Many Duvall citizens moved to this great city for its quality of life. A major component of maintaining and increasing our quality of life is keeping our neighborhoods safe. We are fortunate to live in one of the lowest crime cities in the state of Washington. I will work to ensure that our first responders have the resources they need to continue keeping our families safe.
As a small, compact city nestled amongst vast amounts of open space it is easy to overlook the importance of ensuring that our city plans for, builds and maintains the appropriate number of parks for our future, in addition to ensuring the maintenance of open space within our city limits.
I will work with our city council, city staff, county, state and federal leaders to ensure that our recently approved Parks, Trails and Open Space plan is implemented, and provides a legacy future generations can be proud of. I remember going to parks with my parents and grandparents as a small child, and I know it is important that we ensure our children share in these family experiences.
The City of Duvall is facing some difficult challenges with the current economic downturn and estimates of declining future revenues. As a rapidly growing bedroom community our city relies too heavily on fees collected when builders or individual citizens apply for permits to build homes and businesses in the city limits.
In the future, the rate of permits being applied for will decline (much like what has happened in the past year with the nationwide financial crisis) as will the revenue the city collects from the permits. Reductions in revenue per capita would likely result in a decreased level of service for the citizens of Duvall. I will work with the residents, city staff and businesses to identify innovative ways to diversify our revenue base – without raising or implementing new taxes.
We live in a small city that in many ways still operates as one, despite a high number of citizens with higher than average technological skills and access. Part of being accountable as a local government is conducting official business in full view of the public we serve. Accountability is not just being responsible with our tax dollars, it is being as open as possible with all of the business the city conducts.
There are many ways to achieve greater accountability, without putting undue burdens on staff or jeopardizing important legal proceedings.
I will work with the Mayor, council and city staff to ensure that agendas and minutes of our council committees are released to the public through the city Web site.
In so many ways the citizens of Duvall are leaders in the development – and use of new technology. It is time to put technology to work for us. Yes, we all receive a monthly newsletter in our utility bills, but there is so much more to what is going on in our city each month. Many of our citizens or their spouses communicate through unofficial forms of communication such as company e-mail distributions lists consisting of Duvall residents, but this isn’t enough.
I’ve asked myself what is missing, what isn’t our city doing that they could and should be doing to keep our citizens informed of public meetings, impending flooding, road closures, snow removal schedules and more. The answer is simple – utilizing things such as official city e-mail distribution lists, capitalizing on free services such as Facebook and Twitter to keep us informed. Many remember the 2007 windstorm – the city was unable to update its Web site. Even though many of our citizens use cell phones with internet capabilities, there was no 21st century way to reach our citizens with the exception of the telephone and word of mouth.
As your elected city councilmember I will work to ensure that our city utilizes new technologies and social media to connect with more of our citizens and provide great access for the citizens to communicate with our city. I will listen to and communicate with you, about all issues related to city business.
