I got involved after the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. From Indivisible Mesa, I learned about Turning Points' role in last year's District 2 recall and that our own city has a cooperation agreement with ICE. 

I attended council meetings and discovered that there was no Democratic candidate in this District 5 race, and that we have groups like Turning Point again getting involved.

Residents with progressive values deserve to be represented just like everyone else.

I’m running because we need to fight back. I worked 40 years as a trial lawyer. I have the time and the experience, and I’m ready to do just that.

Unlike other candidates, I don’t accept money from PACs or developers. My campaign is funded by the people and run by passionate, unpaid volunteers.  

I’m endorsed by local human rights groups like Equality Arizona.

The City Council makes important decisions that affect us all. We need to make sure we’re building a city that works for everyone. 

First of all, I would serve all the residents of Mesa, 

1. I’d advocate for canceling our city’s optional 287g cooperation agreement with ICE. We’re the only municipality in Arizona to have this. It’s unlikely to be canceled any time soon. However, I would like to be there to make sure this agreement does not escalate and that our Police are held accountable for any abuses of power. 
2. I would oppose more wasteful data centers.They deplete our already limited resources and pollute our community.
3. I would support affordable housing initiatives and transitional housing projects, like Mesa’s Off the Streets program and its Sunaire project, which was recently foolishly cancelled.
4. I promise to do my best to protect the rights of ALL residents, especially the people who are most at risk of losing their rights - such as transgender people. Our city council has made a huge fuss over an ordinance which merely prohibits discrimination against transgender people for using public restrooms where they feel the most aligned, safe, and comfortable. This is part of why Turning Point got involved in last year's shameful recall.
5. I won’t take money from developers or PACs, like my opponents do. I’m not here to serve the interests of big business. I believe in People over Profits.

Are you able to afford living? Before building luxury hotels and giving AI eyes to our garbage trucks, let’s improve the quality of life for our residents. How many of them will ever be able to use these luxury hotels?

The businesses we use to do this work are the ones really prospering from all this growth, not us. 

I am very concerned that they are contributing so much money to the city council candidates. 

1. Mrs.Goforth took in over $48,000 from them in just the first 3 months of this year. 
2. Mr. Vranicic took $2,500 from The Freedom Club, a far-right PAC who only supports candidates who will fight for pro-growth. Will he even consider whether or not that's good for the people? 
3. Mr. Blakeman took in over $25,000, mostly from the development community. Not surprising, since he is connected, his wife, served on Mesa’s Planning and Zoning Board. 

Companies with an obvious profit to gain from our city's growth are trying to buy our city council. Is the City doing what’s best for us, or what benefits its largest donors? This is why I have run a clean grassroots campaign and have pledged to never take a dime from them, now or when I’m a council member. We should ban political contributions from anyone profiting from city business.

Public safety goes beyond more police and fire departments. It includes how we take care of our most vulnerable, and how we address systemic issues, and the programs that we offer to create safe living conditions and equal opportunity for everyone. We need to make sure we’re investing in those programs as we grow.

The Maricopa County Community College system is one of the best, if not the best, in the nation. It’s vitally important to protect this institution. MCC helps our residents advance their education, their careers, and opportunities in a way that’s actually still affordable and practical. 

I’d make sure that we never dramatically increase the costs to attend community colleges. They need to be kept affordable and accessible to all. 

I support programs like the Mesa College Promise, which fully funds eligible students for 2 years tuition. I’ll work with MCC to ensure our community colleges have the resources and funding they need.

On a personal note:

1. I was raised in a very modest working class family.
2. My dad was a factory worker and union man.
3. I had 8 siblings.
4. So when I did well enough to be considering college my parents could not possibly pay for it.
5. Luckily, there were government programs that helped me. I was able to make it through college and law school through a combination of work-study, loans and scholarships. 
6. I became a first generation college grad.
7. I will support everyone having the same equal opportunity I had to get an affordable education to get ahead in life and participate in the American dream.

The City can’t do it all alone. Gathering information and perspectives from all parties impacted by decisions made by the city council is important. Collaborating with local groups that value the long-term health of the city and our residents would be my focus. 

