I do not see this as an adequate solution. The city council must revisit the city's budget, department by department, and determine the expenditures from each department's budget.

The city council must establish long-term goals and from these, create a plan consistent with them. No program and no special interest funding should be exempted from this close scrutiny.

It is through the creation of these long-term goals that budgetary solutions will appear.

I believe Redlands' best interests lie in promoting small local businesses run by local people. We should expect all businesses to pay their fair share of taxes and other costs. I do not believe we should give unfair advantage to any business through tax breaks or any other promotional give-away.

Redevelopment is a work in progress for downtown Redlands with many good proposals and possibilities.

As far as North Redlands redevelopment, individuals and groups have many questions about the direction of redevelopment or, as they prefer to call it, "revitalization." These groups are concerned about "eminent domain" and about seniors on fixed incomes. They are also worried about the future of small businesses. North Redlanders have many questions, which still need to be answered, before redevelopment can effectively receive the support of this community.

We should encourage the development of downtown living spaces (lofts, studios, condos, etc.) as well as restaurants, local businesses and specialty shops. This will bring in people who will support local businesses.

Integrally connected to the City's ability to appeal to new businesses and residents is maintaining and improving the City's rapidly deteriorating infrastructure. A beautiful and appealing city is crucial to economic redevelopment.

I support the community-policing model. I believe community involvement and cooperation between the police and neighborhoods is beneficial.

Based on our low crime rate and the percentage of Redland's budget spent for police related needs, which exceeds that for many other cities, I believe that the police budget is certainly adequate. A close review of how this money is spent is warranted in order to funnel money into needed services and to trim money from unnecessary programs. In general, we should be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to public safety.

I believe the fire department's budget is at least adequate since Redlands spends a higher percentage of its budget for fire-department-related expenses than do many other cities.

We need to expand commercial safety and prevention efforts in our existing and new buildings. I reiterate: we should be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to public safety.

Maintaining the city's infrastructure is very important. In recent years, money for tree trimming, sidewalk and pothole repair, and preserving existing structures has been drastically reduced. Redlands spends far less of its budget for infrastructure repairs and maintenance than do many other cities. Redlands needs to develop a long-term spending plan, providing sufficient money for infrastructure needs, and for taking better care of what we have.

The quality of life in Redlands depends every bit as much as on maintaining a beautiful city as a safe one.

I have held important leadership positions (chair, board member, and finance chair, etc.) at local, county and statewide levels in educational, non-profit and political organizations (e.g. CAP – Community Action Partnership War on Poverty programs), environmental groups and many community groups. My passion lies in working to make life better for each of the citizens of Redlands.

During my 38 years as an educator, I managed my classroom, including overseeing teaching assistants assigned to my classroom. Additionally, one of my most important responsibilities was to coordinate resources for my special needs students with other teachers, school psychologists, administrators, speech therapists and parents or guardians.

The basic measurement should be based on an empirical observation as to how well the City is being run and whether the services that the citizens want and deserve are being provided in a cost effective manner. If a less subjective evaluation is needed because the citizens are not pleased with the quantity and quality of the services, then the per capita spending as compared to other Cities with similar qualities will provide a baseline comparison to highlight whether or not it is likely that detailed revenue enhancements or cost reductions are necessary.

The first step in determining citizen satisfaction is a serious commitment to be open and to listen to the opinions of others. Furthermore, the City leaders must take these inputs seriously.

We can further determine satisfaction by holding community forums, small neighborhood meetings, by one-on-one discussions and other direct forms of contact.

We must restore basic services that have been cut in recent years (i.e. tree trimming, pothole repairs, appropriate sidewalk maintenance, and street sweeping) on a regular basis. This would show the citizens that the leadership cares and is concerned about their needs.

Our representatives must be accountable to all citizens and provide complete and regular information. This could possibly be accomplished through a newsletter mailed or e-mailed to citizens explaining our fiscal situation in layperson terms. The City web page can be used to effectively provide information to those who have an interest in a specific subject.

