Full Biography for Jack W Wu

Candidate for
Member, City Council; City of Irvine

Education:
- Ocean View High School - Huntington Beach, CA
- B.A. in Social Ecology from University of California at Irvine.
- Attended Graduate School in Teacher Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Personal: Growing up surfing in Huntington Beach, I got a real great appreciation of nature and the importance of keeping it pristine. Even as a kid, riding my bike through the Bolsa Chica wetlands, I would be amazed by the amount of open space left undeveloped in Huntington Beach, open space which has all but disappeared in Huntington. The large amounts of open space in Irvine was a great factor in choosing it as the place for my wife and I to buy our first home. Yet, that space is also being disturbed, but that's another page's story.

My parents came over from Taiwan as students. My father was a Civil Engineer, and my mother has been a homemaker since I was born. My step-father came from China and is a successful businessman in both the United States and in China. I can remember my first day of kindergarten and not being able to speak one word of English. Fortunately, I learned quickly. Now I can understand 85% of Mandarin Chinese, and can speak close to 70%, but I cannot read or write any of it. My mother speaks to me in Chinese, and I'll respond in half Chinese, half English. Consequently, I will be attending Chinese School with my wife in the fall. In high school, I took four years of Spanish, continuing with another two years at UC Irvine. I feel fortunate that I have retained about half of what I learned, enough so that on my surf trips into Mexico, I can get by rather well.

My mother and step-father still live Huntington Beach, and my 24 year old sister lives in Washington D.C., working at the Environmental Protection Agency. My father passed away from heart disease in 1985. My wife and I married on June 20, 1998. She went to Edison High School in Huntington Beach, graduating in 1990, and studied music at Chapman University, ending in 1996. She is a piano teacher, and just started her business in March of 1998. We don't plan on having any children for a few years, instead keeping the house bustling with an 18-month-old beagle and a eight-month-old bassett hound.

As a dutiful homeowner, when nomination papers for the University Town Center Master Association Board of Directors came out, I volunteered my name for the election. To my complete amazement, I was voted in. Even though I have shown up to meetings on my Harley-Davidson motorcycle, or occasionally on my skateboard, I think that I have made enough of a positive impact that the other members still respect my opinion and positions. After a few meetings, an opportunity arose from the City of Irvine to join the Citizen's Project Committee for the Irvine Southern Open Space Master Plan, so I jumped at that.

Through my various jobs, I have become more and more experienced with small-business bookkeeping. Enough that soon I had more than a handful of clients. The next logical step was to start my own bookkeeping business, and January 1, 1998 was my first official day of business. But due to the fact that my wife just started her business, and our house and car payments, I have been working at my business part-time, while keeping a full-time job as a legal assistant in the Corporate Affairs Department at Shakey's Incorporated. Fortunately, my wife's piano teaching business is thriving, and with my own business growing, a jump will be made to get my own business running full time.

Politically, I am very much a neophyte. Historically, I have never voted per political party, instead going more with what I consider to be the better issue or candidate. My decision to go for City Council was spurred by the recent developments within the city and my desire to have an influence in the city where my wife and I live, and where our children will grow up. In addition, I think that I can add some diversity to the Council which represents a very diverse population.