My Vision for Orem
My vision for Orem is one of unity. While we have Orem families with Orem pioneer pedigrees, we also have transplants, immigrants, refugees, homeless, young professionals, students, and so many other groups of people. I’d like to change the idea that we are a homogenous community and focus on celebrating our unity as a diverse community.
High-Density Housing & Affordable Housing
We need more nuanced answers. They might be often site-specific, but they are also critical to building a better city. I’m in favor of incremental and moderate increases to density in the places that are not already sufficiently dense, broad sweeping mixed zoning, and accompanying increased density with mitigation of impact. What that looks like to me is incremental growth through zoning amendments such as more allowances for mother in law build outs or single family home to duplex conversions. Moving in smaller scale iterations like converting existing lots to allow for an additional unit or two is a more sustainable way to grow our city.
I’d love to incrementally adjust zoning across Orem to provide an opportunity for more affordable housing. The more we equally mix up every neighborhood with low income housing, high density housing, affordable multi family housing options and other options, the more all of our properties will hold their values instead of the burden being felt by singled out neighborhoods. It’s good for homelessness, diversity,, and school funding and property values.
Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship
I’d like to address by first implementing the already approved active transportation plan. I believe addressing this will have the greatest effect on our rising traffic levels. I want to go after FTA grants for subsidized rideshare pilot programs for transit connections, generate plans for better bike lanes and pedestrian bridges, and implement more traffic calming spots to accompany heavily biked routes. I'd love to retain any of our last remaining farmland by finding ways to incentivize local food growth and consumption.
Smart Economic Development
I want to make sure we continue to maintain and hopefully increase the sales taxes the city currently receives generated by local businesses. University Place produces nearly 25% of our sales taxes coming into the city and I want to continue to make Orem an attractive place to do business so that we can continue to benefit from the sales taxes.
Growth
I think Orem’s rapid growth is exciting if approached strategically and through a long-term lens. We need to be fully invested in the growth by requiring accompanying transportation plans to any development that comes through the city. To me that means accepting inevitable rapid growth and taking accountability as a city to know what to ask for from developers as well as creating plans and strategies ourselves completely independent of developers.
Budget
I am super motivated to work within a balanced budget, but we have to be willing to give up what that may mean. If we as a city as are opposed to raising taxes for certain services, we have to be willing to compromise on a way to provide for those services somehow. If that means incentivizing new developments to generate more sales tax for our city, that would be fantastic. But I am not opposed to raising taxes if basic public safety needs cannot be met.
UVU Development
I see the growth of a university and an educational community as strength to our city but I am not sure our city can sustain an uncapped number of registered students. With every new development we have to address a corresponding transportation plan. I am interested in equally dispersing high-density housing so that there is not one single neighborhood having to bear the burden of growth, but rather it is equally dispersed and as such allows property values to maintain their status quo.
Potential Landlord License
Orem is seriously considering moving utilities on single family home rentals to the owner’s name and to discuss landlords of rental properties registering for a rental license. Because we are in the middle of an affordable housing crisis, these proposals are impactful and important to me as they support the rights of our rental population for the following reasons:
1. By placing utilities in the name of the owner, renters won’t be stuck with an exorbitant bill due to a leak a landlord refuses to fix.
2. The newly implemented licensing system will allow the city to have a database of owner information on all rental properties which allows quick notification of citations and code violations which prevents property neglect and deterioration and improves neighborhoods.
I support the direction of this proposal not only because it supports the rights of renters who are typically more than 35% of the national population and are a vulnerable demographic, but also because when we support our renters we improve the economic stimulation of our city. There's also the fact that this proposal is flat out good for the city. We will not be out the annual $80k in uncollected bills and we reduce the city’s staff hours spent on the mess of utilities verification/transfer/collections.
Bikeability
Here are some questions and answers of mine from a survey from the Orem Bicycle Coalition founder asking how I feel about bicycles.
-Have you ever ridden a bicycle on State Street or Geneva? If not would you want to?
NO & NO
-Do you feel safe riding a bike in Orem?
NO. Except we do go to this park and we will ride places if we can avoid main roads.
-Do you think Orem needs more bike lanes?
YES.
