Welcome!
My name is Mark Olbert, and I’m a former member of the San Carlos, California City Council. This was my site for staying in touch with my constituents. My last day on the Council was December 14, 2020.
It’s now a platform I use to address local and regional issues that my neighbors may find interesting.
Here you’ll find my blog, links to articles about municipal issues, and material that will help you understand my Council work and my current views. All these can be accessed through the menu links at the top of every page.
If you’d like to be automatically notified when new content is added to this site just click the Subscribe button at the top of any page. If you’re already a subscriber you can use the Subscribe button to edit your subscription options.
Enjoy! And if you have a moment, drop me a line to let me know what’s on your mind.
Room to Represent Us
This op ed was published November 9, 2021 in the San Mateo Daily Journal. This version may be slightly different due to editing by the
Trust the Public with Hard Truths
This opinion piece, recently published in Nature, makes a point I think all elected leaders should keep in mind. Yes, a small percentage of the
What Defines a Good Community Benefit?
A comment on my recent op ed regarding how to increase diversity of our elected bodies made the following point: When you write “public financial
Drawing the Lines
This piece was published in the San Mateo Daily Journal on Monday, October 11, 2021 under the title “Increasing diversity is more than lines on
It’s District Boundary Review Time!!!
Once every ten years, after the Federal census is completed, elected bodies that are based on districts1 have to review their boundaries and make adjustments.
Requiring IDs to Vote
This post was prompted by a Trump-supporting friend of mine who circulated one of those repost-if-you-agree posts on Facebook, this one targeted at requiring presentation