John Tran

Infobox Mayor
name = John Tran


order = Mayor of Rosemead, CA
term_start = March, 2007
term_end =
deputy =
predecessor =
successor =
birth_date = birth date and age|1975|11|20
birth_place = Saigon, Vietnam
death_date =
death_place =
constituency =
party =
spouse =
children = Joshua, Andre and Jack Dylan
profession = Realtor
religion =
footnotes =
order2 =

John Tran is the first Vietnamese-American to be named mayor of a city in the United States, as stated by himself. Tran was elected to the Rosemead City Council on March 8, 2005 and was selected to serve as Mayor of the City in March 2007. Tran is not directly elected mayor by the voters of the City of Rosemead; the Rosemead City Council selects one of its members each year to serve in that role.

John Tran was born in Saigon and is the fourth eldest of six siblings. Tran has two sons, Joshua and Andre, and he and his fiance just had another child. Tran has lived in Rosemead for over 20 years; he attended school as a student in the Garvey School District during his elementary and middle school years. He graduated from Garvey Intermediate School and went on to graduate from Mark Keppel High School in what was then the Alhambra High School District in 1993.

Also a real-estate agent, Tran started his public career as a member of the Garvey School District Board of Education in 1999 while his sons were attending school in Garvey. Tran later served as School Board President in 2002. At the age of 23, Tran became the youngest member to be elected to the Garvey school board serving from 2003-2004.

During his tenure, he set high expectations for district administrators and staff and as a result, one school was awarded National Blue Ribbon Status, two schools were recognized as "California Distinguished Schools" and three schools were recognized as "California Title I Achieving Schools". Tran was also instrumental in the development and approval of two joint-use agreements with the City of Rosemead to build two gymnasiums to be placed on each of our two intermediate school campuses. As a School Board Member, Tran served on the Board of Directors for the California Latino School Board Members Association and as a Member of the California School Boards Association.

Tran was chair of the Garvey School District bond committee and successfully coordinated the work of staff and community to accomplish the passing of General Obligation Bond Q, a $30 million bond initiative, which will benefit the students of the Garvey School District by continuing modernization of the school sites.

John Tran served his first term on the Rosemead City Council when he was elected on March 8, 2005 and is the first Asian-American elected to the city council. For a period of time, Tran served on both the board of the Garvey School District and on the Rosemead City Council.

As a councilman of Rosemead, one of the first concerns was blocking the building of a Wal-Mart 24-hour Supercenter in Rosemead where the previously voted in city officials had voted to allow the retail giant to build. Worried that the presence of Wal-Mart and their practices would affect the local city economy and hurt smaller local business predominantly owned by Asian immigrants, Tran initiated the actions to stop the approval. With Tran's backing and the local grassroots group "Save Our Community", Tran stopped the opening of a 24-hour Wal-Mart; however, Tran and Save Our Community were unsuccessful in stopping the opening of Wal-Mart supercenter within the City of Rosemead.

As Tran has said when selected by his colleagues on the City Council to serve as the Mayor, "Mayors in Vietnam aren't elected, they're appointed by the government." As mayor, Tran has many new challenges for the city of Rosemead but is proud to serve and represent.

External links

* [http://www.cityofrosemead.org/ City of Rosemead, California web site]
* [http://www.asianamerican.net/bios/Tran-John.html Biography of John Tran]
* [http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=70042 "Nguoi Viet Online" "Man of the Year"]