January 23, 2009

County Report

Meet and greet the Supervisor’s office staff

By Dave Cortese,
San Jose Vice Mayor
Special to the Times

Let me begin by wishing you all a Happy New Year. I hope the holiday season was the perfect end of the year celebration for you and your families. For my family, it was a great opportunity to reconnect, recharge the batteries and gear up for what promises to be a busy 2009.

It is my intent that the District 3 Supervisor’s Office be a useful tool for you and your neighbors to gain access to the resources at the County and help shape the policy direction the County should go in. In that vein, I want you to meet the District 3 staff. They are here to serve you and I hope you won’t hesitate in working with them.

Rabia Chaudhry: Rabia joins me from our office at San Jose City Hall and will be continuing in the role of Chief of Staff. Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Rabia graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a dual degree in Political Science and English. Before joining my staff at the City, she worked for the City of New York. She and her husband reside in San Jose. Rabia will be staffing me on many issues including the county budget, transportation, education, and economic development. You can reach her at rabia.chaudhry@bos.sccgov.org.

Keli Spjut: New to the staff is our Executive Administrative Assistant, Keli Spjut. Previously, she worked at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Evergreen campus) in a similar role. While she was born in Minnesota, Keli has become a local, living in California for the past 36 years. In addition to her office manager duties, she will be managing appointment requests and correspondence. Her friendly voice will likely be your first point of contact when you telephone the office. Keli can be contacted at keli.spjut@bos.sccgov.org.

The-Vu Nguyen: The-Vu also joins me from San Jose City Hall. Hailing from Evergreen Valley College and San Jose State University, he holds a degree in Spiritual Human Yoga and is the founder and president of the Vietnamese American Com-munity Action Team. As a Policy Aide, The-Vu will be staffing me on many issues including juvenile justice, seniors, homelessness, and will be a main point of contact with the non profit community and in the neighborhoods of Evergreen and Milpitas. The-Vu is bilingual English and Viet-namese. He can be reached at the-vu. nguyen@bos.sccgov.org.

Michelle Pelayo-Osorio: Another veteran from City Hall is Michelle Pelayo-Osorio. She graduated from the National Hispanic University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Studies, and an emphasis in Cross Cultural Studies. She currently serves as a National Vice President for the well-known civil rights organization, “The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)”. Michelle will staff a myriad of issues including mental health, child care, youth, public safety, and will be a very visible face in the neighborhoods of Evergreen. She is bilingual English/Spanish. Michelle can be emailed at michelle.pelayo@bos.sccgov.org.

Mike Donohoe: Mike Donohoe also joins me from City Hall. Like me, Mike is a long time resident of the Evergreen area, having bought his first home there over 30 years ago. He has served in the real estate industry for many years as a volunteer including as President of the Santa Clara County Association of REALTORS® and was a founding member of the Evergreen Real Estate Marketing Association. Mike will handling land use, housing, business-community relations and finance, amongst other areas, and will be a familiar face in the neighborhoods of the Sunnyvale portion of the district. Mike can be contacted at mike.donohoe@bos.sccgov.org.

Steven Blomquist: A recent addition to my staff is Steve Blomquist. Since graduating from Santa Clara University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, he successfully managed a local restaurant. In addition to being a Policy Aide, he has also become my unofficial staff photographer. In his spare time, Steve enjoys ex-ploring the world with his camera, although due to expense of traveling, he is usually confined to locations within the Bay Area and Northern Califor-nia. Steve will overseeing issues related to open space, social services, vector control, and the District 3 website, as well as being a frequent visitor to the neighborhoods of Berryessa, Alviso and North San Jose. He can be reached at steven.blomquist@bos.sccgov.org.

Lara McCabe: Lara McCabe graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Indiana University and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from San Francisco State. After teaching high school for 4 years, Lara moved to San Jose to raise her family. In her spare time, she likes to run and read and is eagerly diving back into the working world. Lara will be immersed in the public health system (including the VMC), drug and alcohol services, and finance, and will be a regular presence in the neighborhoods of Alum Rock and the East Hills. Lara can be contacted at lara.maccabe@bos.sccgov.org.

So that is a quick glimpse of the staff here at the County. I am excited to have them help me to serve you as your representative and I hope you will contact our office, by email or phone (408-299-5030), so we can begin.

In the coming months, I will be writing about topics and issues that we work on here at the County, as well as offering you opportunities to get involved. In the meantime, we will also be updating www.supervisorcortese.org with information about County programs and ways for you to participate in local government.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at (408) 299-5030 or dave.cortese@bos.sccgov.org. I am excited to serve you in this new capacity. Let the year begin!