{"id":6708,"date":"2012-01-20T14:34:50","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T22:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=6708"},"modified":"2022-10-06T14:52:41","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T21:52:41","slug":"getting-to-know-the-candidates-2012-gene-goss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=6708","title":{"rendered":"Getting to Know the Candidates, 2012 \u2013 Gene Goss"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo courtesy of Gene Goss, click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Gene Goss<\/p>\n

Election\/Seat Sought:Regular Election, one of two 4-year seats<\/strong><\/p>\n

Campaign web page: www.GeneGoss.com<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Campaign Facebook page: www.facebook.com\/GeneGoss2012<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Campaign Kickoff Party<\/strong>: Sunday, Feb. 26th from 2 to 5pm at his home, 208 Ramona Ave..\u00a0 RSVPs requested, www.geneforsierramadre.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Bio: <\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born at St. Luke in Pasadena and lived in Altadena until age three. \u00a0At that time my father decided to pursue a life dream and bought a small cattle ranch in Oregon. That is where I was raised. I learned at a very early age how to shoulder responsibility. We had little money and no hired hands, so the work was done by my Dad, my younger brother, and me. If the barns needed cleaning, we cleaned them. If the fences needed fixing, we fixed them. If the tractor broke down, we figured out how to fix it. I remember at age 10, on the cold winter mornings before school, I would have to take an ax and literally chop holes in the ice on the top of the cattle\u2019s water tanks so they could drink. It was not an easy life, but I am thankful for it nonetheless. I learned at an early age how to brainstorm and solve problems, how to truly pitch in for the welfare of the larger group (in this case my family), and I learned how to see something through from its beginning to end, no matter how daunting it might be.<\/p>\n

I completed my Bachelor\u2019s Degree in History and Political Science at Linfield College. After a few years of working at different jobs in the automobile, power equipment and truck rental businesses, I went back to graduate school at the University of Southern California in 1987. I earned a Master\u2019s Degree in Political Science in 1988 and spent two more years there pursuing doctoral studies in political science. While at USC, I worked as a Teaching Assistant for two years and I served as a Research Assistant at the Citizen\u2019s Research Foundation.<\/p>\n

In 1991, I was hired for a tenure track position teaching political science at Long Beach City College. I am now a full professor there and I chair the History and Political Science Department. In essence, I have spent the last 21 years of my life teaching undergraduates about government. In that 21 years I have held a variety of faculty leadership positions including technology committee chair, faculty association president, and my current job as department chair. As chair of the college\u2019s first technology committee, I was successful in organizing and directing the development of the college\u2019s first ever comprehensive technology plan. As part of that effort, we were able to change college fiscal priorities and computerize and link to the internet our entire full time faculty. We were one of the first community colleges in the state to accomplish this. As the president of the faculty association in 2001, I had the honor of directing negotiations with the college that produced a significant raise in salary for our full time faculty. That raise was the largest the faculty at that college has received from 1984 to the present. This was done at a time when the state education system still had significant fiscal flexibility.<\/p>\n

I have been married to my wife, Lisa, for 27 years. She is an elementary school teacher working with disadvantaged children in Highland Park. We moved to Sierra Madre 17 years ago. My nine-year old son knows no other home. Since he was born, we have become intimately familiar with the library and every park in town. I\u2019ve learned just how important these public places really are to our town. For the last five years I have been active with my son\u2019s Little League teams. I coached on his team the past three years and I am Co-Managing his team this spring. Heasley Field seems like a second home to me. The setting and the people involved are very special. We have made so many friends there. These experiences have made me a strong supporter of essential public services which include parks, the library and senior services.<\/p>\n

The people of this town have been good to my family. This is our home and I want to preserve its amazing small town character with every fiber of my body. Sierra Madre cannot become just another suburb in the foothills. I am running for City Council because I feel a deep responsibility to serve Sierra Madre. I have no pre-formed policy agenda and bring in no baggage from previous political squabbles. If elected, I will judge each issue that comes to the council on its merits, always remembering that everyone involved are my neighbors.<\/p>\n

Please contact me at 626-434-9595 or at<\/p>\n

ggoss2012@yahoo.com<\/a> . My campaign web site is at www.genegoss.com<\/a> (Will be up by January 22nd.)<\/p>\n

Responses to SierraMadreNews.Net Candidate Q and A Questionnaire<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 What\u2019s your favorite type of music?
\nA.\u00a0\u00a0Rock<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 In or out of that genre, what\u2019s your favorite album\/CD?
\nA.\u00a0\u00a0A Decade of Steely Dan<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 What\u2019s your favorite movie?
\nA.\u00a0\u00a0 Patton<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Who\u2019s your favorite actor?
\nA.\u00a0\u00a0Clint Eastwood\/Jeff Bridges<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Who\u2019s your favorite actress?
\nA.\u00a0Debra Winger<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 What\u2019s your favorite book?
\nA.\u00a0\u00a0Cold Mountain<\/p>\n

Q. Who\u2019s your favorite author?
\nA.\u00a0 Patrick McManus<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 What\u2019s your favorite TV show?
\nA.\u00a0 Hawaii Five O<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 What\u2019s your favorite meal?
\nA.\u00a0 Sauerkraut and pork chops<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Who\u2019s your favorite comic?
\nA.\u00a0 Rodney Dangerfield<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Your favorite sports team?
\nA.\u00a0\u00a0Dodgers\/Raiders<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Who is\/was your favorite president (living or dead)??
\nA.\u00a0 Lincoln – have a bust of him in my office<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Who\u2019s better \u2014 Mel Torme or Vic Damone?
\nA.\u00a0 Mel Torme<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Beatles or Rolling Stones?
\nA.\u00a0 Stones<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 U2 or Rush?
\nA.\u00a0U2<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Beach Boys or Jan and Dean?
\nA.\u00a0 Beach Boys<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 Paper or plastic?
\nA.\u00a0 Both – we recycle the paper<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 What are your hobbies?
\nA.\u00a0 Flyfishing (especially the West Fork of the San Gabriel), fitness, hiking, reading<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0What\u2019s your favorite sport to watch?
\nA.\u00a0 College and pro football<\/p>\n

Q. What\u2019s your favorite sport to participate in? \u00a0?
\nA.\u00a0 Basketball\/softball\/table tennis<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 If you could meet a famous figure from the past, who would you choose and why?
\nA.\u00a0 President Lincoln – He is one of my heroes.<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 If you could meet a famous figure from today, who would it be and why?
\nA.\u00a0 Bill Belichick – He is a football genius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gene Goss Election\/Seat Sought:Regular Election, one of two 4-year seats Campaign web page: www.GeneGoss.com Campaign Facebook page: www.facebook.com\/GeneGoss2012 Campaign Kickoff Party: Sunday, Feb. 26th from 2 to 5pm at his home, 208 Ramona Ave..\u00a0 RSVPs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[136,30,139],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}