Terry Nagel |

About Terry

Terry Nagel was first elected to the Burlingame City Council in 2003 and was re-elected in 2007 and 2011. She served as Mayor during 2007 and 2011.

During her tenure on the council, Terry has promoted open government, civic engagement, financial responsibility, environmental sustainability, campaign finance reform, emergency preparedness, city-school partnerships, better public transportation and e-government.

Terry was elected by the mayors of the county to serve as Chair of the San Mateo County Council of Cities during 2009. In 2009 and 2011 they elected her to the Board of Directors of the county’s Transportation Agency, which is responsible for allocating the half-cent sales tax dedicated to transportation.

Terry has a history of bringing people together to address unmet needs. She founded Burlingame’s Neighborhood Network, which encourages neighbors to band together for emergency preparedness and crime prevention. She also created the Community Wish List, which links donors of goods and services with more than 90 nonprofits in San Mateo County. She started Burlingame's Green Ribbon Task Force and helped draft the city's Climate Action Plan along with other green initiatives that were cited in a national environmental award in 2011. She helped start and is a member of Citizens Environmental Council - Burlingame, which is helping Burlingame become greener and more sustainable. She is currently working to create a social innovation center to bring together nonprofits with those who have the resources to create change. Just for fun, she started the Burlingame Pet Parade, an annual celebration of crazily dressed pets and owners that has been running since 2003.

Terry is best known for organizing hundreds of residents in 2002 to protest Burlingame’s frequent power outages. After citizens suffered repeated and prolonged power failures, she formed a citizens’ action group called Burlingamers Unwilling to Live with Blackouts (BULB) that has persuaded PG&E to spend more than $5 million on improvements to circuits in Burlingame. As a result, power outages on Burlingame’s five worst circuits decreased 85 percent from 2002 to 2003. . After a gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno in 2010, she began leading been efforts to demand full inspections of underground gas pipelines to ensure their safety.

Terry’s three children attended Burlingame public schools from kindergarten through Burlingame High. She served as PTA President of Lincoln School and was awarded Honorary Life Membership in the PTA. She led fundraising drives and helped on school parcel tax campaigns. She chaired the Communications Committee at Burlingame High School, started the school’s e-newsletter for parents and headed the BHS Music Boosters’ annual holiday fundraiser.

Terry started her career as a travel editor and went on to become a staff writer and editor for the San Mateo Times. She later worked as an editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, as Assistant Managing Editor of Forbes ASAP magazine, and as Managing Editor of GreatSchools.net and Civic Ventures. She also founded and managed two online travel forums for Expedia.com devoted to family travel and adventure travel. She experienced the challenges of running a small business while operating an out-of-print book search business in Burlingame for 18 years. From 2003 to 2008, she was Communications Officer for the Skoll Foundation. Terry graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Washington in Seattle.

In 2006 Terry was one of 20 elected leaders chosen for the League of California Cities’ California Civic Leadership Institute, a highly selective program that educates future leaders on issues facing the state. She is a 2003 graduate of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership’s Community Fellows leadership program.

Terry and her husband Jim have lived in Burlingame since 1978. They have three grown children.

Terry's Record

When Terry was elected in 2003 she promised to end closed-door decisions by the council majority, scrutinize proposed mergers of city departments with other cities to make sure they would benefit Burlingame, and protect our city’s charm by encouraging development that enhances our downtown areas and neighborhoods.

Terry has kept her promises -- and she’s done much more.

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Terry's Community Experience

Terry has been an active community volunteer and supporter of education for 33 years. Since being elected in 2003, she has taken her service to the community to a new level, working on regional projects as a member of countywide agencies. In addition, she has mobilized volunteers and started numerous new initiatives that anticipate our needs in the future and make living in Burlingame more rewarding.

She is best known for successfully mobilizing residents to obtain better power service from Pacific Gas & Electric in her role as founder of Burlingamers Unwilling to Live with Blackouts (BULB). She started the Burlingame Pet Parade, now in its sixth year; the Community Wish List, which links donors of goods and services with more than 90 nonprofits in San Mateo County; the city’s Green Ribbon Task Force, which succeeded in getting a citywide Climate Action Plan adopted in 2009; and the Neighborhood Network, which encourages Burlingame neighbors to band together for emergency preparedness and crime prevention. From 2007 to 2009 she helped craft the county’s first energy and sustainability strategy as a member of the San Mateo County Utilities and Sustainability Task Force (now called the Resource Management and Climate Protection Committee). As an elected member of the county’s Transportation Authority, she is working to promote better transportation, including Caltrain upgrades and a countywide transportation plan that serves Burlingame’s needs - not those of high speed rail. She is also working to create a social innovation center in San Mateo County.

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Terry's Professional Experience

Terry is a veteran journalist who learned how local government works by covering hundreds of city council, school board and county meetings for the San Mateo Times. She is a graduate of the highly selective League of California Cities’ California Civic Leadership Institute, which is designed to train leaders for statewide office, and she also graduated from the Coro Center for Civic Leadership’s Community Fellows leadership program. She graduated with honors from the University of Washington in Seattle with a B.A. in English.

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