Issues/Platform

Please reach out to me to discuss any or all of my priorities!

Public Safety

It is the paramount duty of any government or municipality to ensure all community member's safety. I believe strongly that our Police Department, Fire Department/EMS and our Public Works Department need to have the personnel, training and tools to do their jobs of ensuring our safety and their own.

Without a responsible safety initiative in the city, people are at risk to bodily harm and property crimes. This I will not allow. Of late there are national calls for "defunding the police". I do not hold that opinion. I am of the opinion that our homelessness issues need to be taken care of on a regional scale with well thought out plans and funding and that the opiate crisis be handled the same. That funding does not come from the Police Department budget.

Fiscal Responsibility

There is no greater responsibility for our city leaders than to be fiscally responsible with the public's funds. You pay your taxes and expect those taxes to be used in a beneficial way for the community. I take this responsibility very seriously. We are experiencing growth in a fast and furious manner and have for the past several years. With that growth comes challenges. Infrastructure challenges such as our transportation system and our open space/parks. I have been very diligent in making the right decisions about what projects to fund and where new staff hires are made. Your tax dollars are what fund those projects and staff. Whether the funds come to us directly in the form of property tax or sales tax; or indirectly through government grants - it's ultimately your tax dollars that pay for it. I ensure that we do that to your benefit in a responsible manner.

Transportation & Infrastructure

Transportation is by far the most visible infrastructure challenge that our city faces. I have been involved with this challenge from the first month on City Council. I have joined most of the transportation committees and policy boards in the region. Form the Puget Sound Regional Council's (PSRC) Transportation Policy Board, to the Community Transit Board of Directors where I currently serve as secretary of the board. I attend Snohomish County Committee for Improved Transportation (SCCIT) and have served on several other transportation committees. I was instrumental in getting the funding for the Highway 9/204 Intersection improvements in 2015 in the Connecting Washington Legislation. And I have been working very hard with other public officials at both the local, county, state, and federal level to get funding to FIX THE TRESTLE! I have gone out of the way to ensure that Lake Stevens is at the table for transportation funding negotiations.

Another Infrastructure challenge for our city is broadband access and bandwidth. This is more than evident by the difficulties faced by most of you during the pandemic. I am searching out ways along with the Mayor and council of addressing this issue.

Parks & Recreation

Our city is growing at a phenomenal rate. Some of the housing being built is not conducive to having any recreation at the home. Opportunities for varied recreational opportunities are a function of the city. I believe that the investments we make in Parks, Recreational Facilities and Open Space are important to the wellbeing of our community. I will do my very best to improve upon what has already been accomplished in the past 12 years.

Growth and Economic Development

As stated - we are growing at a rapid rate. There are many reasons for this. great schools, good recreational opportunities, used to be good housing prices and market. The latter has changed of late. Part of the growth is from people escaping from conditions worse than here and making life changes for their own reasons. All of that comes down to growth. It is how we handle the growth that is the challenge. I will not go into the Growth Management Act and all that entails here. If you want to discuss it, reach out to me. But I will say that growth is inevitable, I have been involved in it from the beginning and we need the growth in the private housing sector to enable us to have good economic growth in our city for our community. I still endeavor to ensure that the growth is done in a well thought out manner and with an eye toward infrastructure to support the growth.