Town of Cary Council

COUNCIL MEMBER PROFILE

Name	Ervin F. Portman
Street Address	101 Fern Bluff Way, Cary NC 27511 NOTE: All mail for Town-related business should be sent to the mailing address below
District	At-Large

CONTACT INFORMATION

Mailing Address	c/o Town of Cary, P.O. Box 8005, Cary, NC 27512-8005
Phone	office (919) 557-2820; home (919) 233-8551
Fax	(919) 557-8383
Email	ervin.portman@townofcary.org

VITAL STATISTICS

Place of Birth	Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Date of Birth	1955
Other placed (cities) lived	Cincinnatti, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Valencia, California; San Juan Puerto Rico; and Buffalo Grove, Illinois

Number of Years as Cary Resident	Since 1992
Number of terms served on Town Council (including current)	First appointed term began February 22, 2007 First elected term began December 2007
Expiration Date of current term	2011
Other political offices and/or appointments held, now or in the past	Member, Cary Planning and Zoning Board; Chair, Town Center Review Commission; Member, Mayors’ Task force on Student Assignment; Member, Wake County Public Schools - Healthy Schools Task Force; Member, Planning and Zoning Board of Oshkosh and Two Rivers Wisconsin
Current Employer	WestStar Precision Inc
Current Occupation	President
Number of years in current job or current line of work	Since 1996
Other occupations or previous employers of interest	President, Pilling Weck, a Division of Teleflex, Research Triangle Park (1992-1996) Baxter Healthcare, various positions in Manufacturing management, including Plant Manager, Director and VP level positions (1978-1992)

EDUCATION

Highest grade completed	College
Degree(s) obtained	Bachelors Degree
School(s) attended	University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
Primary areas of study	Urban and Regional Studies

PERSONAL

Marital Status	Married to Susan
Number of children	4 daughters
Number of grandchildren	4
Church, religious denomination	Catholic, member of St. Michaels, Cary
Current Charitable Work, Association(s)	Volunteer for Youth Ministry, Diocese of Raleigh – Search retreat program for high school youth Former member and Vice chair of the Board of Directors for Wave, Inc. ( a Washington DC, non profit working to keep at risk teens in High school)
Current Party Affiliation	Democrat

AWARDS, HONORS, RECOGNITIONS

Professional/Occupational

US Patent holder for solids separation device patent number 6,913,689 issued July 5, 2005

Growing up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin as the seventh of eight children in a strong, middle-class family, Erv Portman met and married his lovely wife Susan and completed his university education in urban and regional planning. During his 22 years in the town of 50,000, he gained an appreciation for effective communications, differing viewpoints, challenging the status quo, and the value of service.

To Erv, everyone has an opportunity every day to make a difference in the world by understanding their talents and finding a way to share them with their community.

He brought his family to Cary in 1992 after living throughout the United States while he worked in the healthcare industry. And despite his travels, Erv has always found ways to help build his local community. For over 10 years, he and his wife have facilitated a teen peer ministry retreat that brings high school students together to understand and grow in their faith. During this same period, Erv has served on Cary’s Planning and Zoning Board and Town Center Review Commission as well as the Mayors’ Task Force on School Assignment.

With his extensive international business experience in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and the former Soviet Union, Erv decided to start his own business in 1996 and founded Weststar Precision Inc, a Triangle contract manufacturing company that specializes in rapid prototype and high volume production of Precision components for industries globally.

As an entrepreneur, Erv works hard to create good jobs in his business, to identify new and innovative ways to serve his existing and new customers, and in so doing, he builds his team and our collective community.

As an At-Large Town Council member since 2007, Erv Portman is focused on keeping Cary a beautiful place to live, work, and raise a family—a community on the leading edge with innovative facilities and an innovative philosophy—a community with a high quality of life that welcomes newcomers who want to share what Cary has to offer.

In his Council role, Erv is committed to managing growth, ensuring responsible use of tax dollars, supporting responsive and cost-effective government services, promoting regional cooperation, and preserving individual rights by allowing restrictions only when there’s a clear and compelling public need.

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