| Christopher Cabaldon | |
|---|---|
| Mayor of West Sacramento, California | |
| In office 1998 – present |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 12, 1965 |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Residence | West Sacramento, California |
| Website | cabaldon.org |
Christopher L. Cabaldon (born November 12, 1965) is an American politician from California who serves as mayor of West Sacramento. He also represents the State of California on the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education as an appointee of California Governor Jerry Brown.
Cabaldon was elected to the City Council of West Sacramento in 1996 and is the first mayor elected directly by its voters. He is a widely recognized statewide leader in both education and in land use, transportation, housing, environmental, and economic policy.
Cabaldon has served as as Vice Chancellor of the California Community Colleges which is the largest system of higher education in the United States, President/CEO of EdVoice, a Sacramento based education non-profit advocacy group, Chief Consultant and Staff Director at the age of 24 to the Assembly Higher Education Committee, Chief of Staff to the State Assembly's chair of Appropriations Committee, and Legislative Director of UCSA. He was founder and Chairman of the Board for the Asian Pacific Youth Leadership Project, a founding member of both the Asian Pacific Islander caucus and LGBT Local Officials caucus of the League of California Cities, and a founding member of the Capital Unity Council, a group created to eradicate hate crime violence. Cabaldon has served as President or Chair of many organizations and boards, including President of Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE), President of the Yolo County Health Council, President of the National Brownfields Association (California), and chair of the Yolo County Transportation District.
Cabaldon is Vice Chair for Education at the United States Conference of Mayors, where he was elected to the board in June 2011. In June 2007 Cabaldon authored a resolution for the US Conference of Mayors that supported the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act that was cosponsored by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, and passed unanimously at the annual conference. In June 2009 he pushed through the most sweeping gay civil rights resolution of any national elected officials organization, winning support for marriage equality, hate crimes, employment nondiscrimination, and repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[1] and a signer of the groundbreaking environmental US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.
He serves on an array of state and regional commissions, including being appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly to the Commission on Regionalism, member of the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Governor's Initiative to Turn Around Failing Schools, appointed by Governor Gray Davis to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, and a member of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Protection Commission.
As chair of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments Cabaldon led the region's historic "Blueprint for the Future", which under his leadership won prestigious awards from the US Environmental Protection Agency, two Governors, and a diverse array of national, state, regional, civic, business, and environmental organizations for land-use planning and smart growth strategies.
Cabaldon earned his BS in Environmental Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was student body vice president, and a Masters in Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento in its founding class, where he has taught as an adjunct faculty member and received the institution's "Distinguished Alumni Service" award.
Cabaldon is both Filipino-American and openly gay. The LOGO network featured Cabaldon in a documentary as part of their show Coming Out Stories in 2006, when he came out openly and publicly in his annual State of the City address.
A Democrat, he was a candidate for the 8th district seat in the California State Assembly in 2008. He lost the primary by three percentage points to Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada.