Sustainability Ensures Long-Term Health & Prosperity
Diversity. I am committed to a workforce that reflects the diversity, in both backgrounds & ideas, of our community and one that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, political affiliation, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Merit should be the lens we use when hiring for the city.
Affordable housing. A national, state and local issue that has to date found little success. That said, Saint Helena should be actively engaged with developers and private partnerships that are working locally to make a step in the right direction. One way we can make sure to have City Staff that is invested in our town is by creating housing stipends for those who choose to live here in lieu of exponential salary growth that leads to higher unfunded pension liabilities. We need to be creative in finding solutions that benefit all with realistic expectations around the role of government.
Environment & Sustainability. We need to be good stewards of the land and promote proper use of our finite resources like water and explore ways to make them more sustainable. We need to explore consolidation of resources under a JPA (Joint Powers Authority) when it comes to good stewardship of our water and ground water and exploring ways to reduce costs through shared usage of wastewater facilities.
Traffic. As the cost-of-living increase, it continues driving the majority of our workforce outside of the city worsening traffic and congestion. Acknowledging we have limited tools to shape macroeconomics, we can lessen the impacts by partnering with Caltrans to optimize traffic flows. A few areas of promise are smart traffic signals that adjust based on real-time conditions. Roundabouts have long been studied and discussed.
Traffic Speed Reduction Measures. Speeding is detrimental on a number of levels--increased risk of accidents, endangering pedestrians & cyclists, generating noise pollution, and creating an unsafe environment that discourages walking & outdoor activities all of which actively diminishes our community. I propose we adopt ordinance to install automated speed cameras near our schools and main thoroughfares such as Spring St., Pratt Avenue, Pope St, Spring Mountain Road, Madrona, and Hunt Avenue. This will free up our police force to focus on other areas of criticality while at the same time reduce speeding by 10-35% and lower the incidence of crashes by 20-40%. Starting in 2029, this will be legal in California (it's in pilot in 6 Californian cities now) Their presence is a strong deterrent and long overdue here in St. Helena. In the interim, I would support more officers engaged in traffic enforcement and red-light automated cameras in crosswalks (currently legal).