I’m Greg – Businessman, Lawyer & Candidate

WHO AM I? I live on Greenview Rd with my wife Judi. We moved here in 1999. I was born on a farm in San Diego County, grew up in El Segundo, attended El Camino College and Southwestern University Law School. I worked full time through college and law school and was admitted to the California bar in 1971. I practiced law privately for thirty years handling largely business matters focused on the transportation industry. In 2001 I became CEO of a transportation company started by my wife and managed that business until 2014 when we brought in the next generation of management. During that time, I managed over two hundred people and a business with revenues of $25,000,000. In my partial retirement I managed litigation on behalf of the California and American Trucking Associations, including a lawsuit that ended in the United States Supreme Court. Judi and I have two daughters, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

WHAT HAVE I DONE IN CITY: Our first experience with our city issues came during the attempt by Los Angeles County to turn Hacienda into a major North-South highway like Colima. Tela Millsap organized a group in opposition to that plan and we participated in those efforts. Ultimately that plan was scrapped, and we renamed Hacienda as Road and took control of it. My next involvement was a non-profit organization – Fire Watch – which organized workshops on wildfire prevention and created a resident group connected by radio and dedicated to spotting fire risks as quickly as possible. I handled this organization’s business affairs for many years. Roy Francis appointed me to the planning commission where I served, in the later years as Chairman, until 2020 when I needed to resign. Recently, I was reappointed to the Planning Commission and am now serving.

WHY AM I RUNNING: I now have time to devote to city affairs and would like to participate in setting policy because I believe that we need to do more to preserve our community heritage. During my time on the Planning Commission, I was educated in professional land use planning by Margarita McCoy with whom I served on the commission. Margarita was a major resource for our General Plan 25^th Anniversary amendment and through her I came to understand how unique La Habra Heights was and how difficult it would be to manage land use and development as more homes were being proposed to be developed. Her mentorship made me realize that I could help to maintain the integrity of our General Plan as a Commissioner by assuring that the Goals of the General Plan – to “protect, preserve, and enhance the residential rural character and individualistic lifestyle of La Habra Heights” (Goal 1) and thereby “Require that future residential development continues the present variety and diversity of structural design and appearance, maintains residents’ privacy with large distances between houses, and is harmonious with natural settings”. (Goal 7)

WHAT DO I HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH: I have substantial experience as a businessman and lawyer in managing budgets, people and risks. I have a decade of land use planning experience specifically with the issues that face our city. I want to assist the other council members and staff in finding creative ways to increase our revenue, including applications for grants. I strongly support our Fire Department fire prevention efforts and want to find ways to coordinate our Fire Marshalls efforts with our Code Enforcement staff so that properties that expose our homes and families to fire and health and safety risks are made safer and pose less risk to us all in a coordinated and cost-effective manner. I believe that we need to strengthen our planning department. When I started on the Planning Commission, we had a professional planner and three staff members to manage the applications. Today we no longer have a professional planner or adequate support staff to effectively manage the applications.