Danville council candidate profile: Tony Adamich

Downtown shop owner Tony Adamich is challenging for a seat on the Danville Town Council with a platform focused on representing the small business community, bringing creative problem-solving to the dais and improving the town’s budget management.

“My goal really is to retain the small-town atmosphere of Danville,” Adamich, 62, said. “I want the businesses to thrive. And when the businesses thrive, the residents enjoy that as well.”

Adamich, a retired marketing professional, and his wife operate Consignit Couture, a downtown store offering women’s high-end clothes and accessories on consignment.

A 20-year Danville resident and first-time political candidate, Adamich said he was motivated to seek office mainly because he thinks town businesses are under-served by their local government.

“I feel the town council is out of touch with the Danville business community,” said Adamich, citing as an example council members’ support of Danville Hotel property renovations that began in January kitty-corner to his shop — construction he argues has negatively impacted many neighboring businesses.

“It’s like as this ‘pardon our dust’ feeling is happening, they say things like, ‘Well we’d like the business community to hold on.’ Well, to hold on until the fall of 2015? We’re small businesses; it’s a tight cash flow. You can’t hold on for 18 months,” he added.

Adamich bills himself as the “only Danville small business owner” in the race — the two incumbents running also own businesses, but based outside Danville.

The lone challenger in the election, Adamich contends town officials should be doing more to assist local small businesses. And he said he thinks there’s already the money available to do so, criticizing the town for having reserves in excess of 40% of the operating budget.

“You don’t do an excessive reserve. You want those dollars to work for you,” Adamich said, citing his experience managing corporate budgets. “I look at this and the whole mentality is ‘be conservative, be conservative, be conservative.’ But if the tax dollars have been given, then we shouldn’t be conservative with those dollars.”

Adamich argues financial experts recommend a 20% reserve for jurisdictions with budgets the size of Danville’s.

He said he would advocate reducing town reserve levels to 20% of the operating budget and use a portion of the resulting millions of dollars “to supplement or sustain the businesses in downtown Danville. Because if we go out of business, that small-town charm that everybody talks about is gone.”

One of Adamich’s ideas is for Danville to create a “Town Wide Loyalty Program” with emerging technology to support town businesses.

The issue of growth is another area in which the existing council is losing touch with the electorate, according to Adamich.

“For me, relative to growth, I want the public to be able to vote on it … when the development requires a changing of the (land-use) designation from agricultural to residential,” he said.

Regarding the proposed SummerHill Homes development on the Magee Ranch property (which remains in litigation centered partly on the issue of swapping land-use designations), Adamich said, “If the residents voted ‘yes, let’s do SummerHill,’ then I’d support it.”

He criticized the council’s decision to appeal unfavorable judicial rulings in the SummerHill lawsuit, saying, “It is their wanting to prove to people that they were right. And what bothers me is they had the chance to do the right thing, and say, ‘we were wrong. We thought we were right, but we admit we’re wrong, so let’s take it to a vote.’ And that to me just yells a lack of transparency.”

Adamich added, “I actually feel, at the end of the day, there’s very much a good chance that the town council will win their appeal. But I also feel that when they do that, it will cause irreparable damage to the town council’s reputation.”

One area in which the town boasts a strong reputation is public safety, according to Adamich, saying, “The Danville overall public safety is excellent.” He said he does see some room for improvement though, including better lighting on Front Street, enhanced bicycle safety on Diablo Road and adding more full-time police officers.

Bringing a new perspective — with fresh concepts — to the council is key to helping Danville thrive, according to Adamich, who has never held an elected or appointed public position.

“I’m not running for an office where I’m a single entity,” he said. “I’m part of a group, and within that group — that is also supplemented by a city manager and a city attorney — there will be the expertise. I will get the information, but I’d like to provide them my own perspective relative to my entire career.”

Adamich added that he has experience serving nonprofit organizations during his professional career, including helping with seven-figure fundraising campaigns to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Wounded Warrior Project.

In the end, Adamich argues it’s time to shake up the town council.

“You’ve got these five that essentially have the same point-of-view. And that isn’t building the best programs for Danville,” he said. “There have to be challenges; there has to be discussion. And in this town council, there isn’t.”

Raised in Pueblo, Colo., Adamich completed his undergraduate studies at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas and earned a master’s in business administration from Southern Methodist University.

He spent 20 years working at Nestle Beverage Co., rising to vice president of marketing, until 1998 when Nestle consolidated operations. He continued in various roles in marketing, including five years at Safeway, until retiring in October 2012.

Adamich and wife Sandy opened Consignit Couture at 398 Hartz Ave. about four years ago. They now have a second shop in downtown Walnut Creek. The couple have three adult children and one granddaughter.

Editor’s note: The candidate profiles were prepared alphabetically. The remaining stories will be published in that order in the following days. Unverified information and blatant campaigning on Town Square in response to these stories will be removed.