fresno elections 2008

I believe we need to target areas in most need, were families and children are unsafe. I think smaller scale efforts in targeted areas is a better economic choice.

I would support the tribes effort in bringing the new Hotel and casino to porterville. The jobs that the Hotel and Casino will bring will help the unemployment rate in porterville. The relationship between the Tule River Tribe and the City of Porterville has been very positive in the past and i would work hard in seeing our relationship stay strong and positive.

I would focus on bringing new industry to Porterville and encourage businesses to relocate to the city of Porterville.

I'm currently satisfied with the city's approach to Gang control. I would favor keeping them staffed, funded and well - informed.

I will oppose Medical Marijuana dispensaries in the city of Porterville. I believe that the dispensaries promote more problems.

Nobody wants to cut services or raise tax's. But as a City Council we will have to decide what will best protect the safety and promote prosperity in the City of Porterville.

I'm in favor of keeping the " All American City " as the city Motto.

By bringing more event's to the City of Porterville, and working closely with the Chamber of Commerce to promote existing events.

I'm reminded of the scene in the movie “Cars” when the road is repaved and the little old car tells “Luigi” that his place now looks like a dump and then he begins to fix it up. When we as a city neglect our roads, it lowers pride in the community and it is less likely that people will fix up there homes. Along with fixing up the roads, I would look at State grants to fund giving additional money to police officers and teachers to live in some of the aging and ailing neighborhoods. People would feel safer and they usually begin to fix up their homes. We could also change some of the ordinances in the city that make expanding older homes more restrictive and less likely to happen (ex. Require 400 sq. ft. of covered parking; a lot of the older aging and ailing neighborhoods have 0-1 garages). I would also be open to looking into low interest loans to residents and businesses that live or work in designated areas of the city. This money should be available through redevelopment grants.

I am opposed to legalized gambling in the city. I believe that gambling is a regressive tax upon the poor and the concept of gambling supports the idea of getting something for nothing.

The #1 problem for small rural communities is keeping their young educated workforce. I will work with CSU, Bakersfield in bringing a satellite campus here to Porterville to allow our young men and women an opportunity to get a four year degree right here. I would also look at placing this campus near the new courthouse to help in growing our own police officers, teachers and business leaders. I would work to provide tax incentives for new businesses to relocate to Porterville and work to make Spruce Avenue four lanes as well as Highway 65 four lanes to the Kern County line. This would help in making Porterville more attractive to new businesses. I would also look into creating a position within the city with a low base salary and major incentives for being successful, who would be responsible for writing grants, marketing the city and attending trade shows and other events in an effort to bring businesses and jobs to Porterville. I would also work to improve the infrastructure of Porterville and work to create a city where people would want to live instead of commuting from Visalia and Tulare.

I do support the current approach to quash gangs and the main change I would make is in revitalizing the Neighborhood Watch Program to be a check on illegal activities in our neighborhoods and also build the social capital in our city.

The sale of medical marijuana is against federal law and there are two many legal drug alternatives to justify opening a can of worms that may bring unintended consequences.

I believe that government should be run like a business. With that in mind, I would look at outside funding sources in the form of grants, look at ways to make services more efficient which would lower operating costs and look into cutting non-essential services next. I would look to lower taxes because during difficult times, you are trying to stimulate the local economy in order to encourage spending and growth. My decision making would be based on data and a cost/benefit analysis. The idea is to run our programs in such as to try to make money, not give things away. California has gotten into trouble because they have a spending problem and they tax businesses right out of the state, which takes away from the tax revenue generated.

This is a strong religious community that I believe would support such a motto. I believe that it is important that we remember that the inalienable rights granted to every person in the Constitution was granted by deity and not a government and that is what makes us unique to every other country on earth. Rights that are granted by a government can be taken away, rights granted by deity cannot.

I would build stronger relationships with county officials in order to bring more of the money and attention to many of the problems that are impacting our city. The County of Tulare already gets the short end of the stick as State funds usually go to the Bay area and L.A. The City of Porterville gets the shorter end of the stick because most of the funds go to Tulare and Visalia and this is something that we have to change. I would work to upgrade the websites for the city making them more user friendly and up to date as well as a marketing tool for the city. We need much more effective communication with our residents. I would promote volunteerism and look for ways to provide opportunities for our residents to get involved. Leadership isn’t about what one person can do, but what that one person can get everyone around them to do.

Porterville has a home owner assistance program. This program assists home owners in rejuvenating their homes. In the 07-08 budget years we helped 14 families rejuvenate their home. The advertising of this program is on going and we feel that as more people know about this we will be able to make a larger impact in rejuvenating neighborhoods. The City is also putting in curb and sidewalks through a grant in many of the neighborhoods which have partial side walks or no side walks. Also many of the county islands which had been neglected by the County the city has begun to annex them and then put them on our program list for street repair.
I support both large and smaller scale development. We have many areas with in our city which would accommodate smaller scale development it is important that we work with developers to assure we do not have checker board growth. I also recognize the need for large areas to be planned and built to accommodate for the swelling population growth that is occurring with in our community so assuring that we have the amenities for this population is also important

I support Porterville's economic growth and respect the sovereignty of the Tule River Tribe. However, I will listen to the citizens of Porterville in making my final decision because it is important for me to be open minded and respectful of the citizens whose lives will be impacted.

