Len Colamarino, author of the politically based UpGrade Atascadero Web site and blog, has announced his intent to run for a seat on the Atascadero City Council in the November election.

Colamarino filed his candidate intention statement last week and joined Atascadero Planning Commission Chair Roberta Fonzi, who has also filed her candidate intention statement and, along with Bret Hienemann, took out official paperwork to file for candidacy on Monday. Monday marked the first date to file for candidacy for the three open council seats currently occupied by Mayor Mike Brennler, Councilman George Luna and Councilman Jerry Clay.

“I see a job that needs to be done, I think I can do it” Colamarino said of his council bid. “My candidacy is part of this movement to upgrade Atascadero in order to enable it to reach its full potential.”

On his Web site, www.upgradeatascadero.org, and blog, www.blog.upgradeatascadero.org, Colamarino writes that after he started the blog in February numerous individuals suggested he run for City Council including three members of the current council, “who offered the suggestion with what I sensed was an underlying message that I should ‘put up or shut up.’” Having concluded he cannot “shut up” Colamarino stepped into the race.

Colamarino believes his background in business and law will enable him to bring the kind of professionalism and skill the council needs in order to meet the complex challenges the city is facing. He also said he is running for a council seat because he believes the members of the current body are “too preoccupied with partisan political interests.”

“I would like to achieve something in Atascadero for the community,” he said. “I have a vision for what I can see Atascadero becoming in its business district, in its downtown and I’d like to try to make that vision a reality.”

Integral to Colamarino’s vision for Atascadero’s downtown is the city’s commitment to a viable plan for the restoration of the Atascadero Administration Building. He said this building, if applied to its best use, would go a long way in jumpstarting downtown development. In addition, he said the Colony Square development has been misconstrued as a catalyst project for downtown when the true catalyst involves the restoration of the old city hall.

“We need to develop a strategic plan for the city hall,” he said. “This is not a simple matter. This is the most important physical asset that the city of Atascadero owns.”

Colamarino feels he is only hearing half of the information about the administration building from the city, which he believes has failed to provide complete explanations and a timeline for the restoration project. According to city staff, Federal Emergency Management Agency funds require the building to retain its function as a city hall prior to the damage it sustained in the 2003 San Simeon Earthquake. Colamarino noted however, that the building was also used as the home of the Atascadero Historical Society museum and feels the building could be put to better use as a museum.

“I’d like to find out exactly what we can do,” he said.

In line with his non-partisan vision, Colamarino said he is glad the Atascadero Shield Initiative, a potential development on big box retailers generated through the locally-based Oppose Wal-Mart group, will be decided by the voters in November. It is now up for the community to decide whether it wants a Wal-Mart and for the city to move forward with whatever that decision may be, he said.

Colamarino also said he intends to set a $500 contribution limit for his own campaign. Campaign finance reform is a hot discussion point with the City Council at this time and Colamarino said he hopes his action in this regard will “raise the bar in terms of political activity.”

Colamarino was raised in Rochester, N.Y and graduated from East Ridge High School in Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, in 1969. He went on to attend the University of New York at Buffalo and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1976.

Colamarino began his professional career as an associate attorney specializing in corporate litigation with a large international law firm Mudge Rose Guthrie & Alexander, where he worked until 1980. In that year he became an associate attorney in a mid-sized New York law firm, Chisty & Viener, where he worked until starting his own firm in 1983. Colamarino, who has not formerly resigned from Colamarino & Sohns, LLP, continues to work with other companies that are independent of the firm in providing counseling services as a principal and legal officer.

Colamarino and his wife, Katrin, a former in-house corporate attorney and current consultant for nonprofit organizations, bought a home in Atascadero in 2004 and made the city their permanent residence in January of 2005. Atascadero, Colamarino said, “seemed to have everything we wanted in the right proportions.”

The couple has been married since 1982 and has one adult daughter, Rachel, who is currently living in Jerusalem, as well as four grandchildren ranging from 1 to 11 years old.

“I hope to be able to represent the interests of all the people in Atascadero,” Colamarino said.