He wrote, “The Pleasanton Weekly cut off comments on your column about Costco. But I thought I would provide an answer to you anyway. The answer is NEVER.”
His response sums up his respect for the will of 63% of the people who voted to bring the warehouse store and gas station here in 2016.
Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern, who has held the office since Charlie Plummer retired in 2006, is facing two challengers in his re-election race this year. He is being challenged by department Commander Yesenia Sanchez and veteran San Francisco Police Department Officer JoAnn Walker.
Ahern has picked up endorsements from the supervisors representing the Livermore Valley, Nate Miley and David Haubert. Haubert just finished his first year on the board after serving as Dublin’s mayor, while Miley is a long-time board member and has represented Pleasanton for the last 10 years.
Ahern also received the endorsement from former governor Jerry Brown, who presumably he got to know while Brown was serving as Oakland mayor. The sheriff’s department is headquartered in the county building in downtown Oakland.
Congrats to Livermore native Brandon Cardwell who will lead the city’s innovation and economic development activities. Cardwelll had been working for Livermore since 2006 and moved into economic development in 2011. One of his key roles has been directing the i-Gate Innovation Hub that’s jointly funded by the city, the two national labs as well as Dublin, Danville and Pleasanton. In that role, he headed the development of the Daybreak Labs incubator for start-ups and the Startup Tri-Valley ecosystem.
In the press release announcing Cardwell’s appointment, City Manager Marc Roberts noted he’d also been involved in significant land planning in the city. Cardwell went to Livermore schools, graduating from Granada High. He brings that home-grown perspective to his job and wants to see more local job opportunities for residents so they can volunteer in the community instead of fighting long commutes on the freeway.
It’s nice to see Roberta Gonzalez back on the Bay Area television. For more than 20 years, Gonzalez provided weather forecasts for KPIX before leaving in 2016 to form her own production company. I have seen Gonzalez filling in on the KTVU weather desk in recent weeks. From her comments about the I-580 and the Dublin grade on Monday, I suspect she still lives locally. While working at Channel 5, she raised her family in Pleasanton.