I plan to support the implementation of the Orem Bicycle Master Plan and make Orem a more bicycle friendly city by adding wider, separated, elevated, and way more designated bike lanes on main corridors. I’d like to add more pedestrian and bike bridges and calm traffic on state street and center street. I’d be interested in implementing these solutions by trying to use the yearly UIA dividend, (if we’re not using for public safety.)
But these are all infrastructure and safety solutions, and I think some of the real solutions to a less auto-centric city are found in the ease and motivation to bike more places. While safety is always the biggest biking deterrent for most people, we also cannot be motivated to bike anywhere without a city layout that allows 15 minute access to corner stores, shops, restaurants, entertainment, and more. This is also why I’m interested in restructuring zoning; I believe setting up a strong 15 minute city, by zoning for more fresh produce stands and locally owned corner stores in our neighborhoods will promote more bikeablity and walkability. Adding more bike lanes will get us a long way, but it’s not the only solution. I support a more
bikeable and walkable Orem.
Orem Library
I have such a freakishly deep love for city libraries and the resources they offer and I’m so blown away by the work the library director and her team are doing to stay on top of rapidly changing needs to serve our community. They’re working on overcoming E-material hurdles (never ending holds on e books thanks to publisher limits and costs,) they have transitions into eventual no-fine system on their radar, they offer Spanish story-time for toddlers, and they’re focusing on how they can better serve our teens who can often be overlooked in library programming. Director Crozier and her team are creative and bananas efficient with their resources and I cannot wait to see the programming they implement in the new auditorium. As a city council member I’d be so excited to support this incredible team and community institution. I am so supportive of the bond that passed to get the library the classroom and auditorium they’ve needed for so long and I’m so pumped to support them in their needs.
Child Friendly City
When we design a child-friendly city, we plan a city that’s better for everyone. New studies suggest that a child-friendly lens through which we plan a city helps create a city that offers a wide range of social benefits for all including health and wellbeing, sustainability, resilience and safety. This is because when we give less real estate to vehicles and roads we minimize barriers for children to access play spaces, reduce our levels of airborne pollutants (which we are already in violation of the national standard,) reduce child road fatalities, and increase independent mobility. When I talk about wanting to create a more sustainable, walkable, and bikeable city, yes it’s coming from the lens of planning for my children, but it’s clear this approach benefits everyone. The more we can walk from our home to school/work/stores, the more we boost foot and traffic and commercial activity which benefits all of our local businesses. It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep these little friends at the center of our planning if we want a vibrant downtown and a sustainable city. I would love increased safety, cleaner air, and more independent mobility for my kids and I’m board to help get us there.
Our city has partnered with the United Way of Utah County to implement a really cool initiative called Everyday Strong. The focus of the initiative is to give parents, guardians, and adults in the community the tools to foster safety, connection, and confidence in kids so that all kids in our community feel both emotionally safe and physically protected. The responsibilities pushed through this initiative are probably the most meaningful and impactful values to me and I connect deeply with them. I care so much about my kids and EVERY kid in my community feeling safe emotionally and physically because I know what it’s like not to feel that. It’s in our best interest for everyone in our community to work together to ensure we make all of our kids feel safe physically and emotionally. I love that Orem City and Alpine School District have committed to a scope of responsibility that extends beyond taxes and sewers by training every city employee who interacts with kids on how to ensure those kids feel safe and confident. Everyone from our Rec Center staff, to our librarians, to our cafeteria workers will be trained on these amazing principles.
State Street Master Plan
I could not be more excited to focus on the beautification of State Street. In the State Street Master Plan there are allowances for not only a cycle track or buffered bicycle lane up, but there are also allowances to better utilize land to increase land values and tax revenue. I want to move this plan as quickly as humanly possible and I’m very interested in seeking partnerships with developers to create these innovative spaces and the infrastructure for these approved projects. I’d also like to tack on our needs in this plan (like landscaped medians, pedestrian walkways, decorative lighting, etc.) as conditions to approvals of other new proposed projects. Focusing on freeing State Street from its current hideous state will not only create a more official and vibrant downtown in Orem, but it will generate more dollars to our city tax base.
