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Noll	Parker

Parker, Noll won't seek other offices for now

By Katherine Petersen

Councilmembers Robin Parker and Landon Noll stepped down from their positions on the Sunnyvale City Council Nov. 18. Councilmembers Julia Miller and Fred Fowler took their places on the dais.

Parker, who served Sunnyvale as both mayor and vice mayor, has no plans to seek higher office but will concentrate her efforts closer to home.

"Nothing is ever out of the picture," she said. "I never had a goal to be on the council, either. It just came because of my community involvement."

Parker will apply for a position on the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce's board of directors and focus her energy on working with the National Coalition of 100 Black Women's South Bay Chapter as a founding member of the service-oriented organization.

"Other than those two things, I'm not sure what I'm going to do," Parker said. "I definitely want to stay involved with the community."

Parker, who served for nine years, is leaving office due to term limits. She was elected in 1988 to finish out the term of Bob Reese, who had resigned.

Parker also hopes to get more people involved in Sunnyvale. "It's very rewarding," she said. "I've met many a fine person and done some good things, and I hope other folks will be so motivated."

Parker has participated in work on future uses of Moffett Federal Airfield, helped create the city's economic development department, stood firm behind Sunnyvale's first dog park at Las Palmas and championed affordable housing for families, single people and seniors.

Parker works at Hewlett-Packard as a nationwide support engineering manager for the company's home products division.

Noll, who is leaving office after four years, said he'll more than likely run for council again--perhaps five or 10 years down the road. A county or state election might follow, he said.

"This is just a delay," he said. "I don't have to do things back to back, and if the voters would have me, I'd like to serve on the council again."

In the meantime, Noll is focusing his energy, in terms of public service, on Internet issues including privacy, freedom of speech and export controls on cryptographic software. He works with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a national organization based in San Francisco.

Noll, who works at Silicon Graphics, will continue his cryptographic research and support for Internet service providers.

Noll helped to build an astronomic observatory at Fremont Peak State Park near Gilroy and hopes to spend more time looking through the large telescope there and showing visitors around the facility.

"It's fun sharing astronomy with folks because a lot of people get excited about it," he said. "And I really like to teach."

With a strong music background, Noll said he wants to take voice lessons, although he has no particular singing aspirations in mind.

Noll feels one of his greatest accomplishments during his time on the council was helping to bring the city online. Sunnyvale went from not even having an email account to having a full-blown Web site.

He also worked to reduce the mayoral term from two years to one, which eliminated squabbling among councilmembers about who will serve in the ceremonial post.

"It's done by seniority," he said. "It takes a motion of no-confidence to remove a mayor as well. It keeps mayors humble."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 19, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.