Campaign Phone
4062392240
Missoula County School Board
Missoula City Council
The job of a City Council Member is to help make positive political change that our community can truly see and feel. We act as a bridge between Missoulians and the City of Missoula government to help constituents receive government services, communication, and help create policy changes.
I believe that the government's job is to actually make our lives better. Being an excellent City Council Member requires being hungry for making positive change. On City Council, I have introduced and passed more policy changes than any other city council member with a focus on safe transportation, affordable housing, and environmental protection.
The biggest concern for residents of my ward is the higher cost of living from higher costs of housing and property taxes on everyday Missoulians.
I have been working to alleviate these issues by passing policies to help with the higher cost of housing such as changing zoning and building codes to make it easier to build tiny homes and allowing for an abundance of housing, pumping more money into our Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and pass policies that ensure truly affordable, below market rate housing.
I believe the wealthiest in our society need to pay their fair share and less of a burden on our neighbors. I have introduced policies to increase transparency, prevent handouts to corporations, and ensure we're meeting community needs.
The cost of living is pushing out our friends and family and fundamentally changing the community that we all love in Missoula.
The City Council must do more to address this issue. Some things that I have worked on include: getting more money into our Affordable Housing Trust Fund to build truly affordable housing, reforming Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to ensure it goes towards community needs and not corporate handouts, addressing homelessness with shelter, housing, and resources, limiting vacation rentals taking up our homes by classifying them as commercial not residential, ensuring childcare in publicly involved developments, and changing the city budget to ensure our tax dollars are going to the right places.
We must first provide basic services like emergency response, transportation infrastructure for our streets, sidewalks, bicycle/pedestrian paths, and parks.
I believe we need to handle homelessness upstream by investing more in providing enough shelter spaces for the most vulnerable members of our community and programs that allow for pathways out of homelessness, rather than the current trajectory of closing shelters and adding to criminal system.
We must change the way we use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to require below market rate, truly affordable housing in every housing project that uses city tax dollars, not use tax dollars on unaffordable, new market rate housing projects. The City Council must make more budget amendments.
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Campaign Phone
3144354592
The job of a ward rep is to look out for the interests of their constituents and the community as a whole. An excellent city council member has cognitive empathy and an ability to compromise.
Keeping associated costs with housing to a minimum. I plan to improve their quality of life by working to reduce any and all financial burdens that I can within the government structure of the city.
They are burdened. One homeowner sold his home to an individual to rent it back so he could afford to stay there. I want to eliminate the current requirement for homeowners to be financially responsible for civic infrastructure improvements and installations in front of their properties. We also need to stop giving TIF money away to corporations and reinvest it into the areas of the community in need and lacking important infrastructure needed for safety and connectivity.
We need to do annual audits to reassess spending and make sure it is being spent wisely and responsibly. It’s about needs first and wants second. We need to make sure all expenditures are benefiting the community as a WHOLE
Campaign Phone
4062408977
A city councilor collaborates, connects and is a liaison between the city and the citizens of Missoula. At the center of my service on council has been bringing underrepresented voices to the tables of power. I’ve worked to elevate those voices at every possible turn. My working-class background created in me a strong work ethic and made me want to be a voice for my community. I learned early that to get things done I had to listen to people, build trust and negotiate, even (and especially) with people I don’t always agree with. I’ve done all of those things as a city councilor and I’ve been a thoughtful contributor. As I move to one a new ward this summer, I want to continue to to continue to work for my neighbors and elevate their voices.
Residents in ward three are concerned about property taxes, growth and Missoula's housing crisis. I will continue to work with our mayor to advocate for meaningful property tax relief at the state level. Some folks in my ward are being taxed out of their homes and, after a lifetime of hard work, that seems unfair. Missoula is growing, our rents are high and home prices are even higher. It is hard for families to live here. Our housing crisis is multi-pronged with increasing property taxes and lack of supply combined with affordability and houselessness. I will fight for a Missoula where everyone can live and thrive by addressing supply, taxes, affordability and by working with staff and the mayor on a comprehensive houselessness strategy.
Current federal policies threaten to dismantle democracy. These are scary times. From job cuts to funding cuts there are so many opportunities to worry. These economic changes affect all of us. Increases in the price of food, gas and basic healthcare mean Montana's families have evermore limited and stretched resources. When I was growing up, some of my family members survived on what we then called food stamps. Medicaid was the only option for health insurance and Head Start was daycare. These programs are still an absolute necessity for Montanans. When it comes to addressing economic shifts and cost of living increases, we have to push our electeds to do the right thing. And if they don't, we have to organize to protect our neighbors.
The best uses of the city's portion of property taxes is for services and infrastructure for Missoula's residents. This is largely what we fund at the city. But the city's cut of property taxes is less than most people think. Our property tax bills are complicated and even more complicated is how the state decides how much each city receives. We can adjust how the city allocates property tax dollars but a better use of time would be to lobby our state delegation in the legislature to pass meaningful property tax reform for all of the citizens of Montana. Until Montana passes tax reform, municipalities will have very little room to adjust without cutting services for our residents.
Job of the City Council member is to represent the expressed interests of the people within the ward the council member represents. Qualities should include open-mindedness, accountability, and a willingness to explore all sides of an issue.
Increasing property taxes and quality of life issues such as the increasing homeless population represent the interests I believe are the greatest concerns to the residents of ward 3 and Missoula in general.
A representative of a small ward in a small city doesn't have the weight to influence the cost of living or the larger economy. However, what can be influenced is the local expenditures and stewardship of financial resources.
The best uses are determined on an as-they-come basis..clearly all uses are different and some may be more necessary than others. Someone needs to ask the hard questions - 'Do we really need this?', 'How will we pay for it?', 'Who will pay for it?'
