Tompkins County is home to some of the best services in New York State. It’s not everywhere people have a positive feeling after going to the DMV. I plan to support the continuation of excellence where it exists, and hope to see the point when Tompkins County is the model for good government. To do so, I will:

• Stand by and uphold the commitment by Tompkins County to diversity, accessibility, inclusion, equity, and providing a safe workplace.

• Advocate for a fair division of payment for services, and oppose plans where any taxpayer is being asked to pay taxes twice for the same service.

• Support Centralization of services under the County if it would lead to significant savings or increases in effectiveness, such as Emergency Medical Response.

The Federal Government is attacking our Community. Our immigrant neighbors, our trans friends, and so many more of our fellow Ithacans are under attack.

On a larger level, as the Federal Government continues to deteriorate, we become less safe. Essential services that were provided nationwide are increasingly difficult to access.

To address this change, we must:

• Pass Legislation that will protect communities under attack, and not retract from our community commitments to equality, to freedom, and to justice, such as furthering our Sanctuary policies.

• Further protect our communities that rely on federal services, such as workers and seniors. They do not deserve to suffer simply because of failures on the Federal level. This includes supporting Just Cause Employment countywide.

• Work with New York State and our Representatives to coordinate our opposition to the direction of the Federal Administration.

• Support our neighbors and friends. We are blessed to live in a diverse community, with a substantial immigrant population. In times of crisis, it is easy to hide from the world. Your community needs you.

While the different towns, villages, and the City of Ithaca have different specific issues, the cost of living is rising for all of us. Without a unified intermunicipal housing plan, Tompkins County will simply get more expensive, and we risk developing sprawl which our infrastructure is not designed to sustain. In order to address this, we must:

• Expand sewer access in rural areas to allow for more development.

• Create a County-wide plan with widespread buy-in to address the increased demand to live in Ithaca.

• Develop in a way that recognizes and accommodates different communities and their needs.

• Enable more use of Public Transportation, and build our new infrastructure to support that.

Tompkins County is home to incredible natural beauty. I was lucky enough to grow up with it, and I am committed to protecting it. At a larger level, we are facing increasing challenges due to climate change. I fully support efforts to adapt to the new climate reality, as well as to lessen our role in creating this problem. To do so, I support:

• Collaborating with the City of Ithaca and other municipalities to help achieve joint climate goals.

• Agricultural planning to enable more local produce to be sold and consumed locally.

• Protecting our parks, forests, and wildlife.

Our Towns, Villages, and City should find every opportunity to work together, and the County should take the initiative on that collaboration. The existing agreements between municipalities are strong, but they could be stronger. To this end, I support:

• An intermunicipal sewer district, that would put all our various sewer plants under a single taxing and management entity. This would streamline many parts of sewer operations, and allow a unified vision for managing our collective human waste. This would require enabling legislation from the State.

• The Merger of the Town of Ithaca and the City of Ithaca. This would require a great deal of coordination and agreement between the Town, City, County, and State.

• More Centralization of essential services under the County.

• Cornell working closer with our local community.

As a services and support issue, homelessness must be addressed at the County level. As we all know, Ithaca has a significant number of unhoused people. Some are dealing with severe mental heath issues, physical health issues, or face other challenges. Each story is unique and individual.

In order to support our unhoused population, we must:

• Provide services and treatment to them where they are, not where we wish they were.

• Coordinate our response between the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County. Neither can address this issue alone.

• Approach every person, unhoused or not, with respect and care.