Email:  saul@patch.com
Phone:  818-297-0574
Hometown:  East Meadow, N.Y.
Birthday:  Dec. 1

Bio:   ---

As a graduate of the journalism programs Kent State and Syracuse universities, my career has taken me to Ohio, New York, Florida,  California, New Jersey and back to California.

In Los Angeles, I spent eight years at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and another 19 at the Los Angeles Times.

I've been a Sunday editor, news editor, reporter, designer, graphics editor, front page editor and computer systems editor.  I've worked on newspaper prototypes, redesigned a newspaper and even launched a new Sunday newspaper.  On the internet I've blogged, launched websites and participated in an online effort at the Los Angeles Times.  I've also been editing for Stateline.com of the PEW Charitable Trusts.

I've lived 30 years in the San Fernando Valley and 19 years in Chatsworth.

I've been married for 30 years.  My wife is a former editor who left journalism for medical school.  She is president of the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council where we both serve on the Land Use committee.  Our son and daughter were each graduated from different UC campuses the same weekend in June, 2010.

Beliefs:  I've spent a career suppressing my own feelings and beliefs in an attempt to keep bias and opinion out of print.  After leaving the print world and beginning to play an active role in local politics, I'm still not entirely comfortable laying my proclivities on the table.

Politics:  I would describe my political beliefs this way:  I'm socially liberal, but fiscally conservative, and becoming more so every day.  I have always been registered with a political party for the purpose of voting in primaries.

Religion:  I consider myself religious, but in a more secular way.  My relationship with God is mine.  I'm disenchanted with congregations always pleading poverty;  those that are always attempting to pay off the mortgage, and after raising thousands, never seem to do anything but ask for more.  They have literally priced me out of membership.

Local Hot-Button Issues:  Boy, do we have a bunch.  Unhitched ad-trailers are a safety hazard.  They need to be off the streets.  Equestrians need safe, complete trails in this horsekeeping community.  Development needs to be restrained and reasonable.  It ought to meet community needs.  Large horsekeeping properties need to survive and not be subdivided into plots too small to legally maintain horses.  Cell towers are a blight.  Telco TV junction boxes are a blight.  And the inefficiency of city government, and the waste of taxpayer money, is obscene.