National Federation of Filipino American Associations

Myrna Lardizabal de Vera

Myrna Lardizabal de Vera’s remarks on Mayorship are found here at the Hercules Patch.

Excerpts of Myrna Lardizabal de Vera’s acceptance speech (when she was sworn in as Councilmember) last December 14, 2010 can be found at the Hercules Patch.

Lorna Dietz’s Notes: Myrna de Vera also created her own website (with a lot of help from Google and initial guidance from her new media publisher-sister, Noemi Lardizabal Dado). She personally maintains her website’s content. Mayor Myrna is an aspiring novelist.

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Press Contact:

Lorna L. Dietz
Vice-Chair, NaFFAA Region 8, Northern CA
NaFFAAR8.com Media Group
NaFFAANorCal@gmail.com

July 5, 2011, Hercules, CA — Myrna Lardizabal de Vera was appointed as the new mayor of Hercules, California at 7:17pm on June 21, 2011 during a special Council meeting at the City of Hercules’s Council Chambers. The 20-year resident of Hercules, California, according to a political observer, was accelerated into office as a result of many factors that stimulated a “fast track” within the city government. After serving in the Planning Commission for five years, De Vera had run for a seat in the city council during the November 2, 2010 elections, pledging “The Right Change, based on Competence, Commitment, and Character.”

Myrna de Vera and John Delgado were elected as Council members and assumed office in December 2010. After Mayor Ed Balico resigned in January 2011 and Vice-Mayor Joanne Ward took over the vacant position, de Vera was appointed as the city’s new vice-mayor. The June 7, 2011 Special Elections resulted in a successful recall of Mayor Ward and Council member Donald Kuehne. Three members of the grassroots recall movement were sworn into office as the newest council members on June 21: Dan Romero, William Wilkins, and Gerard Boulanger. After the ceremony, Myrna de Vera was appointed as Mayor and John Delgado as Vice-Mayor.

It has been less than a month since a new council has been in place, all freshmen council members, with Mayor Myrna de Vera as the oldest “rookie.” De Vera seems to take everything in stride. According to Mayor Myrna, good governance practices are critical to the city’s success in its financial recovery.

Tom Lochner of Contra Costa Times best explained in his article, “Hercules Councilman-Elect, despite resume padding, plans to accept seat,” dated June 11, 2011, how the recall drive started.

“The recall occurred at a time of public anger over the city’s financial crisis and over its business relationship with a company that Nelson Oliva founded and that he said he transferred to two daughters shortly before he became city manager in April 2007; that company, NEO Consulting Inc./Affordable Housing Solutions Group, had $3 million in city contracts over a three-year period, approved by the City Council. But the pivotal event that triggered the recall drive was the council’s firing in December of interim City Manager Charlie Long, who had publicly disclosed the gravity of the financial crisis, and its reinstatement of Oliva from medical leave, if only temporarily. Oliva resigned in January under an agreement that gave him a year’s salary and benefits.”

Mayor Myrna de Vera, during her first address at the City Council meeting, immediately assessed the developments of the first half of 2011 and articulated the direction of her administration for the remainder of the calendar year.

“The past six months have been filled with tough decisions and painful cuts. Projects shelved, contracts cancelled, and the most sobering of all, the laying off of 40 percent of our city staff. City morale is at its all time low.

But many recent changes have been positive. We started engaging the community through citizen ad hoc committees, achieved transparency through a more open city hall culture. We also laid the groundwork for the next stages of change.

We have a long way to go. The council’s priorities are to restore the people’s trust in our city government, build strong city leadership, put our finances in order, and develop new sources of revenue.”

After de Vera stated the kind of workload that was expected of the city council and staff, she added:

“During my oath-taking speech last December, I talked about the journey we are embarking along a steep and rough terrain. Today, we are continuing on this road to recovery, driving our car balanced with the four wheels of community, family, finances, and faith.

What is our destination? We are driving toward achieving our vision of the City of Hercules, free of corruption and fiscally-sound, a city with a transparent council, responsive to the will of the people. Together, we are heading to our vision of a Hercules that — once again — shines, a city we can be once again proud of.”

Myrna de Vera is originally from Cebu City, Philippines. She was selected as “Woman of the Year” by the Hercules City Council, and given a Special Recognition Award by the Hercules Chamber of Commerce in 2010. Myrna de Vera was awarded as one of 2009’s 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the U.S. under the “Policymakers and Visionaries” category by the Filipina Women’s Network.

De Vera owns and manages an insurance agency in San Francisco. Her husband, Manuel, and she have been residing in Hercules with their three sons, Mark, Christian, and Emmanuel since 1991.

