By Clarence Cromwell
Mark Pierce became the newest member of the Saratoga Planning Commission on Jan. 17, when the City Council unanimously adopted a resolution filling two commission seats.
A longtime resident of Saratoga, Pierce remembers when the community didn't yet have a City Council and when fires were fought by a brigade of volunteers.
Pierce's parents, Marjorie and Robert, moved to the area from San Jose in 1955, when Mark was 6 years old.
He vividly recalls a wailing siren that brought volunteer firefighters running during his first trip to Saratoga Village and the three trucks loaded with volunteers that roared off to battle the fire. The Saratoga Fire Protection District still serves about half of the 40-year-old city, but now the engines carry full-time firefighters.
Shortly after moving to the area, Pierce's parents joined the movement to incorporate the community into a city. (He remembers a few meetings held in the Pierce living room, but little else.)
Now the 47-year-old personal-injury attorney still lives in Saratoga. He has practiced law for 20 years, most of them in San Jose, since graduating from the Santa Clara University law school. He is a member of Saratoga Rotary and an amateur vintner.
Pierce said he decided to apply for the Planning Commission because he wanted another opportunity to serve the city.
"I thought that I could do something for the city," Pierce said. "I enjoyed my experience on the Parks Commission. I felt I was more a part of the community."
Pierce was the only applicant for a seat vacated by Meg Caldwell. He previously served two consecutive terms on the Saratoga Parks and Recreation Commission. He stepped down from that commission in August 1994 because of the customary two-term limit.
Caldwell, whose term expires this month, told Deputy City Clerk Betsy Cory in November that she didn't want to be reappointed.
The same resolution naming Pierce also reappointed Alfred Abshire to the Planning Commission. He was appointed in 1994 to fill one of three seats emptied when Mayor Paul Jacobs, Vice Mayor Gillian Moran and Councilmember Don Wolfe--all planning commissioners at the time--won seats on the City Council.
Both of the new commissioners' terms expire in October 1998.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 31, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved