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DAN KALB - BIO
Environmental Policy Advocate / City Councilmember (ret.)
While serving three terms on the Oakland City Council, Councilmember Dan Kalb earned a reputation as a proactive and detail-oriented policymaker, committed public servant and effective environmental leader and affordable housing policy advocate and lawmaker.
Dan has worked as a policy director; environmental, public interest, and social justice advocate; NGO director, practical progressive reformer and engaged community service volunteer. In his twelve years on the Oakland City Council, Dan has proven what can be accomplished as a determined and proactive public sector leader.
Dan is a three-term City Councilmember who has authored laws to stop ghost guns, create an independent police oversight commission, raise tens of millions for affordable housing, protect tenants from displacement, stop coal in Oakland, ban single-use plastic food ware, strengthen the Public Ethics Commission, create a progressive real estate transfer tax, require seismic retrofits of apartment buildings, expand library services/hours, create a city-OUSD partnership to keep kids in school, and so much more. He's particularly proud of this work on climate and environmental issues.
Dan has over 30 years of policy experience, including 10+ years experience crafting state legislation and successfully engaging in the legislative and regulatory processes in Sacramento. Dan worked for the Union of Concerned Scientists for nine years as their state policy director. Previously, he worked for the Sierra Club and other advocacy groups. With a deep background in social justice, nonprofit management and environmental advocacy, Dan is committed to promoting data-driven solutions to tough problems facing our communities, including the need for more affordable housing, enhancing wildfire prevention and disaster resiliency, acting locally and statewide to combat global climate change, and promoting walkable communities and access to public transit.
As a long-time environmental leader, Dan authored legislation to ban the storage & handling of coal in Oakland, eliminate single-use plastic foodware and require reusables, require new buildings to be all-electric, divest city holdings from fossil fuels interests, phase out gas-powered leaf-blowers, ban neonicotinoids to protect pollinators, require general plan revisions to incorporate climate resilience strategies, require source separation of organics, and more. He helped guide the city in creating a strong wildfire prevention vegetation management plan and led the Council’s participation in approving the city’s Equitable Climate Action Plan.
Dan had been active in interfaith coalitions in the Bay Area for many years and served on the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council for several years.
Dan served as a board member and chairperson of Ava Community Energy (formerly East Bay Community Energy), and president of the Alameda County Recycling Board and StopWaste. He also served on the board of CivicWell for seven years and on the board of Cal Cities for 11 years. Dan received a Baccalaureate of Science degree in Conservation of Natural Resources from U.C. Berkeley and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco. He is considered a policy expert on a broad range of state, regional and local climate, conservation, clean energy and fuels, recycling matters, and local and regional planning issues. He also has ten years’ experience as a community mediator resolving neighborhood disputes.
Dan has always been committed to serving the public with dedication and integrity — something he learned from his father, Marcus. Dan's mother Charlotte Levine lived in San Pablo and Oakland until passing away in 2015. Dan and his wife Valarie, a Deputy State Public Defender, enjoy hiking in our beautiful East Bay Regional Parks in their free time.
