Where Government Becomes Personal

A Talk Given to the Panetta Institute Student Interns on August 10th

Good morning.

When I was asked to come back and speak to another Panetta Institute class, I was both honored...and I have to say, a little surprised. After all, this room is filled with outstanding students who are headed to Capitol Hill.

You've worked incredibly hard to get here. Many of you may have dreamed about working in Washington for years. And then they invited...the mayor of a one-square-mile town with about 3,000 residents, half of them part-time. A town that doesn't even have traffic or street lights.

So I figured I'd better answer the obvious question. What can the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea possibly tell future congressional staffers about government?

Actually...Quite a lot. Because while Washington writes many of our laws, and lately California has written quite a few that have profoundly affected OUR town, cities are where people decide whether government is actually working.

That's where policy becomes personal.  I didn't spend my career planning for politics. I spent it building things. I built houses, software companies, a family, and even a successful horse business which is an oxymoron most of the time.

Then, after my wife Margaret and I thought we had retired, we started building communities.

If you had told me ten years ago that I'd become mayor, I would have told you that you were crazy. I had never planned to run for public office. I was looking for retirement.

Apparently...retirement had other plans for me. Margaret and I had finally slowed down after decades of work. We had traveled the world. Built our forever home in Carmel.  Moved to Carmel full time. Life was good.

Then someone asked if I would volunteer at the Chamber Visitors Center. I said yes.  That one little word changed the direction of my life.

Then Margaret agreed to become staff for the Carmel Residents Association. Being lifelong problem solvers, we couldn't help ourselves. We modernized their operations, rebuilt their marketing platforms, and doubled their membership in less than a year.

Then COVID arrived.

Margaret and I started Carmel Cares because our community suddenly needed help. Our mission was simple: to keep Carmel beautiful, safe, and inviting during the most difficult times our town had ever experienced. It has now grown to over 300 volunteers and has spread to Pacific Grove and Monterey with more Cares organizations to come over.

At the same time, my friend and Coldwell Banker’s #1 realtor Tim Allen and I started Carmel Gives to help local businesses and nonprofits survive COVID. Six years later, we’re still helping organizations throughout Monterey County by issuing an average of 2 grants a week.

One "yes" became another. Then another. And pretty soon I wasn't simply volunteering.

I had become deeply invested in my community. And here's something I didn't understand at the time. Volunteer work changes you. You think you're giving something away. But, what you're really doing is discovering who you are and giving yourself and everyone connected with you a renewed purpose.

Eventually people started asking whether I would run for mayor. They also asked whether I felt ready. The honest answer? Absolutely not.

I had attended hundreds of council and commission meetings.

I'd built five homes in Carmel, so I knew my way around the Planning Department.

But… I'd never chaired a council meeting.

I'd never read a municipal budget. I can assure you it's every bit as exciting as it sounds. I'd never negotiated with labor unions. I'd never worked through California housing law. I'd never wrestled with coastal regulations...and if any of you ever do, I wish you luck.

No. I wasn't ready. But here's one of the biggest secrets I've learned about public service. I don’t think anybody really starts being truly ready for their first time in public office.

What I was ready to do was listen. I was ready to ask questions. I was ready to build teams.

And I was ready to admit when someone else knew more than I did. It turns out those qualities are much more important than pretending to have all the answers.

After a year and a half as mayor, I've discovered something else that surprised me.

Policy isn't actually the hard part. People are.

One thing surprised me: almost every issue looks simple from the audience. Then you sit in the chair where every decision has consequences, and you realize just how complicated good government really is. And, that you need to be aware of not only constituents but also everyone around you in government. Because everyone cares. They care deeply about their homes. Their businesses. Their history. Their City and neighborhoods. Their jobs. Their future.

Almost nobody comes to a council meeting because they're having a wonderful day.

They come because they're worried. They're frustrated. Sometimes they're angry.

Sometimes they're scared. Sometimes they've spent years working on an issue before they ever step to that podium. Those are the people who will be calling you DC! And, when they finally do...your first responsibility isn't to solve their problem. It's to make sure they leave truly believing they were heard.

That may be the most important lesson I've learned in public service. And, I think that will be a skill that will be extremely useful to you in DC.