Alpine School District
Even with all of the interesting changes at our neighborhood school, my family has been on board in my home with the hard decisions Alpine School District has had to make for Orem students in the past few years. Even though not many candidates have mentioned this as a city council candidate issue, taking a stance on splitting Orem from the Alpine School District definitely should be, and I want to call it out as an issue right now. My stance is that splitting Orem from our school district would be detrimental to Orem students. While it seems like we contribute more in property taxes than other cities, due to income taxes and other funds, Orem still ends up receiving more than it contributes. This makes Orem overall a net receiver. AND, the actual cost of splitting Orem from ASD would be around $59 million one-time tax payer funds to separate, which would force us to raise property taxes, landing us right back where split supporters are trying to avoid. If you’re on board to keep Orem with ASD too, I’m definitely your gal.
Public Safety
I was lucky to attend multiple council meetings where the city trying to implement tax increase dedicated exclusively to fund 4 new police officers for the Orem police department. The increase was about a 7.96% property tax increase which works out to about $1 extra per month if your home is about $300k. Our Police and fire have been understaffed and overworked for some time with overtime hours happening regularly. According to some of the officers, there have been a few times there were only 4 officers on duty at one time in our city of 98,000. This issue has been going on for some time and many said a tax increase to add 4 new officers did nothing to address officer dissatisfaction, lack of experienced officers, inadequately staffed dispatch, it didn’t give any of our current officers a raise, nor did it add the additional firefighters we need. That was all true, but I publicly supported the tax increase prior to the council vote and here’s why:
1. Overworked officers due to understaffing can only be tired and miserable. This sounds like a recipe for disaster on so many levels.
2. When PD is properly staffed, they can comply with policies. According to one officer's testimony they’re so short on time, officers were often not creating a report for every incident for the sake of time.
3. 4 officers wouldn’t solve all of the problems at hand , but with adequate staff, community policing is a possibility. Adequate staffing allows officers the possibility of getting out of their vehicles to be on foot to form relationships with residents neighborhood by neighborhood, encouraging more community involvement from officers.
4. Just because we can’t fix all the problems (dispatch, fire, police dissatisfaction, etc.) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to fix one of the problems. I will continue to support funding for first responders in Orem.
Latino Community
10% of our population in Utah County is Hispanic and my dream is to see those numbers reflected in the general election in November. There is a killer community here not being represented and if there’s anything I can do, its represent the need to feel welcome, safe, and an integral part of our city. I feel so lucky to be bilingual as it opens the door for me to communicate with twice as many people.
While out canvassing in Spanish speaking neighborhoods I learned our hispanic community wants to be included but feel they are lacking information, and want to feel safe but feel scared to report crimes. When an entire community feels uncomfortable engaging with our police officers, we definitely have work to do as a city to make sure we open our arms wider.
The Youth of Orem
The Sustainability Leaders initiative the Natural Resources Stewardship Committee shared this story about Arlan Sanchez and I was blown away. Arlan Sanchez figured out how to solve a problem and bridge a gap without the use of any additional resources or tools. He took it upon himself to wait at the garbage bin to reclaim uneaten fruit from the 1st lunchers, then took his haul to offer (w/ permission) to a classroom of hungry kids on a different schedule. Kids often see solutions we overlook or that we don’t have time to think about and lucky for our us, our city recently started the Orem Youth Council who will have the opportunity to learn about our local government process. I’d be so pumped to have the opportunity as a city council member to work with our Orem Youth Council on what solutions they might see staring us adults in the face that we don’t see.
Parks and the CARE tax
Our CARE tax is a fund we pay into that supports incredible cultural arts and recreation developments like my family’s favorite splash pad and parks and our city council has the opportunity to vote on what projects our CARE tax will fund. My family has spent countless hours making memories at Palisade Park Splash Pad, The Altogether Playground, Nielsen's Grove Park, and Mt. Timpanogos Park. I don’t know why I love parks so much or why they mean so much to me, but these places have a special place in my heart. I will always vote in favor of spending our CARE tax on projects like these because these parks are the heart of our city. Our parks are what make a great city and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the process.
Campaign Spending
Raising campaign money is crucial, but endlessly throwing money at a city level campaign seems unethical. After a certain point, I think we should expect to see growing crowds of humans supporting candidates instead of growing physical marketing assets. Currently I have the support of about 35 local small business sponsors, many of whom were owned by women, so many actual humans who get themselves out of their homes to events. It’s important to me to see that local small businesses support candidates with time, and in-kind donations. Because if I can be proud of anything, it’s the amazing people and small businesses I’m backed by.
