The Apple Valley City Council has a duty to look out of the working families that make up our community, and put their needs and desires first, not just those of their mega-millionaire land developer friends who don't even live here. If elected, my priorities would be to:

1. Fix the short-sighted way our city funds our parks. The level of transparency around park budgets, and the constant discrepancy between what voters are told vs. what they actually get when we're asked to vote on parks referendums, is unacceptable to me. 

2. Develop an actual strategy for land use and development. There are plenty of ways to maintain our property tax base while also ensuring that the types of new development happening in our city actually reflects the direction residents want to see. Imagine if we had an actual downtown district, something walkable with multi-use buildings, rather than just a series of adjoining parking lots that gets jammed up daily during the "chicken tender rush hour"?

3. Establish a Sustainability Commission, as most cities in Dakota County have done, to leverage the strengths and expertise of our community members to protect and preserve the environment and natural resources that we love in our community. As a groundwater reliant city, it is extremely important for local units of government step up and assist in this effort, which can be done through grants and other supports or incentives for families and businesses.

4. Commonsense Changes: There's a number of things that Apple Valley seems to do because "that's what we've always done", not necessarily because they make sense. I support:

   • Permit food trucks to operate in the city, with a reduced license fee to any locally-owned restaurants that also have a physical location within the city. Some parks in our city would make for great neighborhood gatherings - and places for food trucks to be there for it!;

   • Allow residents to own chickens, like every other city in Dakota County;

   • Allow breweries to sell their beer offsite, otherwise there will never be a brewery in Apple Valley. This could be rolled out through a pilot, with 1 or 2 licensees to start, to assess any impact on city revenues;

   • Incentivize developers to prioritize starter homes by reducing lot sizes and setback requirements in the last remaining undeveloped parts of town. This will make it easier for younger families and first-time homebuyers to move to our city;

   • Leverage the ability of city council members to be effective advocates for bonding dollars or other investments that will bring funding for local improvements into our city - something that has been completely lacking for decades from local officials;

   • Modernize city government by being visible and accessible in the community, using technology to make it easier for residents to interact with their city government, and helping us "hit the refresh button" in areas where it's needed here locally.