Councilmember Vacancy Application
Due January 18, 2023, by 5:00 p.m.
Submit application to:
Office of the City Clerk
500 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
[email protected]
Personal Information:
Name:________________________________________________________________________ Last First MI
Residence Address: _____________________________________ Street City State Zip
Home Telephone: _______ Work Telephone: ________
Email: ____________________________
Email and/or Telephone for Public Dissemination:______________________________________ Resident of the City of Mountain View:____________ years Are you thinking of/planning to run for City Council in 2024? Yes ▢ No ▢ Undecided ▢ General Information and Instructions:
Applicants must be 18 years of age, a resident of the City of Mountain View, and a registered voter of the City at the time of application submission. Please attach your résumé, letter of interest and completed Fair Political Practices Commission Statement of Economic Interests Form 700 to this completed vacancy application. Your letter of interest should not exceed one page. Topics to consider covering in your letter of interest are:
Why do you want to be appointed to the City Council?
Why do you believe you are the most qualified to serve on the City Council? What is the most serious social issue in Mountain View? If appointed, how will you develop and maintain a relationship with the business community? Answers to the following supplemental questions are mandatory in order to be considered for the vacancy.
Zhang, Li
Mountain View, CA 94040
[email protected]
22 Attachment 10
Councilmember Vacancy Applicant Name:____________________________________________
Please fill out all information completely. Attach additional pages if needed.
How many Council meetings have you attended or observed, and what was your level of involvement?
What does “Community For All” mean to you?
Li Zhang
I have attended Council Meetings consistently since spring last year and sporadically in the past. As you know, I spoke from time to time before the council on matters that concern me and for communities whose voices would like to be heard.
For my opinion, the absolute core of a community, is that we care about each other, and it addresses one of the most fundamental human needs that we feel we belong. As an immigrant myself who came to this country and ended up fortunately settling down in Mountain view with a very inclusive culture, would definitely like to broaden the community for all to all nationalities regardless of where people came from. I would like to bring my diverse culture background into the council. I came from a very poor country and literately landed here with only a suitcase, but I was provided opportunities for a better life in Mountain View. I sympathize with the people who are in difficult time with growing income inequality. It is disheartening to see certain populations of the city residents are impacted and are struggling. I praise that the city has provided programs and workable solutions to assist already, such as the adoption of the basic income program, the wage theft ordinance, and the mobile home rent stabilization ordinance, and is working on displaced tenant issues, as well collaborating with the state on broadband access. I firmly believe that homeless prevention program would be the key in helping to reduce the populations on the street. In addition, I would like to see the city to work with the non-profit and health organizations to develop homelessness, and mental health crisis response strategies. I do hope that with our consistent efforts that we can collectively lessen these society issues which not only exit in Mountain View.
Councilmember Vacancy Applicant Name:____________________________________________
Please fill out all information completely. Attach additional pages if needed.
Discuss one City Council goal and what it means to you.
What are your thoughts/ideas for improving the housing supply to meet today’s requirements (including R3) as well as planning for the future? Li Zhang
I think the city needs to ensure that new developments provide for their fair share of city infrastructure and also further complete neighborhoods with parks and neighborhood-serving retail.
We have heard from many residents during the R3 zoning update meetings last year that they were ok with growth in some new areas, but had concerns about growth throughout the entire city. Perhaps we should consider Precise Plans based on form zoning codes that evaluate the existing infrastructure and incorporate neighborhood serving amenities. While the current processes are not ideal, they are fairly ingrained and challenging to change. I do acknowledge that there are many state rules regarding the process that we don't have ownership of, but need to follow, making the entire process too cumbersome, complex, and costly to obtain the housing we so desperately need.
Some change that I would like to see surrounds noticing. We need to make sure our noticing requirements result in the neighborhood really being notified (since sometimes the area around a development is not where people live), and that the notices use layman's terms so people really understand what is being proposed.
I would like to talk about the Sustainability & Climate Resiliency Goal which I am passionate about. I have been working in the alternative/clean energy industry for years, and I have a track record of protecting the environment. Before Tesla opened its factory in Shanghai in 2019, I helped a petition to Elon regarding preserving the wildlife site close to the Tesla Shanghai factory. As a result of this and my other efforts on conservation and preserving our natural environment, I have been endorsed by the Sierra Club. I put my utmost priority on combating climate change and sustainability efforts. Fortunately, with the President's Inflation Reduction Act that was passed, there is unprecedented amounts of funding for sourcing clean energy, strengthening the grid, and electrification of buildings and transportation to reduce GHG emissions. We can take advantage of those funds by partnering with other agencies, especially Silicon Valley Clean Energy and VTA to increase EV charging stations, building more resiliency as through the Community Center Resilience Hub Project where we will be adding battery storage to the existing solar system, through a grant from SV Clean Energy. Combatting climate change is critical but it is expensive. Therefore these partnerships are important to best leverage available resources and the expertise available to decarbonize our community. We need to also streamline permitting for such systems as EV charging infrastructure and replacements of water heaters to heat pump water heaters.