I’m also running an extremely grassroots operation, meaning I’m basically the whole campaign. There’s no chief of staff, no super pac, no big backers, no one heading up fundraising and only a handful of folks have been out canvassing with me. I have zero big dogs on board here. This a small and mighty operation I’m running on my own with Venmos from friends and friends' and strangers. There is not a single donation coming from a corporation. I create my own messaging, write my own emails and online comments, organize, deliver signs, answer calls, design print assets, make print orders, pick up print orders and so on and so on. My husband is on large sign placement duty and my kids have canvassed with me in a wagon. This is not a pat on my own back or a plea for praise but a declaration that I have no big companies or special interests in my back pocket. I’m not beholden to any other agenda but my dreams of enjoying well planned amazing parks at dusk with my kids like we did tonight after canvassing. There are no evil businesses lurking behind me, this is literally it, what you see is what you get.
As someone who comes from very little, it’s very hard for me to wrap my mind around the spending involved in campaigning when people need food, and yet you need money to print flyers and signs. In the last Orem city council election, winning candidates raised $6,500 in the primary to fund their campaign. Only half of those funds were spent on printing physical assets. They spent a ton on political consulting and snazzy websites and other valuable things of that nature, but I just don’t think any of that is necessary. I don’t want to spend that much of other people’s hard earned pennies because I think it’s feasible to raise/spend way less. I’m smart with my time and efficient with my internet resources and I can do a lot with a little. One of my first big events at University Place was the Pioneer Day Fireworks Show 2017. I had one budget for the entire year and I worked my buns off to maximize that cash to produce an insane amount of events including this successful event done on a stretched thin budget. I’ll take the same approach on the city council and I’m going to take the same approach in my campaign to get there.
Politics as a Full-Time Career
I think the expectation that politics should be a full time career or an exclusive life focus assumes that capable unpolished people like myself are unqualified for the role, when in reality we might be the ones representing so many voices in the community the best. Yes job experience is super valuable, and my job and community service experience are relevant to the council role, but my heart, brain, and life experience qualifies me the most for this role. I understand the needs of small business owners because I’m with them daily, I understand and empathize with the fears our minorities face, I understand the needs of mothers raising their children in Orem trying to give them a broader life perspective and a global view. I’m just a regular person, but I’m definitely qualified to listen to so many of the voices I encounter while out canvassing.
Regular people like me should run for office, specifically local office, and I’m happy to take a public beating if it means we can get more regular people involved in effecting change.
My Empathy and Compassion
Yes i'm a little green being a political candidate, but i'm experienced in seeing people others might not see and responding to their needs. I see my kid's schoolmates with behavioral issues whose parents are on drugs. I see the kids whose only meals are coming from their free school breakfasts and lunches. I see our elderly who are on a fixed income. I see refugees learning to navigate our foreign transportation system and grocery stores. I see our teens suffering and contemplating suicide. While these aren't often the problems city council members typically try to directly resolve, local government is a platform through which we can share our vision and do our part to build a strong community where we support everyone in our community. Expertise in politics aside, I'm running because I'd like to represent the huge chunk of you out there interested in being respectful of and responding to individual needs. I'm running because I think most of the exciting changes we’re looking for are hyper local and can be solved without any federal level involvement. I’m running because I think there's more room for compassion in our city, and I'm not green when it comes to compassion.
When I talk about supporting higher-density housing or wanting to incorporate creative alternatives to higher-density housing, it’s because I believe in lifting up people of all incomes and lifestyles. I advocate for my hope to blend different walks of life in one neighborhood so that we can lift one another up, not because I have a thing for high-rise apartments. My childhood experience of being plopped into a neighborhood I had no business being a part of, where I saw models of success sprinkled all around me, benefited me big time. I would love for all of our underserved communities to have that same opportunity of living among different models of success. I would love for our lower income families in higher-density apartments to be a part of all of our neighborhoods and schools because it only benefits my family and theirs to get to know each other. But it’s not just our lower income community who needs higher-density affordable housing, it’s our aging fixed income community who can no longer live in a SFH, and folks who seriously just prefer the low maintenance lifestyle of a condo. I’m interested in seeking higher-density solutions like broader zoning that allow more accessory apartment allowances, tiny home allowances, and duplexes. I know change is uncomfortable, but I’m interested in supporting growth and unity in my city even if it means an open invitation to be crushed and trampled.
