Looking back at what we accomplished in 2015, I want you to know that it has been a huge honor to serve on the Board of Supervisors over the last three years. I know that we’ve accomplished many significant things together. Going forward into 2016, there is still much work to do.

I am at the end of my term as mayor and, by the time you read this, I will be a Council member once again. Our new mayor will be Donna Lind who is a more than capable (and wonderful) woman who has dedicated her life to public service as a police officer, council member and now Mayor of Scotts Valley.

I will be making my annual trip to the ‘nice’ homes located in the Santa CruzMountains on December 24/25, 2015. This is to notify you that I recently had to change my flight plan to facilitate your nation’s Federal Aviation Administration’s new flight paths.

I'm grateful to know the Banner staff did not write it, but I would like to point out some gross factual inaccuracies from the "Christmas tidbits" section in the December 4 paper. Jesus was not born in a shepherds' cave and they did not help Mary find shelter. The gospel of Luke actually says, "So they [shepherds] hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.” Luke 2:16 NIV

Our actions can have unintended consequences. Rat poison kills indiscriminately and doesn’t stop with the first death. The rat, or someone’s pet, a raccoon, bobcat, or squirrel, eats the poison, then starts dying painfully, and often runs away. Even if the poison was indoors, it’s now outside in the dying animal. Often another animal finds it, perhaps a hawk; bobcat, raccoon mom with kids, someone’s cat, or even a mountain lion, and interprets the poisoned animal as an easy meal.

As we near the close of 2015, I want to share with you what an honor it has been to serve on the Board of Supervisors over the last three years. I know that we’ve accomplished many significant things together – from securing a site for a new Felton Library, adding more Sheriff’s deputies on our streets, and making our streets and Highway 9 safer.