Campaign Phone
7189139975
During my time on the council (2021-2024) I witnesses numerous failed and potentially unlawful processes and practices. I’m running to draw attention to the fact that current elected officials are operating outside of their mandate, duties, and state statutes. We have a failed affordable housing program and we’re not getting the housing the community needs. I warned the elected bodies during my term that the 90 Virginian Ln project was improper—my vocalized concerns and protests from other developers were ignored outright. I know with certainty the process was highly unusual, and dare I say, corrupted: eg private meetings between officials and developer; housing dept outsourcing expertise to developer, and more. It’s been going on 10 yrs.
Definition: there’s a healthy balance of working class, and middle class. We can’t stop the impacts of runaway wealth but we can try and fortify who’s here through policy, smart budgeting, and aware elected officials. If lawmakers understood their jobs, we could help minimize taxes that disproportionately impact the working people—which means plentiful affordable opportunities for folks to take part in community events, time with friends and family, safe and cared for children, quality and predictable services, and a reputable and reliable newspaper that the people could trust—not a monopoly on the media. All of that equals a vibrant and livable city.
My budget priorities wouldn’t change. They have been to hire a municipal finance expert—it’s the lowest hanging fruit and it’s the one thing the officials have refused to acknowledge they need, in fact going as far as voting against it when I proposed it. This is the ONLY option—anything else seems criminal. The school district will suffer the most, which furthers my commitment to fund essential health and human services. The greater the strain on our community the greater the need for health and human services. Most governments provide these services. HHS do the heavy lifting for our community. And, when it comes to an increase in child suicide or substance abuse community-wide there’s no excuse to not fund something like TYFS.
Repeal the property tax added by the town. Aside from that, our town attorney has been actively and systematically reviewing and presenting ordinances to the council for their review.
Another related item is looking at all of our contracts and procurement processes and establishing very clear procurement policies that enforce proper procedures such as clearly and strictly prohibiting contact between elected officials and private developers during open negotiations, firm criteria that doesn’t change post submission deadlines such as zoning, affordability tiers, and unit numbers.
Council has historically failed to bake protections into town agreements with private parties or other gov institutions. They’ve been irresponsible and naive.
Fix the process to put housing projects together. Historically the town and county have cut so many corners that it triples time and $ it should take to get a project on the ground. It might seem like an unimportant detail to folks but it’s resulted in countless overly expensive housing projects that are NOT affordable. We lean so heavily on “workforce” housing that is effectively market rate and tied to local employment NOT income.
We need to do solid research on how these projects impact the local residents overall, the tax base (budget relevant) and reassess if we’re actually hurting the community and cementing into an permanent haves and have nots, wealth and poor and no middle class. These need to be addressed before we double down.
Campaign Phone
307-264-2430
I'm running for office because I love Jackson. I love the opportunities it's given me, and the life it gave my family. I come from Baltimore, Maryland and grew to love the small town and western culture. I'm worried that the direction we're heading and the development and influence coming into town are fundamentally changing what this place is and will be. I want future generations to see what many of us have experienced growing up in Jackson. I live in affordable housing, I work a local hourly job, I jump back and forth between work and kids and sometimes second jobs. I'm your average Jackson Hole worker. I spend all my time around others who are in the same boat and feel I've gathered a great perspective that will best serve our community
A vibrant city builds on the features that makes it unique. It celebrates the culture that defines it. For me, it is the people who carry the spirit of the West that make Jackson vibrant, those who are excited to be here, those are happy to share with others about what an amazing place it is. It should be organic and genuine.
A livable city is an efficient city. It addresses struggles head on, though it may not be able to solve every issue. A livable city gives opportunity, spends its tax money wisely, and works best when it makes choices to serve locals as best as possible.
I believe we should run on a balanced budget. We owe it to taxpayers to be as stringent as possible with their money. We need to stop putting this off and passing deficit on. What's right isn't always easy. In my opinion we have no right to ask for more money from our taxpayers when we can't responsibly spend the money that's already allocated.
For affordable housing, we need to look at the entire public and private partnerships for development of housing.
For development, we need to quickly address the future of massive developments. These will not benefit our town and culture in the long term.
I think we need a change to our town's parking and traffic woes. We need to stop giving away our parking spots for restaurant parklets, for trailer and boat storage, for people to live on the streets. We need to address the large increase in bike traffic and the dangers for both bicyclists and those in vehicles.
I think we need to work better on unregulated unregistered short-term rentals that once housed our local workforce.
Cut our ties with unconstitutional flock cameras.
I live in affordable housing and am incredibly grateful for what we have. I live in an older development that I think really put thought into a quality neighborhood vs squeezing as much density in as possible. I want to make sure the housing that comes in is of similar quality in regard to thought and space, not just "how many people can we fit here". I want people to feel home, not housed. Their time at their home is just as if not more important their time at their job. I want to make sure we respect that. I want quality housing, not quantity housing.
Campaign Phone
(307)203-9432
Campaign YouTube URL
I’m running for office to help Jackson – our community, economy, and ecosystem – continue thriving.
Jackson is an extraordinary community facing unprecedented pressures, ones threatening everything that makes us a special place to live, work, and visit. My knowledge, skills and experience make me uniquely qualified to continue serving this town I love.
My knowledge stems from my profession: 25+ years studying and helping places like Jackson preserve and protect their essential qualities.
