Professional and Community Work:

Jay has worked as a carpenter for his entire career, mostly right here in Contra Costa County. He also spends much of his time giving back to the community, including past work with Habitat for Humanity in Spokane Washington, and as a board member of Mother Brown’s Dining Room and Homeless Shelter in the Bayview, San Francisco.

He currently serves on the board of Loaves and Fishes, as well as the Martinez Historical Society where he helped lead efforts to re-floor and paint the building. He is also the leading director of the “Carpenters Who Care” program.

In Jay’s current position as a Senior Superintendent for G Swanson Construction, he remodels Bank of America branches all over the Bay Area. He also serves as a board member for Nor Cal Carpenters Union, and a representative on the Carpenters Local Union 152 Executive Committee. His long involvement with the Carpenters and his record of volunteer work and community leadership have provided him strong team-building, communication, and efficiency skills.

He now wants to bring these experiences to bear as a member of the Martinez City Council.

Personal Life:

Jay grew up on a small ranch in the Alhambra Valley where his grandparents, Dessie and Glenn Dashiell, raised chickens and his mom, a single parent, boarded horses and raised Jay and his siblings. As a child he spent hours running in the Alhambra Valley hills with his two dogs, where he developed his love of the Martinez open space and hills.

He now lives downtown with his wife Traci Storr-Howard, who works as an Project Office Manager for a construction company, and their dog Hitch. Jay has two grown children, son Justin, who works as journeyman carpenter and serves on the executive committee of Local 152, alongside his dad, and daughter Sierra who studies molecular biology at UC Irvine.