In the end the success of any effort will depend on the willingness of the City Manager and Council to be open and candid with the citizens. It is disappointing that our new City Manager appears to want to control information flow, as evidenced ny his direction to City staff to filter information requested by candidates and the media through his (City Manager’s) office.

Money has spoiled our concept of democracy. Candidate expenditures for Redlands City Council races have quadrupled in the last 10 years.

Realistic limits on campaign contributions and spending is a very elusive concept and try as we might, the more controls we implement, the more those who want to buy access and influence find ways to circumvent the rules.

However, notwithstanding the difficulty in managing these limitations, we should implement spending restrictions and full reporting requirements on all candidates to reveal each person, agency, organization and business contributing to each candidate’s race, and the amount of that contribution.

In a recent City sponsored sample survey, less than 44% agreed with the following statement: “I trust the City council to spend the city’s tax dollars wisely.” In the same survey, over 60% of those involved indicated they felt the City had sufficient revenue to provide the quality and quantity of service needed.

We must restore trust and fiscal sanity, eliminate waste and live within our means, as we did for the first 100 years. We must ensure to the extent possible that city growth pays its way.

In several recent letters to editor of the Redlands Daily Facts, including one from the City Mayor, while the percent was in dispute, all agreed that the Redlands per resident spending was noticeably higher than in the City of Upland. I think that is a point of departure that while we must look at ways to increase revenue as a matter of good governance, our first and most promising means of solving this financial crisis must be to look at our spending and ways to increase efficiencies.

It is quite possible and highly likely that the spending decisions of current and prior City Council members may be such that, in the short term, we will have to “tighten our belts” until a more informed and accountable City Council can work through the prior mistakes.

We must hold our elected representatives accountable, and if they fail to act responsibly, we should look to others. Incumbency and special interest largess should not be the controlling factor in electing our city council members. If we do not hold them accountable at the ballot box, we will receive more of the same irresponsible financial performance.

We need to network with our schools, our university, and local businesses so that we can draw from their resources. We need to make sure that all city departments have adequate technology and other resources so that we can get the most "bang for the buck" possible.

The City Council must establish long-term goals, and from these goals, create a city growth and expenditure plan consistent with them. No program and no special interest funding should be exempt from close scrutiny. It is through the creation of long-term goals that budgetary solutions will appear.

The quality of life in Redlands depends on maintaining safety. We are fortunate to have good police and fire departments, although we have vacancies in the police department that need to be filled.

I support the community-policing model. I believe community involvement and cooperation between the police and neighborhoods is beneficial.

We need to expand commercial safety and prevention efforts in our new and existing buildings. We need to be proactive, rather than reactive when it comes to public safety. A close review of how all monies are spent is warranted in order to funnel money into needed services and to possibly trim money from other programs.

For years I've lobbied elected officials on a variety of issues, including environmental legislation. Many of these efforts have initially fallen on deaf ears. What I've learned is that no matter how strong the opposition and how unlikely it appears that the issue will garner sufficient support for passage, you can't give up. For success, it is essential that you gather community support, work on petition drives, talk to others about the issue.

In my case, many of the issues eventually won support, but this was possible only through hard work, determination and a constant belief that the issue would eventually prevail. I also learned that it helps to stay on message and have a good active community participating with you.

Important qualities for a political leader are integrity, having the courage to take a principled position even when that position is unpopular, being transparent, having no personal agenda (the only acceptable personal agenda is working for what is best for the people), and having the ability to listen to people.

In my opinion, former Council member Gary George and former Congressman George Brown had these qualities.

1. I would scrutinize the budget department-by-department, contract-by-contract and become thoroughly acquainted with the operations of the city so efficiencies could be increased and waste could be eliminated. In order to effectively understand the budget, it will be necessary to simplify its current format.
   


2. I would insure that the issues citizens of Redlands are concerned about are addressed. This could be done through town hall and/or neighborhood meetings, a website available to all citizens, a contact number at City Hall dedicated to informing locals, etc.
   


3. I would work to restore basic services (tree trimming, pothole repair, sidewalks repaired appropriately and filling the seven unfilled police positions.