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Local Issues

Women's Healthcare

I support women's rights to reproductive healthcare services. I fundamentally reject the concept of restricting women's rights to bodily autonomy. California is standing on the right side of history, on the side that supports women, and I will continue to be a vocal advocate for women in our state and for women travelling to our state to seek reproductive healthcare services that are restricted in their home state. Abortion services are healthcare services and the ability to afford the right healthcare services should not be a barrier for women. I will support public funding of comprehensive reproductive healthcare for all individuals who rely on the government for their healthcare services.

Pesticides & Playgrounds

Pesticides have dangerous chemicals that are unsafe for children and pets and their presence near playgrounds and sports fields needs to be eliminated. Synthetic chemicals are not safe. I want parents to know their child will be safe at all the playgrounds in our city. I want pet owners to know there dogs will be safe in our parks and on our sports fields. There are safe alternatives to organic and non organic pesticides such as vinegar based sprays, pulling the weeds out by hand or even using simple boiled water. These alternative methods will keep our kids safe from harmful chemicals while also keeping our playgrounds free from weed patches. Our sports fields have the same problem and I will work with the Parks & Facilities Department to employ the same solutions. Pesticides are dangerous for our kids, our pets, the pollinators in our local ecosystem and they eventually get washed away into Newport Harbor and endanger our marine habitats. I will reach out to groups like NonToxic Neighborhoods to implement solutions that are working for the cities of Laguna Beach, Irvine, Mission Viejo, and Carlsbad.

Fire & Police Dept. Funding

Our police can be better equipped with new technology to help them mitigate criminal activity and to monitor known criminals who enter our city by using cameras placed at the city limits to identify the license plates of people who have criminal records. I will fully support our police to keep our city crime free. Our fire fighters save lives that are in danger by putting themselves in harms way. I will vote to make sure our fire departments have all they need to provide healthcare services before and after retirement. I will also work to revitalize our CERT program (Community Emergency Response Teams) to ensure that every neighborhood has a CERT leader who will coordinate with our local Fire Departments in the event of a fire.

Representing You

We are living through some polarizing times. I want to help heal that divide. My opinions are not carved in stone and I'm eager to have more open conversations about how to create a society that helps everyone thrive. I want to help find the way to a more perfect union with the mentality that there isn't a Democratic or Republican way to pave a road. My only motivation is to make our city thrive. I will make myself available to anyone seeking an audience and personally respond to every single person who reaches out to express themselves.

Education Standards

I'm overprotective of the ones I love and in anticipation of being a dedicated father one day, I will work day and night to ensure that every child enjoys a high quality education. I plan to raise my family here in Newport and I plan on making sure that my kids have the best education possible by giving our schools all the resources they need to teach kids and to hire wonderful teachers like the ones I had at Anderson and CDM. Big shout out to my Anderson principal Mrs. Manos, Mr. Almquist, Mrs. Shenks, Mr. Hill, Ms. Smith, Mr. Tulley, Mr. Leavey, Ms. Hahne, Mrs. Colgate, Mr. Brude, Ms. Delaney, Mrs. Petus, Ms. Stephenson, and Mr. Starkweather

Homelessness

I've personally hired and worked with dozens of people who were homeless. Every person struggling to make ends meet has a different story and has different needs for how they can get back on their feet. I want to work with people in our community who lack stable housing to create individual plans designed to help them work towards a comfortable living situation with a stable form of income and hope for their future. We need to do more than simply moving people who are experiencing homelessness over to the Costa Mesa Bridge Shelter. These are all people with unique circumstances and needs so a one size fits all plan is not a solution. In office, I will work with other members of the city council to create individual plans for each person by identifying their set of skills then matching them with jobs that fit their work experience and also create incentive programs for business owners to hire people dealing with housing insecurity.

John Wayne Airport

Air traffic noise is a daily irritation for residents living near the Back Bay and under the flight path. I will vote to ensure that the runways are not expanded to allow for larger, louder airplanes to take off from John Wayne Airport. I will vote against any plans that could further disrupt the peace that our residents enjoy. I will work with the Aviation Committee to require all airplanes taking off from John Wayne to have a steeper rate of ascension to fly higher and fly slower to minimize the noise pollution for residents who live under the flight path. I will also work to find solutions to the noise created by private jets which are governed by a different set of rules and regulations.

E-Bikes

Riding around using E-bikes has become more popular in our city for younger teens and they are often sharing the road with cars that are travelling over 50 mph. There have been three fatalities in Orange County this year involving teens on E-Bikes who were in traffic accidents and I'm determined to prevent such a tragedy from happening in our city. The best way to address this issue is by using Geo-Fencing technology to limit the areas where E-Bikes will function and also to impose speed limitations for E-Bikes in high traffic areas around schools and other parts of the city where there are higher numbers of pedestrians. I'm eager to hear more perspectives on this issue from parents with young children and teenagers.

Labor Unions

I fully support the important work of local labor union groups who ensure that workers are treated fairly and have collective bargaining rights to petition for things like higher wages that match the cost of living and for paid family leave for both parents raising a new born child at home. Our city depends on having skilled workers and they deserve to have our respect and our support when they want to improve their working conditions and their quality of life. In office, I will vote to ensure that our local labor unions have their representative present during the draft proposal process to provide working class perspectives on all new projects and programs. I will support Community Workforce Agreements to empower workers and our community when a project is proposed. I will work with the California Labor Enforcement Task Force to improve labor law enforcement in the underground economy and I will oppose any efforts to weaken basic worker protections.

6th Cycle Housing Element

Sacramento has mandated that our city must build 4,845 new affordable housing units by the year 2029 for middle to low income working families. Our city council recently voted unanimously to prevent residents from voting on this issue, despite the Greenlight initiative included in our city charter. Our city council made the wrong choice. Many residents are upset that our city council didn't trust voters to make an informed decision on this issue. I don't want to silence anyone's voice. Building developers were putting their thumb on the scale to create a General Plan that benefits them and many residents feel betrayed by our city council. I believe the current plans for the Housing Element are flawed and need to be redone after allowing our citizens to vote on this issue as mandated by the Greenlight initiative. On a related topic, I want to prevent hedge funds from purchasing newly developed housing only to sell these new homes for a profit. Hedge funds are taking advantage of their massive financial resources to compete against new home buyers who are often struggling to enter the housing market and that's not right. I want to end hedge fund control of housing in Orange County.

Rising Sea Level

The consequences of climate change are real and we are not doing enough to protect the homes on Balboa Island, the seven other Harbor Islands and the Balboa Peninsula from the rising sea level. Unless we take immediate action to address this problem, there will be countless millions in property damages and hundreds of families who will be forced to leave their homes. To mitigate damage caused by rising sea levels, one possible solution is to start investing in natural infrastructure such as kelp forests and living shorelines with sand dunes which absorb the impact of large waves. Another solution is to invest in man made structures such as Ecoconcrete interlocking blocks, artificial geotextial reefs and harbor channels which will block the momentum of tidal waves before they can reach the shore.

Mooring Rate Hikes

Many boat owners use mooring to dock their boats and they've made investments on their permits that they'd like to be able to pass on to their children. In office, I will stand with boat owners who want fair slip rates and fair mooring permit rates that wont push them out of the harbor. Many trade workers, teachers and retirees call Newport Harbor home and I will protect these boat owners from rate hikes that don't match working wages. I will work with other members of the city council and the Harbor Commission to find long term solutions so that boat owners can make long term plans and investments instead of being concerned with new changes that could be added in the future by our city council.

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