Campaign Phone
(406)698-7346
My experience as a psychiatrist is one of the things I will bring to the city council. Homelessness, especially among those with mental illness, is an extraordinarily expensive problem. These individuals often need public safety services and also require hospital services which end up being poorly compensated. Their appearance downtown, in surrounding areas and in parks is disturbing for other citizens. During my tenure at the Mental Health Center, I worked in assertive community treatment. We cared for patients with severe, chronic mental illnesses, helping them to stay well, keep their homes, stay out of hospital and off the streets. I hope to bring the city and other stakeholders together to constructively address this problem.
Courtesy and integrity go a long way and I will practice those qualities with the city manager, department heads, other council members and especially the public. In particular, I will follow city charter sections 3.07 and 3.08 which state, “Neither the City Council, its members, nor the Mayor shall in any manner dictate the appointment or removal of any City administrative officers or employees whom the City Administrator or any of his or her subordinates are empowered to appoint.” and “ Except for the purposes of inquiries and investigations, the Council, its members and the Mayor shall deal with the City officers and employees…solely through the City Administrator....”
Billings needs affordable growth.
Cost of services studies have found that large-lot, single-family developments do not pay for themselves. They require extending and, as pavement and pipes age, maintaining new water and wastewater lines and arterial roadways. They increase the area that police, firefighters, garbage collectors and snowplow drivers need to cover. The revenues do not cover the costs.
Multi-unit housing, mixed residential/commercial infill developments and accessory dwelling units need less of that and they can include affordable housing. Their density produces the revenues needed for city services less painfully.
Billings needs a cost of services study to understand how to grow without increasing the cost of services.
Parks are important. After providing public safety, a city needs to make itself a place where people want to live. Neighborhood parks, trails for walking, biking and horseback riding and recreational facilities are a big part of that. Billings, unfortunately, has found itself between the legislature’s tax reform rock and the city charter’s mill levy limit hard place. A recent park levy failed on a 2 to 1 vote and voters are not in any better mood to vote for increased taxes. The way forward now is to maintain the parks and defer but not cancel park and trail improvements until voters are willing to approve a levy or we can find some other funding.
Dealing with the sudden budget shortfall will probably involve painful decisions.
To start, the city needs to identify every reasonable efficiency. A zero-based budgeting exercise where we analyze and justify every budgetary allocation from the ground up is a reasonable way to do that. We then will need to see whether and how we can implement those efficiencies.
The city may need to ask for increased levies to maintain the level of services we expect. The voters in Billings are presently in no mood to increase taxes. The 2-to-1 rejection of the parks bond two years ago is evidence. We can hope that this will change.
For the long term, Billings needs to adopt a growth policy that ensures that costs do not outstrip revenues.
Campaign Phone
(406)647-0665
With over 35 years in the Army, I have extensive experience leading large organization with tens of thousands of employees. I voted on multi-billion dollar budgets while on the Board of Directors for the National Security Agency. My graduate degree is in Accounting and I have practical experience in the banking industry, where I merged two regional banks into a single $32B company. I gained an deep understanding of local non-profits while serving on the Billings Community Foundation, and have demonstrated a commitment to serving my community as a local volunteer for veteran service organizations. I have cross-cultural leadership experience and excel in high-impact, high-stress environments.
City Council members are responsible for ensuring that they remain in continual communication with those for whom they serve. I have spent the vast majority of my working life in the service of others. I will ensure that I foster positive relationships with other council members to be able to ensure a bright future for Billings. The City Manager and department heads are primarily responsible for the day-to-day activities of city government. It is the purpose of the council to provide direction and resourcing for the city manager, but not direct individual activities.
It is important that we continue to match the growth of the city with the ability of government to provide essential services. It is equally important that we find solutions for more affordable housing if we are going to able to keep up with the pace of growth. The City Council is an integral partner with public and private entities to synchronize growth in a way that maintains a quality of life for our citizens.
City parks are a key component of any community. Funding for their development and maintenance should be provided by a combination of city resources, park management districts, and public/private partnership, where appropriate.
Managing a budget is about two equally important activities; generating revenue and controlling expenses. At this point, many of our citizens are burdened by the rapid increase in property taxes to pay for government. The city's portion of overall property taxes is 27.02%. We need to ensure that we are spending those current dollars effectively and efficiently. Only after a complete review of our current expenditures would we have the appropriate amount of information to share with our constituents in mapping any future revenue generation.