My skills and experience come from 16 years of serving Jackson Hole on publicly elected boards: 8 years as a St. John’s Health trustee; and 8 years on Jackson’s town council.
I have the vision to know what’s needed, and the experience to make it happen.
The Comp Plan’s Vision Statement reads: “Preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem in order to ensure a healthy environment, community and economy for current and future generations.”
In short, if we take care of our ecosystem, good things happen. If we don’t, they won’t.
Because we’ve taken care of our ecosystem, we have a vibrant, livable city. One that’s home and host to a rich and growing mix of people; a blend of simplicity, sophistication, and passion.
At the core of this magic is our strong sense of community. But magic doesn’t just happen. It’s the result of generations caring about Jackson; of people striving to leave our community better than they found it. The desire to leave it better is what makes Jackson vibrant and livable
Four facts are key.
1) ~80% of Jackson’s operating revenues come from sales taxes. ~1% comes from property taxes.
2) Over the past few years, Jackson’s expenses have grown faster than revenues, especially sales taxes.
3) The town’s easiest, most powerful revenue-generating tool is property tax. With 3 “yes” votes, within a few weeks the council could raise nearly $7 million by increasing the property tax rate 16x – from the current ½ mill to 8 mills.
4) I’ve led a multi-year fight to not raise property taxes, focusing instead on cutting expenses. Happily, despite a lot of pressure, most of my colleagues share my views.
Because of our "don't raise property taxes" efforts, changes in property tax law will not significantly affect Jackson
Ordinances are a tool for getting things done. But what matters isn’t the tool - it's what you want to get done.
Jackson is a 21st century community with a 20th century operating system. Our residents, businesses, and visitors ask a large-and-growing amount from the town, but our legal powers and revenue sources are basically unchanged from 50+ years ago. As a result, Jackson faces the same types of challenges as big cities, but with far fewer tools to address them (e.g. Jackson generates revenue from only ~1/7 of local economic activity).
For 8 years, I’ve worked to align Jackson's 20th century operating system with our 21st century needs. I'm running again to finish the process. Ordinances help, but they’re just one tool in the toolbox.
Consider two facts.
1) In 2007, Jackson Hole had ~950 affordable homes. We needed ~500 more. Today we have ~1,900. We need ~2,000 more.
2) Going forward, we’ll build only 1,500-2,000 more affordable homes.
Sadly, our current approach to affordable housing isn’t working. Nor will it going forward. We need a new approach – one that ensures we have the housing we need, for the people we need, for Jackson Hole to continue thriving.
This new strategy will come from answering 4 questions:
a) Who do we want living in our 1,500-2,000 more affordable homes?
b) What kind of housing will they want?
c) Where can we build them?
d) How much will it cost?
Once we have these answers, we can begin building the homes we need for tomorrow’s Jackson Hole.
Campaign Phone
3072645029
I love Jackson and our community. I’ve always tried to be a conscientious and involved community member, but after being appointed to the Council last year, I have been on a steep learning path to learn as much as possible. I’m grateful to our community for investing in me and my ability to serve. I feel a deep sense of gratitude (and civic duty) to put that investment to good use by serving on the Town Council.
Beyond my degree in public policy and my professional experience in social work and social advocacy filmmaking, I work hard, I care deeply, and I listen well. I work three jobs on top of serving on the Council, but I prioritize the privilege of serving my community.
Jackson is the “heart” of our community. Its liveability (and workability) determines the vibrancy of our community's culture and commerce. The way our community develops defines the character of it and also the characters who are a part of it. I see a vibrant and livable city as one with neighborhoods where people actually live, with a transportation system that works like arteries flowing through town, with a variety of opportunities to make a living (not just work), with green spaces and public gathering places.
Property taxes could be a significant source of funding for the Town, but they are not. Currently, a half a mill is what the Town collects in property taxes, which is about $450,000. We don’t anticipate much in the way of direct budgetary impacts by losing 50% of that revenue. However, property taxes are a very significant source of revenue for Teton County.
If this constitutional amendment were to pass, that would cut revenue for the county and certainly have an effect on jointly managed departments with the County. Town and County would need to work together to fund valuable community resources if Initiative 1 passes.
One of my priorities is to review our parking ordinances to make parking in town easier on residents. The seasonal nature of our parking codes challenges us in the summer when all our toys come out of storage (boats, campers, and other kinds of trailers) and again in the winter when on-street parking goes away entirely. Considering the Comp Plan’s priorities of ecosystem stewardship I’m not convinced that we should be requiring vehicles to be driven every 72 hours. Instead, we could issue residents of each neighborhood an on-street parking permit.
I’m also interested in reviewing the ordinance that prohibits dogs in parks. It's one that is not widely respected nor enforced, and therefore requires us to reconsider its purpose and benefit.
Houses are being built across town, but they are not necessarily being occupied. We continue to lose older, “naturally occurring affordable housing” that once were cheap rentals to the construction of second homes and investment properties. The Housing Department’s nascent but developing Housing Preservation Program can be expanded to permanently deed restrict existing properties.
We should be doing everything we can to make sure our community has housing for our local workforce, but also our seniors. Our population is aging. We need to address the shortage of housing and transitional care options for seniors. The successful SPET for assisted living program development shows that our community cares about this issue.
