“Safety. Prosperity. Accountability.”
Safety.
Keeping people safe is government’s most important function. I am the only candidate endorsed by the Merced Police Officer’s Association. These are my priorities:
Fight to add additional sworn police officers to our force every year. Our police force is 20 officers short of necessary staffing levels. We cannot add all of those officers in a single year, but we can do it over time.
Implement policies to free up officers to allow them to be more productive and proactive while on duty. For example, I would increase the use of online police reports for low priority incidents and enact a false alarm ordinance to reduce the number of false burglar alarm calls that divert our officers from real crimes in progress.
Continue to support the use of new technology to assist law enforcement.
Prosperity.
We need to keep the American dream alive in Merced. We have a lot of good things going for us that we need to take advantage of. These are my priorities:
Revitalize downtown with a focus on panhandling reduction and illegal camping, better lighting and desirable housing options.
Focus on the development of a regional retail center at the Mission Ave interchange on Highway 99.
Better integrate UC Merced into our community and encourage its expansion to 10,000 students by 2020.
Make our public spaces more attractive by beautifying our parks and repairing our deteriorating roads.
Provide wholesome recreation opportunities to our residents.
Ensure a sustainable underground water aquifer through the construction of a groundwater recharge basin.
Accountability.
Identify specific action items that I will work on so that voters can hold me accountable to them in 2 years. Vague policy platforms will not result in the kind of change that we need. I will be specific to the voters.
Deliver an annual State of the City address.
Provide written updates to the public.
Ensure the city budget is kept up to date for the public at www.cityofmerced.org.
Hold at least two town hall meetings per year with residents.
Integrate social media into town hall meetings to increase resident participation.