More Questions and Answers

Hope everyone is having a great week! We've been very busy this week at campaign headquarters (i.e. my living room) and there just aren't enough hours in the day to do it all. You've probably seen lots of signs up around town...we can thank my husband and lots of friends for that. They've worked tirelessly to get the signs up and it's been fun to hear my boys in the car screaming "Mom, it's you! LOOK!" as we drive around town.

By far, the best thing about this process is the people that I've been able to meet and talk with. I've learned so much from all of you and your love for Gilbert is contagious! I'm also loving aswering your questions via email too so keep them coming. I hope that you get to know me, my principles, my vision for Gilbert and my position on the proper role of government through the answers. Here are a few more of the questions and answers:

Reading your web site you note excess spending needs to be controlled. Could you explain this comment and cite me a couple examples?

1. Big League Dreams - A project that was estimated to cost $22.5 million and came close to $45 million. This is an example of a public-private partnership gone bad and Gilbert taxpayers were left holding the bag. I am not completely opposed to public-private partnerships but they must be economically feasible, they must be closely managed and there must be parameters in place that ensure tax-payer dollars are protected.
2. The Million-Dollar Marble - the town purchased a marble "ball" from Germany for the Water Tower Plaza in downtown Gilbert. Sure, it might be nice for a while - but is a million dollar ball really what Gilbert needs right now? On another note, the Water Tower Plaza park is 1/7 of an acre and took 9 years to renovate. Whenever a Gilbert project is drawn out, the cost steadily rises.
3. The town council recently voted to donate $500,000 to charity. This vote came just minutes after the town rejected a 3% pay increase for town employees (they gave the employees 2%). The additional 1% would have cost the town $800,000/year. I have no problem with personally giving money to charity, but when it comes from tax dollars - that is called a re-distribution of wealth - and it does not fulfill the proper role of government. When we've cut all overtime for police officers and we're talking about raising taxes to overcome a budget shortfall, we simply can not use tax dollars to fund charity. These are just three examples of the waste and misappropriation of tax dollars.

There are many great things about the Town of Gilbert, but if we fail to properly fund essential core services - police, fire, streets and water - town perks like marble balls and enormous baseball fields mean absolutely nothing. Particularly during this economic downturn, we need to get back to the basics and define between needs and wants.

How do you feel about Photo radar?

I’m against photo radar. Studies that have been done show that overall, the use of cameras does not decrease accidents (speed related accidents and intersection turn accidents were down but rear-endings were up) so from a safety perspective, there isn’t a benefit. I also take issue with the principal of photo enforcement – essentially if we allow the government to take pictures of us in our private vehicles, then we are opening the door to allow the government to take our picture in private homes or on private property. It becomes a question of liberty.

Your children look young from the photo. Who watches the kids while you’re away? (People want to know that your kid’s schedules won’t be upset by your new duties.)

My boys are 5, 3 and 1 and I’m loving this stage of life. Running for town council was not a decision that I took lightly – it took lots of prayer and family discussion to come to the conclusion that public service should be one of our top priorities. I am very fortunate that I have a wonderful husband who supports my desire to serve the community and picks up the slack at home. My family is my first priority – not unlike the people that I seek to represent. I am confident that I can balance the needs of my children with the duties of the town council.

I don’t live in a home owner’s assoc. but I can still get fined by the city if a random 10 inch weed popped up in the corner of my ¼ acre plus lot. Do you support Gilbert’s inch by inch move to regulate personal property?

I believe that the proper role of government is to protect our freedoms – the freedom to possess property is included. Of course we want our town to be well-maintained but we simply cannot infringe upon the rights of our townspeople to accomplish that. The water crimes bill that was passed and then revoked by the town council – made it illegal and punishable by fines to allow water to drain from property – (this could have been anything from a broken sprinkler head to a geyser) and is another example of the town government creating an ordinance without realizing the implications. Fining a citizen for a random weed is simply an infringement of property owner’s rights.