1. What qualifications make you the best candidate to represent the citizens of Seneca?
With over thirty year’s professional experience as a Certified Public Accountant, Chief Financial Officer, business consultant and business owner, I am used to dealing with diversity successfully. I believe I possess a unique skill set that sets me apart from the other candidates. I have a unique perspective and unique skills that would help the balancing of wants and needs with reality.
2. What do you feel are the most important issues facing Seneca? How would you tackle those issues?
In this economic climate, we are facing the same problems as municipalities across our state and across our nation. Businesses are closing, people are losing their homes, their jobs, and most of us don’t have the money to spend like we used to. These realities will have a negative impact on the city’s tax base and on the city’s revenue in the foreseeable future. Knowing that revenues will decrease, we need to be proactive with our budgeting, cutting away any unnecessary spending, and staying ahead of the downturn in revenues. I know from years of experience, if we are proactive, keeping our gun powder dry, we will emerge from this a stronger, more competitive municipality with a great future.
3. In the last two years, the city has raised millage once and kept millage the same once. In this financial climate, how important is it to you to keep taxes low? How is your opinion affected by the state cap on millage?
It is imperative that there be no new taxes or any tax increases in the city. If you join council with the mindset that ‘well, we can always raise taxes to increase revenues and balance the budget’, then that is exactly what you will do, raise taxes to increase revenues and balance the budget. If you go into council with the mindset that there will be no new or increased taxes, you will find innovative ways to save money, be more efficient with the resources you have and you will focus on raising revenues by enticing new businesses and residents into the city.
4. What would you do to help Seneca experience positive growth while maintaining budget stability?
Positive growth will come by creating demand for our city. We need to maintain our exceptional police and fire departments. Continue improving the parks and recreational opportunities in the city. We need to continue, and increase the promotion of the city through family friendly events. We need to increase parking, make the city more pedestrian friendly. One of the most important things we need to do is improve our city’s web site, which is the gateway to the city. Many of these projects can be paid for through the hospitality and accommodations tax.
Doing these types of things will have a positive impact on growth and produce an increase in revenues to the city and help provide budget stability. People will want to relocate here; business will want to open here.
5. What would be your spending priorities?
I would like to put this question of ‘spending priorities’ aside for now and rather ask what my ‘saving priorities’ are. I believe in zero based budgeting which means every year we start with a clean sheet of paper when budgeting spending for a department, rather than working off of the prior year budget and merely adjusting spending for inflation. The budgeting process should preserve or improve the current level of services the city provides to its citizens. Now that we have saved taxpayers’ money, what do we do with the savings?
There will always be multiple projects on the table that are vying for the limited dollars available. Each project needs to be rated with the question; how is this expenditure going to help the city grow and improve the quality of life for its citizens. The project that scores the highest mark gets funded.
6. What role, if any, should the city play in planning and development beyond its current boundaries?
The city should be involved in what is going on around it. We are not an island. There is no doubt that the area around us will see increases in population, manufacturing and service jobs, tourism and in commerce. And we need to continue to position ourselves to take advantage of that growth by offering a great downtown area, a beautiful historic residential area, the finest police and fire departments with the area’s best offerings in parks and recreation. We have great neighborhood schools, we have it all!
So yes, it is in the City of Seneca’s best interest to be involved in planning and development beyond our boundaries.
7. What is the biggest challenge the city faces going into the next decade?
We need to quit living in the past. Preserve the historic past, but we need to focus on the future of our city, now! Ask yourself “what has changed in the city in the last decade”? Are you going to be happy with another decade of the same? I am not. We need to have a sense of urgency about everything we do. And we need to realize that people have choices where they set up their households, or where they set up their business, or where they relocate. Our mind set has to change. No new taxes, become business friendly, respect current property owners and business owners by making sure their neighbors respect their rights!
The biggest challenge we face in the next decade is ourselves. We have too much going for us in this city to let this great opportunity slip away.
8. What can be done to fill more vacant storefronts in downtown Seneca?
Get the government and the bureaucracy out of the way of the investors, the entrepreneurs and the risk takers! It takes over thirty days to replace a broken storefront window because you have to get permission from a committee. This kind of bureaucracy is not conducive to attracting new business.
Make it easy for developers to develop. Keep neighborhoods and commercial areas clean with stricter ordinances; especially in regards to condemned or abandoned houses and buildings.
Most importantly keep the cost of doing business lower than other municipalities. You can’t force a business to locate here; however, you can entice them.
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