Tobin Brinker was elected in a special election in November 2006 to fill a vacancy when his predecessor moved away. Mr. Brinker was reelected in 2007 for a complete four-year term. Mr. Brinker previously served one term as a Colton School Board Member from 2001-2005. He has served on the Colton Joint Unified School District Bond Oversight Committee. He was also the PTA President at Terrace Hills Middle School.
Brinker moved to the Inland Empire when he was 8 years old. His father was stationed at Norton Air Force Base. He graduated from Colton High School in 1986 and attended San Bernardino Valley College where he earned an Associate of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies. He went on to graduate from Cal State San Bernardino with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science.
Tobin met his wife, Erin at Cal State. They are married with two children and have lived in the Third Ward since 1998. Both Councilman Brinker and his wife were foreign exchange students when they were in high school. They are still actively involved with the American Field Service Foreign Exchange Program. They have hosted students from Columbia, Panama, Bolivia, China, Venezuela, Hong Kong and Austria. Brinker works as a middle school history teacher in the Rialto School District at Frisbie Middle School.
Councilman Brinker was recently selected by his colleagues to be Mayor pro-tempore for 2010-2011. As Mayor pro-tempore Mr. Brinker is charged with making all council committee assignments and filling in when Mayor Patrick Morris is unavailable.
Councilman Brinker's current committee assignments are:
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RDA committee- deals with economic development issues
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Education Bridge committee- a joint committee of city council and school board representatives that work to address critical overlapping issues between the city and the schools.
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Police Ad-Hoc committee- focus on issues of crime reduction
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IVDA/ SBIAA- these committees are appointed by the mayor and involve the redevelopment of the San Bernardino International Airport.
