I am running for City Council because I want my kids to come home!

That may sound ridiculous, or it may sound like a cliché, but it really gets to the heart of all the things that are important to me as I look at what Mill Creek needs. 

When we moved here almost 20 years ago to raise our young family, we were drawn to the small-town feel, the green spaces and ample park amenities, and the strong sense of community.  All of us who live here have a list of reasons why we loved Mill Creek when we moved here and why we love it still.  And now, I have three kids who have graduated from Jackson High School and will be in college and grad school this year. When they are done with their education, I want to make sure that Mill Creek is still the thriving City that we all love and that they would love to come home to.

That means preserving green space, protecting our natural resources, and promoting public safety and community engagement.  It means ensuring that City resources are used to fill the needs of citizens and that City leaders are not afraid to ask the Community what they need and want out of our communal spaces instead of vying for pet projects.  It means continuing our great tradition of community events which bring people together.  It means engaging residents and working with our volunteer Boards and Commissions, being open to a diverse set of voices and perspectives. 

I want the kids to want to come home, but I need them to be able to come home without having to live in our basement!  That means that we need to address the very real shortage of housing and shortage of affordable housing here in Mill Creek.  Hoping that we can ignore growth or that nothing will ever change is naïve at best.  The fact is that we will see population growth in the next decades.  We can choose now to manage that growth thoughtfully or we can hide from the problem, let other people make those decisions for us, and be forced to react to it later. 

Those seeking to move to Mill Creek are our friends, our neighbors, and our kids!  In some cases, our future residents may be ourselves: at some point our own circumstances will change and we will need to downsize.  Other families will find themselves growing and need to move to a larger home.  Having a lack of available and affordable housing at many levels is hurting all of us. 

Let’s work together to find creative and thoughtful answers to the complicated questions that are facing Mill Creek today and for the future! 

I look forward to meeting you and I hope to earn your vote!