Candidate for
Member, City Council; City of Sierra Madre

We all love Sierra Madre for its wonderful charm and amazing quality of life that it provides us and our families. Because of these reasons and because of my up-brining, Sierra Madre was the perfect fit for me and my family. I was born and raised in a small town on the East Coast (Rhode Island!) into a great family with an older sister, a younger brother, two amazing parents, and an extended Italian family full of love and laughter. From a young age, my family instilled in me the importance of community and community service. It is these values that I carry with me today as I try to give back on behalf of myself and my family to our wonderful community, Sierra Madre

To tell you a little bit more about me and my family growing up, my family has been and still is very tight. My father and mother married at a very young age and my father enlisted in the United States Air Force and moved himself and my mother to Washington. They stayed there for 3 years, had my sister and myself, and then moved back to Rhode Island after he finished his service to the Air Force. My father eventually started his own business and now runs a successful auto repair shop in Providence, Rhode Island.

My mother stayed at home with the children until I was around 10 years old. She worked hard raising three children with love, good values and discipline; but she also managed to find time to volunteer at our church, school, and be a Boy Scout Troop Leader! She also did her part to hold down a job to help support the family while my father started his business. Her first job was as a bank teller at a local bank, before she accepted a job with Blue Cross of Rhode Island, where she still works after 20 years of employment! My mom is now contemplating retirement within the next few years, so she can keep up with my father's love of NASCAR, RV's, and traveling!

I think the best part about my childhood was the house that my family grew up in! What an amazing structure! The house, now owned by my parents, was built by my great-grandparents after they immigrated to the United States from Europe in the early 1900s. The house consisted of three levels with three separate apartments. At one time, my great grandparents lived on the 2nd floor of the house, my grandparents lived on the 1st floor with the five children (the youngest child being my father), and my great aunt (my grandfather's sister) lived on the 3rd floor with her husband and three children. Eventually, my parents bought the house after my great-grandparents passed away, to keep it in the family.

Growing up, the house was always full of activity, but always full of love and good Italian cooking! My grandma (an amazing cook!) and I were very close growing up as she lived on the first floor while my family lived on the second and third floors. She taught me how to be an analytical thinker, and gave me a deep respect for family and community through her example. While she is no longer with us, her love of community, public service and people in general still inspire me and I carry her and her thoughts with me forever.

My parents and grandma encouraged me to go to college and I was the first person in my family to graduate from college. After graduation, I worked for one year as a speech writer for the Rhode Island Senate Majority Leader. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be an attorney, which I think was because many of the great leaders of our country had been legally trained and because the legal profession is a helping profession. So after a year of speech writing, I headed to law school in Connecticut.

Law school was an incredible experience. It was a grueling, yet intellectually stimulating experience. I decided to continue my community and government involvement in law school as well, volunteering in local organizations, serving on the student governing Body as president of the student body, and serving as editor of our law review during my second and third years of law school.

After graduating from law school, I moved out to California to experience new things and also, because I thought it would be interesting to live in a place other than the northeast where I had lived almost my entire life. Initially, I made my home in Sherman Oaks because of proximity to my job, but eventually I found Sierra Madre after a Christmas party and absolutely fell in love with the community! I knew after moving to Sierra Madre that I would not be moving back to Rhode Island.

I continued my involvement in public and community service when I moved to California. Since moving to California, I have been volunteering my time at a low income legal clinic in Hollywood. I was very active with the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council and served as the Chairperson of Public Safety Committee. As the Chairperson of the Public Safety Committee, I worked closely with the local police department and fire department. I was a member of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association where we fought hard to make sure that the community was not over-developed and I am a member of numerous other political clubs.

Professionally, for about seven years now, I have been working for a small law firm in West Covina that practices mainly in the area of bankruptcy law. I work mostly with small businesses and individuals to aid them in achieving financial independence and overcoming financial hardships. I worked my way up in the firm and now serve as Senior Associate Attorney. I very much enjoy my work and really feel that I am making a difference for my clients.

Our move to Sierra Madre was because we fell in love with the city just after our first visit. For me, Sierra Madre represents a little bit of Rhode Island in southern California--that is, it emphasizes community service, has beautiful open spaces, great hiking trails, amazing people that say "hello" even if they have never met you before, and a small town atmosphere.

Sierra Madre is my home and I deeply care about the issues facing our community. I am running for City Council because I have the energy, passion, and abilities to help our community meet all of the challenges facing the city and plan for the future, so that we can continue to live in an amazing foothill community.

I live on Key Vista Drive and you can reach me at 807-1142 or e-mail at friendsofjoemosca@joemosca.com.