The Issues

Tax Dollars are like every other resource we have in the sense that they are very limited and there are alternative uses for them. 

Every project that we say "Yes" to there is another project or projects that we have to say "No". If we spend tax dollars repairing one street there is another street that will be passed over for repairs. We need to be strategic in our investments. We need to consider things like opportunity costs of projects, the time value of money, and other things often times overlooked. 

Boards that rubberstamp decisions and that are not diverse in thought and experience have to end.

Projects not being completed correctly the first time and on time has to end. 

Giving multiple tax abatements to existing multibillion dollar corporations that are experiencing natural demand-based free market growth while our local small businesses do not receive the same benefits has to end. 

Abusing TIF Districts has to end.

Pay to play and no bid contracts has to end. 

These are the things I will continue to be against and strive to improve here in our community. I have never had a problem saying "No" to a bad deal or expenditure that will negatively impact us. I have voted against every budget since being in office because my attempts to make cuts and shift dollars around for improved use of those dollars have never been entertained. As an example I found excess dollars throughout multiple departments and I wanted to use those dollars to improve ambulance services. That request was denied. 

Public Safety is a top concern in our city. I put a survey in the latter part of 2022 and the results were eye opening. What was shocking is that 53.6% of people feel that safety has declined over the past 12 months while less than 10% feel that it has gotten better. 

The top 5 concerns in that survey

1. Drug Abuse 49.8%

2. Burglaries Auto/Residential 38.8%/34% respectively

3. Homelessness Related 33.5%

4.Traffic Issues/Speeding 30.6%

5. Ambulance Service 18.2%

Resources are limited in local government. It is critical we are data driven to respond to the above issues and we have public/private partnerships in place to help resolve many of these issues. New Albany is a great community and we have citizen experts we can partner with to help solve many issues in our community. 

As a councilman, I wrote an ordinance to form a Opioid and Drug Awareness committee that was citizen led with no tax dollars committed and no politicians. These citizen experts could raise funding privately and serve as experts to the city a true public/private partnership. Over the years I have pushed for increased funding for ambulance service due to ambulance shortages in our city because we are only contracting 1.5 ambulances to serve our entire city. We need more and I will continue to advocate for it. 

Survey Results can be found on my Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/JTforNewAlbany

We need to hold our city more accountable for how projects are managed. Infrastructure projects like Slate Run Rd that ended up being reworked three times. The New Albany City Hall project was years behind schedule even prior to the impact of COVID. Most recently the Main Street Improvement Project is projected to take a year and a half to complete. Some other projects have seemingly been abandoned like Mt. Tabor Rd Phase 2 and Slate Run Rd Phase 2. 

 I will continue to push for diversity of thought, of politics, and of experience on the boards that make these critical and impactful decisions.

A problem that all levels of government are prone to is groupthink. It is easy to just rubberstamp decisions and spend money, but the lack of conversation and discussion creates a negative experience for the people we serve. 

A perfect example is New Albany Redevelopment where not a member of the 5 person board has voted "No" to tens of millions of dollars in expenditures since January of 2020. 

Source: New Albany Redevelopment Minutes 

https://cityofnewalbany.com/narc-minutes/

This is one you hear every election cycle. Transparency is a critical matter up until the politician gets voted into office.

 I have broke this mold by holding monthly in person meetups with constituents, monthly newsletter, an active social media presence, and I even came up with a way to stream every single City Council meeting on Facebook Live. 

We are elected to serve the people not the government. Transparency=Accountability and I along with every elected official need to be held accountable and answer for the decisions we make. I believe the public should be afforded every opportunity to have information as accessible to them as possible. 

In 2019, during the campaign season the #1 concern amongst people I spoke to was speeding down back roads and cut throughs. These concerns were mirrored by the majority of other council members. A committee was formed in early 2020 and those concerns were never addressed by that committee and the issue essentially died. 

However, that did not stop me from bringing the issue before the council. I brought a resolution before the council in March of 2022 that would give the Board of Works 6 months to review and come up with a plan to look at Traffic Calming measures city wide. That measure failed in council 6-3

That setback did not slow me down. Recently at the end of 2022 I was able to successfully pass an amendment to a resolution to have the Board Of Works begin to address these issues. This is currently in progress and I hope we see some progress on this. 

Recently, we were provided with a report of a 10 year study from the Army Corps of Engineers regarding New Albany. In short, we are over developing and our stormwater infrastructure is not capable of keeping up. If you have lived here for any length of time you are well aware that flooding even in small rain events can have a major impact on parts of our city. 

We have got to be mindful of how we develop going forward. I do not believe the government has much say in what a developer does unless that developer is damaging surrounding private property and public infrastructure. With the data provided by the Army Corps Of Engineers I see an opportunity to assist responsible development. "Does the developer understand the costs to mitigate stormwater if they truly want to develop on steep slope? Or any other area that does not meet a development standard?"

By all means, developers should develop but need to be aware of areas that  have a history of flooding and the developer may need to invest more than it is worth to be responsible to neighbors.