core VALUES

Working toward justice is what brought me to the County Commission. It is the value I believe must be core to every decision made in our local systems.

Douglas County residents have been demanding that we invest in programs that will bring more equity, opportunity, and simply more stability to more folks. Those demands are valid and I concur. I do believe that we're responding with actionable investments and I hope to help lead the county in future strategic moves to increase care for everyone.

Justice in local government looks like a more acute focus on social services that actively support folks in daily life. Particularly, I believe that access to permanent supported housing is what justice really looks like. Not everyone has natural supports and I believe that we should build community supports to help shore up folks' foundations. 

Justice in local government also looks like collaborative, coordinated efforts in our legal system to help address inequities we know exist. And it looks like balancing the competing values in each decision that comes before me as your County Commissioner - be it rural land use requests, new project ideas, funding requests, or other public health and safety issues brought to us.

With every vote, I try to seek balance.

The physical, mental, and emotional well-being of all local residents is paramount to building stronger, safer, and more just communities. We all deserve it. Everyone deserves it. 

Prioritizing the tangible support of all our people is a top priority for me, and that looks like diversified investments in programs and projects and services that serve folks where they're at.

We continue to navigate, and will be for some time, the lack of actual and available affordable housing choices, and also the escalated crisis of our neighbors who are chronically unsafe and unsheltered. The reality is that even more of our neighbors are facing daily the risk of becoming homeless. 

Making decisions through the lens of prioritizing safety looks like finding ways we can tangibly mitigate risks to the safety of our residents in each decision that comes before us - I believe in harm reduction and I work to apply that praxis to each vote I make.

There are no shortage of pressure points on peoples' overall stability in the current economic, social, and environmental climates we live in. I intend to keep supporting everyone's ability to sustain a healthy, stable life.

We all need and deserve safety.

Change* is inevitable, necessary, and full of potential when we lean into, with  good measure, the unknowns ahead of us -- it is the constant I believe in.

In my inaugural term as your County Commissioner, I have actively worked to support smart new ideas that work toward developing positive change in how our county government works with our community partners toward shared goals: more safety, more equity, and more access for all people. 

It's been an incredible honor to be part of evolving the positive impacts that I believe Douglas County is actively working to help progress. I hope to continue delivering strategic and meaningful generational change.

I believe the status quo should always be closely examined, and constantly re-imagined. That's what I hear local residents asking for often and I agree that questioning the way things are, or always have been, will naturally open up more possibility and opportunity.

My commitment to you remains that I will keep looking for impactful changes  in our local systems to help create more justice and safety, for more folks.

*A few definitions of CHANGE:

: to transform,

: to give a different position, course, or direction to,

: to make a shift from one to another