My Guiding Principles
When considering our challenges and their potential solutions, these key principles guide me: Fairness, Affordability, Community engagement, Transparency, and Safety & Sustainability—FACTS.
Fairness means I listen and seek equitable solutions to our problems. I believe in a fair allocation of resources to create a community where people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds can thrive. Fairness demands fiscal responsibility to be fair to Montclair’s taxpayers while ensuring that our municipal services and facilities meet the needs of our younger and older residents. I’m particularly interested in promoting recreational opportunities for our young people and social support for those who choose to age here.
Affordability may be our greatest local policy challenge. We pay the highest average taxes among all similarly sized municipalities in New Jersey and overspend our peer communities on most municipal services. In addition, we rely too much on residential taxpayers, who pay for over 85% of our tax levy. We must lighten our residential taxpayers’ burden because high taxes should not price residents out of their homes.
Community Engagement makes government more inclusive, participatory, and responsive. I want to reinvigorate and empower advisory committees and leverage modern communication tools to ensure residents are heard and informed. Community engagement is especially important when tackling pressing issues like street safety. I envision a strategic planning process that meets people where they are--in-person, virtually, synchronously, and asynchronously--to allow all residents to help clarify our priorities, define our goals, and develop an action plan for the next council.
Transparency is essential to implementing other open government principles, such as accountability and stakeholder participation. We need frank communication about our town’s budget and finances. We also need timely and accurate data from our municipal departments to make informed decisions--to know what is working, inform stakeholders, and learn what needs to change.
Safety & Sustainability concerns must be at the forefront of our strategic planning, including infrastructure investments that reduce crashes on our streets, foster climate resiliency, improve walkability, and support active transportation. As a physician, I have spent a lot of time working to prevent harm—we must apply proven safety and sustainability principles to our community. This should guide how we approach every question that comes before the council. We must adopt solutions that meet the needs of current residents without compromising our community’s future.