ALTA Good Deeds Foundation Awards $105K in Grants

Jonathon Wolfson will resign his position on the Calabasas City Council effective Dec., 15. He is moving to Bell Canyon, The Acorn has learned.

Wolfson, a lawyer and former member of the city’s planning commission, was elected in March 2005 and re-elected in 2009. He served as mayor of Calabasas from 2009-2010. His term was set to expire in 2013.

“It has been a privilege and honor to be a representative of the residents of Calabasas on the City Council, Wolfson said in a statement.

“I have very much enjoyed my tenure and am proud of the many accomplishments made by our City Council during the last seven years.”

An Agoura High School graduate, Wolfson attended law school in Washington, D.C. before moving to Calabasas with his family in 1997. He served on the Calabasas Planning Commission for two years before being elected to the City Council.

“Although my family and I are sad to be leaving the City of Calabasas, we are looking forward to our new home,” he said, thanking the community for their trust and support.

“(I) know that this city will continue to shine and have a very bright future.”

Mayor James Bozajian said he will miss Wolfson’s expertise and professionalism.

“His intelligent, well-reasoned approach to the issues coming before us was a calming influence at many times when our debates often became quite contentious. In particular, Jonathon’s work in pre-analyzing our annual budgets and his service as our liaison to the school district was exemplary,” Bozajian said.

In coming weeks, the City Council will work publicly to decide whether the vacancy should be filled through an appointment or via special election.

“I’d like to look at all the options and then see what the choices are,” Councilmember Lucy Martin said. “Jonathon has been a dedicated and effective city council official with whom it’s been a pleasure to serve with.”

When Robert Sibilia resigned from the Calabasas council and moved away from the city in 2000, his seat was left vacant and not filled until the 2001 general election. In this year’s city election, Sibilia fell 200 votes shy in his bid to return to the council. Challengers Martha Fritz and Alicia Weintraub followed Sibilia in the voting and might also be potential appointees.

Bozajian said, “I have no intention of voting to leave (the seat) open. I don’t think the public is going to want that.”

A special election would have to wait until April 2012 at the earliest and could cost up to $50,000, The council is likely to save time and money by making an appointment.

The appointment will require votes from three out of the four remaining council members and must be made within 60 days of Wolfson’s departure, or the middle of February.

“I plan to ask the council to hold special meetings to discuss this. If an appointment is decided, we will seek applicants and interview them publicly,” Bozajian said.

Also to be considered is whether or not the council wants a caretaker appointee, one who will fill Wolfson’s term and retire in 2013, or someone who intends to run for a second term, Bozajian said

Mary Sue Maurer, who joined the Calabasas council with Wolfson in 2005, said she will miss her colleague’s kind and thoughtful personna.

“Some of my proudest accomplishments have been projects where I collaborated with Jon including developing a grant funding program for Calabasas schools and creating a number of disaster preparedness programs such as the drive-thru flu clinics and a special needs evacuation contact list,” Maurer said.

Brian is the Principal and founder of Method Campaign Services, Southern California’s leading grassroots solutions shop. Launching Method in 2010 to offer the highest quality field campaigns possible, Method has become the industry leader in the space.

Brian has worked on everything from national presidential campaigns and issue advocacy efforts to local ballot measure efforts and most everything in between. Working across a wide swath of issues and efforts, and with a very large number of consultants and teams across California, Brian either has the best solutions readily available or knows who the best source is to find the most efficient answers possible.

Brian is often asked by press for insights into matters, and has spoken on panels for the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC). Brian and his family reside in Hollywood. Brian grew up in Massachusetts and moved to California while serving in the Marine Corps until 2004.

Responsible for leading the global, commercial strategy for Princess Cruises, a division of Carnival Corp. Total focus on guest experience, including the strategic business transformation of our new and enhanced onboard services using leading edge technology. A 35-year Princess veteran – with diversified leadership experience which includes reinventing our product in many ways through various business cycles, geographies and crises in order to ensure business resilience over time.
Reports to the President of Princess Cruises, currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer accountable for $3B in Cruise Revenue. Leads the Commercial Planning and Strategy teams globally – encompassing new market development, revenue optimization, product management, marketing, sales, and customer service. Developed business cases resulting in significant investments in new ships leading to 20% capacity growth and 40% revenue growth over the past ten years, taking Princess from a largely U.S. domestic brand to a truly global brand.
Recent success has been driven by focusing on the guest – working to reimagine all aspects of the customer journey resulting in strong interest for the Princess brand, and significant improvement in guest satisfaction scores. Diversified experience in demand generation and strategy development of loyalty and vacation club programs, shoreside packages, Food and Beverage offerings, and other guest-centric bundled offerings. As well, crisis management through COVID has provided many personal growth experiences by leading our shipboard and shoreside support teams through the prolonged 18-month pause in operations and now Return to Service. This requires continuous assessment of global risks and opportunities in North America, Australia/New Zealand, Asia, Latin America and Europe considering the new and ever-changing Covid landscape.
Board Member of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation (SCV EDC), recently led a task force to assess and report on future growth plans, impacts from the pandemic, and opportunities to further economic growth of regional businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley. Earned a BA in Marketing with a Minor in French from the University of Utah in 1984, and an MBA from California State University Northridge (CSUN) in 1990. Actively involved with ongoing leadership training and course work at UCLA Business school and continues with personal coaching. Girl Scouts of America member for 15 years; mentors women at Princess and students at CSUN. Based in Los Angeles with husband of 31 years, three grown kids and two dogs. Enthusiastic jazz dancer.

Jose leads Corporate Development and Strategy at an artificial intelligence software company focused on bringing fairness and transparency to the credit system. He spent several years leading diverse teams of all sizes across different functions as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, where he also served as a helicopter pilot, tactics instructor, and systems development advisor. Jose’s a math geek at heart — driven by purposeful applications of technology that yield accretive social impact. When he’s not nerding out on math or flying helicopters for the Marines, he enjoys traveling with his family and staying active.