Cindy Silva is currently serving as the Mayor of Walnut Creek. She was first elected to the City Council in 2006 and was subsequently re-elected to the Council in 2010, re-appointed in 2014, and re-elected in 2018. She served as mayor in 2010-11,
and again in 2012-13. Prior to her election to the City Council, Silva served on the Planning Commission from 2004-06, including two years during which the City was updating and adopting General Plan 2025.
As mayor in 2011, Silva founded Walnut Creek Community Service Day, which she still co-chairs. Now in its eighth year, Community Service Day has involved an average 1,200 volunteers each year, contributing more than 35,000 cumulative hours to complete projects for schools, libraries, open spaces, parks, the arts, and community service organizations. The Community Service Day effort was honored to receive a 2012 Helen Putnam Award for excellence from the League of California Cities. Also in 2011, Silva spearheaded a Community Blue Ribbon Task Force on Fiscal Health, a 14-member community-based group that invested 9 months and more than 3,000 person hours in assessing and providing recommendations on Walnut Creek's long-term operating revenues and expenses, capital assets and investments, and financial policies. In 2013 as mayor, Silva initiated 2nd Saturday Spotlight, a year-long program that gave community members an opportunity to learn more about some of Walnut Creek's local treasures and city operations.
In her role as a council member, Silva has served on numerous Council committees: Finance, Public Education, Housing and Community Development, Community Development Block Grant and Community Service Grants Committee, and Youth and Family Services. She has served on ad hoc committees for economic development, for the planned improvements to Broadway Plaza, and for the Walnut Creek Transit Village. She has served as the Council liaison to Walnut Creek Downtown, the Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce Tourism Business Improvement District, Rossmoor and the Diablo Regional Arts Association.
Regionally, Silva is one of two members of the City Council representing Walnut Creek on the Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority (Recycle Smart), a joint partnership with other central county jurisdictions that manages garbage and recycling services. She was chair of the Authority in 2014. Silva also is a director of the East Bay Regional Communications System Authority, a 43-agency authority that has built and operates a state-of-the-art, interoperable public safety radio system serving the 2.5 million people of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. For EBRCSA, Silva serves on the Finance Committee. Silva is also immediate past chair (2017) of the Contra Costa Mayors' Conference and serves on its Executive Committee.
In 2017, Silva was appointed by the Governor as a local government representative on the California Seismic Safety Commission. Silva is actively involved both regionally and at the state level in the League of California Cities. Since 2015, she has been a member of the League’s statewide Board of Directors; she also sits on the League’s Housing, Community and Economic Development Policy Committee (2010-2018) and chaired the committee in 2016. In 2012-13, Silva was one of 16 city representatives on the League’s Strategic Initiatives Task Force. In September 2010 and again in 2011, she appeared as a panel member during the League’s annual conference, speaking on how cities were surviving the fiscal crisis. Locally, Silva was 2013 president League’s East Bay Division, which comprises the 33 cities of Contra Costa and Alameda counties. From 2008-2010, Silva was Walnut Creek’s representative to TRANSPAC, the regional transportation planning committee of Central Contra Costa; she served as chair of TRANSPAC in 2010. Through this group, Silva led efforts to find regional solutions to local transportation and traffic safety issues, including school crossing guard programs, major roadway improvements, and bike-pedestrian enhancements.
A resident of Walnut Creek since 1984, Silva has been an active community volunteer for more than 20 years. She is a director of the Walnut Creek Civic Pride Foundation, which raised more than $380,000 for the new all abilities playground at Heather Farm Park; she is a treasurer of Walnut Creek Sister Cities International; and she is vice chair of the Board for Hospice of the East Bay. Previously, Silva served on the committee for the East Bay Women’s Conference (2008-2016), on the committee for the One City One Book program (2006-2015), and on the Action for Beauty Council. In 2013-14, Silva was a member of the Centennial Steering Committee; as part of this, she co-chaired Centennial Heritage Day at Borges Ranch, she co-chaired the involvement of the former mayors in the Centennial, and she was integral in the development of the Centennial marketing program, including the Centennial website.
Previously, Silva volunteered for our local libraries, schools, and youth and youth sports programs.
· For our libraries, Silva was a member of the capital campaign committee for the Walnut Creek Library, which raised more than $5 million for the new facility. In 2010 and 2012, she co-chaired Authors under the Stars, the annual gala for Walnut Creek’s libraries. Silva co-chaired the Yes -- A New Walnut Creek Library Committee, working for passage of Measure R (Fall 2005) and Proposition 81 (June 2006). She has served as a member of the City’s Library Advisory Team and worked with the Walnut Creek Library Foundation. She was a member of the campaign committee for Measure Q, which brought extended library hours to Walnut Creek (2002).
· As a volunteer for schools, Silva is a past PTSA president for Las Lomas High School (2003-2005) and past member of the Board of both the Las Lomas and Walnut Creek Intermediate parent organizations. For Las Lomas, she also served on the WASC Accreditation Committee and on the Student Carpool Parking Committee. She was a liaison member of the Las Lomas Foundation Board of Directors. She received the California State PTA Continuing Service Award in 2005. From 2005-2010, Silva served on the Measure A Oversight Committee for the Acalanes High School District. She previously served on the district’s Revenue Committee. She is a former director of the Walnut Creek Education Foundation. In 2001, she co-chaired Measure C for the Walnut Creek School District, a parcel tax that funded lower class size for grades 4-8; she subsequently served on the committees for funding measures for the Walnut Creek School District and Acalanes High School District in 2002 and 2005.
· For local youth, Silva served as a director and scholarship chair of the Walnut Creek Fountain for Youth Foundation. She served on the Board of Directors of the Walnut Creek Soccer Club for six years (1999-2004), managing fields, game scheduling, referees and registration. She is a past president and four-year member of the Board of the Walnut Creek Swim Conference (2001-2004). She is a past mother advisor of the Concord chapter of California Rainbow Girls, a Masonic youth organization. In 2004, she served on the Sister City committee for the visit of the youth soccer team from Siofok, Hungary.
Silva has 40 years of business experience in marketing and communications in industries as diverse as telecommunications, biotech, and the non-profit sector. Since 1980, she has owned her own consulting business -- originally Eisley Communications, Inc., now Eisley Silva Communications.
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California, Silva has a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She is a native of Santa Cruz, California. She and her husband, Tom, have a daughter, Katie, who is a 2005 graduate of Las Lomas High School and 2009 graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle.
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Richard C. Blum is Chairman of Blum Capital Partners, L.P. and Co-Chairman of Newbridge Capital, LLC. Mr. Blum earned his B.A. and M.B.A degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. He was the recipient of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business Alumnus of the Year Award in 1994 and is a member of the Advisory Board of the School.
