Meet Debbie Cook

The Value of Family

Throughout her childhood, Debbie was surrounded by examples of service to community and country. Debbie was born on Jan. 22, 1954 in Corpus Christi, Texas, during her father's final months of service in the U.S. Navy. Her grandfather, an Episcopal minister, baptized Debbie, just as he had baptized her four brothers. Upon her father's retirement from the Navy after serving in both WW2 and Korea, the family eventually moved to Cincinnati.

In Ohio, Debbie's lifelong love of nature was born. Tagging along as her father, a Boy Scout troop leader, scouted hiking tails and camping sites for official Scout outings, Debbie discovered the joys of the great outdoors. Debbie's brothers shared her interest, earning three Eagle Scout badges. Later, two of her brothers would follow their father into military service.

Debbie's family moved to California in 1966 and she attended Corona Del Mar High School in Newport Beach, where she was a runner-up in the Miss Newport Beach contest. Upon graduation, Debbie's natural ability to face challenges with tenacity and hard work earned her a student pilot's license, and she completed a strenuous Outward Bound course. That summer, she and her sister climbed Mt. Whitney.

Building a Family and a Business

While studying Earth Science at Long Beach State, Debbie played on the Women's Volleyball and Swim Teams, and as a member of the relay team, qualified for the NCAA Swimming Championships, all while working part-time.

She met her husband John Fisher in a co-ed volleyball class and in 1975, they were married. A year later, settled in Westminster, their son Jonathan was born. During her son's school years, Debbie became active in the community, serving as PTA President at Vista View School in Fountain Valley. She coached the Dwyer Junior High Girl's Volleyball Team in Huntington Beach for many years and taught a community volleyball clinic.

In 1978, Debbie bought an office equipment business and ran it with her husband for 14 years, all the while learning the lessons and facing the challenges that come with owning a small business. She even invented a patented shelving system. Her experience left her with a deep respect for the hard work of entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Leading a Community

In 1989, Debbie began a quest to save Huntington Beach's natural resources from development. Ignoring their constituents, out-of-touch politicians at city hall proposed turning one-quarter of Huntington Beach Central Park into an 18-hole golf course and building a massive retail development on the beach at the Huntington Beach pier.

A group of outraged Huntington Beach citizens spoke out against the proposals at a City Council meeting, and afterwards formed Save Our Parks and Beaches. Meeting in Debbie's living room, the group began a grassroots effort to place a measure on the ballot that would protect beaches and parklands from development. They gathered 18,000 signatures in six months and placed Measure C on the ballot. Despite a venomous opposition campaign funded by out-of-town interests, Measure C passed by a three-to-one margin.

During the campaign, politicians, in a cynical attempt to bypass the will of Huntington Beach residents, tried to fast-track the beachfront development, approving it and sending it to a compliant California Coastal Commission.

Facing long odds, and stepping up to battle the entrenched interests of developers and unresponsive politicians, Debbie filed a lawsuit against the Coastal Commission. As it has thoughout her career, Debbie's persistence paid off and the lawsuit was settled, saving the beaches and parks from development.

At 37, urged on by her husband and by her desire to continue to make a difference in her community, Debbie went to law school, earning a degree from Western State University and joining the California bar in 1994.

Debbie then served as attorney for the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, and was instrumental in the efforts that saved the Bolsa Chica wetlands--and coastal wetlands throughout California--from development.

In 1996, the California Coastal Commission approved a plan to construct thousands of houses in the Bolsa Chica wetlands. The Bolsa Chica Land Trust sued the Coastal Commission in an effort to protect the 1,700 acres of wetlands, at the time the largest unprotected wetlands south of San Francisco.

The suit challenged the commission's approval of the construction of housing on coastal wetlands. The suit was successful at both at the local and appellate court level and resulted in a published opinion that protects coastal wetlands throughout California.

Guiding a City

Debbie was elected to the Huntington Beach City Council in 2000, and was reelected overwhelmingly in 2004. She currently serves as Huntington Beach's Mayor. On the Council, Debbie is recognized for her common sense, her commitment to fiscal responsibility and her willingness to go across party lines to find bipartisan solutions for Huntington Beach. She continues her active support for clean beaches, safe drinking water, parks, open space and the extraordinary habitat of Huntington Beach wetlands.

She helped lead the fight to prevent the Orange County Sanitation District from massive dumping of partially treated wastewater into the ocean, and educated her constituents on the environmental and fiscal folly of a proposed ocean desalination project. In 2007, she co-sponsored the proposal that led Huntington Beach to become one of only seven cities in Orange County to join the U.S. Mayor's Agreement on Global Warming.

Debbie is an internationally respected leader in the energy field, educating the public and policy makers about the risks and vulnerabilities from the inevitable peaking of global oil production and the resultant challenges for local government and its citizens. Debbie serves on the board of directors of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO-USA) and Post Carbon Institute. She has spoken about local government solutions to the energy gap across the U.S. and at the ASPO conference in Cork, Ireland.

Debbie is a regional leader and is serving on the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Regional Council. As Chair of the SCAG Energy and Environment Committee, she guided energy and transportation policies for all of Southern California that take into account the future scarcity of oil and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

She also has served as President of the Orange County Division of the League of California Cities, Chair of the League of California Cities Administrative Policy Committee and Chair of the Orange County Parks Commission.

Cook has ties across the 46th congressional district which stretches along the coast from Costa Mesa to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She has an honorary degree from Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa as a result of 25 years of volunteer work. While in her 20's she purchased her first home in Westminster and volunteered in the Fountain Valley schools and the Fountain Valley neighborhood watch program. She has been a resident of Orange County for more than forty years.