The New Site

So, this site is now defunct, but we’ve got a better site about Lafayette civics/politics/life.  It’s http://lafayetteca.wordpress.com.  Please check it out.

New Site

I will be changing the theme of this site soon.   It will be more of a clearinghouse of information for the community, though it will have a focus on a few specific issues, in addition to a general theme.  The problem is that my geriatric computer seems to have been willing to hold it together for the election, but is now ailing.  I hope to get a new one before Thanksgiving, so the site will probably launch in early December.  Please check back then; it is important that we all stay involved.

Results

Sorry about the delay, I did not get results until several hours ago and have been having severe technical difficulties since then.  I got some sleep, woke back up and spent the past couple of hours getting everything to work.

We have lost the race, though the Contra Costa Times numbers are a bit low.  We did quite a bit better with day-of voting than absentee. Overall, we had approximately 3,600 votes.

I would like to congratulate Councilmembers Federighi and Anduri and Mayor Anderson.  I look forward to being active in Lafayette’s civic life under their responsible and solid leadership.

I would also like to thank all of my supporters and volunteers.  About six months ago, I and some colleagues tried to find someone to run for Lafayette City Council that would bring even more fiscal responsibility to the Council, eschew pushing for new taxes and fight harder than ever to preserve Lafayette’s character.  We did not find anyone who was able to do this and I decided to run, with the intention of getting the message out.

At that time, there were probably only a dozen people in Lafayette who knew who I was.  I had no idea how to campaign for public office and raised a fraction of the money that the two incumbents who I had the best shot of beating for a seat did.  Yet we were able to get the message out.  By word-of-mouth, over the internet and through phone calls, we let people know about the campaign.  Different people supported the campaign for a few different reasons, but everyone felt that this race was healthy and helped to promote accountability for the Lafayette City Council.  I have had a wonderful time meeting so many people, learning such a great deal about Lafayette’s civic matters and hearing from so many people who love Lafayette about why they love it and what direction they would like to see Lafayette go.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible.

So, what now?

I do plan to stay very involved locally.  I will be transforming this site into an informational site to help everyone stay in touch with what is going on and I hope that everyone will stay involved and informed.

I will continue to sit in on Council meetings and some committee and commission meetings, including tomorrow’s planning commission meeting.  Feel free to e-mail me or call me about local issues. I also plan to advocate for some of the issues that were central to this campaign.  On November 10th, an important Council meeting is scheduled to discuss a solicitor regulation law that would do a great deal to make Lafayette safer.  If you can’t come, write to cityhall@lovelafayette.org and ask you Councilmembers to do whatever it takes to make Lafayette a safer place.  E-mail me for more information about this long overdue law.

I would like to assume a leadership role in the Lafayette Taxpayer’s Association, a fiscal responsibility watchdog in Lafayette.  For those of you, who were interested in this campaign and were drawn to the message of fiscal responsibility and not raising taxes, I encourage you to e-mail me and get in touch, so we can work together through the LTA.

But before I do most of this, I must catch up on work that I have missed, buy a new home and apply to local MBA programs.

Again, thank you to all, and congratulations to our great City Councilmembers.

Sincerely Yours,

Gabriel Froymovich

Still Waiting for Info

We’re trying to figure everything out and get the results.  Be back soon.

Final Post Prior to Election Day

If this is your first time on the site, please look around and call me at 299-1807 if you have any questions.  We can use your vote tomorrow to bring accountability to the City Council – it has been 36 years since an incumbent was defeated.

For my dedicated supporters: let me know when you can pitch in tomorrow to help.

We should have our earliest results posted on this site shortly after 8p and hope to be able to give hourly updates, though this all depends on County officials.

Final Stretch Volunteers

We are in the final stretch now with only five days to go.  I’d like to let everyone know what we’ll be doing to try to bring in more votes in the last days and how you can help:

Thursday: I am trying to finish up work early so I can put in 3 hours of pamphleteering and meeting people outside of Trader Joe’s.  If anyone would like to help, you can meet me there and pick up some fliers to hand out outside of Diablo Foods.  Meanwhile, one of the campaign’s most active supporters is putting in phone calls to a highly targeted voter list.  Anyone who has the time can put in even as few as 5 or 10 phone calls, just let me know and I’ll give you a list.

Friday: On Friday, I may do some more pamphleteering, but I and a volunteer will be holding up signs at Oak Hill Rd and Mt. Diablo Boulevard for the campaign.  This would be a great time for a volunteer to hand out flyers or making phone calls.  Friday evening I will be staying in for a bit for any local trick-or-treaters and then I will be doing some campaigning at the Round Up – the band that is playing has agreed to let me have the mic for a couple of minutes.

Saturday and Sunday: Saturday and Sunday I will be handing out fliers and any help with phone calls or signs would be great.

Monday:  I will primarily be organizing for Election Day, all volunteer help is, of course, welcome.

