WHY VOTE FOR SONDRA?

This election is especially important because there will be at least 6 out of 7 new Council people deciding what services we get for our tax dollars.  Our quality of life is at risk.  We must be careful to elect people who have proven their leadership, their commitment and the business savvy to control the city expenditures and investments. 

FINANCES & Responsible Spending

I have a strong financial background, with an MBA in Finance from Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 1981.  I have experience with finance at Cummins and in local small businesses for which I have been an advisor.  The City Council makes decisions about the services you receive for your tax dollars.  I understand the importance of being good stewards of the limited resources.  I am not afraid to dig into the numbers to understand what lies beneath them. 

The recession and high unemployment have reduced the tax money coming into the city  Our infrastructure was heavily affected by the flood of 2008.  Gasoline prices continue to rise with no slow-down in sight.   We have to do more with less.  We must eliminate any waste still in the city department budgets.  We need to work smarter and use our resources and technology to improve services. 

I will be responsible and accountable to the taxpayers who entrust these funds to the Council.  I will work hard to balance our financial resources with the health, safety and aesthetics of our beautiful city.
 
JOBS

  We need to be persistent in bringing new jobs into the city, while maintaining the jobs we have.  I will work to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start businesses here and bring new jobs.  I want to see us have advocates who can help new and small business navigate all the city and county agencies involved in establishing a new business.  The more and better jobs we have, the lower the taxes will be for everyone. 

I want to establish a program to buy local.  I want us to encourage our citizens to look first at spending with local business before leaving the city. 

I want to establish a program to hire our veterans returning home after giving so much to all of us by their service to our country.  We need to work hard to provide jobs and give them an advantage in the local job market to compensate for their time out of the job market doing heroic work for us. 

A critical element in bringing good jobs is having a workforce that can meet the demands of the good jobs of today.  We need to support the further development of continuing education for our workforce at the local campus of higher education (IUPUC, IvyTech, Harrison, etc).  We need to support the growth of the campus and the fields of study they offer to our local students of all ages.  We want to be known as a community with highly skilled workers where people want to live and work and play.  This will help attract the businesses with well-compensated jobs. 

SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability depends on the decisions we make today.  They must not only be positive and harmless today, but must be good for our community, our health and welfare generations into the future.  We cannot afford to make short sighted decisions aimed at getting re-elected.  Council members must have the integrity to do what is best for all.  Sustainability relates to the way we manage all of our city resources, including money, soil, water, and air.  For example, we must not build ball diamonds on creosote soaked land.  Our quality of life depends on it. 

We must protect and improve our infrastructure, streets, sidewalks, gutters, bridges, and floodways, to name a few.  We must reduce our energy consumption within city government and offer incentives to existing and new business to build and run energy efficient buildings and processes. 

We must all learn to reduce our waste.  We can expand our reuse programs.  We must move to a convenient curbside recycling program instead of filling more and more holes in the earth with needless trash.  We must create our own market for recycled product by using recycled content wherever feasible.  We can encourage local business to create product from our recycling.  

CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT

I want to use our resources and technology to make it easy for those affected by decisions to have their perspectives heard.  We can publish upcoming issues and allow public input prior to a decision.  We can hold discussion sessions for particularly controversial issues to allow for thoughtful consideration so we are sure to hear and weigh all sides.  We can offer live streaming webcasts of city council meetings.  We can provide podcasts of the discussions so they can be referred to after the decision. 

I will listen to you and hear your concerns.  I will bring visibility to the issues and decisions the council makes.  I will be responsible and accountable to the taxpayers who entrust these funds to the Council.  I will work hard to balance our financial resources with the health, safety and aesthetics of our beautiful city. 

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.   I believe the best ideas come from many people bringing different perspectives to the issues.  With a little more involvement, we can make our city government the best in Indiana!