One of my predecessors advised me to come into meetings with my mind made up and two votes already secured, only need that third one. I discovered that's not how I want to lead. I come with an open mind. My job is to run a fair process, listen carefully, and let the discussion make all of us smarter before we vote.

In the end, listening well doesn't mean everyone gets what they want.  It means everyone deserves to be respected.

Over the past year our council has made some very difficult decisions. But, we transformed our failing ambulance service into one that achieved 100% performance last month and is being paid by AMR for every mutual aid call instead of doing them for free as we had for the last 10 years. 

When I took office, we were spending almost every dollar of revenue just to keep the lights on leaving little for capital improvements like fixing roads and sidewalks.  We've since brought operating expenses down to 85 percent of revenue and memorialized that as policy along with other strict controls. That gave us room to finally start addressing our deferred maintenance by properly funding capital projects.

We got a restoration project for our historic Harrison Library on track through an extraordinarily successful $17 million public-private partnership that is ahead of schedule and under budget. That has taught me that P3’s can help us do other big things like build a new civic center, solve our parking problem, and build workforce and market rate housing to solve our state mandated housing challenges while providing us with huge sustainable cash flows. In fact, later this year and after I’m out of office, I will be proposing a project that will do just that.

But, we'll also be locating and hiring an outstanding City Administrator, Planning Director, and Public Works Director, all between now and the end of my two year term in December.

In August of 2024, at one of my campaign events, an outspoken resident was pushing me to give my opinion on house addresses. He was a big advocate for them. I told him “what difference does it make what I think, my job will be to run a fair process and do what the majority of the town and council thinks” and I asked him if he would be on the committee to investigate the problem. He was taken aback a bit by my request but said “Yes”. And, that’s exactly what happened. He turned out to be the key to our success in giving Carmel street addresses after over 100 years. You can now find my house on Google Maps.

And, last but not least, we banned pickleball at Forest Hill Park by the council realizing that this was a very personal issue for the people who lived 100 feet from those noisy courts across the street. We took extreme pressure from the players and pickleball associations but did the right thing by putting ourselves in their shoes.

Both of those last two became international stories like most things in Carmel do. We are constantly in the spotlight but have been successful by keeping our eye on our constituents, instead of what the press are saying to get clicks. 

I learned a term at a Cal Cities Conference that you need to grow rhinoceros skin quickly. But even after you grow your protective skin, those decisions and execution of them aren’t easy. 

They required debate. Compromise. Patience. And above all...Listening.

I've learned that democracy isn't messy because it's broken. It's messy because free people care deeply about different things. That's exactly how it's supposed to work. 

Many of you will soon be working in Washington. I hope you enjoy every minute of it. Our country needs talented young people willing to serve.

But never forget the importance of local government. Because every bill you help write...

eventually lands in somebody's city. The laws may begin in Washington. But they become real on somebody's street.

That's why local government matters so much. It's where citizens experience government, not as an idea, but in their everyday life.

I don't think I've ever found work more meaningful than helping build a community.

Not because communities and local government are perfect.

They're wonderfully imperfect. But because every day you can see your work reflected in people's lives. The 16 new stop signs we voted on early this year showed up that month and the fact that they were successful in making the town safer was immediately clear. The 4 of us that voted “yes” knew we made the right decision. But the one that voted “no” had also created a better debate. 

Every day, residents come up to me and give me a nudge to run again, but last Friday was the last day to file. When I leave office in December...

I'll still be wearing the yellow volunteer vest I wore on my yard signs.

I'll still be planting native plants.

Picking up trash.

Helping more Cares nonprofits grow and spending time on Carmel Gives grants. 

I’ll also be working to underground power lines with a new 501(c)3 organization I just set up called Monterey Peninsula Undergrounding. Our team will be influencing all parties in those expensive and highly complex projects to achieve success and even executing public benefit projects ourselves. 

I’m doing this because I finally figured something out I was never really chasing public office.

I was chasing usefulness. And somewhere along the way...usefulness became my purpose.

I hope each of you finds your usefulness and purpose in life using what you learn in Washington. Congratulations on this remarkable opportunity that you’ve found through your hard work. I hope you have a wonderful experience in Washington

And thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts with you!

To hear a podcast generated from this speech click here.