Saren Joseph Simitian (born February 1, 1953) is a California Democratic politician. From 2004 to 2012, he was the State Senator representing

California's 11th State Senate district California's 11th State Senate district is one of 40 California State Senate districts. It is currently represented by Democrat Scott Wiener of San Francisco. District profile The district encompasses the northern San Francisco Peninsula, inc ...

, which encompasses all or part of 13 cities in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties. Approaching his

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

at the end of 2012, he ran for and was elected as a Santa Clara County Supervisor. He was re-elected to the same seat in 2016 and again in 2020.

Education

* Palo Alto High School Class of 1970 * Bachelor of Arts in

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, cum laude (with academic honors),

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approxi ...

* Master of Arts, International Policy Studies, Stanford University * Master of City Planning,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

* Juris Doctor,

University of California, Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...

Early political career

Simitian was President of the Palo Alto School Board, and served as a member from 1983 to 1991. He was on the

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

City Council from 1992 to 1996 and served as Mayor for part of that time.

California state legislature

State Assembly

Simitian was elected to the California State Assembly's 21st District in November 2000, and re-elected to a second term in November 2002.

State Senate

Simitian was elected to the California State Senate in November 2004 for District 11. He defeated former Assemblyman and San Mateo County Supervisor Ted Lempert in the Democratic primary election, also prevailing in the general election. Simitian was re-elected to a second term in 2008. His second term ended in 2012. Simitian was one of only four Democratic Senators to vote against California's ambitious High Speed Rail plan. Simitian authored California's hands-free cell phone bill.

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

's Foreign Ministry has put Simitian on a list of individuals banned from entering the country. The decision was made after Simitian travelled to

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is m ...

without Baku's permission.

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors

Simitian served as President of the

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together f ...

Board of Supervisors in 2018 and 2019, and after winning reelection in 2020, continues to represent District 5 ( Los Altos,

Los Altos Hills Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish for "The Heights") is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,489 at the 2020 census. The town is known for its affluence and expensive residential rea ...

Cupertino Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,8 ...

, Mountain View, Saratoga, and Stanford, as well as portions of San Jose). He was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in November 1996, serving from 1997 to 2000. In 2022, redistricting adjusted the cities Simitian represents to include

Los Gatos Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of th ...

and Monte Sereno. Simitian was elected again to the District 5 seat of the Board of Supervisors in 2012, after reaching his term limit in the State Senate. He was re-elected in 2016 with 89 percent of the vote and ran unopposed for re-election in 2020. As Supervisor, Simitian is credited with saving the 400 units of affordable housing at the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park, and he has proposed the building of affordable teacher housing in Palo Alto for teachers across the county. He also successfully pushed the County to fund multiple new playgrounds accessible to special needs children, following the creation of Palo Alto's Magical Bridge Playground. Simitian has advanced multiple privacy-related initiatives at the county level. Under his guidance, Santa Clara County became "one of the first in the country" to hire a privacy specialist in a designated role to oversee its data-driven programs. He also secured passage of a surveillance ordinance, the first of its kind in the United States, requiring that police forces get explicit permission for new surveillance technology. Simitian pushed for more civilian oversight for Sheriff and county jails and secured approval for body-worn cameras for Sheriff's Deputies and jail guards.

Personal life

Joe Simitian is married to Mary Hughes, a Bay Area

political consultant Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely tel ...

. Simitian proposed to Hughes on election night in 1996 upon being elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.Palo Alto Online
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References

External links

Campaign website

Ballotpedia

Election History – Join California
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simitian, Joe 1953 births Living people American businesspeople American diplomats American politicians of Armenian descent California city council members County supervisors in California California lawyers Democratic Party California state senators Colorado College alumni Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly Palo Alto High School alumni Mayors of Palo Alto, California School board members in California Stanford University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni UC Berkeley School of Law alumni 21st-century American politicians Ethnic Armenian politicians