The Issues
Jobs and Opportunity
Our community is a great place to live and raise a family, but it must also be a great place to work. To realize our potential, we must create an environment in which businesses will make the investment to create good paying jobs with a future. Make no mistake; businesses, not the government, create good jobs. In the eight years from 2000 to 2008, private-sector employment in Nashville and Indianapolis each increased by over 45,000. Even Cincinnati’s employment grew a respectable 19,000, yet Louisville lost over 2,000 jobs.
Metro government must be responsive to the needs of job creators in order to attract new and retain expanding companies. We must streamline regulations and processes that inhibit the creation of jobs. We can, and must, do better.
To preserve our high quality of life, we must provide roads, water and sewer services to meet the needs of a growing economy. Deficiencies in these areas over the past 40 years have caused problems in the 19th District. I will work with our State Senator and Representatives to make sure they know our needs and are pushing Frankfort to fully fund infrastructure projects that are critical to job growth and maintaining our quality of life.
Finally, we must leverage our geographic advantage at the intersection of three major interstate highways by building the East End Bridge – AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Transparency, Accountability and Fiscal Responsibility
We must have a more open, honest and responsible government. Unlike some who have recently jumped on this bandwagon, I have been calling for greater transparency in government for over two years. The Courier-Journal published my views on this subject on their “Op-Ed” page in the spring of 2008.
It is important for citizens to have access to how their governments spend money and contract for goods and services. Thanks to the leadership of Metro Councilmen Hal Heiner and Ken Fleming, we now have LouisvilleCheckbook.com, but that’s only the start. I will push to have contracts and other legal documents obligating all units of Metro Government made available on-line to the public, and then hyperlinked to the related expenditures. This includes MSD, TARC, PARC, etc.
Transparency is just the beginning. I’ll push to establish performance metrics that will allow comparisons of government services to peer cities and national benchmarks. I will use that information to hold our government accountable to its citizens. Responsibility is the goal, both fiscal responsibility and from a basic integrity standpoint.
I will work tirelessly to make sure elected and appointed officials act responsibly and that you get your money’s worth from Metro government.
Public Protection
On a ride-along with an LMPD officer, I learned that at times, there is only one patrolman to respond to crime calls from Hurstbourne Lane to the County Line and from Taylorsville Road to LaGrange Road. In addition, EMS ambulance coverage for much of this district is inadequate. Emergency ambulance runs often come as far away as Okolona and Fern Creek. Anyone who has the misfortune of calling 911 for police or EMS may feel the very real impact of these shortcomings. I will work to ensure that we get our tax-dollar’s worth from Metro Government – especially when it comes to public safety.
There are proposals to consolidate the eighteen suburban fire districts into the Louisville Fire Department. Given the existing funding of the fire protection districts, I oppose abolishment of the local fire departments, which include our own Anchorage, Eastwood, and Middletown Fire Departments. The likely outcome of consolidation would be higher taxes on our citizens and less coverage, just as happened with LMPD and EMS following merger.
Finally, I will call for an organizational review of LMPD and EMS with the goal of identifying ways to reduce administrative overhead so we can get more uniformed officers and EMTs on the street.