At such a young age, West Sacramento Mayor Christopher L. Cabaldon’s achievements and firsts are too many and too lengthy to condense in a short article.
Cabaldon was the first mayor directly elected by the people of the City of West Sacramento in 1998. He is also its youngest mayor.
First elected to the West Sacramento City Council in a 1996 special election, Mayor Cabaldon has been widely praised for reenergizing the city by bringing professional baseball to a new first-class ballpark, drawing new investment to the city’s older core neighborhoods, and revitalizing the West Sacramento waterfront.
Cabaldon, born in 1965, has been described as "one of the most intelligent, talented and hard-working elected officials in the region" by the Sacramento Bee and has been featured as one of the "50 most powerful people in Sacramento" by Sacramento Magazine.
Cabaldon is President/CEO of EdVoice, a statewide nonprofit network of citizens and education philanthropists fighting for public schools. He also serves on advisory boards for the UC Davis School of Education and New Schools, Better Neighborhoods.
Shortly after assuming his City Council seat, Cabaldon led a successful effort to expand education and training opportunities by working with Sacramento City College to create a new educational center in the city. Under his leadership, West Sacramento became one of the first cities in the state implementing a universal preschool program to serve all local children.
Mayor Cabaldon also led the region’s Blueprint for the Future project, a multi-awarded program, as chair of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments which was recognized as the best metropolitan planning organization in the country. In addition, as chair of the region’s Transportation Roundtable, he led a panel of 55 regional leaders that developed the innovative Metropolitan Transportation Plan for 2025.
As mayor, Cabaldon created the city arts, culture and historic preservation commission.
Within the Filipino-American social and community circles, Mayor Cabaldon is a former treasurer of the National Filipino American Youth Association, and is the youngest person to be honored for outstanding historical contribution by the valley chapters of the Filipino American National Historical Society.
Honored as Executive of the Year by the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Cabaldon has served as regional chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Association (NaFFAA).
On a footnote, Mayor Cabaldon, a UC Berkeley graduate, is one of a few openly gay California mayors elected directly by their cities. The story of his public coming out was documented as the second episode of the Coming Out Stories on the LOGO television network.
(For a complete rundown on Mayor Cabaldon’s achievements and the various positions he has held prior to and during his term as Mayor, visit www.cabaldon.org.)
Erratum:
In last week’s Voice of FilAmerica, Christopher Cabaldon was referred to as the current CEO of EdVoice. That is incorrect, as Mr. Cabaldon left EdVoice in early February 2008 prior to his run for the Assembly. The present President/CEO of EdVoice is Rae Belisle, who took over on February 20, 2008. Asian Journal regrets this error.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
