General Performance Summary

By Dennis Ricardo Coleman

I have set new standards for Council member performance and will continue to do so.

I have set new standards for the Council in terms of documenting the rules and stimulating relevant discussion, regardless of the issue or whether it is reported in the press. This has earned me the respect of other Council members and incented all of us to be prepared to explain and justify our positions. I have also raised the bar in terms of showing that Council members can independently acquire and analyze technical information and prepare their own agenda reports instead of being totally dependent on staff, whose priorities and approach may not always reflect the perspective of our constituents. Finally, I have shown that any Council decision, which smacks of being based on habit or something other than laws and facts, will be subject to heightened scrutiny. Such scrutiny has occasionally prevailed, even over reluctant converts, basically because there was no good reason not to do what I had shown should be done. I call that stating a position and supporting it, and trying to get everybody else to do the same with their positions, instead of deciding things based on factions, favors, personalities, relationships or worse.

Future Performance

The overdue reform of the City's General Plan (which now specifies houses everywhere) is a key issue, whose resolution has for some reason mysteriously slipped beyond my current term in office. What a coincidence. I need to be in office to vote on that plan. This will help ensure that we end up better off than where we started. With the old plan calling for billions of dollars of new commuter housing, going backwards is a real possibility if I'm not there. That's because of the shear volume of influence peddling that is bound to be focused on any decision which threatens the 8000 house buildout target (we now have ~4000 houses) and those who benefit from it at our expense. Residents need someone knowledgeable and strong to participate in such decisions on their behalf. That someone is me.