VOTE411 Voter Guide

I want a thorough analysis of the expenses completed. I'm appreciative of what the city has provided to the public in regard to their budget documents and would like to see areas where expenses could be improved. The city has land and buildings that could recoup greater amounts of revenue such as Riverfront Park. This is one area that with the assistance of the event personnel could have even greater revenue if contracted with a promoter, thus the revenue stream has the potential to be greater than current estimates based primarily on rentals, contracted events, etc.

The biggest challenges are the homeless, budget constraints, and violence. To address the budget constraints, I believe public safety (i.e police, fire, emergency personnel) should be fully funded from a financial perspective. The city cannot sustain paying millions in overtime every fiscal year and this will only increase if more vacant positions for public safety are removed. For the homeless and violence my suggestion is also from a similar financial perspective it is much more cost effective to implement prevention rather than intervention. We should work alongside Marion County, and community-based organizations to address the root causes as which opens up avenues for braided funding, a more sustainable method.

I applaud the current city councilors for their efforts to increase affordable housing within the city. For those that currently live in Salem, housing can be affordable depending on a few different factors. These include renting vs. buying, credit score, occupation, and budget. I've spoken to multiple residents that have inherited homes with some stating they wouldn't have a single-family dwelling otherwise. The city needs more townhouses so that there is a mechanism for upward mobility which may help increase home values particularly in the northern area of Salem which has continued to have many apartments built downtown and along the northern part of Lancaster Dr. Luckily this is part of the housing production strategy and I look forward

We need to work with members of the state delegation to fill in the budget deficit with appropriate funding from the State of Oregon. This includes: Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for state-owned property that utilize City of Salem services; funding for critical services for people experiencing homelessness that has fallen on Salem to provide; other creative measures that address our broken property tax revenue system. Salem has been behind other major cities in Oregon for decades because of how measures 5 and 50 were implemented. Eugene, for example, has nearly 1,000 more municipal employees than Salem despite being the same size. We need to work with our delegation to level the playing field.

Nearly every challenge Salem faces is also a budget challenge. The failed Payroll Tax measure demonstrated that people want a voice in the solutions adopted by the city, but we have run out of time. By law, Salem must balance the budget every year. There are not many good options available for this year or next.

People feeling safe and welcome in our city is an important priority and challenge. For me, this certainly includes vigorously addressing ongoing epidemics of drug abuse/addiction and gun violence, but also how safe our streets are for walking, biking, and driving. The city plays a vital role with police/fire/EMS, but we also need to have a long-term vision for safety in our community that is broader than just the city.

Housing affordability is a major issue for everyone in Salem. We need more housing units, from studio apartments to single-family homes and everything in between. Salem has had recent success, having built more apartment units in the last few years than any other city in Oregon. I'm especially excited about what that means for Downtown. However, we need to add units across the whole of our housing stock. I think that means building responsibly and sustainably within our current Urban Growth Boundary. The governor's housing bill, which offers a small UGB expansion, should also be given a hard look if we can ensure the growth is well-connected and not mindless sprawl that makes existing problems worse.