Few are as dedicated to Palo Alto as Mayor Ed Lauing is. With multiple of his own children in PAUSD, experience as a former council member and 13 years on city commissions, Lauing has been dedicated to Palo Alto for decades. A Palo Alto resident for 37 years, he was elected mayor in January of this year.

Getting involved in his son’s baseball team was the start of his engagement with the community. Lauing then began a successful career in Palo Alto governance in the Parks Commission, and after seven years, became part of the Planning Commission.

“We always call that one the hard commission, and the Parks Commission is the fun commission, because everybody likes what happens in parks and recreation and playing fields,” Lauing said. “When you get to the Planning department, it’s a lot of regulations and math, and saying no to residents who want to put up something that’s not according to code.”

After six years on the Planning Commission, Lauing was set up with 13 years of commission experience that prepared him for a position on the Palo Alto City Council. As a council member, Lauing became one of those seven votes that he had relied on in the past.

“I felt that with my background, I would be a good representative of the residents because of all my experience,” he said.

City Council meetings occur at least three Mondays each month, which the mayor is required to attend. The mayor is a city council member, and fulfills those duties, but also has a larger set of responsibilities, including interactions with other city officials.

“You have your council member job, but you also have the mayor job, and that’s quite different, (there’s) much more interface with the city manager and some of the other department heads, like fire and police,” Lauing said. “There’s also a lot of interface with community members, (such as) speaking engagements that are every week, and some of those are volunteer groups or for opening of a healthcare center.”

As a council member, Lauing is also expected to help manage the larger issues the city experiences. During his term as mayor, one of the more difficult challenges that has arisen is the oversized vehicles situation, including the RVs. After  surrounding cities, such as Mountain View and Menlo Park, changed their legislation to restrict where RVs can park, many of the owners moved their vehicles to Palo Alto. As a result, flow into businesses has decreased because of the lack of parking availability.

“That problem has, frankly, exploded,” he said. “It’s a very difficult problem to address, and now it’s just gotten too large.”

A vital part of Lauing’s job is to ensure that the voices of constituents are heard, one of his favorite aspects.

“One of the things I started as the mayor is the Mayor’s Press and Community Forum, (where) we invite the press, and we invite any person that wants to come and listen, and they can come at me with any issue they want,” Lauing said. “Speaking to the residents about what we’re doing and accomplishing feels good, because it’s giving them information sometimes that they don’t have.”

Connect with the community you serve. These words still resonate with Palo Alto Police Department Lieutenant David Lee. Having served the city for 19 years, Lee has worked up the ranks from officer to agent, then sergeant and now lieutenant.

Being an officer was not easy. With working late night shifts and dangerous experiences, it was a challenge Lee had to overcome.

“The profession inevitably takes a toll — both physically and mentally,” he said. “For several of those years (in my career), I worked the night shift, and over time you start to feel like a vampire: awake through the night and asleep during the day. The constant switching of schedules has led to long-term sleep issues. On the mental health side, I’ve encountered more than my share of traumatic incidents. But my experience isn’t
unique — every first responder faces repeated exposure to traumatic events throughout their career. It’s an inherent part of the job, and one that affects us all in different ways.”

Lee always dreamed of working in law enforcement. When he was younger he felt inclined to follow a more straightforward career path, but he eventually made the decision to pursue his dream. Born in Korea and later immigrating to the United States at age seven, Lee felt a cultural pressure to pursue a career in a field such as medicine or law that would provide financial support to be able to give back to his family. Initially while in college, he explored being a dentist. However, after taking a strenuous biology course in his freshman year, he decided dentistry wasn’t the path for him.

“That experience helped clarify what I truly wanted, and I redirected my focus toward my lifelong dream of becoming a police officer,” Lee said.

In high school, he attended a police and fire magnet program that prepared him for a career in law enforcement. After high school, he attended San Francisco State University and majored in criminal justice, and later received a master’s degree in law enforcement and public safety leadership. He truly loves his job, and is grateful to be where he is.

“Becoming a police officer has always been more than a career goal for me — it felt like a calling,” he said. “Early TV shows like ‘CHiPS’ and ‘COPS’ shaped my perception of the profession, highlighting the impact officers can have through helping others, holding offenders accountable and facing new challenges every day.”

In each position, he worked with a variety of people, who each impacted him differently. Being a young officer looking for guidance, Lee’s mentor, John Costa, the police department’s most senior sergeant at the time, guided him in his career and  shaped him drastically.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to work alongside exceptional officers, and those experiences have been some of the most rewarding parts of my journey,” he said. “I had the great fortune of working for a great supervisor, who was then the most senior sergeant in our department. He was a great  mentor to me, and he really taught me what was important in our profession.”