Candidate for
Council Member; City of Sonoma

Priorities

1.Budget-The State of California in 2012 removed from their budget funds that would have been allocated for local redevelopment. This had a direct affect on the city of Sonoma's budget and redevelopment needs. Since then the residents of Sonoma has passed Measure J, a sales tax increase of 0.5 percent , which will help bring more revenue to the city's budget.

Our local government will become more important than in the past and as an elected official of the council I will help in making sure that we use these funds to better our residents and the city of Sonoma.

2.Water- Most of the water that comes to Sonoma is from an aqueduct directly from the Russian River. Even though we have some wells in Sonoma that add to this supply. We rely mainly on the aqueduct.

In the future Sonoma needs to find new technologies to enable us to conserve and collect our most precious commodity. As a councilman, I will look into more rain water harvesting methods that can be used for landscaping purposes, maintain new developments to use more water conservation and look at ways to enhance our storage capibilities.

3.Parks and Recreation- Sonoma has partnered with many non-profits who support local youth and adult activities. During the economical downturn these monies to the non-profits have been cut in order to balance the budget.

If elected I will try to find ways for the non-profits to come together and enhance this issue. I would like to see a city website that contains all the information about youth activities. This website could be maintained by a local non-profit. By partnering with non-profits and businesses a parks and recreation department could be an extension of our city's services without costing the city any more money.