Dan Kalmick

Name: Dan Kalmick

Age: 28

Birth place: Seal Beach

How long have you lived in Huntington Beach? Almost 6 years

Occupation: small business IT consultant

Education: bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, UC Berkeley

Previously elected or appointed positions: Downtown Image Adhoc Committee

Community organizations you belong to: Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Assn. former Executive Committee member, Residents for Responsible Desalination, Bolsa Chica Land Trust, Huntington Beach Tomorrow, vice chairman for 67^th Assembly Area Alliance.

What do you think are the biggest issues facing Huntington Beach right now? Fiscal crisis facing the city budget, Failing Infrastructure and Irresponsible Development

What is one decision in the last year the City Council got right and why would you have supported it?

The removal of the Cultural Arts Overlay from the Downtown Specific Plan and the protection of both the Huntington Beach downtown library and Triangle Park was a hard fight but a correct decision by the current City Council. That area of downtown provides a wonderful buffer zone between the chaos of downtown and the residential community that surrounds it. The downtown library provides wonderful children’s services and will hopefully evolve into a great technology center.

What is one decision in the last year the City Council got wrong, or partially wrong, and why would you have voted differently?

Voting to allow the construction of more homes on the Ridge of Bolsa Chica was a terrible decision. The wetlands is a very sensitive area and building more McMansions at the expense of a habitat that we have very little of left is foolish. There are still vacant homes and the city is going to let even more be built? The land was zoned open space; we decided 30 years ago that we wanted it to be open space. I understand if we were rezoning medium residential or commercial to light residential, but going from open space to residential seems like a short sighted solution in order to make a quick buck at the expense of others.