For the Asian American community in Hercules, Mayor Myrna de Vera symbolizes the relevance of diversity, reflecting the city’s population, in political empowerment. She is the sixth American of Filipino ancestry to sit in office. Vice-Mayor John Delgado is also one-quarter Filipino. The former Filipino American mayors were Goni Solidum, Andy Paras, Ed Manuel, Frank Batara, and Ed Balico. Myrna de Vera is also the first Filipina woman mayor of Hercules, California. For more information about the City of Hercules, go to http://www.ci.hercules.ca.us/. You can reach Mayor de Vera by email at citizensformyrnadevera@gmail.com.

BEFORE THE NOVEMBER 2010 ELECTIONS: On the Campaign Trail

Myrna de Vera and her siblings visited Seafood City in Concord, California. Adin Martin Villanueva, who takes care of Seafood City’s Northern California Events, asked Myrna to speak to shoppers. You can also catch a glimpse of Rudy Fernandez (formerly of the Antioch City Council) who is a community developer at Seafood City, Concord, CA.

I was reading the blog entry of my sister, Noemi Dado, about Barack Obama being elected as the 44th President of the United States. She had included a quick and easy primer for her Filipino readers about the electoral process, titled: “Electing a US President in Plain English.” During her visit last month, Philippines-based Noemi had grappled with understanding US elections since she was only familiar with the mechanics of the “popular vote.”

Lorna Dietz
Regional Vice Chair, Region 8

Thank you to Rodel Rodis for alerting us about the YouTube videos that TFC’s Balitang America uploaded for interested viewers who missed its featured “Presidential Debate Night” discussion among Filipino Americans about their choices for the next President of the United States.

NaFFAA has a very strong FilVOTE program.

Formed as a non-partisan program, NaFFAA’s FilVOTE not only aims to register Filipinos who are American citizens, but to make sure they go out and vote. In the 2004 presidential elections, only 594,000 Filipino Americans voted - a decline of 7 percent because 122,000 registered voters did not cast their ballots. “Potentially, there are 715,000 Filipino Americans, or 40 percent of our total number, who can be mobilized to go to the polls,” says Gloria Caoile, co-chair of FilVOTE. “But we need to register them if they haven’t done so and educate them on issues that directly affect our community so they will appreciate what’s at stake, especially for our children and families.”

Many of NaFFAA’s leadership showed up for this televised discussion sometime in mid-October, 2008.

Something to think about: When there are more Filipino Americans who take the time to speak out about what matters to them, political leaders listen. When more Filipino Americans mobilize its own communities to “rock the vote,” they allow their influence and affluence to shine brightly in the arenas of public opinion and legislative decisions.

Note: Any listed titles after people’s names are for identification purposes only.

Balitang America: Debate Night Part 1

Balitang America’s studio audience talk about the election after watching the 3rd and Final Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.

Balitang America: Debate Night Part 2

A studio full Filipino Democrats, Republicans, and Undecideds comment on the Presidential debate, and talk about who they’ll vote for.

“How many of you think that race is a very strong factor among the Fil-Am community in making a decision in this election?” Gel Santos-Relos asked the audience.

Balitang America: Debate Night Part 3

One Filipino Republican, Rudy Asercion, and One Filipino Democrat, Rodel Rodis, duke during a special Balitang America Debate watching party shortly after the 3rd and Final Presidential Debate.

Special guest star in this segment is Ed Navarra, aka NaFFAA Region 3’s chair.

Rudy Asercion is NaFFAA Region 8’s City Chair for San Francisco (Member, American Legion War Memorial Commission) and Rodel Rodis is one of NaFFAA’s founders (Member, Board of Trustees, City College of San Francisco).

This list is by no means complete. We are featuring three NaFFAA members from Region 8 who are running for political office. Since NaFFAA, as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, cannot endorse any political candidate, this entry is considered informational We support the political empowerment activities of our members, affiliates, and supporters. We hope that more and more Filipino Americans will step up to the plate and volunteer for public service and community service, thus going step by step in their learning curve toward political empowerment. The earlier we start, the earlier we get to be on that table!

Rock the vote! Get out and vote!!!

Rodel Rodis, in his re-election bid for Board of Trustees of City College of San Francisco, is largely instrumental in proving that Filipino Americans have made a mark in the development and expansion of one of the top 10 educational institutions in the US. There’s an interesting column that he wrote here: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/mindfeeds/mindfeeds/view/20081022-167811/Boss-Dalys-revenge (check out his blog at http://Rodel50.Blogspot.com).

Myrna Lim is running for Board of Supervisors, District 11, in San Francisco (see http://myrnalim.com/).

Hermy B. Almonte, who is currently serving as Consumer Affairs Commissioner at Alameda County, CA, is running for a San Leandro School Board position. (see http://www.almonteforschoolboard.com/).