Tuesday:  Tuesday I will be holding up signs on routes to the polling place (the Methodist Church just of Mt. Diablo Blvd. on Moraga).  I will also be parking and re-parking cars on those routes with my posters on them and can use help with this activity.  Around 3p, a delegate will be arriving in Martinez to supervise the counting of the votes.  I will try to be there from 8:45p to 12p.  Hopefully, we will be able to give online updates as to the tally and should know the results no latter than midnight.

Thank you everyone for your continued support.  I think we just might make Lafayette history this year.

Election Day is Coming Up

If this is your first time at this site, please take a look around and feel free to call me (299-1807) or e-mail me with any questions.

To all of my dedicated supporters, I have a request for help if you can offer it.  I will need a great deal of volunteer help on election day.  There is no electioneering within 100 feet of the polling site (the Lafayette Methodist Church at 900 Moraga).  Voting is from 7a to 8p.  I will be buying a 100 foot piece of twine and scoping out where we can campaign.  Throughout the day, assistance would be great, making and holding up pro-Froymovich signs, talking to folks, possibly fliering and, if we can find spots, parking cars with posters on them in visible areas.  Additionally, I will need a volunteer to observe the ballot counting.  This will be done in Martinez starting at 3p.  The counting should go until 12p according to County estimates, but I will be able to relieve the observer around 8:30p.

But, if you are looking for something to do now we can use the help. 

First, think if there is any neighbor, friend, acquaintance or long lost relative in Lafayette who you have not told about the campaign yet and go for it.  Ask them to pass on the message, too.

Second, if you can pass out fliers, let me know.  I’ll drop some off, whether you need 4 or 400.

Third, if you are itching to get even more involved, there is plenty that can be done, like phone banking for even as little as 10 minutes.

There are no polls to track this race and the fact that people can vote for between 0 and 3 of the 4 candidates means we do not even know how many votes we need to win.  All I can say is that, in uncontested elections, each candidate usually gets around 5,000 votes and, with massive turnout this year, we could need as many as 10,000 (or more) votes this year to be in the top 3 of 4.  We still have time and the word is out and getting around.  We just might make history in Lafayette this year.  If we do, we can expect the Lafayette City Council to be much more responsive from now on; re-election will no longer be taken for granted.

Poll: Do You Plan to Bullet Vote?

I believe that we can expect at least 4,000 and maybe as many as 6,500 people to vote for all three incumbents.  I may be pleasantly surprised, but this means that we need a great many people to “bullet” vote.  A bullet vote is one that is cast for only one candidate, even though multiple votes can be cast.  So, my question is: how City Council candidates do you plan to vote for?

Consultants and Getting Out the Vote

Do you like that Lafayette’s City Council spends tens of thousands of dollars on consultants who explain how we can change Lafayette into Walnut Creek?  How about the money that goes to consultants to try and pass new taxes?  I certainly don’t.  If you don’t, then there is something we can do about it.  Help me get out the vote.  If you are new to this site, by the way, then please do explore it a bit to learn about my platform and feel free to call me at 299-1807 or e-mail me.  Maybe you will even want to pitch in.

So, to those of my supporters that want to do something, here are three easy ways:

1)  Keep Spreading the Word.  E-mail everyone you know in Lafayette, asking them to check out the site.  The site can be accessed through either http://froymovich.wordpress.com or www.Vote94549.com.  Talk to your friends in person, too and to people you run into.  If you’d like, I can drop of business cards of mine to pass out that have all of my info, including my web site.  Even if you don’t know your neighbors that well, you can go over there and suggest they take a look at the site. 

2)  Letters to the Editor.  Keep writing letters to the editor, but follow up on them, too.  This helps to ensure that they are published.  If you would like help I can give you the e-mail addresses, what you need to do to help letters get published and even send you stock letters.

3)  Phone Banking.  Are you willing to make a few phone calls to people you don’t know to spread the word?  If you are, let me know.  I can send you as little as 10 phone numbers, with some talking points.  That is less than one phone call per day until the election.  Just send me an e-mail.

Well, I am off to the Design Review Commission meeting.

Last City Council Meeting

The last City Council meeting revolved largely around two issues:

The first issue was that of issuing bonds to fund the $50M library we are building in Lafayette.  With credit markets seized up this will be costly and will still fall $2M or $3M dollars short.  The library will have to borrow the money from the city’s funds for the city offices and parking.  Sadly, only $250,000 of the library’s $50M price tag is dedicated to books.  Twice that amount is dedicated to public art.

The second issue was the re-zoning of a parcel of land from R-15 (single-family homes, with 15,000 sq. ft. lots or more) to allow the building of a condominium complex that would have 18 units, compared to the 12 unit maximum put in place by the general plan.  Local homeowners’ associations had actually fought to reduce the number of units from 54 down to 18. 

Our council has planned our city to conform to Association of Bay Area Government demands that we put in a great deal of high-density, low-value housing.  This would transform Lafayette for the worse.  Councilmember Federighi claims that they only do this so as to stave off ABAG.  The council’s vote to deviate from this general plan in order to put in higher-density housing seems to indicate otherwise.