VOTE411 Voter Guide

The city’s $2.2 million budget deficit projected for the year 2027. Thankfully, the city has publicly and proactively brought attention to this to give the city and community a longer timeline to address it together. A big priority for me is to make sure we use that time wisely to involve the public, hearing new ideas, and exploring options. We have had difficult budgets in the past, and I have experience passing six balanced budgets between 2018-2024, when I served two terms on the Eau Claire City Council representing District 3. Ultimately, we need to open up the budget process for robust public input on priorities, and create greater community understanding of where our money is already going, and why. We need to improve outreach, communication, and transparency to balance this budget.

Housing is an issue that has persisted as a problem, because we are an attractive and growing city. While the state doesn’t give communities much local control to address it, and budgets are limited, when I was on the City Council we created a Housing Opportunities Commission, and an affordable housing fund, so that the city could take up the issue directly. We have a huge role to play to facilitate and be a partner to achieve affordable housing both in new construction and in keeping existing housing affordable through energy efficiency and home improvements. The Housing Our Neighbors Planning Collaborative has developed a solid approach to tackling this issue, and has a plan to help people experiencing homelessness get into housing and stay in housing. The city needs to support it.

Community engagement and communication are always something that the city can improve upon, to help the City Council make the best possible decisions for our community. I think the city always needs to work harder on getting out ahead of issues, so as Council President I would plan to hold roundtable discussions in the community around particular issues we know we need to tackle in the future, and open up lines of communication and dialog as early as possible. I also plan to hold office hours as Council President, held at different times of day in different locations (and sometimes virtual), so people have greater access to their local government. I think this is important because public input and people power is how we can solve a whole host of problems, and reflect community ambitions.

My top area of concern with our budget is that the State of Wisconsin does not return our tax dollars to communities equitably, and our city in particular is not treated fairly. I will work with the state legislature and the Governor to address this, and help get people in our community involved and organized to tackle this challenge with the state. While we were able to make some progress when I was on the City Council, we need significantly more funding from the state for our city, our county, and public schools in order to reduce reliance on property taxes. Another top budget priority for me is making it easier for individuals, non-profits, neighborhood associations, and businesses to donate and write grants to improve city amenities, whether that be parks and trails, or the library.

A nonpartisan approach to the City's collaboration and relationships with its public and private sector partners, including other local governments. We must take advantage of the value the Chippewa Valley places on collaboration to fuel the innovation needed to address our financial challenges and leverage our community’s strengths. By using these strategies, we must continue to ensure that Eau Claire is a welcoming community. The city must implement forward-thinking, responsible strategies to achieve continued social and economic growth while maintaining a positive quality of life for its residents.

Housing Supply and Affordability. The City has an important role to play in helping to make housing available and attainable at all income levels. It must ensure that its own housing-related initiatives are effective, and that its regulations don’t negatively impact the ability to provide the homes people need. Housing is a critical aspect of addressing homelessness as part of a coordinated strategy to make it rare, brief, and non-recurring. During recent years, I've been fully engaged in this work through the Chippewa Valley Housing Task Force, City of EC Housing Opportunities Commission, Housing Our Neighbors Collaborative, and engaging in the recent zoning code rewrite.

The City must address its budget challenges with its eyes wide open. Just like housing, grocery, energy and other costs, government needs to be affordable to its residents and we've probably reached the limit of what it can ask of its residents in increased taxes and fees. Despite an inequitable state revenue sharing formula, the City must leverage the resources it actually has. This means prioritizing the most essential services and those that provide a clear return on investment. This will require a top-to-bottom review of all of the City’s commitments, and innovation with partners to find savings and sources of increased revenue. The City should look at successful concepts in other peer cities like outcome-based budgeting and priority-based budgeting.

1. Apply a comprehensive review of all city priorities to find the 1.1% savings needed to balance the budget, with robust public engagement. 2. Ensure that the City's budget can continue to maintain essential services while creatively addressing housing supply/affordability and achieving a return-on-investment for its economic development activities.