to working with the incoming City Administrator and other staff to implement the BAFPC’s money-saving recommendations, including refinancing the pension side fund, restarting the phased rehabilitation of the City’s sanitary sewers, and addressing the projected deficit in the sewer fund.” 

“Piedmont is such a wonderful place to live thanks in large part to the dedication and effort of our citizens. It’s been a privilege to represent Piedmonters on the BAFPC for the past two years, collaborating to explore ways to save the City money and address future liabilities, while responsibly maintaining our civic assets."

BAFPC Chair Bill Hoslet said in a statement, "Tim is very knowledgeable of the City's budget and overall financial position and the fiscal issues facing the council.

“As a committee member, he’s demonstrated his open-mindedness, his analytical approach, and his commitment to responsibly maintaining our high-quality City services and facilities.”

BAFPC member Steve Hollis added, "Working closely with Tim on the Budget Advisory & Financial Planning Committee over the past two years, I've been impressed his grasp of fiscal issues, his collaborative approach, and his commitment to saving taxpayer dollars while keeping Piedmont a great place to live." 

Rood can be reached at (510) 239-7663 or by email at Tim@Rood4Piedmont.com. His campaign website is www.Rood4Piedmont.com.

ELECTION DETAILS

According to City Clerk John Tulloch, the official filing period for city council nomination papers opens Oct. 14, 2013, and ends Nov. 8, 2013.

He noted that any candidate who intends to raise money for his or her campaign must also file a Form 501 with the city clerk's office before starting fundraising efforts or receiving campaign contributions, even if that is prior to Oct. 14.

In the February election, Piedmont residents will also be electing two people to the Piedmont Unified School District Board of Education. 

Incumbents Ray Gadbois and Roy (E. Leroy) Tolles will both complete their second four-year terms in March of 2014 and are not eligible for reelection.

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