Fiscally Responsible Leadership

I am committed to fighting for policies that balance Flagstaff’s essential needs with affordability for our residents and businesses. By prioritizing smart, sustainable solutions, we can invest in our community’s future without overburdening hardworking families and local enterprises.

Key Accomplishment: Reducing Water and Sewer Rate Increases

In 2024, a proposed 166% increase in water and sewer rates over five years—coupled with a perpetual 5% annual hike—was introduced as a solution to address a critical $300 million infrastructure shortfall. This plan threatened to impose an immense financial burden on our community.

I listened carefully to residents’ concerns, collaborated with key stakeholders, and navigated open meeting laws to foster consensus and find a better path forward. The result? We successfully reduced the increase to just 8.5% annually over five years—saving residents and businesses millions of dollars while still tackling our urgent infrastructure needs. This is the kind of responsible leadership Flagstaff deserves: practical, collaborative, and focused on real results.

Challenging Budget decisions lie ahead:

The citizens of Flagstaff deserve and expect top-tier public safety-reliable, responsive police and fire services that protect our families, neighborhoods, and visitors every day.

For years, our Flagstaff Police Department and Flagstaff Fire Department have faced chronic underfunding due to recession-era budget cuts, shifting priorities, and growing demands from population increases, tourism, vertical development, and rising call volumes. This has created significant gaps in staffing, training, equipment, and infrastructure- leaving our first responders stretched thin and our community at greater risk.

Now to address these shortfalls and close these gaps and ensure sustainable, high qualify public safety, the City is actively considering options like increasing sales tax and our property tax levies to make up for this underfunding.

Flagstaff residents shouldn’t have to settle for less when it comes to the safety of our homes and streets. It’s time to prioritize and adequately fund our police and fire departments so the can meet the expectations we all share fast response times, well-equipped teams, and a secure future for everyone who calls flagstaff home.

Join the fight for Flagstaff