What I will work on as your council member:
Affordability, traffic, and quality of life through better planning
Sustainable Growth & Planning
Reno is growing. I will push for growth that works for the people who already live here, instead of approving projects first and figuring out the consequences later.
What I will deliver:
- A Reno where infrastructure (roads, stormwater, public safety, schools, and green space) is part of the conversation before development is approved, not after.
- A Truckee River protected from the development practices that send pollution downstream.
- Ridgelines, wildlife corridors, and open space are treated as permanent community assets, not future inventory waiting to be sold.
- Zoning decisions that recognize what twenty-one years in healthcare has shown me: where people live shapes how healthy they are.
- Clear, measurable standards on water use, traffic impact, and neighborhood fit that apply equally to developers and to the city itself.
Growth done well lowers the cost of living, shortens commutes, protects the landscape, and strengthens neighborhoods. Growth done poorly does the opposite, and we are running out of time and open space.
Protect our open space, and care for the parks that connect us
Parks, Open Space & The Outdoors
The trails, the river corridor, the open ridgelines, and the parks where neighbors actually meet each other are not amenities. They are the reason people stay in Reno and the reason their kids come back.
What I will deliver:
- Existing open space defended against conversion, with a real public-interest standard that any proposal to change it has to meet.
- A park maintenance system that matches how residents actually use these spaces, funded and scheduled for the wear they take.
- Safe, connected access to trails and the Truckee River corridor for every neighborhood in the ward, not just the ones that already have it.
- Parks and open space are treated as the lens through which we evaluate development, wildfire mitigation, and public health, not a separate agenda item we get to last.
- A tree canopy strategy that prioritizes the neighborhoods with the least shade and the highest heat exposure, because in the fastest-warming city in the country, canopy is health infrastructure.
Open space, once developed, does not come back. Every parcel preserved is a permanent gift to every generation that follows.
Better services through consistent follow-through
Plan Ahead, Follow Through, Show Your Work
A reactive government is an expensive government. The bill always comes due, and the people who had the least say in the decision usually pay it. The job does not end when the vote is taken. That is when the real work begins.
What I will deliver:
- Major decisions grounded in three questions: what does the data tell us, what does waiting cost, and who pays.
- Reno’s wildfire plan, defensible space program, and free home inspections reaching the neighborhoods that need them most.
- Approved are plans tracked through implementation, with public reporting on assuring the city is doing what the council promised it would do.
- Stormwater, road maintenance, and public safety staffing funded before deferred costs become emergencies that cost several times more.
- Tree canopy, walkability, and air quality are treated as public health investments, not amenities.
Proactive governance is not about predicting the future. It is about acting on the evidence we already have before the bill arrives.
How I will govern:
Evidence-Based, Proactive Governance
Spending less by planning more
A reactive government is an expensive government. The bill always comes due, and the people who had the least say in the decision, pay it.
Twenty-one years in healthcare has shown me a simple pattern. Prevention costs pennies. Treatment costs millions. The gap between them is typically in the follow through of what the evidence already showed. The data is rarely the problem. The follow-through is.
This is the lens I will bring to the city council. Housing policy is health policy. Where you live shapes how healthy you are. Stormwater that ignores good design carries pollution into the Truckee River. Heat builds up in neighborhoods where we lack tree cover and add pavement, raising rates of heat illness, heart problems, and childhood asthma. Car-dependent neighborhoods hurt air quality and cut down on daily activity. None of this is theory. It is the long-term cost of zoning votes we make today and pay for over the next thirty years.
Most people never hear that argument at a planning hearing. It’s time they do.
Wildfire is the clearest local example of the same pattern. We live in a wildland-urban interface community. That is not a risk category, it is a description of where we live. Reno’s 2026 Community Wildfire Protection Plan was approved unanimously in February. Our area hosted the city’s first defensible space pilot. Free home inspections are available right now. These are real tools, and most of my neighbors have never heard of them, because I asked.
That is the gap between a vote and a result. A plan that sits on a shelf costs the same as no plan at all, until the fire comes. Then it costs a lot more. Council members vote on plans. The job does not end at the vote. Someone has to ask, six months later, whether inspections are actually being scheduled, whether outreach is reaching the neighborhoods most at risk, and whether the budget matches the stated priority. That kind of follow-through is not exciting, and it is exactly what I did for thirteen years managing an $85 million budget in one of the most complex healthcare systems in the country.
The same discipline applies to almost everything else this council touches. Stormwater we defer today becomes flood damage tomorrow. Road maintenance we delay becomes full rebuilds at several times the cost. Public safety staffing we underfund becomes overtime, burnout, and turnover. Tree canopy we do not plant becomes heat illness and higher cooling bills in a desert city that regularly hits triple digits. Every one of these is documented. None is a surprise. Everything gets more expensive the longer we wait.
Proactive governance is not about predicting the future. It is about taking the evidence we already have seriously enough to act on it before the bill arrives. That is the standard I will hold myself to, and the standard I will hold the rest of the council to.