How are we going to address affordability? How are we going to support our most marginalized residents so that we can even the playing field and deliver on the “American” promise? How will we make sure we don’t deplete our natural resources so that future generations have a sustainable, healthy planet to live on? I’ll build partnerships with organizations that care about these challenges.

We should support organizations that support our residents, like our public school system, affordable essential health services like Planned Parenthood, charities like A New Leaf and Aster Aging, and foodbanks.

We should end the school voucher system except for special needs students as it was originally intended. If you can afford it and want to send your kids to private school that is your right. But if you want to take money out of the public school system to do that, that’s asking too much. I did some substitute teaching for the Mesa Public Schools and I can tell you they are hurting. They are left with the most challenging students to teach and far too little money to do it.

I’m retired and don’t have any other commitments in my life right now. I don’t even play golf anymore! That frees up a huge amount of time! This all means that I have ample time to dedicate to my public service as a councilmember. 

It’s incredibly important for elected officials to be open, responsive and engaged. Even if I don’t agree with the people or group reaching out, listening to their concerns and responding is my responsibility.

Being transparent is essential. Just look at my campaign website for an example. The people deserve to know what’s going on in their city and the decisions that elected officials are making on their behalf. That has not been happening. How did we get 25 data centers in Mesa with hardly any debate or controversy? 

I will hold frequent regular town halls to meet with my constituents as often as the community desires. I really do think that I may end up being the most open and accessible City Council member in history. I know we all hear this and then the politician gets elected and we never hear from them again. That is not me. I recognize that staying in touch is critical for me to serve you best.

BTW, Everyone should attend a council meeting to see for themselves how not accessible, transparent, or responsive they are. If you’re not saying something they want to hear, they’ll ignore you or suppress your voice or even retaliate. They will kick you out at the drop of the hat. I must ask, should we be funding these public servants and city staff who interfere with our free speech and act this way?

I’ve experienced this myself as I live in an apartment that has had huge rent increases and I had to downsize. We need to address the root causes of this. 

1. We should consider limiting the amount of rental properties that corporations are allowed to “buy up” in our cities. We could do something similar to New York and impose property taxes on second homes. 
2. We can also consider rent limits on greedy landlords who raise rents simply because they can get away with it. Current state law forbids rent control, but I would ask a democratic majority in the legislature, when we get one this November, to change that.
3. Is more building even needed? I’ve seen reports that corporate owners are withholding units from the market in order to reduce “supply” and thus artificially increase demand and prices. That kind of price-fixing needs to be investigated, and stopped.
4. What is a “strong” neighborhood? A gated housing development with 24-hour armed guards? Or a city where unhoused people are rare because we help them. Where there are ample drug rehabilitation facilities and mental health centers? Where people are never allowed to become so desperate that they feel the need to rob or steal. Where people get the help they need and are treated with dignity. 
5. I want to see Mesa with the lowest number of police of any large city in America, where residents feel safe, for themselves and their loved ones, to walk the streets (and ride the Metro) without a cop on every corner.

I would ask myself, what do I want my own tax dollars to go to? Would I be ok, as a working class person, as a taxpayer, knowing that my money is going toward whatever it is the city is proposing?

We don’t need to keep throwing more money at our police department while we neglect other areas of public safety, like housing for all, drug treatment and mental health.

I want my tax dollars going to the overall good of the community, the “common good”. I want those dollars going to the neighborhoods and people that need it most. Not luxury hotels. Not more improvements for wealthy neighborhoods. Not more surveillance tools like “flock cameras” that invade our right to privacy to help ICE watch our every move. Certainly, not for AI eyes on garbage trucks. 

We live in a society where many of us have to work multiple jobs to get by. Let’s work toward getting folks to a place where they can afford to live off of one salary (a place where parents spend time with kids, teaching them to be good people), and possibly get to a point where people feel they can actually save for retirement, college, or homeownership - things that are increasingly unrealistic to the majority of the people. 

Are birth rates really down because of LGBTQ+ families, or are they down because people are struggling to afford housing, let alone childcare? Is Trump’s 50 year mortgages the “solution”? We’re putting younger generations in a terrible situation. We don’t need more luxury hotels. We need serious reform. And that’s what I’ll think about when I make decisions around the taxpayers money and the City’s budget.