Attend RCPC’s virtual Candidates’ Forum to learn about who is running for election to our Board of Directors! We have 11 candidates vying for 6 slots, each with their own perspective on the direction of our neighborhood. All candidates will answer questions from our moderator and from the audience.

Video of the Forum: link

Michelle Boyd: I am running for re-election to RCPC to continue to help Rockridge grow and thrive. My family has rented on Dana St for 6 years and I am proud to bring a renters perspective to the board. We live on an incredible block and count many of our neighbors as close friends.

I now serve as Co-Secretary and work with the executive committee to streamline board processes and ensure our meetings and activities remain accessible to working parents like myself. I have also helped lead various community events, including co-running our recent ADU townhall and planning an upcoming celebration of the new bike lanes on College Ave.

There are important conversations we need to have as a community around housing, change, and inclusivity and tensions we need to balance as we consider the future of our neighborhood in the face of unprecedented times. I’d be honored to continue to serve Rockridge for another term.

Stu Flashman: My wife and I have raised our family here since 1992. I’ve also spent 30 years as a solo attorney doing environment and land-use law.

I was appointed to the RCPC Board in 2007, ran in three elections, termed out
in 2014, and was elected again in 2017 and 2019. I’ve chaired RCPC’s Land Use
Committee since 2008. I ask one more term to complete two important tasks.

One task is the Rockridge Housing Study. Most Rockridge residents would agree that Rockridge could use more affordable housing. This study tries to figure out how. We need a few more months investigating incentives before presenting a final report.

The other task is a hard look at College Avenue’s zoning. That zoning, designed by Rockridge residents, has served us well for almost 50 years. However, times have changed. Should the zoning change too? The study has just begun, but should be completed within two years.

Matt Levy: Greetings! My cat Buffy and are I are seeking to retain my board seat to continue serving our fabulous Rockridge community. My spouse and I have two fur babies and have been fortunate to call Rockridge home since 2018. When not tripping over fake mice, I’m RCPC’s Transportation Chair, managing our Safeway settlement agreement to fund traffic mitigation projects.

By day, I am a data scientist and project manager, running First Place for Youth’s Evaluation & Learning department. There, I drive a culture of data and impact that informs organizational strategy and innovation.

At RCPC, I seek to apply that same skillset to benefit our community. I served on the three-member committee organizing RCPC’s first-ever pandemic election and am spearheading our transportation efforts, from speed humps to repaving to informing Rockridge about ongoing OakDOT projects.

I’m seeking your vote to continue serving you in the two years ahead. Thank you.

UPDATE THIS CANDIDATE HAS WITHDRAWN: Eric Lomardo: It is a privilege to serve my neighborhood as an RCPC board member and community advocate since I lucked into moving across Oakland to Rockridge three years ago. I am a nonprofit fundraiser by trade and my partner and I rent half of a duplex on Lawton. As young renters, we appreciate the neighborhood for all its present charms and benefits, while also being thoughtful to the future and who the neighborhood is affordable, welcoming, and easily accessible. I want to co-create solutions that add more homes across price-levels to ensure our community, schools, parks, and businesses can thrive for years to come.

I currently serve as the RCPC Parks Chair and, in this capacity, I host service events and building relationships with the City and stakeholders to ensure our parks are resilient spaces for kids and adults to have positive nature-based experiences. I also helped run the previous RCPC election and bolster our board’s internal capacity to function at a high level for our community.

I would be honored to serve in these roles, and new roles, for another term.

Andrew Masalin: I joined the RCPC board in 2017 because I wanted to make an impact in the community. I’m excited about the opportunity to continue to do so. My relationship with Rockridge started back in 2005 when my wife and I had one of our very first dates on College Ave. We fell in love with Rockridge…and each other. Ten years later, we bought our first house in Rockridge and are proud parents of an OUSD student. That has deepened our love and commitment to Rockridge. As a parent, I care deeply about the community my children grow up in. My goal as a member of the RCPC board is to continue to help keep Rockridge thriving socially and economically. I want to ensure that College Avenue remains the vibrant, local, and transit-oriented center that it is today. I also want to make sure that all of the residential houses remain diverse and able to keep communities safe. I’m committed to preserving the long-term health and prosperity of this community we call home.