My vision for Orem is one of unity. While we have Orem families with Orem pioneer pedigrees, we also have transplants, immigrants, refugees, homeless, young professionals, students, and so many other groups of people. I’d like to change the idea that we are a homogenous community and focus on celebrating our unity as a diverse community.
High-Density Housing & Affordable Housing
We need more nuanced answers. They might be often site-specific, but they are also critical to building a better city. I’m in favor of incremental and moderate increases to density in the places that are not already sufficiently dense, broad sweeping mixed zoning, and accompanying increased density with mitigation of impact. What that looks like to me is incremental growth through zoning amendments such as more allowances for mother in law build outs or single family home to duplex conversions. Moving in smaller scale iterations like converting existing lots to allow for an additional unit or two is a more sustainable way to grow our city.
I’d love to incrementally adjust zoning across Orem to provide an opportunity for more affordable housing. The more we equally mix up every neighborhood with low income housing, high density housing, affordable multi family housing options and other options, the more all of our properties will hold their values instead of the burden being felt by singled out neighborhoods. It’s good for homelessness, diversity,, and school funding and property values.
Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship
I’d like to address by first implementing the already approved active transportation plan. I believe addressing this will have the greatest effect on our rising traffic levels. I want to go after FTA grants for subsidized rideshare pilot programs for transit connections, generate plans for better bike lanes and pedestrian bridges, and implement more traffic calming spots to accompany heavily biked routes. I'd love to retain any of our last remaining farmland by finding ways to incentivize local food growth and consumption.
Smart Economic Development
I want to make sure we continue to maintain and hopefully increase the sales taxes the city currently receives generated by local businesses. University Place produces nearly 25% of our sales taxes coming into the city and I want to continue to make Orem an attractive place to do business so that we can continue to benefit from the sales taxes.
Growth
I think Orem’s rapid growth is exciting if approached strategically and through a long-term lens. We need to be fully invested in the growth by requiring accompanying transportation plans to any development that comes through the city. To me that means accepting inevitable rapid growth and taking accountability as a city to know what to ask for from developers as well as creating plans and strategies ourselves completely independent of developers.
Budget
I am super motivated to work within a balanced budget, but we have to be willing to give up what that may mean. If we as a city as are opposed to raising taxes for certain services, we have to be willing to compromise on a way to provide for those services somehow. If that means incentivizing new developments to generate more sales tax for our city, that would be fantastic. But I am not opposed to raising taxes if basic public safety needs cannot be met.
UVU Development
I see the growth of a university and an educational community as strength to our city but I am not sure our city can sustain an uncapped number of registered students. With every new development we have to address a corresponding transportation plan. I am interested in equally dispersing high-density housing so that there is not one single neighborhood having to bear the burden of growth, but rather it is equally dispersed and as such allows property values to maintain their status quo.
Potential Landlord License
Orem is seriously considering moving utilities on single family home rentals to the owner’s name and to discuss landlords of rental properties registering for a rental license. Because we are in the middle of an affordable housing crisis, these proposals are impactful and important to me as they support the rights of our rental population for the following reasons:
1. By placing utilities in the name of the owner, renters won’t be stuck with an exorbitant bill due to a leak a landlord refuses to fix.
2. The newly implemented licensing system will allow the city to have a database of owner information on all rental properties which allows quick notification of citations and code violations which prevents property neglect and deterioration and improves neighborhoods.
I support the direction of this proposal not only because it supports the rights of renters who are typically more than 35% of the national population and are a vulnerable demographic, but also because when we support our renters we improve the economic stimulation of our city. There's also the fact that this proposal is flat out good for the city. We will not be out the annual $80k in uncollected bills and we reduce the city’s staff hours spent on the mess of utilities verification/transfer/collections.
Bikeability
Here are some questions and answers of mine from a survey from the Orem Bicycle Coalition founder asking how I feel about bicycles.
-Have you ever ridden a bicycle on State Street or Geneva? If not would you want to?
NO & NO
-Do you feel safe riding a bike in Orem?
NO. Except we do go to this park and we will ride places if we can avoid main roads.
-Do you think Orem needs more bike lanes?
YES.
