Watch COAR's video of me, posted October 21st, 2022, discussing the biggest challenges I believe Redmond faces, housing affordability & availability, infrastructure, growth, and my priorities for my first 60 days in office.
The Issues We Face
& the results I'm reaching for
Education
With twins that started school under the stresses and limitations of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I am acutely aware of the issues that parents have been facing. We only have one chance to get our kids prepared to enter the world with the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed. We can not let political ideology of either side spoil their shot at living the American dream. Our fundamental responsibility as parents is to prepare our children to think for themselves and to learn from our mistakes so they are not doomed to repeat them. I am also aware of the pressures that school staff, administrators and teachers face. These are people that have dedicated theirs lives to our children and we must support them.
My daughter's first day of preschool
Snow & Wildfires
My boy's first real snowfall in his
own backyard
With reduced snow falls and hotter, longer fire seasons, we have to work to ensure that we protect our public lands, homes and businesses. This takes a whole of government approach, we need to balance our need to grow while controlling budgets and resources. Redmond needs to maintain a strong and robust fire protection plan in coordination with county, state and federal agencies to protect our lands and properties. We need to work with developers of commercial and residential lands to reduce water demand and increase defendable space.
Water
Central Oregon has a proud history of ranchers and farmers. Both are finding wells dry and growing costs making it difficult to survive. Increasing industrial needs and a booming residential demand means ever growing strain on a limited supply. Local leaders have a responsibility to ensure that we will be able to maintain access and affordability to this most precious resource. This will require both dedicated city management and planning. It will also require advocacy in Salem from the strong voice of a unified city and county government. In Michigan and in California we have seen the results of plans that fail to balance access, safety, and cost. The results of these failures have been devastating to entire communities and some children will have to live the consequences for a life time. We must do better for our kids.
Finances
My day job and how it helps
The majority of my work life has been in finance. I started off in the Army, where I served as the finance team lead for what was, at that time, the largest battalion in the 82nd Airborne division and 3rd largest in the US Army. My experience in DOD budgets and payroll led me to a career in finance and banking. I have worked as a lender for consumer and small business, an underwriter, and a branch manager. I understand how money moves and what risk looks like. Most importantly, I understand how hard people have to work to earn their money. My years in working with hundreds of families in Redmond and Central Oregon have taught me how to find a good deal in a bad situation, as well as the dangers of throwing good money after bad. I plan to bring my years of fiscal risk management and out of the box thinking to the City Council.
City Parks & Family Friendly Locations
Redmond has a well earned reputation of great community parks. My family has taken advantage of them for twenty years. Parks alone however, are not enough for a city of our size. We need more options and we can have a more family friendly city. Our community pool is decades past is prime and it is far to small to serve our population. I support a responsible bond measure for RAPD to construct a new facility that will better meet our needs. If elected to city council I will also work to build public and private partnerships to bring more family recreation to Redmond. I will also support a stronger and more inclusive senior center. We can work to support new and existing small businesses that bring these venues home and keep our entertainment dollars here.
A few of our other issues & my stance...
(Sans cute photos of my kids)
The growing homeless issue
While it is nice to see long time members of the city council finally taking notice of this issue, it took the city actually catching fire to get them off the bench. While the problem has gotten worse we have known it was growing for years and some members of the city council have ignored the issue or worse said publicly that we can't do anything about it and blamed others. I believe that we work together with all parties and at all levels of government to find safe and responsible answers to this ever present issue. We also need to acknowledge that tents and RVs are not the only mark of the homeless. We have kids couch surfing in our schools. we have families living in cars that just need a break. These folks did not come from someplace else they are our friends, neighbors and co-workers that just took a bad hit and need a hand up to get back into the game.
Police funding into the future
Redmond is safe place to live and have a family. Beyond a strong and professional police force we owe this to our community involvement. I support the proposed bond measure to build a long overdue community safety building. I am however not a fan of the price tag attached. It went from 25 million to 49 and I bet with out strong leadership it would have kept going. I applaud Councilor Fitch and his hard work to secure a spending cap on the facility. We have a forthcoming bond and plan, now the hard work begins. My time in the military and in business has taught me that if you don't keep on eye on spending, cost overruns will kill an otherwise responsible project. We need strong oversight to ensure that we get what we pay for and only pay for what we get.
Marijuana Dispensaries
Marijuana is a controversial issue and passions run deep on this. There are arguments that I support pro and con. For me personally I don't use it and my wife and I don't allow it in the home. That is our personal choice, and I stand behind it. People often make an income based argument for it but this to me falls flat. The income that cites see has been dramatically cut by recent laws out of Salem that capture most of this revenue for a largely ill defined support for mental heath and drug abuse treatment system.
Arguments that it leads to more crime have not born out to be true and most police have greater issues with alcoholics than pot heads.
Bottom line for me, that I don't like it is not a reason to make it illegal or ban a legal business from our city. I am open to reviewing the permitting of dispensaries, provided it is done correctly and with all necessary safety precautions with regard to location and responsible local ownership.
KPOV: The Friday Point Interview
On February11th, I was privileged to be interviewed by Steve and Paula Schaffer for The Friday Point, a popular radio series on The Point KPOV, High Desert Community Radio. Click the button below or the photo of the microphone to give it a listen.
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