November 17, 2006

Reed names top advisors

Mayor elect announces transition committees

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

Mayor-elect Chuck Reed announced his three top advisors last week.

Reed named Pete Furman as chief of staff with Ruani Weerakoon as his Economic development director and Armando Gomez as his budget director.

Until his appointment, Furman held management positions in engineering companies. He’s excited about being named chief of staff, because “this is the direction I wanted to go. It’s exciting to get the chance to do something totally different and I feel blessed just to have this opportunity,” he said.

Pete Furman

Reed’s mayoral race was Furman’s first real political experience. He loves challenges and feels that Reed appointed him because of his “intelligence and his ability to grasp issues” combined with a “people-oriented, feet on the ground approach.” While he has extensive experience in the engineering field, his job has always been working with customers and managing employees.

Furman became active in the community two years ago when he began serving on the board of the St. James Historic District Neighborhood Associ-ation. The chair of the group’s land use and development subcommittee as well as the retail committee, he also is a founding member of CalSJ and the Downtown Neighborhood Leadership Forum. Other civic activities include the Coalition for a Downtown Hospital, which is working to bring emergency medical services to downtown San Jose.

He began his career at Garret Turbine Engine Company in Arizona. He later moved to Minneapolis for MTS Systems Corporation serving the company as product manager, senior program manager, senior account manager and director of product strategy. He and a friend co-founded Appteric in January 2005, which offers manufacturers representation for advanced manufacturing technologies. He explained that Appteric will be shut down, since he will be unable to do both jobs.

In 2000, Furman took a year’s sabbatical and worked as a mountaineering instructor and taught team building skills to corporate groups. He has a BS degree in general engineering—with dual specialties of engineering administration and theoretical and applied mechanics from the University of Illinois and a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the same school. He is married to Lisa Voss, a senior product manager at Intuit in Mountain View and has two daughters.

Weerakoon has worked for the San Jose Redevelopment Agency since 1989. She currently is director of industrial development managing economic development and redevelopment programs for five technology parks housing more than 2,500 multinational companies that employ more than 80,000 people.

Ruani Weerakoon

She said she was honored to be Reed’s choice and to “be able to continue doing what I’ve been doing for the past 17 years.”

She also said she was excited because she gets to follow “visionary leaders that got us to this point. Now we are dealing with a new economy and a new reality with Reed at the helm and our partners and colleagues [mayor, council members and city and redevelopment colleagues] can continue to take the city in the right direction.”

Weerakoon said she took the job because she has lived and worked here for 17 years. “I care very much for the city and how it’s going to look when my six-year-old son grows up.”

As industrial development director she works to keep corporations here as well as attract new businesses to the city. Her department also initiates and facilitates strategic programs related to emerging technologies and ensures the continued economic health of San Jose’s technology parks.

Weerakoon represented the Redevelopment Agency in preparing the city’s Economic Development Strategy, the North San Jose Vision 2030 Area Development Policy Update and the Edenvale Area Development Policy. She also manages the city’s incubator program.

Born in Sri Lanka where she received her elementary and secondary education, Weerakoon obtained her BS and Masters degrees in economics from San Jose State University. She is married to Richard Keit; they have a six-year-old son.

Gomez has been on Reed’s City Council staff since November 2000, most recently as chief of staff. He also has served as a budget, transportation and land use issue advisor.

“I think this is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the city and continue my career in public service,” he told the Times. Gomez has 10 years of budget experience as well as six years working for Reed.

Armando Gomez

Gomez was elected in 2000 as a City Council member for Milpitas and selected as vice mayor for that city in 2004. He was re-elected to that council this year. Gomez, who served on various committees for Milpitas, such as finance, transportation and city/school subcommittees, drafted an open government ordinance.

He explained that his job as Milpitas councilman is part time. “I do put in about 20-plus hours a week, but most of it is late in the evening. I’ve been able to do both jobs for six years,” he said.

Before joining Reed’s council office, Gomez served as budget analyst for the operations division of the San Jose International Airport. Other items on his resume include stints on the San Francisco Ethics Commission, where he helped development of the city and county of San Francisco’s campaign finance audit program, and also worked for that city’s budget analyst’s office, staffing housing and neighborhood services issues and assisting with auditing city departments.

Born and raised in Milpitas, he graduated from that city’s elementary and secondary schools. He attended Santa Clara University and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in political science. He lives in Milpitas with his wife, Bernadette, and their two sons.

Reed announced his transition team on Wednesday, Nov. 29. The 67 members will work in five subcommittees; government reform and ethics, public safety, education, environment and jobs and the economy. The first committee meeting was held Thursday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. at the McEnery Convention Center. Reed plans to publicize all future meetings so that community members can attend.

At the press conference to announce the committee members, Reed noted that “reform” is an integral part of the work he expects the team to perform.

Among the committee members are newly elected Council members Pete Constant and Sam Licardo and current Council member Dave Cortese. Former Council members Pat Dando, Shirley Lewis, David Pandori, Larry Pegram, Lu Ryden and Judy Stabile also are among the transition team members as well as former Mayor Janet Gray Hayes and County Superintendent of Education Colleen Wilcox.