Candidate for
Council Member; City of Alameda

Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft was born in San Francisco, grew up in Alameda, attended public schools (Edison, Lincoln and Alameda High) and graduated from the University of California at Davis. While at Davis, Marilyn tutored the children of migrant farm workers through a program called Amigos Anonymous and was a reading tutor for struggling middle school and high school students. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development.

After graduation, Marilyn worked as a Probation Officer for Plumas County where she supervised an adult and juvenile caseload, wrote pre-sentence recommendation reports and sought employment opportunities, mentors, and sometimes foster placement to help probationers avoid further criminal activity. Marilyn went on to Law School at Santa Clara University, and then worked in the field of employment law where she handled wrongful termination, sexual harassment, racial discrimination and age discrimination matters, as well as medical malpractice and personal injury cases. For the last three years, she has worked part-time as an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau, hearing consumer product liability cases.

Ezzy Ashcraft met her husband, Howard Ashcraft while working at a San Francisco law firm. Howard is a partner with the Hanson Bridgett law firm in San Francisco where he specializes in complex construction projects and helped develop a collaborative approach to design and construction called Integrated Project Delivery. Marilyn and Howard are the proud parents of 19 year-old twins, and college students, Claire and Cole.

When her children were younger, Marilyn became active in the community -- volunteering in the schools, delivering Meals on Wheels, and in 1996, stepping forward to co-chair LIBRARY 2000, a grass roots campaign to build a badly needed new Main Library and renovate our two branch libraries, following the defeat of a library parcel tax. In November 2000, the ballot measure passed with more than 78% of the vote. Ezzy Ashcraft was appointed to the Library Building Team where she helped write the City's successful application for matching funds from a State Library Construction Bond, select an architect, determine program space and select furnishings for Alameda's wonderful new Main Library that opened its doors in November 2006.

In June 2000, Marilyn was invited to join the Board of Directors of Alameda Hospital. The Board's responsibilities included oversight of this 135-bed local community hospital with a $235 million annual budget and more than 500 employees. Ezzy Ashcraft chaired the Community Relations Committee and served on the Finance Committee. When the hospital's revenue stream declined rapidly after the largest physician group in the city affiliated with Kaiser, the Board asked voters to approve creation of a health care district and parcel tax to keep the hospital open. Ezzy Ashcraft chaired the special election campaign in April 2002, coordinating over 100 dedicated volunteers to achieve the 2/3 supermajority needed to save the hospital and more than 500 jobs. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors appointed Ezzy Ashcraft to the first Board of Directors of the newly formed City of Alameda Healthcare District where she served until 2006 when Mayor Beverly Johnson appointed her to the Planning Board.

Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft has been Planning Board President since June 2009. During her tenure, the Planning Board approved projects that strengthened Alameda's various business districts -- the revitalization of Park Street north of Lincoln Avenue to replace lost revenue from departure of the car dealerships by emphasizing pedestrian-friendly, mixed use development; the continued renovation of Alameda Towne Centre; newly introduced planning and design concepts for the revitalization of Webster Street; and the addition of new businesses at Harbor Bay Business Park, most recently the decision of VF Outdoors, parent company of North Face, Jansport, Vans, Eagle Creek and Lucy, to bring its corporate headquarters and 650 employees to the business park. All of these projects will help bring badly needed revenue and jobs to our city and attract more businesses to Alameda. Ezzy Ashcraft also successfully advocated for the adoption of green building and Bay-Friendly landscaping ordinances because she believes we must safeguard the environment as we plan for the future.