I am not a lawyer. I am not a lobbyist.

I am a just a neighbor and I believe neighbors look out for one another. Giving back to a community that has so freely given to me is my goal.

That’s why I’m running for Jackson County Legislature in the First District. All of us here have reason to question the integrity of our elected officials: fistfights and aggressive behavior, federal and state investigations into ethics and Sunshine Law violations, and insider and good-old-boy double dealing only show county officials more interested in serving themselves than serving us.

I am not afraid to take on tough issues because they are hard or difficult or other legislators do not want to hear of or deal with them.

What I will do:

First, I want to make sure that taxes are fairly assessed, collected, and spent properly.

We need to reform our present tax assessment system. My neighbors have seen significant increases in their property taxes over the last several years.

Such increases have become onerous. Like many of you, my friend Ken here saw his taxes more than double to $4,800 a year. His tax bill alone equals what his mortgage, insurance, and taxes were when he bought his house in his midtown neighborhood just eight years ago.

I have neighbors on the Westside whose property taxes are driving them to consider leaving the neighborhood. Tax bills have gone from $500 to more than $2,000. People in the Northeast, Westside, and Valentine and Roanoke have stuck with their neighborhoods, keeping up and improving their properties, attracting redevelopment. Yet they are penalized with tax bills that threaten their continued presence in those same neighborhoods.

These people should be rewarded for their loyalty and longevity. They should not be penalized for having built homes and businesses and raised families and made their neighborhoods attractive.

Second, present legislators have chosen to conduct county business behind closed doors, skirting the letter of the Sunshine Law and making important decisions hidden from the public eye. Every deliberation concerning the county’s business needs to be open, understandable, and accessible to Jackson Countians.

I will only conduct county business in public view

Residents of the First District will always know my stance on issues. My public personality, belief in people, and my love of my community is mine. I say only what I mean.

Third, I want to see the county honor its commitment to us by being responsible and accountable.

The fights in the chambers should be one of ideas rather than fists.

I want to reform the county executives service contract policy. Putting enormous amounts of money at the hands of one public official to spend at will only invites unneeded controversy and questions of propriety.

There should be an annual audit of the $20 million COMBAT program to insure that it is effective and remains so.

Programs that take care of our most needy residents have the funding they need to be run properly and professionally.

In particular, no one in our county who can’t afford health care should walk away from Truman Medical Center without the treatment or the prescription drugs they need to be healthy and productive.

Fourth, we need a representative who puts the interests of citizens before big business, wealth and power, and people with connections and make those commitments stick where it really counts—in the legislative chambers.

Residents of the First District deserve a representative that understands the complicated issues, tensions, and struggles they face. Taxes, redevelopment, county services.

Fifth, First District residents deserve fair return on their tax dollars. I will fight to restore equity in county spending in our district, spending that has been lost to other parts of the county.

Finally, all of us—from the working people who make up my neighborhood and other established neighborhoods in the Northeast, Midtown, and Brookside to the new urban elite—deserve a voice in the way our tax dollars are spent, and we need to know our government is handling money wisely and in a way that benefits all parts of our community.

In closing:

I worked as a journalist for over a decade in this town. I understand the importance of avoiding even the appearance of a conflict. I do not gain financially from this position. I come to this position knowing our district, understanding how to work with others, and with a moral core that has carried me, directed me, through career, family, and life.

Help me to restore our trust in county government.

We need volunteers who will help us raise money from holding parties like this one to small, intimate living room gatherings where issues are discussed among friends. Let us know. We can help you get involved in your county government this way.

More importantly, we need people who can join us in the face-to-face contact with residents that should be at the heart of any campaign. We need people who will put their feet on the pavement with us, and who will look people in the eye and speak of our goals with sincerity.

And finally, we need you to spread the word about restoring trust to county government. It’s a matter of better government for the county. It’s a matter of believing in us.