The city of Porte creation by working Porterville is continually working at job creation by working through Porterville Chamber of Commerce and Tulare County Economic Development Board. We have just updated the Porterville General Plan which will allow for better land uses in our city. Porterville has just been successful in the removal of the cease and desist order which will eventually give us the ability to discharge more waste water and thus accommodate large businesses which may have. Porterville is working with TCAG and our State representatives so we could expand Hwy 190 and Hwy 65. The City of Porterville has also worked in partnership with Porterville College to gain the opportunity at providing a 4 year degree so that we may have a larger educated workforce. This action alone will in the long term change our demographics and attract more business.

I am a strong supporter of family values, public safety and the improvement of our quality of life. Unfortunately, criminality whether its youth (gang) related or involving adults must be controlled by an approach that is effective, fair and constitutional. I believe that we are on the right path and that we have confronted this problem adequately...

I am not in favor of contradicting federal law which has criminalized the distribution of marihuana for medicinal purposes. I do recognize and respect the will of the voters in California who approved dispensing it with the appropriate prescription. I believe that given the present legal conflict, it is more important for me to listen to the will of the people in Porterville.. It is quite unfortunate that this area of the law is so murky because it represents a "catch 22" situation for elected officials....

The City of Porterville at this time is physically sound due to responsible budgeting, hiring freezes, and business growth.

I would not look at cutting services for the city or raising taxes I believe we could tighten up by working in partnership with other entities to find cost saving measures for Porterville Citizens. The City Of Porterville also has a lock box account to assist in times of restraints.

I believe that the voters in Porterville have the right to choose our city's motto. Hence, I believe that adopting a new city motto is a good idea, assuming that this becomes a reality.

First of all, I believe that Porterville has a very good image and that improving our image is a matter recognizing the uniqueness of our community. For me, it is obvious that we will continue to promote the positive aspects of our community by reinforcing all the elements that make Porterville a very desirable community to live in. It is equally important to recognize and accept the negatives and confront them diligently as a creative community with the resolve that has always distinguished us.

We are governed by law that we can only do certain things with city funds. That being said we do have access to home improvement funds for upgrades on low income housing, which are utilized quite well in our city. The best and foremost thing we can do is upgrade the streets and put in more lighting and landsape. Also we recently hired two code enforcement officers to insure that personal property is not a nuisance and we aggressivly persue this avenue.

I am of the belief that this is the most important decision this new council will be making in the very near future. As such I have called for public input and will vote the will of the people.

The job market is very competitive, And we as a council new that we had to lay the foundation for new job creation. Our first order of business was establishing an area of industrail zoned, and then bringing the infrastructure of water and sewer to this area, We then aggressively sought out potential companies and our first success was a 35 acre SCE plant that will employ upto 200 employees at approximatley $35 an hour. We have several other companies negoitiating with us at present. We also created a zone for major retail outlets and have been able to establish a 640000 sq retail outlet that will create approximately 800 new jobs. This will benefit the city in sales tax dollars, and also the convenience of not leaving the area to do our shopping. As you can see the present council has been very proactive in job creation and new shopping opportunities.

Gangs have obviously been a poblem in most central valley towns. Two years ago we started hosting gang awareness meetings and then put a sales tax iniative on the ballot that was passed by almost 75%. we have used those monies to increase both our police force and fire dept. Our approach to gangs is threefold, prevention, suppression and education. Our police force is active in a county wide effort to suppress gang activities, but we also go to the neighborhoods of Porterville and ask for support from churches and individuals to identify the needs of the youth so that their attention may be put into more positive activities. This council supported fanancially the upstart of a boys and girls club for just this reason. As we learn more about what moves our youth toward gangs we will be very active in combating thier recruitment of our young. We also recognized that education and the ability to communicate and read was very important, so through our sales tax measure we fund literacy programs at our city library.

This is an issue that is very fuzzy. California passed proposition 218 which makes medical marijuana legal in California but it is contrary to Federal law. We have looked carefully at this and have found that the Federal Government is very aggressive in shutting down these institutions, and therefore we have a moratorium on thier establishment in Porterville until the two agency's can come to some consistant legislation. It is my opinion that Prop 218 is to loosely written and that any medical marijauna should be dispersed by pharmacy's just like all other medicines.

We have already analyazed the city funding for the next two years. We are now reacting to a revenue shortage of just over 1 million dollars. We have been very conservative in recent years and will weather the state budget crisis by using reserves we built over the last few years. Since being on the city council we have never cut off any services, with the exception of closing our library on Saturdays. We may have to put in a policy of Job freezes, but it will not effect overall services that the city provides. I will not support any new taxes, increase of fees or charges.

The charter change of a city motto to "In God We Trust" is an issue for the electorate. I for one will be voting for it.

I believe that Porterville is the best city in California in which to live. However there is always room for improvement. The city council and the chamber of commerce are presently working on a branding program that will introduce our city to potential new families. We have taken a very hard look at our community and therer is some very exciting new events and programs that are being undertaken