Jennifer McElrath: My immediate family has been in Rockridge since 2001, though the family goes back in Oakland to the 1850’s, a time in which they were pillars of the community. I plan to make that full circle by continuing to contribute to the greater good of Rockridge and Oakland. Besides previous volunteer commitments to education and the neighborhood, for the past two years I have actively led projects for Upper Broadway Advocates to find the balance and style of growth that will re-make College Ave a destination and continue Rockridge as a distinguishable and desirable place to call ‘Home’. My career as a business executive and entrepreneur, with success across functions, enables me to deeply evaluate and act on short and long-term, multi-variable, multi-constituent projects, such as those facing Rockridge. Enough of the hearsay and unsupported mantras. Rockridge needs facts and a strong community presence in RCPC to influence Oakland officials… NOW!

Diana Mitchell-Chavez: Rockridge has been my home since 1979 and I love it. It’s a neighborhood of diversity, energy and acceptance. I’m from Connecticut and was fortunate to be able to use my degrees in Fine Arts from NYU and Journalism from Columbia to work in Marketing for Cosmopolitan Magazine. I came from New York to California to open, staff and manage offices in both L.A. and San Francisco.

Later, while working as P.A. to a senior partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill I used my computer degree from Berkeley to participate in the design and building of some of San Francisco’s great buildings.

I have a long history of volunteerism (Glide, Salvation Army) and want to use it effectively to help Rockridge continue to be a place where “everyone wants to live.”

Ashley Pandya: After many months of looking for a home in Rockridge, my husband and I bought our first home on Benvenue Ave in late 2019, just a few months before the birth of our son and the onset of the pandemic. On our many walks through the neighborhood we’ve been inspired by the creative ways in which our neighbors show support for frontline workers, teachers, and local restaurants.

As we move towards resuming regular life, I believe we can reinvigorate our community through increased housing, public green space, and local business growth.

I work in construction technology and have bounced between the private and non-profit sectors throughout my career. In recent years I’ve volunteered as a tax assistant for low-income communities and as a design advisor for emergency housing assistance programs. I look forward to fusing my private sector experience with my appreciation for the complexities of public policy design on the RCPC board.

Ken Rich: I lived in Rockridge previously and loved the neighborhood so much! I was thrilled to move back here in 2019, to a beautiful bungalow on Manila Avenue. The main reason I moved back to Rockridge is because it’s the most “neighborhoody” neighborhood I’ve lived in, and how better to get involved and give back than running for RCPC Board?

I have 24 years professional experience with real estate and city planning issues. I truly believe Rockridge needs to add housing and do its part, and I’m very confident we can do this in a way that makes the neighborhood even better. Our beloved College Avenue needs more nearby residents to keep the businesses afloat, especially after Covid, which has challenged many of our neighborhood shops and restaurants. On housing and other topics, I look forward to bringing my reasonableness, negotiation skills and passion as an urbanist to this amazing place!

Ronnie Spitzer: I’m a physicist, who moved to Rockridge in 1993 for its walkability and wonderful sense of community. I’ve worked in industry and national research labs across the Bay Area, and lecture at UC Berkeley.  Since my first term on the RCPC Board in 1994, I’ve been elected numerous times.

Rockridge is a wonderful neighborhood that can be even better. I believe the RCPC needs to balance change with maintaining and improving characteristics of the neighborhood which attracted us to live here. Everyone’s voice needs to be heard, for success.

During my RCPC board terms, I have interfaced with the city, the community, and Caltrans on numerous Rockridge development projects and transportation improvements. My activities have included: RCPC Treasurer and past Chair, past Transportation Committee Chair; Fourth Bore Coalition Vice Chair; Halloween Parade organizer: and Kitchen Tour Co-Chair.

I hope to continue my service for the neighborhood for another term.

Myrna Walton: Rockridge was my first home when I came to California in the 1960s. I returned in 2018 to live in an ADU next to my family. I love it here.

As former Director of HR Information Systems at UC’s Office of the President, I defined issues, researched all possible solutions, and advocated the best outcomes. The most important questions are,“who benefits?” and “what are the unintended consequences?”

My volunteer work included several terms as President of the California Shakespeare Theater as we overcame daunting environmental, political and financial challenges to survive and grow. The amphitheater we built serves the entire Bay Area.

Currently, I volunteer with Upper Broadway Advocates on North Oakland’s land use opportunities, and assist formerly unhoused residents at Clifton Hall. I endorse human scale, well-designed, seven-story buildings, minimum 20% affordable units, and a public park at the CCA site, and revitalization efforts for College Avenue.