Councilmember Vacancy Applicant Name:____________________________________________
Please fill out all information completely. Attach additional pages if needed.
Please submit your entire packet of documents to the Office of the City Clerk via email or hand delivery by January 18, 2023, by 5:00 p.m. Applications submitted incomplete and without a résumé, letter of interest and Fair Political Practices Commission Statement of Economic Interests Form 700 will be disqualified from consideration.
Late applications will not be accepted.
During the application period, the City Clerk’s Office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. City Hall is closed on Monday, January 16, 2023, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Your application is a public document.
Please direct questions about the application process to the City Clerk’s Office at 650‐903‐6304.
READ CAREFULLY BEFORE SIGNING
I hereby certify that all statements made in this application are true, and I authorize investigation of all information contained in the application. I acknowledge that any false statements or misrepresentation on this application will be grounds for disqualification. __________________________________________ __________________________ Signature Date
Li Zhang
1/18/2022
Li Zhang
Li Zhang
Mountain View, CA
Professional Summary:
Ready for a New Challenge
• Financial Professional with extensive experience in a wide variety of finance, accounting and tax functions, • Working directly with clients and cross functionally with Ernst & Young CPAs, attorneys, and staff. • Simultaneously managed multiple projects involving structured financial transactions, controversy, debt-equity, and compliance.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills, effective comprehension and communication skills. • Ability to prioritize tasks and manage rapidly changing assignments in a team environment, and work well independently.
• Five years' Pharma Chemistry research experience
Work Experience:
Global Tax Operations senior manager 2017 – Present Finance and Tax Department,Tesla Inc. – Fremont, CA
Highly technical Professional with exceptional Excel modeling skills, Self-motivated team leader
• Working on special international restructuring project. • Implement and lead the tax automation in Procurement to pay process. • Worked on both income tax provision and transaction (sales) tax compliance. • Re-built fully automated north America US and Canada Sales and use tax excel workbook with direct link to back end queries.
• Take lead on tax calculation software migration from Solarcity to Tesla. • Assist with creating the US billing engine connection to smart-tax software for China invoicing generation during the Salesforce migration.
• Revamped and automated the Solar/energy fund quarterly provision for HLBV calculations’ purpose. Projected future tax capital accounts for HLBV and predicting Tesla future liabilities for the investors. • Created consolidated state apportionment workbook for over 60 funds. Worked on creating a batch importing process for automation of Excel workbooks.
• Take lead on VAT refund reconciliation process in Mexico to recover unclaimed input taxes in the past 3 years to recover millions of dollars.
• Assist the merger and acquisition transactions for Solarcity and Mexico entities.
Global Manager for E-commerce 2015 - 2017 Finance and Accounting Department, Stella & Dot – Brisbane, CA • Manage company global planning and sources of financing • Played a major role in building complex models and forecasts to inform the business and help support a recommendation. Contributed to forecasting processes and long range strategic planning. • Act as a liaison for the company with their investors.
Manager 2010 - 2015
Transaction Advisory, Ernst & Young – San Francisco, CA • Structured transactions, which included high profile Up-C IPOs in the energy industry, by interacting with both clients and investment banks. Worked closely with the EY attorneys on the financial modeling and due- diligences of joint venture acquisitions and sales.
• Managed both complex private equity and hedge fund income and tax allocation, and cash distribution.
Allocated waterfall distribution for various funds and led efforts on the roll-forward capital accounts. • Reviewed complex partnership agreements and helped clients understand the economic impacts of legal documents.
• Built cross-border IP migration/restructuring model for international hotel chain to help evaluate the potential transaction.
Senior Consultant 2008- 2010
Transaction Advisory, Ernst & Young – San Francisco, CA • Built mean reverting Monte Carlo simulation models for large oil and gas clients. These models helped clients determine the level of preferred return in partnerships and estimate the probability of default on debt. • Developed financial models of the company's operations and strategic initiatives including corporate earnings and cash flow forecasts, valuation, and investment return analyses. • Assisting with audit defense, determined and documented and write-up, through use of the cash flow model and contemporaneous market research, the terms of an optimal capital structure (pricing, different debt tranches, and resulting subordination).
Research Analyst, Fixed Income and Hedge Fund Department, Internship 2007 - 2008 Mellon Capital Management Corporation - San Francisco, CA • Created a long-short credit strategy portfolio that was based on developed leveraged buyout (LBO) signals, which were built by the fundamental values retrieved from the Compstat database by SQL. • Carried out the statistical analysis on the correlation among the signals, and performed back testing (using both bond and CDS universe) to evaluate the portfolio returns and IRs by SAS programming.
