Let's Talk About What Matters Most
Housing: Making Independence a Place People Can Afford to Call Home
What I Believe:
Everyone deserves a safe, healthy place to call home, and homeownership should remain an achievable part of the American Dream. We need more housing choices for first-time homebuyers, working families, young adults, and seniors while ensuring new development complements the community we love.
My Record:
My work on housing began before joining the City Council. As a member of the Independence Planning Commission, I gained firsthand experience with the land-use, zoning, transportation, and development decisions that determine how Independence grows.
On the Council, I have continued approaching housing as both an affordability issue and a long-term planning issue. Decisions about infrastructure, development costs, land supply, and zoning ultimately influence whether homes get built and what families pay for them.
What’s Next:
I will support responsible policies that increase the supply and diversity of housing, examine unnecessary barriers that drive up costs, and make sure our infrastructure keeps pace with growth.
People who work here, raise their families here, and retire here should have be able to not only afford to live here, but to thrive here.
Fiscal Responsibility: Putting Independence on Stronger Financial Footing
What I Believe:
Every dollar City Hall spends ultimately belongs to the taxpayers. Residents deserve a government that plans for the future, maintains appropriate reserves, understands its long-term obligations, and is transparent about the actual cost of services.
My Record:
I joined the Council at a difficult financial moment for Independence. The city’s budget was overextended because of interfund transfers from past city leadership that had, for years, sustained city services at the cost of the critical utility infrastructure. The city had a high level of debt due to past city leadership. The current City Manager and her administration informed the council and budget committee that, unless immediate changes were made, the city reserves would be depleted. I have been directly involved in this process. Took in all the information City Staff could share and engaged in difficult budget conversations necessary to confront those challenges rather than simply pushing them into another year. I have approached those decisions by asking about long-term costs, opportunity costs, service levels, sustainability, and what today’s decisions will mean for tomorrow’s taxpayers. Ultimately, the decisions I made were to ensure a future for our community rather than what was politically convenient.
What’s Next:
Our goal must be to move from managing immediate financial challenges to long-term financial sustainability. I will continue to advocate for responsible budgets that fund the services that matter most to our community, adequate reserves, understandable financial reporting, strategic investments, and honest conversations about what we can afford. Independence’s financial challenges didn’t develop overnight, and they won’t be solved overnight. Serious financial challenges require serious fiscal leadership.
Community Services & Affordability: Protecting What Residents Value Without Pricing Them Out
What I Believe:
Our library, parks, museum, recreation opportunities, community events, and other public spaces not only help make Independence a great place to live, work, and play. These services are critical to the economic vitality of our community. However protecting those services also requires recognizing what they cost. Families are already dealing with increasing housing, utility, food, and everyday expenses. City government cannot treat higher taxes, fees, and rates as the automatic solution to every financial challenge.
My Record:
I have been part of difficult Council conversations about how Independence can sustain the services residents value while confronting our financial realities. My approach has been to focus on the purpose of a service rather than assuming there is only one way to provide it. We should continually ask: What do residents need? What can we sustainably afford? Is there a better way to deliver it?
What’s Next:
I will push the city to pursue every partnership, grant, sponsorship, shared service, volunteers, and other approaches that can help stretch taxpayer dollars. At the same time, I will continue advocating for the services and amenities that make Independence a community rather than simply a collection of houses. We shouldn’t have to choose between a community people love and a community people can afford. We should fight for both.
Public Safety & Infrastructure: Taking Care of Today While Planning for Tomorrow
What I Believe:
Local government’s most important responsibilities are also its most basic: safe streets and sidewalks, dependable water and wastewater systems, effective emergency services, and first responders with the resources necessary to protect our community.
My Record:
Over the last twenty years, previous city leadership delayed maintenance projects to continue paying for community services. Over the last couple of years, the council has changed those priorities. During my Council service, I have worked to prioritize funding decisions involving the City’s infrastructure, public services, and long-term capital needs. I have consistently approached these issues by looking beyond the immediate price tag. Delaying maintenance can make a budget look better today while leaving taxpayers with a much larger bill tomorrow.
