Ken Nitz elected president of MROSD board

By a unanimous vote, Ken Nitz was last night elected President of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) Board of Directors for a one-year term. Also elected were Directors Pete Siemens as the District’s Vice President, Curt Riffle as Treasurer, and Mary Davey as Secretary.

An avid environmentalist, Ken Nitz lives in Redwood City and has represented the residents of Ward 7 on the Open Space District’s Board of Directors since 1996 when he was first elected to a seat on the Board.  In addition to Redwood City, San Carlos, and Woodside, President Nitz’ Ward also includes part of the San Mateo County coastside. The boundaries of District Wards 6 and 7 were reapportioned in 2004 in order to democratically represent coastside residents who became District constituents when the Coastside Protection Program became official on September 7, 2004. Among Nitz’ constituencies are El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Montara, Moss Beach, and Princeton. Nitz has a long history of community involvement, including volunteering at Earth Day 1990, for the Gorilla Foundation, and Wildlife Rescue as well as a number of District events.

Nitz said that resource management - the management of the land, water, forest and biological resources - will be high on the District’s agenda during his presidency: "My priority will be the removal of non-native grasses from open space lands." Nitz continued: "The District plays an important role as a steward of the land it manages for the public and I support ongoing efforts to fight dangerous forest diseases such as slender false brome and sudden oak death."  The incoming president said that he also wants to improve the District’s electronic communications capabilities by enabling e-mail transmissions to and from a list of subscribers.

As a Board member, Nitz has also fought hard to expand areas for dogs, and worked on the District’s Budget Committee to keep the operating budget lean and able to survive economic downturns while meeting the District’s mission and purpose.

Nitz thanked outgoing President Jed Cyr for his leadership during the last year and for overseeing the single largest purchase in the District’s history: the 3,681-acre POST Driscoll Ranch.

Ken Nitz was born in Chicago, Illinois and was raised in Southern California.  He studied Atmospheric Science at the University of California at Davis and Linear Programming at Stanford University.  As a Senior Software Engineer, he is working on such issues as computer learning, vision, cognition, computer security, and human/computer interaction.