Trust in City Hall | Budget and Spending | Economic Growth
Rebuilding Trust in City Hall
The processes in the Walnut Creek City Council are broken. Due to many elections of handpicked candidates, we have a Council that has fallen into a pattern of groupthink that does not allow them to critically test, analyze, and evaluate ideas.
Additionally, the Council has either dismissed or ignored the concerns of the community, except if you are in agreement with their agenda. This disconnect with the community has resulted in a lack of trust from the people they are supposed to represent.
My philosophy will be to actively reach out to all neighborhoods and seek opinions and concerns. Listen, comprehend, reflect, then act: as your next Council member, that is what I will do to rebuild the community’s trust in City Hall.
Budget And Spending
The majority of the Council believes in spending as much money as it can without making the hard decisions necessary to protect the city's long term financial health. This is evident in their wide-spread spending over the past decades, including the current 2010-2012 budget that funds city niceties while simultaneously cutting back funding for our police department. The excessive spending has resulted in significant draw downs from our reserves to cover budget shortfalls.
My first act as your representative will be to request a bottom-up budget audit of each department to find waste in government spending, identify and adequately fund our highest priority services, and make cuts in non-essential programs. Together we can reduce the cost of our government. Our challenge will be to lower costs without harming vital services or our quality of life. To do this, I will treat every tax dollar as I do my own - with respect for its scarcity and the need to maximize the value of every dollar.
Responsible Economic Growth
Our downtown area is one thing that makes our city unique. It provides the flavor of San Francisco Bay Area without the hassles and troubles inherent with large cities. It also provides a significant amount of tax revenue to our city. However, as the economy continues to slow, commercial property vacancies rise, and tax revenue declines, we need to revise our economic growth priorities in order to provide vital social services today and protect the long-term financial health of our city.
As your next Councilman, I will push to review the costs of all current and proposed growth measures and projects and balance them against the demands of our society. We cannot allow possible future tax dollars to prevent us from providing vital services today.
