Rosanne Foust Candidate Profile and Drought Update

This past Friday, the courts in California dealt Governor Brown’s water directives a major set back. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang ruled that notices sent by the state, directing water agencies to stop pumping from rivers and creeks, violate the water agencies’ due process rights. The court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) forbidding the state from enforcing the notices. The parties go back to court on July 30th.

Should we really be surprised. This is the same judge that in 2005 agreed with Arnold Schwarzenner and Citizens to Save California and struck down a state Fair Political Practices Commission regulation. The rule had applied the same donation limits on candidate committees to ballot-measure committees that are controlled by a politician.

At the same time weather forecasters are predicting a big El Nino next year. Although a parched California certainly would welcome a good El Nino, too much of a good thing could turn out to be just as devastating a none at all bringing instead mud-slides and flooding. Although it will solve the problem being created by Judge Shelleyanne Chang’s recent ruling.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-chance-for-strong-el-nino-20150710-story.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_28462025/todd-dwyer-el-nino-be-careful-what-we

Rosanne Foust candidate profile

Born in a hospital in Derby, Connecticut, Rosanne Foust grew up in nearby Shelton, Connecticut. She attended St. Joseph’s Elementary School a private catholic K-8 school that not only her siblings also attended but both her parents also attended. For high school, Rosanne went to the local public school, Shelton High. After high school while one of her brothers went on to a vo-tech school for mold making, Rosanne attended Stonehill College, a catholic college outside Boston. Putting herself through college with a combination of student loans, grants and work study programs; Rosanne’s college experience included a semester abroad in Orleans, France. In college she majored in International Studies and minored in Economics and French.

After college Rosanne worked for International Business Center of New England at the World Trade Center in Boston. After a couple of years she was hired by Alsace Development International. It was through her work with the Alsace Development International group that she moved to California. The bureau had an office located in Los Angeles, and so Rosanne moved to Los Angeles. Seven years later, the bureau decided to open an office in the Silicon Valley and in 1995, Rosanne came to live and work in Redwood City. The office closed in 2007 so in 2008 she went to work part-time for the San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA). A year later the position became full-time and in fact right now they are looking to hire a new policy analyst.

In Los Angeles she met and married her first husband with whom she had two daughters. Both daughters attended Sandpiper for elementary school, Ralston Middle and St. Francis High School. Her oldest daughter, Julia, is now at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; through which this month she is attending a special program at Haifa University in Israel. Rosanne now on her second marriage to Jim Hartnett, the recently appointed CEO of the San Mateo Transit District, also has two older step sons: one who is an IT recruiter for Blue Shield and the second who is a regional manager for an industrial machine company.

In addition, to her full-time job at SAMCEDA and her position as Vice Mayor of Redwood City, Rosanne volunteers for a lot of organizations. One of her pet projects is Casa de Redwood on Veterans Boulevard an affordable senior housing facility that has 137 HUD and program 236 units. She also volunteers at the Rotary club.

When I asked Rosanne how she got into politics she told me that when she first came to Redwood Shores in 1995 child care was a big issue. She joined the Redwood Shores Community Association and worked very hard to establish the public private partnership project of the Shores Childcare center. In 2000 she was appointed to the Redwood City Planning Commission. Then in 2003 she decided to run for City Council and she won. Like Council member Ian Bain, after this term she will be termed out. She also mentioned that she sits on the utilities committee and is very proud of the fact that Redwood City has thirty million dollars earmarked for capital improvement projects. According to Rosanne, Redwood City is probably the only city on the peninsula in that position. She explained that these funds came in from the Utility Users Tax (UUT) which means these funds are not mixed with the General Fund funds.

Some of the things Rosanne mentioned she had accomplished during her tenure on council were fixing curbs so that Redi-Wheels deliveries could be made more effectively, increasing services for the library and having a stable city budget. When I asked her what she hoped to accomplish if elected again she mentioned the YMCA private public partnership project to renovate the Veterans Senior Center in the Red Morton complex, the need to go out and raise private money to complete that project once approved and the desire to manage the Downtown Precise Plan work effectively and within the context of the community’s vision. As she put it: “be what the community hoped it would be.”

To learn more about Rosanne Foust visit her website at www.rosannefoust.com

Coming next: Alicia Aguirre