Candidate for
Council Member; City of Burlingame

Platform

My supporters believe that I am the most qualified candidate for the Burlingame City Council because I will help to uniquely restore BALANCE & ETHICS to this fiduciary board.

1) Deliver Balanced Budgets with Fiscal and Ethical Responsibility

I have an MBA in Finance & Marketing from Kellogg School of Management, and I've successfully managed several multi-million dollar budgets during my business career. A Master's-level understanding of Finance is critical to taming Burlingame's $76M in unfunded pension liabilities (as of 1/1/2011) and the additional heavy debt that Burlingame's prior administrations have racked up. I am excellent at helping to drive economic vibrancy for organizations, which will contribute to "fixing" Burlingame's serious financial problems.

Now, as a licensed real estate broker (school real estate), I serve as a professional fiduciary.

I will commit to eliminating the existing conflicts of interest on the City Council.

Right now, City Council members and Planning Commissioners can (and do) get hired by developers and residents to help them get approval from that same fiduciary board on real estate proposals (they just can't participate in the final vote). While legal, I believe that this is still a conflict of interest and a dereliction of City Council duty to the residents.

2) Ensure Strong Schools

I specialize in working with Public and Private Schools on real estate strategy, financial analysis and contract negotiations + and I've successfully completed over $25M in school real estate transactions this year, and $550M in total complex contract negotiations across my career + I'm a proven negotiator and an expert on school operations strategy.

3) Encourage Smart Growth of Burlingame's businesses and careful, limited residential & commercial real estate development in select areas.

There is opportunity for us to improve Burlingame's property tax and sales tax base and create new jobs through the redevelopment of very run-down apartment buildings, new hotels by the Bay / airport, and attracting tech companies into our existing and new Class A Office buildings like those at 350 Beach / the drive-in movie site.

Our Hotel's Transit Occupancy Tax is our largest source of revenue for the General Fund. We need to stand up to San Mateo Union High School District's bullying of Burlingame to force a "Continuing High School" in the ECC building next to the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza. This school is for expelled students and students with CRIMINAL records. Put the school by a police station, not next to our life-blood hotels and Broadway Ave retail.

4) Ensure Better Feedback from Residents on Major Debt and Policy Decisions

-Conduct more email based surveys to both residents and businesses

-Consider E-Voting on major debt and policy decisions.

5) Improve Burlingame's Image Among Job-creating Corporations that are considering Burlingame for their expansions.

Delaying Safeway from remodeling their existing store for 20 years created a bad reputation for Burlingame among CFOs, Developers and Commercial Real Estate Brokers. The result is that Burlingame is rarely on the short-list for major Office tenants. Now, we want to attract Office/Biotech tenants to 767,000 sf at 350 Beach / The Drive-In?

-We need to commission a formal Marketing Plan.
-Create a program at the local high schools to grant video equipment, teach interview and editing skills, and then regularly promote each and every retail business and then move to other large and small businesses here.
-Consider small, interactive digital signs on Burlingame Ave to guide guests and drive retail sales (and sales tax revenue).
-Improve aesthetics by working with run down property owners to remodel or rebuild and eliminate dumping of furniture along El Camino Real.

If elected to Burlingame City Council this November 5TH, I will dedicate myself to proactively listening to you and all residents. I would like to serve the community as an honest fiduciary - to help make Burlingame the best it can be, while preserving the environment / traffic / historic considerations, and ensuring strong fiscal responsibility.

I would enjoy meeting you for coffee anytime. 650-793-0541. http://www.alexkent.org

Thank you!

Alexander Kent