What’s Next:
I will continue to prioritize police, fire, and emergency response; streets, sidewalks, and pedestrian and bicycle safety; water, wastewater, and other essential infrastructure.
As Independence grows, we need to plan for the community we will be in 10 or 20 years—not simply maintain the community we have today. I also believe that our current residences should not pay for future capacity alone, that developers and homebuilders should have to pay their fare share.
Good government fixes today’s pothole while planning for tomorrow’s street.
Business Growth & Economic Opportunity: Building an Economy for the Future
What I Believe:
A strong local economy is diverse and resilient. Independence should be a community where existing businesses can expand, entrepreneurs can take risks, new employers want to invest, and residents can find good jobs.
My Record:
During my time on Council, I have done my best to connect with the business community and listen to their needs. Together we have supported our downtown businesses, streamlined fees and regulations, and clarified our rules around food trucks to ensure the health and safety of our community while creating an environment that allows for additional investment in our community. Additionally, I represent Independence on the MINET Board, helping provide oversight of one of our community’s most important economic-development assets. Locally controlled high-speed fiber gives Independence and Monmouth a competitive advantage. It supports residents and existing businesses while creating opportunities for remote work, entrepreneurship, technology-oriented employers, and industries that depend on reliable connectivity.
What’s Next:
I want us to leverage those advantages more aggressively. That means supporting downtown businesses, attracting employers, encouraging entrepreneurship, pursuing family-wage jobs, and positioning Independence as a location for innovative industries and advanced manufacturing. We shouldn’t simply wait for economic growth to happen to us. We should have a strategy for the economy we want to build.
Protecting What Makes Independence Special: Growing Without Losing Who We Are
What I Believe:
Independence is special because of more than its location. It’s our historic downtown and riverfront. Our neighborhoods and parks. Our library and history. Our community events. And, most importantly, the people who call Independence home. Growth is coming. Our responsibility is to make sure growth strengthens our community rather than changing the things that make people want to live here in the first place.
My Record:
During my service, I have confronted difficult questions about maintaining community amenities while balancing the City’s financial responsibilities. I believe protecting Independence sometimes means being willing to change how we do something so we can preserve why it matters, and my record reflects that belief. Additionally, I believe that current residence should not be forced to subsidize future capacity of the community, developers, homebuilders, and new residences should have to pay their fair share.
What’s Next:
I will support thoughtful investment in our downtown, parks, neighborhoods, public spaces, history, and community amenities while ensuring that growth contributes positively to Independence. The Independence of the future should still feel unmistakably like Independence.
Transparency & Accountability: A City Government That Listens
What I Believe:
Transparency means more than complying with public-meeting laws or posting documents online. Residents deserve to understand what their government is doing, why decisions are being made, and how those decisions affect them.
My Record:
On the Council, I have been willing to ask questions publicly, engage difficult issues, and explain my reasoning even when the subject is complicated or controversial. I will continue to be willing to answer constituent’s questions and meet with anyone. I believe elected officials have a responsibility to be accessible—not only when residents come to a Council meeting, but in the community.
What’s Next:
I want to hold regular community coffees and constituent meetings to give residents informal opportunities to raise concerns, ask questions, and share ideas. I will continue pushing for understandable budgets, accessible information, and meaningful opportunities for residents to participate. You shouldn’t have to be an expert in city government to have a voice in it.
Collaboration: Independence Before Politics
What I Believe:
City Council is a nonpartisan office. Fixing streets, balancing a budget, supporting police and fire services, attracting businesses, and building housing aren’t Republican or Democratic responsibilities. They’re our responsibilities.
My Record:
I have worked with fellow Council members, City staff, neighboring communities, community organizations, businesses, and regional partners to address the challenges facing Independence. Together we have worked to cut red tape, streamline housing and development codes, clarified the cities fee, structure, reduced SDCs, put together food cart standards, and so much more. I am willing to disagree. I’m willing to ask hard questions. But when the debate is over, I’m also willing to work together to get something done.
What’s Next:
I’ll continue working with anyone who has a good idea and genuinely wants to make Independence stronger. There isn’t a Republican or Democratic way to fix a pothole. If there’s a hole, it needs to be filled.
