4. I will engage in transparent leadership that allows there to be a clear direction of policy while working with those around me to ensure Madison is moving forward. In my career, I have served in leadership positions multiple times. I led a movement to reduce distrust between the latinx and police community as a law enforcement officer. I led as deputy mayor, and as president of the school board during the pandemic. These situations all required leadership that was strong, committed, and transparent to ensure that the communities I worked in understood what we were trying to accomplish and were also engaged in achieving these goals. This interactive and engaged leadership is something that Madison has not had under the current mayor and needs to ensure that we continue to achieve progress.

5. Tragically, the present administration has failed to sufficiently expand support for community-based teams to work with at-risk young people. There is a "perception" that young people of color are out of control and create a heightened sense of crime, fear, and disorder in our schools and public spaces. When in reality, we are losing young people to the criminal justice system. It is imperative that we develop a coordinated response between the school system, County, and our neighboring communities. We must provide our young people with an environment to grow and thrive. Our young people are contributing to the fabric of this community if they are working jobs outside of school hours and during the summertime. As Mayor, I will build a consensus between Dane County, the MMSD Superintendent, as well as experts in juvenile justice to work with the Madison Police Department in combating this issue. I will address racial disparities while also growing businesses by investing in the school to workforce pipeline, with emphasis on the trades, retaining talent from our high schools, colleges, and universities. We must also provide our young people with an environment to grow and thrive. As a former police officer, I know that community-based intervention in the lives of troubled young people is the best strategy to stop violent crime, whether it's forcible carjackings or homicides. I will continue to use my experience in restorative justice practices to look for ways in which we can reduce arrests of young people and deter them away from the criminal justice system. As a neighborhood officer, I started a restorative justice process for our youth on the South Side. As School Board President, we launched and invested in restorative justice in our schools. As deputy mayor, I've worked with community leaders to develop an intervention plan that swiftly led to a reduction in homicides in 2018.

6. There are three main ways I plan to create more sustainably affordable housing in the future. The first is through the use of tax credit projects. We want people who need affordable housing to have a choice between new housing and the existing stock of housing. That is something that the tax credit allows. We also have to make sure that we control the increases in property taxes. These taxes are passed on directly to renters which means that those who are most economically vulnerable bear the brunt of any increase. Finally, we need to create an economic climate where employees can work for more than just a living wage and have the opportunity to choose between options for market-rate housing. Due to their higher wage, they will have increased opportunities to secure attractive housing options. The changes to the zoning code passed by the current mayor to redefine the definition of unrelated parties do not solve the housing crisis. I oppose that zoning change strongly. My housing plan creates a pathway for affordable single-family home ownership for all our residents. We must focus on building public-private partnerships with law enforcement, businesses, neighborhood associations & planning councils to deliver quality workforce housing that works for all Madisonians. I will also work with organizations like Own IT and other realtors who are working to help families of color buy homes in the city and surrounding areas. Moreover, we must be intentional in finding opportunities for employing traditionally marginalized communities so that they have the economic freedom to afford housing that they want and that fits their needs. I will establish a Mayor’s Housing Advisory Committee, consisting of neighborhood associations, planning council representatives, developers, property managers, realtors, a school board representative, and residents to assess housing needs in the city.

7.It is important that the city continues to readdress transportation and make changes that create more efficient, rapid, and equitable transportation solutions. This has been proposed in the past with the mention of an Amtrak station in Madison. I firmly believe this is a viable solution to expand intra-city travel between Madison and other metropolitan centers in the region such as Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis. This station should be placed close to the airport as a means to streamline travel for both residents and visitors to our city.

We must have an inter-city transit design that is equitable and works for all who need it. The current Bus Rapid Transit redesign has marginalized our communities that depend most on public transit. This plan requires us to focus on housing and density as an afterthought to get more traffic on the proposed BRT redesign that would impact our communities disproportionately. As mayor, I work to stop the current redesign and pursue a customer-led process.  Instead of the outdated data from 2018 that's currently being used today. I will have the staff review the assumptions and facts on the BRT and the Metro redesign and I will use real, post-pandemic data to solve the inequalities that currently exist with the BRT and rapid redesign to ensure that our seniors, BIPOC, and disability communities can access public transit without having to walk 2-3 additional blocks. I will engage with our city's residents before redesigning our routes to ensure that we are centering our values around an equitable and reliable transportation system for all Madisonians.