My three priorities...plus one.

By Kimbley Craig

Business development:

We've launched the beginnings of agriculture technology to diversify our job market here. It's a good way of "not reinventing the wheel," but rather expanding on what we do well. I'd like to continue the Steinbeck Innovation Cluster, which is teaching our children to code, putting ag tech education in our universities, encouraging entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, and then providing venture capital opportunities for them. North Salinas retail sales are important, too. I remain focused on a thriving economy.

Fiscal responsibility:

We've started to work on a new budget system called "Priority Based Budgeting." Essentially, each program the City has, is assigned a priority level. Everything from "false alarm monitoring" to the amount of officers we have in the Police Department are assigned a priority, and then given a corresponding dollar figure. I think it will be an outstanding way to manage and prioritize the $86 million budget. We've also cut pensions four times for firefighters, and three times for everyone else in the four years I've been on council. Every employee in the city is taking a 13 percent pay cut, and there have been no pay raises for five years.

Also, the expansion of the El Gabilan Library will make it five times the size it is, in an excellent public-private partnership with AllU.S. Credit Union. They're paying the 40-year lease in advance, which is allowing us to expand immediately.