| Why are you running for office? |
| Change priorities regarding infrastructure maintenance, drop unfunded capital improvement projects, improve access to government. |
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| What makes you qualified for this position? |
| I have followed city politics for years, I understand the impact of underfunding, self employed building contractor for years. Problem solver. Bottom line individual. |
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| What are the two hardest issues facing the candidate who wins the office you are running for? |
| The failing crib wall at $20MM or more with no funding, The 5 year capital improvement program that is underfunded by $140MM and the $65MM backlog of road repair. |
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| How do you plan to address the issue of inflation and its impacts on your constituents if elected? |
| Local government has little to no control over inflation but the local consumer is best helped by government living within their means and not pursuing higher taxes and fees to fund fanciful projects. Furthermore bureaucratic red tape needs to be studied and eliminated because it drives up building costs which exacerbates our lack of economically affordable housing. |
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| What major crime issues do you plan to address if elected and how? |
| We need more patrol officers in the city of Goleta. Its not major crime but we need to address the recklessness of e-bike riders through education, both for the riders and the drivers. |
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| How do you plan to address the issue of housing if elected? |
| The new state proposal for down payment assistance loans would be useful. There are those who could carry a mortgage but can not pay rent and still save money for the down. Another possibility is to put rent caps on ADUS and Bonus Density units. The idea of these units was to drive down rental costs, Too often it is just more market rate housing. The return needs to be spread out. If it doesn't pencil out, then it would not have helped the housing situation. However, I oppose market caps across the entire rental market, they tend to guarantee annual rent increases and discourage owners from investing in maintenance. Over the last twenty years, Goleta built enough units for our growth, the problem is they are not economically affordable units. High land costs, materials, and construction expense makes building affordable impossible unless there are subsidies. Big corporation need to do more to assist employee housing, whether that is bonuses or low interest short term loans of five years to help staff enter the market. |
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| What do you hope to accomplish in your first year in office if elected? |
| Review and drop unfunded capital improvement projects, Use that money to address the shortfall in roads, sidewalks and bikeway maintenance. |
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| What actions do you plan to take to reduce political divide? |
| I am running as no preferred party because local politics would ideally be non-partisan. I am aiming for the center of the road. There are people from the right and the left who can agree on the basics of budget and infrastructure maintenance. |
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