Candidate for
Council Member; Town of Los Gatos

Biography

Councilman Mike Wasserman Immediate Past Mayor and current Town Councilman of the Town of Los Gatos

In November of 2002, Mike was the top vote getter among five candidates and became a Los Gatos Town Councilman. In 2003, he was elected Vice Mayor. And in 2004, he was elected Mayor. He maintains his seat on the Council and will run for re-election this November.

While his progress through local politics has been rapid, he definitely put in the necessary years to be well prepared for his new responsibilities and continues to put in 20 hours a week as a public servant, for the Town he's called home for 30 years.

Mike is now 48 years old, has been married to his wife Kim for 26 years and they have two children, 17 and 18 years of age.

Mike has a degree in Psychology and a certification in Financial Planning, both from the University of Southern California.

Mike's professional background over the last 25 years has consisted of managing a national retailer, then owning and operating three different businesses, first in San Jose and then in Los Gatos: a property management company, a financial planning firm and a sports memorabilia store.

These endeavors gave Mike valuable hands on experience in negotiations, investments, being a tenant, being a landlord, being a homeowner, subdivisions, property rights, and historical structures -- all the while allowing Mike to talk to and most importantly, listen to, the thoughts, desires and concerns of tens of thousands of citizens.

But his involvement with the community was even broader based than that +and all of this was before he ran for public office! Mike coached more than 300 kids on 25 youth teams over a 10 year period. He was a Community Read-In participant for 8 years. He created the Zero Tolerance for Violence in Youth Sports program in LG Little League and has contributed in numerous ways to over 100 different, non-profit organizations.

In recognition of all this involvement, Mike has been voted "The Best Youth Sports Coach in Los Gatos" AND "The Best Volunteer in Los Gatos" AND "The Best Civic Minded Citizen in Los Gatos."

But Mike didn't stop there. He wanted to continue helping his community and figured being on the Town Council was the next logical step. The San Jose Mercury News and the Santa Clara County Firefighters endorsed him and 58% of the people who voted in 2002, gave him one of their votes.

Since being elected, Mike has been supported by over 700 people, including California's Secretary of State, our local Senator, 23 Mayors past and present from 11 different cities: Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, Campbell, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Santa Maria City, Gilroy, Mtn. View and Sunnyvale, San Jose City Council members, a County Supervisor, school board members and service club, Little League and LGUSL presidents.

While being on Council, Mike has served and/or chaired, numerous committees, giving Los Gatans a voice in both local and regional matters. Some of those committees included: the Assoc. of Bay Area Governments, the Guadalupe West Valley Water Shed Committee, the Santa Clara Cities Association, the Santa Clara County Emergency Preparedness Council, the Santa Clara County VTA CODE Committee, the Town of Los Gatos CDAC, Los Gatos' Finance Committee, the West Valley Mayors and Managers Committee, the Downtown Streetscape Committee, the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School Facilities Use Task Force, and the League of California Cities.

In his spare time, Mike gathered signatures, contributions and ultimately votes, for the historic passage of Prop 1A, which now limits the State's abilities to raid our local coffers and protects our locally generated revenues for our cities to use.

Mike has helped create and/or enhance numerous projects, including the formation of a Youth Commission, a "Town Hall in the Neighborhood" program, a Community Bus program, additional soccer fields and the multi award winning, nationally recognized, Alive and Loving Life Project.

He also created a project he calls "Community Unity" + whereby all service minded individuals, in clubs, churches, schools, etc, throughout Los Gatos, join forces to work together to help Seniors, children, parks and trails.

The Communtiy Unity program just won (9/06) a prestigious Helen Putnam Award from the League of Calif Cities for "Enhancing Public Trust,Ethics and Community Involvement."

That brings you up to date on where the Honorable Mike Wasserman has come from, what's he's accomplished thus far and where he's headed.