• Why are you running?

    Why are you running?

    As the small business owner of Budget Appliance Repair, I’m no stranger to trials and hard work. My business started with a need — I needed a job, so I created one. I built my business from the ground up through dedication, diligence and a commitment to respectful and excellent customer service. I spend much of my day determining what is broken, finding a solution and fixing the problem. I’m running for Assembly because I want to be part of making things work. I know the challenges and difficulties for everyone — that everyone is facing right now. I want to help safeguard our survival and plan for a prosperous future. I feel that the small business owner and the common citizen is largely unrepresented in our city government. We are short-changing ourselves. We need someone who cannot afford not to balance the budget, a person who must go to work every day, a person who must succeed and produce results. As a Navy veteran, I took an oath to defend this country. The most dangerous enemy we currently face is division and hate. We need to come together as Alaskans and find solutions to our future. In the end, the only people we will be able to count on is each other. We need to get started, because time waits for no one. 

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  • Pandemic response

    Do you think the city’s response to the pandemic has been adequate?

    I think it’s been adequate. When we look back on something, I think there’s always things we can do better. The matrix, to me, that they have established to say what we’re supposed to do a different steps — it doesn’t have a zero. It doesn’t have “How do we get back to normal?” I think any plan needs to have a zero and it needs to have worst case scenario, and I think they’ve left that out of the plan.

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  • 2021 Cruise Season

    How should the city prepare for the 2021 cruise ship season?

    From what I’ve heard, there may not be a 2021 cruise ship season. We should plan business as normal and try to figure out as soon as possible if that’s not going to happen. If it does happen, then great. Business as normal — we know how to do that. So we should plan for it not happening, because we usually — that’s that’s the abnormal thing. If it doesn’t happen, we should focus on infrastructure projects that we normally couldn’t do when the weather’s warm. Doing that hopefully will help alleviate the fact that we don’t have all the tourism jobs here in town. And so keeping people working is always a priority. So we should plan for no season. If we have a season, then we’ve planned ahead.

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  • Housing and Homelessness

    What role should the Assembly play in addressing housing and homelessness issues in the city?

    Homelessness and housing are kind of two different issues. Homelessness tends to be a result of a mental health issue. Housing, on the other hand, could result in homelessness, if we reach a point where people cannot afford to actually have a house. So my recommendation for affordable housing is for the CBJ to turn over more, sell more land to developers who in turn will build more housing and leave it up to developers to set the market values. If there’s — supply and demand drives the way things work. And so if there’s a huge demand for affordable housing, then developers who want to make money will figure out how to sell affordable housing. Even if it’s building more housing at market value and letting the market shift to allow more affordable housing at the bottom of the market. Homelessness, addressing the mental health issue is the key.

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  • Racism

    Does Juneau have a problem with racism? If so, how should the Assembly address it?

    I think racism exists anywhere people exist. People will always find ways to say they’re better than another person, whether it’s by beliefs, color of skin. I think racism exists. I think what we should focus on is do we have the same civil opportunities? Does everyone have the same opportunities, no matter what? There will always be things that divide us economically. How much money we have versus not having enough money. Having equal power opportunities is, is pretty much where we’re looking at. And I personally haven’t experienced much racism here in Juneau, but I would think I would probably be in the minority. I would have to leave it up to the individuals though, to bring that forward. Now, what is the easiest way to do that? I’m not sure. Simply emailing someone and that being brought to a board is probably the best solution. And then just following up on that and making sure that’s addressed if it can be addressed. Some things you’re just not going to address. You can’t change people’s beliefs with laws and mandates.

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