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Carl DeMaio is a San Diego City Councilmember, District 5.

On June 3, 2008, DeMaio was elected to the San Diego City Council to represent District 5. DeMaio made history as a non-incumbent taking a Council seat by the widest margin in a primary-winning 66% of the vote.

Prior to winning his seat on the City Council, DeMaio was best known in San Diego as the City Hall watchdog. He helped uncover the city’s financial and ethical problems. After years of prodding city leaders to enact reforms, a frustrated DeMaio decided to run for City Council. DeMaio’s pledge to the voters was simple: "Clean Up City Hall". His platform included balancing the budget, reforming the pension system, fixing crumbling infrastructure, and restoring ethics and accountability to every level of city government. Refusing to shed his watchdog roots, DeMaio pledged "to continue to serve as the eyes and ears of the taxpayers on the City Council."

Outside of his work as a local government watchdog, DeMaio was a businessman who founded two multi-million dollar companies by the age of 30. ^[1] In 2000, he founded the Performance Institute, a non-partisan, private think tank dedicated to reforming government through the principles of performance, transparency, competition and accountability. DeMaio built the organization into the largest government reform think tank in the nation and the leading authority on performance-based management in government, law enforcement, non-profits and schools.^[2]

In 2003, DeMaio founded the American Strategic Management Institute (ASMI), which provides training and education in corporate financial and performance management. DeMaio sold both companies to Thompson Publishing Group in late 2007 so he could focus his efforts on turning the City of San Diego around. DeMaio is an active member of the community helping with numerous non-profit organizations in San Diego. He serves as Chairman of San Diego Citizens for Accountable Government, helping sponsor ballot initiatives and voter education efforts each election.

DeMaio also serves on the Board of Directors of the SAFENOWProject – a non-profit dedicated to creating, promoting and advocating for community-based strategies and resources to eliminate child sexual abuse. DeMaio also is active in raising money for a number of charitable causes, including Rotary, Mama’s Kitchen, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Policy Goals:

Balance the Budget: After decades of running a structural deficit, DeMaio believes the city must balance its budget for real with accounting gimmicks of the past or raiding reserves. This requires that the city live within its means. Pension reform, implementing voter-mandated managed competition efficiency reforms, and trimming city salaries and benefits to sustainable levels are his key goals for accomplishing this. Rebuild Community Infrastructure: The city has allowed its core community infrastructure—streets, sidewalks, water pipes, and public safety facilities—to decay. Instead of diverting scarce infrastructure dollars to new development projects, DeMaio is working to make core community infrastructure the top priority and fund it first before any other projects.

Open and Honest Government: Working in a bipartisan fashion, Councilmember DeMaio teamed up with his colleague, Councilmember Donna Frye, to propose sunshine rules for city government – ranging from posting government contracts online to holding City Council meetings in the community and in the evenings. Our city government ought to conduct its business in public and be accessible to the taxpayers we serve.

Jobs-Friendly Climate: In January 2009, DeMaio began raising awareness of the city’s practice of billing the self-employed for business taxes – which label part-time music teachers and a baseball umpires as “businesses.” He proposed a four-point tax and regulatory relief package to support and educate our city’s small businesses during these tough economic times.

[edit] External links

• San Diego Council District 5, Carl DeMaio
• Performance Institute
• American Strategic Management Institute (ASMI)

[edit] Notes and references