By Roger Riffenburgh
As a civil engineer, Dave Ennis has worked tirelessly helping municipalities across the country recover from natural disasters. That experience led to a campaign for state assembly in a region where wildfires have taken their toll on local communities.
In writing grants for federal disaster funding to help rebuild communities and infrastructure, he says “I believe in building things right the first time and building aging Infrastructure better the second time.”
In the 11th Assembly District, which includes Solano County and parts of Contra Costa and Sacramento Counties, Dave Ennis says “What We Need Most” is affordable housing, helping homeless people, and supporting infrastructure. He focuses on housing because it is something we all need, and yet is a very pervasive problem. He points out that “In order to increase the housing supply, you need to put in the infrastructure to support it”, something that is often overlooked by advocates of tiny homes. He is a big supporter of regional planning, because “if you’re going to build it right the first time, you need to think about it very carefully before you build”.
From 2017 to 2021 Ennis worked with FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where he evaluated grant proposals for technical feasibility and cost effectiveness. Ennis’ business career includes designing buildings, selling aircraft electronics, and managing programs to supply electrical interconnect wiring on the 787 airliner, the F-16 fighter, the Chinook helicopter, BART cars, and other critical programs that have to be planned, designed, and built to work the first time.
David Ennis grew up in Big Falls, Minnesota, a tiny city 39 miles southwest of the Canadian border at International Falls. For high school he attended Phillips Andover in Massachusetts. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at Duke, where he was on the wrestling team and in the marching band. After designing and manufacturing prefabricated buildings for Republic Steel for a couple of years, he earned an MBA at Harvard Business School.
Ennis worked in operations and international sales for Menlo Park’s Raychem for 20 years, providing complex aircraft wiring to major aerospace programs. He’s worked in Ohio, New England, Belmont, Palo Alto, Rocklin, San Leandro, and other locations. He worked over six years at Zodiac Aerospace in Santa Rosa.
Active in his community, Dave volunteered as President of the United Parents of San Leandro High School when his kids were in school and also served on the San Leandro Planning Commission.
In his free time Dave enjoys cooking, walking his Springer Spaniel, and biking around Benicia, Vallejo, Mare Island and the wetlands in American Canyon. Dave Ennis and his wife Betsy live in Vallejo, and they have two adult children. You can learn more about Dave Ennis on his campaign website, www.ennis2024.org .