Candidate for
Council Member; City of Lafayette

Why Have I Decided to Run for City Council?

The Lafayette City Council has wandered astray on two major issues that could transform Lafayette for the worse. The first issue is a fading sense of priority. Important duties, like the maintenance of infrastructure, have been abandoned, while side projects and special interests are given undue attention and drain manpower and money. Since incorporation about 40 years ago, Lafayette has grown little in terms of population, size or infrastructure, but the budget has been increased by more than $1M a year by the state. Still, if the city council had their way the sales tax would be 9.25%. In today's economy, this would be a crippling tax that could drive renters to other towns, move homeowners into multi-unit housing and force independent businesses to fold. Read more about budgetary and sales tax issues.

My second major impetus for running for office is to preserve the nature of Lafayette. The City Council's consultants and planners are openly trying to turn Lafayette into a "transit village." They would like for Lafayette to transition to the type of city planning done in larger cities, with multi-unit and low-income housing and concentration of housing, commerce and government funding around the BART station. I doubt many of Lafayette's residents choose to live in Lafayette because they look forward to living in a high population density area. That is not why I moved here. Nor do I think most Lafayette home owners feel that city planning should neglect their needs, like well-maintained roads even in peripheral neighborhoods, in order to focus on creating the right environment for multi-unit housing within walking distance of BART.