My campaign will be built on one-on-one conversations and relationships with you. My phone number and email address are well publicized, and I will use social media extensively.

As our city moves into the second decade of the 21st century, we are fortunate in that many of the economic hardships that have plaqued our national and state governments have not hit our local government with the same severity.

On the other hand our city and county governments have continued to tax more and spend more. The county raised property taxes last year and the city used its portion of the increase to balance its budget while its spending went up.

We cannot continue that trend. While our state and federal governments are both considering ways to shrink the size of government and its intrusion upon our lives, our city government has grown in size and personnel.

In 2005 we inherited a $1.6 million deficit, crumbling facilities, and a city board that had grown out of touch with the people it represents. By 2008 we had addressed those issues and more while putting our city on a sound financial path.

We are now seeing the fruits of that labor in new school facilities and businesses such as Holiday Inn and Electronic Express, the new Credit Union facility, and the hospital expansion.

The role of government is being redefined across the nation and it needs to be addressed locally. We should be consistently searching for ways to become more efficient and to accomplish more using less resources.

I am a firm believer in the notion that the more money taxpayers have in their pocket the better off our society is. Government can seldom do things as efficiently as private industry, and therefore government should trim the fat, scale itself down, and create an environment for private industry to flurish.

My record of votes during my previous three-year term is public and I encourage you to examine the record. You have a basis for comparison with other candidates on the ballot, and I stand behind every vote I made.

Our city needs strong leadership if it is to move in a positive direction. I hope you will give me the opportunity to serve you once again as Alderman and provide that leadership.