Candidate for
Member of Council; City of Cincinnati

ISSUES AGENDA

I am running for City Council to create a thriving Cincinnati for all. These are some of the ways we can achieve it:

Support Public Education: I attended public schools growing up, and I am a staunch supporter of quality public school education. My son is a student in Cincinnati Public Schools, and so I understand first-hand the importance of our schools and their impact on attracting residents to our city. I will work to promote collaboration between city council, the school board, and our neighborhoods on the important issues that we share such as graduation rates, bus transportation, neighborhood schools, and reaching the full potential of our community-based learning centers.

Attract and Retain Residents: Cincinnati must continue to build up our reputation as an exciting, innovative, diverse, affordable, and beautiful place to live. I started working at City Hall when the Green Cincinnati Plan was first approved. I am proud to have helped staff the initiative to promote community gardens on vacant city lots-this work led to important updates to our zoning code that helped encourage urban agriculture, and brought stimulus dollars to train a new generation of urban farmers on how to make a living as food producers. Cincinnati thrives when there is progressive leadership and positive outreach from City Hall. I will bring the political will for a thriving Cincinnati for all to city council. This leadership-coupled with engaged neighborhood stakeholders- is the formula to achieve successful community-building initiatives.

Increase Family-Supporting Jobs: I worked for years with individuals who wanted not just a job for themselves and to support their families, but they wanted the opportunity for a career. Supporting workforce development and training opportunities can help this become a reality. We can do better to ensure that local residents know about and take advantage of the job opportunities created by city-funded projects. I support infrastructure investment; we need to update our sewers, fix our roads, and invest in capital improvements to keep our City safe and our property values competitive. Attracting and supporting small businesses increases local economic activity, including job creation. We need to create more incentives for business to come and stay in Cincinnati. These and many more job-creating policies can help contribute to a thriving and inclusive local economy.

Collective Bargaining Rights and Protecting Working Families: I will oppose efforts to balance government books on the backs of working families by taking away the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Cutting into the pay and benefits of public employees hurts not only those employees and their families but our local businesses. I will bring my experience of labor-management relations to City Hall.

Ensure Affordable Housing For All: I feel strongly that serving on City Council means I serve all the residents of Cincinnati. Over the years working as a social worker, throughout our city, I saw first-hand the realities of finding affordable, fair, and accessible housing. Adequate affordable housing remains a challenge for Cincinnati. Among the factors contributing to the problem are regulatory barriers, "not in my backyard" sentiments, and the loss of existing affordable housing units to redevelopment. Where financial incentives or developmental requirements can be used effectively, we should make every effort to increase the amount of affordable housing in our city. We need to fight to prevent foreclosures and hold big banks accountable by requiring them to pay to fix blighted, abandoned and vacant properties when they are responsible for them. We need to increase access to legal help to fight foreclosures and unjust evictions.

Safe and Thriving Neighborhoods: We need to support our community councils and other neighborhood groups who work hard to foster a positive interaction between citizens and our police force. We can educate citizens about the standards of conduct in our city ordinances that address dangerous behavior, to help empower them as they fight for safe neighborhoods. We need to support our neighborhoods' business districts, and find creative solutions to address vacant houses and storefronts. Safeguarding police, fire, and public services, and expanding our public safety network to me is a priority. I am proud to have contributed during the formative stages of CeaseFire Cincinnati while working at City Hall. Over the years I continued to support the effort by attending vigils and rallies for those who died from gun violence in our streets, and was glad to see the volunteer effort later become a program funded by the city-Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV). I feel strongly that we need to support re-entry programs for our returning citizens, and support programs for youth. Prevention is always cheaper than the price we all pay when our communities experience gun violence.