I plan to support the implementation of the Orem Bicycle Master Plan and make Orem a more bicycle friendly city by adding wider, separated, elevated, and way more designated bike lanes on main corridors. I’d like to add more pedestrian and bike bridges and calm traffic on state street and center street. I’d be interested in implementing these solutions by trying to use the yearly UIA dividend, (if we’re not using for public safety.)
But these are all infrastructure and safety solutions, and I think some of the real solutions to a less auto-centric city are found in the ease and motivation to bike more places. While safety is always the biggest biking deterrent for most people, we also cannot be motivated to bike anywhere without a city layout that allows 15 minute access to corner stores, shops, restaurants, entertainment, and more. This is also why I’m interested in restructuring zoning; I believe setting up a strong 15 minute city, by zoning for more fresh produce stands and locally owned corner stores in our neighborhoods will promote more bikeablity and walkability. Adding more bike lanes will get us a long way, but it’s not the only solution. I support a more
bikeable and walkable Orem.
Orem Library
I have such a freakishly deep love for city libraries and the resources they offer and I’m so blown away by the work the library director and her team are doing to stay on top of rapidly changing needs to serve our community. They’re working on overcoming E-material hurdles (never ending holds on e books thanks to publisher limits and costs,) they have transitions into eventual no-fine system on their radar, they offer Spanish story-time for toddlers, and they’re focusing on how they can better serve our teens who can often be overlooked in library programming. Director Crozier and her team are creative and bananas efficient with their resources and I cannot wait to see the programming they implement in the new auditorium. As a city council member I’d be so excited to support this incredible team and community institution. I am so supportive of the bond that passed to get the library the classroom and auditorium they’ve needed for so long and I’m so pumped to support them in their needs.
Child Friendly City
When we design a child-friendly city, we plan a city that’s better for everyone. New studies suggest that a child-friendly lens through which we plan a city helps create a city that offers a wide range of social benefits for all including health and wellbeing, sustainability, resilience and safety. This is because when we give less real estate to vehicles and roads we minimize barriers for children to access play spaces, reduce our levels of airborne pollutants (which we are already in violation of the national standard,) reduce child road fatalities, and increase independent mobility. When I talk about wanting to create a more sustainable, walkable, and bikeable city, yes it’s coming from the lens of planning for my children, but it’s clear this approach benefits everyone. The more we can walk from our home to school/work/stores, the more we boost foot and traffic and commercial activity which benefits all of our local businesses. It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep these little friends at the center of our planning if we want a vibrant downtown and a sustainable city. I would love increased safety, cleaner air, and more independent mobility for my kids and I’m board to help get us there.
Our city has partnered with the United Way of Utah County to implement a really cool initiative called Everyday Strong. The focus of the initiative is to give parents, guardians, and adults in the community the tools to foster safety, connection, and confidence in kids so that all kids in our community feel both emotionally safe and physically protected. The responsibilities pushed through this initiative are probably the most meaningful and impactful values to me and I connect deeply with them. I care so much about my kids and EVERY kid in my community feeling safe emotionally and physically because I know what it’s like not to feel that. It’s in our best interest for everyone in our community to work together to ensure we make all of our kids feel safe physically and emotionally. I love that Orem City and Alpine School District have committed to a scope of responsibility that extends beyond taxes and sewers by training every city employee who interacts with kids on how to ensure those kids feel safe and confident. Everyone from our Rec Center staff, to our librarians, to our cafeteria workers will be trained on these amazing principles.
State Street Master Plan
I could not be more excited to focus on the beautification of State Street. In the State Street Master Plan there are allowances for not only a cycle track or buffered bicycle lane up, but there are also allowances to better utilize land to increase land values and tax revenue. I want to move this plan as quickly as humanly possible and I’m very interested in seeking partnerships with developers to create these innovative spaces and the infrastructure for these approved projects. I’d also like to tack on our needs in this plan (like landscaped medians, pedestrian walkways, decorative lighting, etc.) as conditions to approvals of other new proposed projects. Focusing on freeing State Street from its current hideous state will not only create a more official and vibrant downtown in Orem, but it will generate more dollars to our city tax base.
