Born in Petaluma in 1956 to local residents, David and Florence King, John grew up on a farm in Penngrove where he watched and participated in chickens being raised by the thousands, lambs and calves being born, fields being plowed, and the unending discipline and hard work being demanded of Sonoma County’s agricultural community. He learned the country way of living in which people rely on each other to survive.

John worked locally for many years at places such as Rex Hardware, Petaluma City School District, Ingerson Trucking, Petaluma Poultry Processors, and D-bar-D Livestock Dealers & Transporters, before making the decision to get a college degree. In 1988 he earned a B.A. in Business Economics with an emphasis in Accounting from UC Santa Barbara. After graduation he achieved every accounting major’s goal: getting hired on by one of the Big Eight accounting firms. At KPMG Peat Marwick he gained a wealth of practical business, tax, and audit experience. However, his love of the country drew him back to Sonoma County, where he co-owned and operated a winery and later was hired by Sonoma National Bank as a Commercial Loan Officer. After a bout with Lyme disease that removed him from the work force, John joined an accounting practice with partner Amy Richards to service the needs of a wide variety of businesses, including nonprofits, sole proprietors, law firms, medical practices, governmental agencies, and construction companies.

In 1996, when the well on his Penngrove ranch ran dry and he had to drill to a depth of almost 400 feet to find new water, John began talking to neighbors and learned that most of them had similar experiences. This led him to start gathering data to explain why the water table had dropped so low in recent years. His research showed that sustainable groundwater supplies did not exist, a fact that had been presented to the Rohnert Park City Council in their own Environmental Impact Report. Wanting to work to resolve the problem, he became involved with Rohnert Park’s 20-year General Plan and presented over 8,000 pages of documentation to convince City Council that this urgent issue needed to be addressed. When the Council chose to ignore this information as well, John was left with no choice but to sue the City in order to protect the interests of the public, which included Rohnert Park, Cotati, Penngrove, and Petaluma. The basis for the suit was the City’s failure to analyze impacts on groundwater pumping beyond the City’s boundary. The lawsuit was funded by 140 families who listened to what John had to say and recognized the importance of action.

In 2002,John won the lawsuit resulting in the preservation of approximately 171 acres of active farmland and groundwater recharge areas, as well as the limitation of groundwater pumping by Rohnert Park for a period of 20 years. Land speculators immediately filed a countersuit to get the decision overturned. Once again, John prevailed with the court upholding the decision.

Through the course of these events, along with many others, John learned the importance of remaining committed to finishing the job, as well as the value of listening to others, whether or not those views concur with his. In his own words, “I know of no other job that is more important than serving the people of Sonoma County and working to preserve the quality of life we enjoy here. Now, more than ever, we need fiscal responsibility and transparent government. With my bid for a seat on the Board of Supervisors, I hope to gain the opportunity to make a critical difference for all of us.”