The Work is never done

 My Plan For Progress

When my children ask me, "What did you do to improve our community?" I can look them in the eyes and say, "Everything I possibly could." 

​​​

Here are a few areas where I am committed to continuing the work into my second term:

​       

• Continue to stand up for our immigrant, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, low-wealth, and underestimated communities. This is not only about continually speaking out and showing up at rallies and walkouts, but also about looking for ways to serve our communities in creative and responsive ways.

• What does this look like?​

  • Regularly meeting with our immigrant-led organizations to build trust and learn about more dynamic and responsive ways we can respond.​

  • Funding our social services to the fullest extent possible to bridge state and federal funding gaps that are increasingly unstable.

  • Leveraging and creating committees that include community members and non-profit organizations to inform the county's actions and priorities.

​​

• Artificial Intelligence and data centers are one of the most pressing issues of our time. We need to have an understanding of how our county is going to be involved in this issue, whether that's the moral obligations, environmental impacts, or the economic implications.

  • What does this look like?​

    • I am proposing that we conduct a county-wide listening tour to share the information we have learned thus far, and to hear from residents about their concerns and ideas.

    • Our county has already instated a moratorium on data centers while we conduct our research (in fact, ours was so good, Denver copied it!).

    • We have also invested in an aquifer study with the U.S. Geological Society in order to understand the water resources we currently have in our region.

​​

• Work to establish a multi-million dollar affordable housing bond. Under Iowa Code 331.441 (2)b(10), the county can bond for essential purposes, and housing is an essential purpose noted in this section of the code. My goal is to 1) address the predatory practices that out-of-state manufactured housing park owners use to extract higher rents from our residents, who often have nowhere else to go; 2) ask our affordable housing experts the best practices we should be investing in, including fully funding Shelter House and creating a Permanent Supportive Housing investment to address the unhoused people in our county.

  • What does this look like?​

    • Exploring land acquisition that is geared towards affordable housing best practices, such as:​

      • Land located near a municipality to utilize water/sewer infrastructure

      • Land near public transportation service lines

      • Land near grocery stores and schools

    • Base housing model on current manufactured housing zoning ordinances and relevant examples that prioritize safety, connectivity, and a neighborhood feel

    • Utilize a rent-to-own legal/financial structure 

    • Create loan programs that remove barriers to first-time home ownership

    • And many more ideas!

​​​

• Create county budgets that are resilient in the face of the state legislature's continued efforts to decrease our General Fund. As the state looks to pass a property tax reform and is thirsty to impact income taxes, we need to make sure that the county retains our most valued asset- our people. This means there will be difficult but necessary decisions.​

  • What does this look like?​

    • I think it is time that the county look at moving towards a County Manager system of governance. This position would manage the administrative functions of the county and streamline many of our functions. We are responsible for overseeing the budgets of 16 departments and I spend much of my time helping our HR department manage department directors or department directors managing staff. While I find this work to be very rewarding because our staff are vital to the work that is done in Johnson County, it often means that I am not able to attend to the political and policy aspects of this role. 

    • Penciling this out to maintain a responsible budget, County Supervisors would need to take a 15-20% reduction in pay to account for a new position and potentially provide us with a part-time policy analyst position to keep up with the policy tasks we would undertake in earnest.​

    • Currently, there are only 2 counties in Iowa that have this type of governance structure: Scott County and Polk County.

    • I am currently on the county's Budget Assistance in Preparation Committee, and we are tasked with developing recommendations to review our financial policies, increase efficiency, and discuss current salary ranges.