Alpine School District
Even with all of the interesting changes at our neighborhood school, my family has been on board in my home with the hard decisions Alpine School District has had to make for Orem students in the past few years. Even though not many candidates have mentioned this as a city council candidate issue, taking a stance on splitting Orem from the Alpine School District definitely should be, and I want to call it out as an issue right now. My stance is that splitting Orem from our school district would be detrimental to Orem students. While it seems like we contribute more in property taxes than other cities, due to income taxes and other funds, Orem still ends up receiving more than it contributes. This makes Orem overall a net receiver. AND, the actual cost of splitting Orem from ASD would be around $59 million one-time tax payer funds to separate, which would force us to raise property taxes, landing us right back where split supporters are trying to avoid. If you’re on board to keep Orem with ASD too, I’m definitely your gal.
Public Safety
I was lucky to attend multiple council meetings where the city trying to implement tax increase dedicated exclusively to fund 4 new police officers for the Orem police department. The increase was about a 7.96% property tax increase which works out to about $1 extra per month if your home is about $300k. Our Police and fire have been understaffed and overworked for some time with overtime hours happening regularly. According to some of the officers, there have been a few times there were only 4 officers on duty at one time in our city of 98,000. This issue has been going on for some time and many said a tax increase to add 4 new officers did nothing to address officer dissatisfaction, lack of experienced officers, inadequately staffed dispatch, it didn’t give any of our current officers a raise, nor did it add the additional firefighters we need. That was all true, but I publicly supported the tax increase prior to the council vote and here’s why:
1. Overworked officers due to understaffing can only be tired and miserable. This sounds like a recipe for disaster on so many levels.
2. When PD is properly staffed, they can comply with policies. According to one officer's testimony they’re so short on time, officers were often not creating a report for every incident for the sake of time.
3. 4 officers wouldn’t solve all of the problems at hand , but with adequate staff, community policing is a possibility. Adequate staffing allows officers the possibility of getting out of their vehicles to be on foot to form relationships with residents neighborhood by neighborhood, encouraging more community involvement from officers.
4. Just because we can’t fix all the problems (dispatch, fire, police dissatisfaction, etc.) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to fix one of the problems. I will continue to support funding for first responders in Orem.
Latino Community
10% of our population in Utah County is Hispanic and my dream is to see those numbers reflected in the general election in November. There is a killer community here not being represented and if there’s anything I can do, its represent the need to feel welcome, safe, and an integral part of our city. I feel so lucky to be bilingual as it opens the door for me to communicate with twice as many people.
While out canvassing in Spanish speaking neighborhoods I learned our hispanic community wants to be included but feel they are lacking information, and want to feel safe but feel scared to report crimes. When an entire community feels uncomfortable engaging with our police officers, we definitely have work to do as a city to make sure we open our arms wider.
The Youth of Orem
The Sustainability Leaders initiative the Natural Resources Stewardship Committee shared this story about Arlan Sanchez and I was blown away. Arlan Sanchez figured out how to solve a problem and bridge a gap without the use of any additional resources or tools. He took it upon himself to wait at the garbage bin to reclaim uneaten fruit from the 1st lunchers, then took his haul to offer (w/ permission) to a classroom of hungry kids on a different schedule. Kids often see solutions we overlook or that we don’t have time to think about and lucky for our us, our city recently started the Orem Youth Council who will have the opportunity to learn about our local government process. I’d be so pumped to have the opportunity as a city council member to work with our Orem Youth Council on what solutions they might see staring us adults in the face that we don’t see.
Parks and the CARE tax
Our CARE tax is a fund we pay into that supports incredible cultural arts and recreation developments like my family’s favorite splash pad and parks and our city council has the opportunity to vote on what projects our CARE tax will fund. My family has spent countless hours making memories at Palisade Park Splash Pad, The Altogether Playground, Nielsen's Grove Park, and Mt. Timpanogos Park. I don’t know why I love parks so much or why they mean so much to me, but these places have a special place in my heart. I will always vote in favor of spending our CARE tax on projects like these because these parks are the heart of our city. Our parks are what make a great city and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the process.
Campaign Spending
Raising campaign money is crucial, but endlessly throwing money at a city level campaign seems unethical. After a certain point, I think we should expect to see growing crowds of humans supporting candidates instead of growing physical marketing assets. Currently I have the support of about 35 local small business sponsors, many of whom were owned by women, so many actual humans who get themselves out of their homes to events. It’s important to me to see that local small businesses support candidates with time, and in-kind donations. Because if I can be proud of anything, it’s the amazing people and small businesses I’m backed by.
