Yiaway Yeh for Palo Alto City Council

PASSION FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

My love for local government is an outgrowth of my formative years in Palo Alto.  My experience includes work with city and county governments in California, Massachusetts, Florida, and New York.  While at Harvard, I served as Rappaport Fellow with the City of Somerville, MA.  I improved municipal trash financing by identifying operational inefficiencies and budgeting gaps through the Mayor’s statistics-based performance management department.  Later, as a consultant to Miami-Dade County, FL, I provided financial and political analysis on water and wastewater rates, tying the rates to an industry index.  I deepened my financial management skills as a public finance banker with Morgan Stanley in New York, where I focused on nonprofit health system and children's hospital project financing. Today, I am a public sector management consultant with Harvey M. Rose Associates, and every day I work to improve government effectiveness and efficiency through performance audits, budget analysis, and strategic planning services to state and local governments in California and several other states.

PALO ALTO HOMEGROWN                                

I grew up in Palo Alto and attended JLS Middle School and Gunn High School.  Early on, I fell in with a well-organized and committed community service crowd.  Coming from a small elementary school, I was shy and found the easy smiles and laughs while playing piano at Lytton Gardens and planting trees up in the Preserves to be a relief from AP academics and the pressures of being an adolescent.  Community service provided me with opportunities to meet and serve with students from surrounding cities.  I developed a sense of how Palo Alto’s resources were special, that I was fortunate to live in such a community, and that I had a responsibility to always understand what was going on in my community.    

While at Gunn, I served as Student Body President and President of the school’s Youth Community Service chapter.  I helped spearhead the school’s first annual community service day where hundreds of Gunn students volunteered their time in Palo Alto and surrounding communities. Today, both Gunn and Palo Alto High Schools continue the tradition of the annual community service day, with thousands of hours volunteered through the commitment of Palo Alto’s next generation of leaders.

FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC SERVICE

Inspired by community service, I pursued my undergraduate studies in political science at American University in Washington, DC.  Working in the office of a national nonprofit, teaching English while studying abroad in Beijing, and heading up the campus diversity programming group helped me form an understanding of a career in public service.  After graduating, I joined the United States Peace Corps and served as an NGO Development Volunteer assigned to a rural health center in Burkina Faso, West Africa. For two years, I focused on developing sustainable health programs on HIV/AIDS and health sanitation with a village-based theater group, a model that was selected for presentation during the 12th Annual International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa.  My love for West African culture and dance continues today.

Buoyed by lessons of community development overseas, I returned to live in Palo Alto for two years while working for San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon.  I focused on affordable housing, responsible environmental stewardship, and infrastructure financing.  I served on the founding team of the County’s Housing Endowment and Regional Trust, helping to secure $2 million in California State Proposition 46 money for new development projects to meet regional affordable housing needs.  I was the Supervisor’s liaison to the San Carlos Chamber of Commerce, the County’s Resource Conservation District, and the County’s Youth Commission.  During my time back in Palo Alto, I also served as a Community Fellow with Coro Northern California.  I honed my belief that effective community building derives from shared and accurate information, opportunities for dialogue on differing ideas, and commitment to transparent implementation. 

Knowing that my love for public service would benefit from additional training, I went on to earn my master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University.  For two years, I was surrounded by earnest professionals, young to mid-career, who found purpose and urgency in serving their communities.  On campus, I focused on effective management of public financial resources that supported the leadership of our community members.  I served as the elected Vice President of Finance, tripling financial resources for the innovation of ninety campus student organizations.  I managed an admissions office outreach program for students from under-represented communities to consider careers in public policy.  I was selected as Kennedy School delegate to the International Achievement Summit, where Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton, and Gore Vidal among other luminaries urged delegates to hold on to their public service experience and idealism.

Today, I am excited to run for Palo Alto City Council.  Drawn by the promise and challenge of an ever-improving Palo Alto, I look forward to bringing my experience and idealism to help lead a community, which taught me the importance of community, for current and future generations.