City of Long BeachCandidate for City Council, District 3

Mark was born and raised in the Long Beach region. He and his wife have worked in Long Beach for more than 10 years and have lived in the 3rd District for six years. Mark currently directs public affairs efforts in 14 Western states for Crown Castle, an S&P 500 company. He actively participates in philanthropic giving for several organizations: The Rumba Foundation, The Long Beach Community Foundation, Crown Castle, and other private philanthropy foundations.

Mark also serves as a board member for the Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership, the Long Beach Economic Partnership (LBEP), YMCA Greater Long Beach Metro Board, Long Beach Symphony, Long Beach Museum, the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University Long Beach and is a Long Beach Rotary member.

As the former director of Civic Engagement and Government Contracts for Molina Healthcare, Mark was responsible for building vital relationships between civic leaders, nonprofit organizations, local legislators, and other Community Based Organizations. Prior to his role at Molina Healthcare, Mark spent 28 years with the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, as a senior project manager in Research and Monitoring, and the Energy Recovery Department, overseeing some of the largest programs of its kind in the United States. 

Mark attended St. John Bosco High School, UCLA, and is an alumnus of the Leadership Long Beach Executive Leadership program. Mark and his wife Claire have been married for 21 years. They have two college-aged children who graduated from Long Beach Wilson High School. 

I’m running for Long Beach City Council District 3. I care about our community. I want to make the 3rd District an even better place to live, work and raise a family. I was born and raised in the LB region, my wife and I sent our daughters to LB Wilson H.S. and we’ve lived in the District for six years. As your next council member, I will prioritize combatting homelessness, impriving public safety, and helping our small businesses.

Homelessness is a growing problem that has been ignored for too long in our city. One of the biggest complications is that by law, to remove a homeless individual, you need to have an available bed for them. We simply need to drastically expand the number of beds and facilities that the homeless can utilize. We also must increase services, improve connections between the homeless and services, better enforcement of public camping laws, and more housing options. In combating homelessness, we must also recognize the importance of addressing mental health needs and increase the number of services and staff to address this. 

Since the pandemic, our city has experienced a 120% increase in crime. We all deserve to live in a safe environment that is free from fear and violence, and this will always be a priority for me. We need to ensure that law enforcement has the resources to provide the protection we need. This includes more personnel placed in problematic areas and additional hiring and recruitment, if needed. This also includes options for community-based policing that improve local safety and allows our law enforcement to focus on serious crimes. We want law enforcement to be able to do their job effectively so that we can bring down levels of crime.  

Small businesses are one of the pillars of this community, and I want to empower these businesses to thrive. It needs to be easier for our residents to start a small business so they can achieve their dreams and build the future they want. We should boost local hiring so that we can reduce unemployment among our young residents. This should include job fairs at our local high schools so that we can simultaneously provide an opportunity for our youth and help our small businesses. We need to be willing to engage the community to develop the right solutions.