Meet the Roseville City Council Candidates: John Schwartz

Editor's Note — This is the fifth in a series of Roseville City Council candidate profiles. Seven people are running in the Nov. 6 election; three seats are available. Read more about candidates in our Election Guide here.

Running on his skills and not necessarily the issues — one could call Roseville City Council candidate John Schwartz a “fixer.”         

The retired Hewlett Packard project manager traveled the world for 18 years foreseeing and resolving integration problems for the computer technology company. Now he says he wants to solve the city’s troubles.

“I look at what the City Council does and that’s the kind of stuff I’ve been doing,” Schwartz said. “My training at HP was to deal with large complex projects.”

Unlike many local politicians who often handpick issues to campaign on, Schwartz, 57, adheres to how his skills in project management would help him solve any issue before the Council.

When HP would acquire a new company, whether in Salt Lake City or in as far away as Singapore, Schwartz was the guy the company called upon to help set up the new employees.

“We’d go in and buy a company and integrate employees and figure out how to get the best possible return for the money we put in for (that particular) company,” he said.

A newcomer to politics, Schwartz has not served on a city board or community committee. However, he insists his business acumen is a good fit for a council seat.

“The city is involved with lots of projects with many stakeholders and they have to chart the best course given the economics of the situation,” he said.

In fact, his top three priorities would be getting to know the city’s stakeholders. First, he would “come up to speed” on any agreements the City of Roseville has with other city, county and state agencies. “So I understand the playing field that the city is on,” he said.

Second, he said, he would ascertain from other council members the biggest issues. Third, he would meet with the City’s “movers” and “shakers” to hear their biggest concerns.

“I would encourage the public to come forth with their ideas,” he said. “You not only get people involved with the government process, but by talking to people, you get your best ideas.”

Describing his work style as creative, Schwartz explained he is also detailed oriented.

“I’m very good at getting large amounts of data into quantifiable easily explained bits of information for others to understand,” he said.

So what does he see as Roseville’s biggest issue? He says maintaining the City’s quality of life while still keeping the budget balanced.

“We need to find a way to increase the city’s revenues and to restore the funds that were withheld from pensions,” he said, referring when the city withheld adding to pensions to save money in the budget.

From a business standpoint, Schwartz insists he is pro-business growth but, “I would limit growth to those areas that already have the services set up for them,” he said.

He adds his international experience would also help him negotiate with companies based out of the country with offices in Roseville, such Japan-based NEC. 

Schwartz would like to see a four-year university in Roseville. He proposes establishing a committee and identifying areas where the process could be streamlined.

Originally from Sunnyvale, Schwartz came to Roseville to work for HP. He has two sons.

When not campaigning, Schwartz sometimes can be found square dancing but more often he enjoys taking his mother’s dog Toby to Hughes Dog Park. He also has been an avid coin collector over the years. He regularly takes courses at Sierra Community College in Rocklin, most recently taking real estate law. He earned an Associates of Science degree in computer science at Sierra College in 2005.

He said he decided to run because he wants to give back to the community.

Overall, Schwartz said he is well versed in preventing the “unintended consequences” that can mire getting things done. “You have to take the best course given the set of input that you have,” Schwartz said. “It’s amazing how many times things happen and then there are unintended consequences. You have to talk to those people in advance so you don’t have those consequences occur.” 

You can read more about Schwartz in a candidate-provided profile here.

For more local election coverage, see our Election Guide 2012 topic page here.
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