Mayor Hammerstrom was first elected to the City Council in November 2004 was elected by the Council to serve as Mayor in December 2006 for a two-year term.

Mayor Hammerstrom was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1946 and was raised in Fresno, California from age 2 - 18. His early connection to Fort Bragg came during his Fresno years as his father sold a product of the Union Lumber Company. Doug's visits then and vacation later kept him in touch with Fort Bragg.

Attending undergraduate college at U.C.-Santa Barbara and law school at Hastings in San Francisco took him to live in other parts of the State. Mayor Hammerstrom settled in Visalia, California where he was an attorney and orange grower. After a brief relocation to Seattle, he moved with his family - wife, Dr. Diana Harris; son, Ben; and daughter, Sophia - to the Mendocino Coast in 1992.

Doug's interests in participatory democracy and land use planning led him to run for a seat on the Fort Bragg City Council. His primary goal on the Council is to have a rich deliberative process involving citizen and expert input so that the Council makes decisions based on the broadest range of collective wisdom they can muster.

Mayor Hammerstrom's term on the Council expires in December 2008 unless re-elected.

Mayor Pro Tempore Turner was first elected to the City Council in November 2002 and was re-elected in November 2006.

Dave was born in Fort Bragg at the old Coast Hospital in 1951. His family moved to the Bay Area in 1960.

Dave attended Stanford University where he majored in "Social Thought and Institutions," a political science honors program. While attending Stanford, he opened a specialty sleep shop to help pay his way through college. The sleep shop business took off and Dave left in his senior year before completing his degree.

Dave and his wife Anne will celebrate their 28th Anniversary this year (2007). They moved back to Fort Bragg in 1992 to raise their children in a town "where the community watches out for kids."

Dave and Anne have four children: Katie, Dewey, Packie and Bryna.

Click here to e-mail Mayor Pro Tempore Turner.

Mayor Pro Tempore Turner's term on the Council expires in December 2010 unless re-elected.

Councilmember Courtney was first elected to the City Council in November 2006 after serving on the Planning Commission for two years.

She has been a Fort Bragg resident and homeowner for seven years, having slowly gravitated up the coast of California. She was born in Los Angeles, lived in Berkeley and environs for several years, moved to Santa Cruz, and finally, gratefully arrived in this wonderful town.

Meg is "founding mother" of the local speaking club, The Coast Toasters, of Toastmaster International. She has taught art in the Fort Bragg public schools and with the Mendocino Coast Recreation & Park District.

She was a co-leader of a Rural Murals Project, working with troubled youth. Meg produced The Sustainable Energy Forum at Town Hall and is a member of the Coast Energy Task Force, a group dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of conservation and the use of renewable energy systems.

She was instrumental in convincing the City of Fort Bragg to sign on to the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), working with over 500 local governments to reduce global warming.

Meg holds a BA from UC Berkeley, a California Teaching Credential, and a Lifetime Adult Education Credential. She is a ceramic artist and is a member of the local Edgewater Gallery. Meg has two grown daughters, Tobin and Taylor, and a granddaughter, Arden.

Councilmember Courtney's term on the Council expires in December 2010 unless re-elected.

Councilmember Gjerde was first elected to the City Council in November 1998, with the goal of putting "thought and care into planning the town's future." Re-elected in November 2002 and November 2006, Dan has dedicated much of his council time focused on the city's streets, sidewalks, and parks. He has co-written successful proposals which delivered more than $2.4 million for Franklin Street, $1 million for new sidewalks and $1 million for city parks.

Instead of creating suburban sprawl, Dan wants the city's growth to follow its historic and human-scale urban form - its street grid pattern, its service alleys, its spacious sidewalks (enhanced with landscaping) and its commercial buildings constructed as multi-story mixed-use structures to allow downtown residential living.

During his time on the Council, Dan has served on each of the Council's standing committees, and currently serves on the Public Works & Facilities Committee and the Finance & Administration Committee. He also currently serves on two regional boards. Dan serves on the Mendocino Coast Television board (since 1998), which operates the government and public access channels on the Mendocino Coast; and the Mendocino Council of Governments board (since 2002), Mendocino County's regional transportation planning agency, which typically allocates $10 million in state transportation funds every two years. State law intends these dollars to be spent for repair and construction of roads, sidewalks and bike paths.

Click here to e-mail Councilmember Gjerde.

Dan's term on the Council expires in December of 2010 unless re-elected.

Councilmember Jere Melo was first elected in 1996, after serving a 4-years term on the Planning Commission. He served as Mayor Pro Tempore in 1998 - 2000, and he served as Mayor, 2000 - 2004. His regional duties include service as a board member on the Mendocino Local Agency Formation Commission (12 years), Fort Bragg Fire Protection Authority (8 years), and the League of California Cities (6 years).

Councilmember Melo has lived in or near Fort Bragg since 1966, when he began working for the Union Lumber Company as a forester. He was raised in the City of Mt. Shasta, and he attended the University of California at Davis and Berkeley, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Forestry in February, 1964. He received a commission in the U.S. Army upon graduation from Berkeley and served in South Korea and in NORAD on the continent. Upon his employment with Union Lumber, the Army assigned him as Company Commander to the local Army Reserve unit, and he served six years in the reserves.

Jere and Madeleine are active in several local organizations, the Episcopal Church, Mendocino Coast Sports Foundation and the Fort Bragg-Otsuchi (Japan) Exchange Association.

Click here to e-mail Councilmember Melo.

Councilmember Melo's term on the Council expires in December 2008 unless re-elected.