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Richard O’Donnell, Recruitment Manager
Koff & Associates
2835 Seventh Street
Berkeley, CA 94710

Dear Mr. O’Donnell: September 30, 2019

Please accept my application and keen interest to be the next Public Works Director for the City

of Sacramento. I am an experienced leader and urban planner with a strong background in civil
engineering, transportation safety, supervision, and building complex public works projects in
engaged California communities. Securing this Public Works Director position is the optimal
career step for me and one I would want to keep for a long time. I am finally prepared to take on a
directorship of this level, challenge, and complexity. I hope your team will see that my diverse,
community improvement and transportation-focused career path makes me an ideal candidate.

My experience working with regional transportation planning agencies, municipalities, and large
transit providers over the last twenty years can advance Sacramento’s goals for improvement of
access, parking and maintenance for Sacramento residents, employees and visitors. There is no
doubt that the infrastructure in the Central Valley is in need of maintenance, transformation, and
large improvements in addressing equity concerns. Perhaps most pressing is the question of where

modern societies are going with regard to fossil fuel-based mobility and land uses, amidst a
changing global climate crying out for sustainable transportation systems and whole-sale changes
in how society moves, consumes energy, and functions. I believe, and few should doubt, that the
transportation system and public works infrastructure will be at the heart of this transformation. I
am ready to provide the guidance necessary for Sacramento to lead the way in an already
progressive state during this unimaginably complex time over the coming ten to fifteen years.

In particular, my skill sets have been developed and refined from my work as the General Manager
of Sanitary District Number 2 in Marin County and the Director of Public Works (DPW) for the
Town of Corte Madera. The DPW position has enabled me to help implement a voter-approved
sales tax renewal and augmentation measure, with no sunset provision, and deliver a handful of
transportation, parking and flood control improvements in a very short time. My prior experience
as the head of the Capital Planning and Grants Department for the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit
District, my four years of work leading transportation improvements in the City of Santa Barbara

Public Works Department have also been ideal preparation for this role. My three years of project
management experience with the very large San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
(SFMTA), and my six years of regional transportation programming experience at the San Luis
Obispo Council of Governments have, in my opinion, uniquely prepared me for this key leadership
role in Sacramento. I have understood a great deal about how employees (including myself) and