VOTE411 Voter Guide

The biggest three are:

1) Support of the road network especially in the unincorporated areas, 2) Waste water management primarily in northeast Johnson County, and 3) Stormwater management.

Aging infrastructure is an ongoing challenge and the county has worked with our sister communities and others to keep these systems robust and safe. Funding for roads and bridges comes from a variety of sources including gas tax, federal and state grants, and property taxes. As the use of electric vehicles increases, that revenue stream is threatened. I am in favor of finding alternate revenue streams to address that cost-shift burden.

Waste water management is designed to be a self-funding enterprise fund which leverages certain user fees and Federal/State funding resources. This is a well-established approach that places the funding burden on users and not general taxpayers. I believe this approach is appropriate and fair.

(Given arbitrary space limitations, please see next question.)

The Stormwater program is funded by a dedicated sales tax and coordinated with our sister communities.  I advanced and will continue to support floodplain management solutions over narrow municipal jurisdictional solutions.  As we all know, water flows downhill.  Upstream solutions are almost always more cost-effective than point-of-flooding remedies.

I'm not altogether certain what you're asking with this question.  If you are asking about the role of County government in economic development, I would suggest that the cities and their respective economic development apparatus are (and should be) the primary drivers of growth and development.  The County should work with those interests and be at the table especially when TIFs and other financing tools are being used.  Broad and diverse industries and activities should always be promoted to guard against narrow market volatility.  I think our area EcoDevo efforts do this fairly well, but would be open to other ideas and approaches. 

This is a difficult question to answer because it appears to be asking for one element.  County government is a large and complex player in many areas of our community.  Having said that, I would suggest that in terms of effectiveness, Med-Act (our ambulance services) is probably the most effective in terms of working with local Fire Departments, hospitals and other medical service providers to ensure timely and consistent services.  Their resuscitation and safe transport rates are, on the whole, the best in the Region and highly ranked nationally.  

I think the biggest infrastructure need is to expand and modernize wastewater/stormwater systems for high-growth areas. It is also the case that well-established areas have emergent upgrade needs. Wastewater/stormwater would have to be the most expensive and most ongoing need into the foreseeable future. In terms of financing, I favor financing programs that are focused on intergenerational equity. In essence, programs that do not disproportionately financially burden either the current generation or future generations but, smoothens-out the costs over a reasonable time horizon so current and future citizens each pay an equitable share. I believe Johnson County government has accessed WIFIA (Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act) funding which provides low interest financing for these types of projects. This will result in debt service costs that will have to be paid by fees and taxes. Properly financed, these costs can be reasonably affordable over time.

In most simplistic terms, the two biggest drivers of employment in Johnson County are incentives to move jobs to Johnson County and the ability of people to access those jobs. The biggest growth opportunities are in unincorporated areas which fall under the purview of county government. I would be amenable to reviewing the permitting process or other processes to ease undue burdens to development. One other consideration is the degree to which city and the county government collaborate on economic development initiatives. I have heard some concerns voiced that the cities and the county are competing for economic development projects. I think local governments have a duty to be as collaborative as is possible for the good of the tax-paying public. That way, developments do not over-burden the tax base. I think this is a concern that is worthy of a serious review and I think the county and cities need to work together to make sure incentives are appropriate and reasonable.

Looking at recent survey information from ETC Institute and considering the intersection of high satisfaction services and high importance services, I have to conclude that the county is most effective at delivering public safety services, especially MedAct and Emergency Preparedness (Notify JoCo). Both of these were top five in terms of both satisfaction and importance. Also of high importance is the Johnson County Sherriff’s office which had improved scores in 2025. I believe these will continue to improve over time. I laud the work of the new Sherriff of Jonson County to improve the agency and to address inefficiencies and outdated policies from the past. As a Commissioner, I will place the greatest level of concern and importance on public safety. Most citizens of Johnson County expect efficient and effective public safety services, including myself. While the county is doing very well in delivering public safety services, there is always room for improvement.