|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The San Ramon City Council was joined by numerous local officials, city staff and community members at their regular meeting this week to recognize two of the city’s longest-ever serving public officials, Dave Hudson and Scott Perkins.
The event marked the final moments in office for both longstanding city officials, with Perkins coming to the end of his fifth term in office and Hudson concluding his final term as mayor after a five-term tenure as a councilmember.
In addition to the remaining and incoming councilmembers, the evening featured remarks from District 2 county supervisor Candace Andersen, Danville councilmembers Newell Arnerich and Robert Storer, and representatives from the offices of Asm. Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier.
The meeting kicked off with the standard pledge of allegiance, this time led by an Honor Guard from the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District that was joined by dozens of residents and officials in the nearly full council chambers.
Andersen was the first local official to offer her own remarks on the departures of Hudson and Perkins that evening, following statements from DeSaulnier’s and Bauer-Kahan’s offices.
“Tonight I get to recognize two men who I truly consider to be my friends,” Andersen said. “Scott joined the San Ramon council just a few months after I had been appointed to Danville’s Town Council back in 2003. And we got to serve on a variety of committees, but the one that I really appreciated serving with you, Scott, was on the Veterans Memorial Building, working with historic architects to come up with a design that would be keeping the integrity of that building, your attention to detail, your engineering, looking into every point was so helpful in that process.”
She added that Perkins’ attention to detail on that item was emblematic of his overall approach to “deep dives” and decisions on matters that have come before him on the council.
While Andersen’s friendship with Perkins goes back more than 20 years to her early career as an elected official in the valley, she said that her friendship with Hudson first emerged before that time.
“Dave, you have just been a true friend,” Andersen said. “And you had already been on the council when I became a councilmember and a county supervisor and you always have impressed me with so much knowledge that you have stored in your mind that you just are ready to share with the rest of us, especially when it comes to transportation issues.
“But Dave’s and my common bond is the bus in Hawaii – I’m from Hawaii; I used to ride the bus to and from school,” she continued. “Dave used to visit his brother in Hawaii and ride the bus, and he and I loved to talk about the virtues, the value of the bus, and even GILLIG, that makes our county connection buses and makes the buses for Hawaii.”
Andersen said that it was during her first campaign for county supervisor that it became abundantly clear what a staunch political supporter of hers Hudson was.
“When I knew Dave was really my friend was in 2012 when I was running for county supervisor,” she continued. “Now I had a lot of people helping me, supporting me in different ways, but Dave kept showing up to my campaign headquarters offering to walk neighborhoods – not just one neighborhood, but he would say ‘give me two, give me three, I’m going to walk all of San Ramon for you. And he just about did.”
Storer pointed to the importance of San Ramon in the Tri-Valley at large and the San Ramon Valley in particular, and the importance of the work by Hudson and Perkins in their decades on the City Council.
“I wanted each of you here tonight to know how important each of you have been to the success of the Tri-Valley. Mayor Hudson and Vice Mayor Perkins, each of you have played such an important role in a large part of the success for the reasons people move to the San Ramon Valley, and especially the City of San Ramon,” Storer said.
“Your leadership has brought families to this area for the schools, the safety, good clean roads, the retail, shopping, restaurants, which are some of the reasons why people move to the city of San Ramon, and each of you have had a big part in accomplishing that,” he continued.
Arnerich noted that it was appropriate for both Hudson and Perkins to be going out with the titles of mayor and vice mayor, which were indicated on plaques granted to them by the town, and pointed to their roles in the city’s ongoing success.
“San Ramon is in really good shape,” Arnerich said. “You’re headed in the right direction. You have some exciting things happening in Bishop Ranch, and that center of gravity for the entire Tri-Valley is actually here in San Ramon. So well done.”
Hudson emphasized the importance of the existing relationship between the Tri-Valley communities, and the power they collectively have to make the region’s voice heard to the federal government.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize how closely we work with our neighboring cities, Danville and Dublin both,” Hudson said. “I mean, when we go back to Washington D.C. and you have Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and Danville talking, it makes a difference. And it has for years, and I’m sure it will next year when you go back there. Just let Newell take the lead.”
It was at the end of his trip to Washington D.C. in the early days of his second consecutive term as mayor in 2023 in which Hudson encountered a medical emergency that forced a months-long absence – and in which Armstrong, then vice mayor, served as acting mayor.
During his campaign in 2022, Hudson emphasized the wealth of knowledge and experience in local politics that he brings to the table, as well as his existing relationships with colleagues in regional, county, state and federal offices – and his ability to fully dedicate himself to the job, with no other professional commitments.
“It’s an honor to be here, and it’s an honor to speak to more than 50 years of service of the City of San Ramon, and it’s been said over and over again, to the larger community,” SRVFPD Chief Paige Meyer said. “It’s pretty remarkable that you can put in that many years for what you get paid.”
Meyer noted that the latter comment was a joke, referring to the $18,410 annual salary set for councilmembers in the city.
Perkins said that the trust built between the city and the fire district comes from “knowing the people themselves, and getting to know them in a lot of different environments.”
“To speak of one, (SRVFPD Board President) Jay Kerr and I shared a tent for over two weeks when we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro together – both of us, all the way to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, 19,341 feet,” Perkins said. “So we got to know each other really well in that one.”
Armstrong led the council’s official recognition of Hudson and Perkins with proclamations from the city formally thanking them both. Hudson and Perkins, in turn, thanked their supporters, staff, and officials from the city and other relevant local agencies, as well as voicing support for their successors.
“Fortunately, the person who’s going to take this seat in just a few minutes, Robert Jweinat – the city will be well-served by Robert, I know,” Perkins said. “He’s a really smart guy. He’s quick on the learning curve, so he’ll do just fine.”
Hudson called his colleagues on the San Ramon City Council and those of neighboring communities over the years “some of the best councilmembers” who he’d been “fortunate to work with,” and pointed to the role of respect for the military as a shared value throughout the region.
“I think one of the things that we have going in the Tri-Valley that we don’t talk about enough is the respect we have for our military,” Hudson said.
Hudson’s and Perkins’ final remarks from the dais were punctuated by approximately a dozen public comments from community members, city staff, and retired officials, prior to the swearing in ceremony for Jweinat and Armstrong. Armstrong’s two-year term in the mayor’s seat started at that point, along with Jweinat’s four-year term in the District 1 council seat Perkins departed from.
As it stands, the council consists of three members and the mayor, leading to the potential for tie votes until the District 2 seat vacated by Armstrong is filled.