Research Scientist 2001 - 2006
Roche Palo Alto LLP - Palo Alto, CA
Education:
Master in Financial Engineering , 2008
Haas School of Business at University of California - Berkeley, CA
Ph.D. in chemistry, 1995-2001
University of California at San Diego - San Diego, CA
Volunteer Activities:
Social Chair for UC San Diego Regional Alumni Club, Activity Chair for Mountain View High School Tea Time Club, and active volunteer for my son’s Boy Scout Troop, Actively involving with Livable Mountain View Steering Committee and Carbon Free Mountain View Organization.
Key Skills:
• Economics analysis
• Building financial models
• Strong networking abilities
Technical Skills:
• Highly proficient in Excel Financial Modeling and PowerPoint, experienced with MS Access, and Oracle Database used in the financial services industry.
Social Skills:
• Strong networking skill and worked as Bookwave Committee chairman at Almond Elementary. Had been elected as chairman of the Chinese student organization at graduate school.
Education: Ph.D. in Chemistry, UC San Diego,
/Masters in Financial Engineering, Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Social Chair for UC San Diego Regional Alumni Club, Activity Chair for Mountain View High School Tea Time Club, and active volunteer for my son’s Boy Scout Troop.
Involving with Livable Mountain View Steering Committee and Carbon Free Mountain View Organization.
I attended the City of Mountain View’s first Chinese Language Civic Leadership Academy where I was inspired to make a difference in the City that my family and I have called home for over 20 years.
Growing up in China during the period of Economic Reforms and Openness, provided a unique perspective on economics and cultural progress, and what is truly important for me and my family. I came to the United States in 199, like everyone else, seeking a better life with true democracy. Like many immigrants who came to this country, we feel like we are outsiders. But I fully appreciate how inclusive Mountain View is and would really like to be part of the American story and fulfill my dream to give back to the community and the country, which accepted and provided me with many opportunities for a better life for me and my family. In addition, as a busy full time working parent who has a son in the local school, I would like to represent them as well since often we are too busy to be civically involved and our voices are not being heard.
I am a senior manager at Tesla and believe in the mission of creating alternative energy resources to improve our planet. I am committed to strengthening Mountain View’s policies to reduce our carbon footprint and combat climate change to ensure a bright future for my son and future generations. In addition, I plan to work towards improving our residents' quality of life by building proper infrastructure and offering top notch city services to support our growing community. As we come out of the pandemic, we must focus on business recovery, anti-displacement of longtime Mountain View residents and maintain the City’s outstanding financial position.
I have been a finance professional for more than 15 years, and feel very comfortable with finance and economic development issues. The City has been fortunate to experience financial boom for the past 6- 7 years. Even during the pandemic, the City had a surplus in large part due to the City's longtime prudent financial practices. I have watched the City spend funds to help folks and businesses during COVID and commend the City for doing so. But there is a recession coming. Businesses are still struggling. In downtown, for instance, 70% of the businesses are still doing worse than pre-pandemic levels. There is a 15-20% vacancy rate of business spaces. Housing is important and we've been focused heavily on that, but as a result, some of the other important components of the City like economic development have been put in the back burner. We can not afford to sit on our financial laurels. We need to double down on our efforts to help businesses thrive and attract new ones into the City. The nature of retail is changing but it's not going away. We need to allow for new types of retail to operate. I know the City is doing an Economic Development Strategy. We need to ensure that sufficient outreach to business owners is conducted so that we understand firsthand what the challenges are for businesses to stay in Mountain View and succeed. As I did in my campaign, I reached out to all members of the community including the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce and individual businesses to obtain their perspective and to understand their issues. To this day I maintain these contacts in order to continue to be appraised of their issues and insights.
In light of the financial outlook, we need to do a deep dive into our city service levels and ensure that we can sustain the projected housing/population growth. Do we have enough police officers and firefighters? How do we help our schools house and educate the projected growth of students? How will we be able to provide enough park space for growing neighborhoods? Do we have enough water supply? How will we prevent traffic congestion as people go back to work at their offices? Can we provide more transit options, bike and pedestrian paths so people get to work or school without a single occupancy vehicle. We will need adequate financial resources to provide the level of service and instructure needed to maintain our high quality of life as our population grows.
I will bring strong analytical skills as a former research scientist, keen financial acumen as a financial manager, and my values of equity and inclusion to the City Council to preserve Mountain View as a vibrant and a sustainable city for all. As you all know that I am new to politics in MV, and one thing that I would really want to do is to get to know people in the community and understand what concerns and visions people have. Since I run for the last Nov city council election, I’ve met so many impressive and thoughtful people and listened to so many ideas. I want to know so much more about the community and the city and will commit to doing that. I respectfully ask for your consideration for the council vacancy position.