I’m also running an extremely grassroots operation, meaning I’m basically the whole campaign. There’s no chief of staff, no super pac, no big backers, no one heading up fundraising and only a handful of folks have been out canvassing with me. I have zero big dogs on board here. This a small and mighty operation I’m running on my own with Venmos from friends and friends' and strangers. There is not a single donation coming from a corporation. I create my own messaging, write my own emails and online comments, organize, deliver signs, answer calls, design print assets, make print orders, pick up print orders and so on and so on. My husband is on large sign placement duty and my kids have canvassed with me in a wagon. This is not a pat on my own back or a plea for praise but a declaration that I have no big companies or special interests in my back pocket. I’m not beholden to any other agenda but my dreams of enjoying well planned amazing parks at dusk with my kids like we did tonight after canvassing. There are no evil businesses lurking behind me, this is literally it, what you see is what you get.
As someone who comes from very little, it’s very hard for me to wrap my mind around the spending involved in campaigning when people need food, and yet you need money to print flyers and signs. In the last Orem city council election, winning candidates raised $6,500 in the primary to fund their campaign. Only half of those funds were spent on printing physical assets. They spent a ton on political consulting and snazzy websites and other valuable things of that nature, but I just don’t think any of that is necessary. I don’t want to spend that much of other people’s hard earned pennies because I think it’s feasible to raise/spend way less. I’m smart with my time and efficient with my internet resources and I can do a lot with a little. One of my first big events at University Place was the Pioneer Day Fireworks Show 2017. I had one budget for the entire year and I worked my buns off to maximize that cash to produce an insane amount of events including this successful event done on a stretched thin budget. I’ll take the same approach on the city council and I’m going to take the same approach in my campaign to get there.
Politics as a Full-Time Career
I think the expectation that politics should be a full time career or an exclusive life focus assumes that capable unpolished people like myself are unqualified for the role, when in reality we might be the ones representing so many voices in the community the best. Yes job experience is super valuable, and my job and community service experience are relevant to the council role, but my heart, brain, and life experience qualifies me the most for this role. I understand the needs of small business owners because I’m with them daily, I understand and empathize with the fears our minorities face, I understand the needs of mothers raising their children in Orem trying to give them a broader life perspective and a global view. I’m just a regular person, but I’m definitely qualified to listen to so many of the voices I encounter while out canvassing.
Regular people like me should run for office, specifically local office, and I’m happy to take a public beating if it means we can get more regular people involved in effecting change.
My Empathy and Compassion
Yes i'm a little green being a political candidate, but i'm experienced in seeing people others might not see and responding to their needs. I see my kid's schoolmates with behavioral issues whose parents are on drugs. I see the kids whose only meals are coming from their free school breakfasts and lunches. I see our elderly who are on a fixed income. I see refugees learning to navigate our foreign transportation system and grocery stores. I see our teens suffering and contemplating suicide. While these aren't often the problems city council members typically try to directly resolve, local government is a platform through which we can share our vision and do our part to build a strong community where we support everyone in our community. Expertise in politics aside, I'm running because I'd like to represent the huge chunk of you out there interested in being respectful of and responding to individual needs. I'm running because I think most of the exciting changes we’re looking for are hyper local and can be solved without any federal level involvement. I’m running because I think there's more room for compassion in our city, and I'm not green when it comes to compassion.
When I talk about supporting higher-density housing or wanting to incorporate creative alternatives to higher-density housing, it’s because I believe in lifting up people of all incomes and lifestyles. I advocate for my hope to blend different walks of life in one neighborhood so that we can lift one another up, not because I have a thing for high-rise apartments. My childhood experience of being plopped into a neighborhood I had no business being a part of, where I saw models of success sprinkled all around me, benefited me big time. I would love for all of our underserved communities to have that same opportunity of living among different models of success. I would love for our lower income families in higher-density apartments to be a part of all of our neighborhoods and schools because it only benefits my family and theirs to get to know each other. But it’s not just our lower income community who needs higher-density affordable housing, it’s our aging fixed income community who can no longer live in a SFH, and folks who seriously just prefer the low maintenance lifestyle of a condo. I’m interested in seeking higher-density solutions like broader zoning that allow more accessory apartment allowances, tiny home allowances, and duplexes. I know change is uncomfortable, but I’m interested in supporting growth and unity in my city even if it means an open invitation to be crushed and trampled.
