Bend is a wonderful place.

So many of us choose to live here because we want to embrace the feeling of community that Bend offers. There is a warmth and friendliness that is perfectly captured in our small city and not offered in many places.

For the past four years, I have been working diligently to help keep the heart of our city healthy. As Executive Director of the private nonprofit Downtown Bend Business Association, I have done whatever has been necessary to maintain the vibrancy of Downtown Bend. I continue to enjoy the role and opportunity to serve small business.

It is with great pride that I serve on the Board of Visit Bend. This organization has been incredibly proactive in bringing revenue into our city by attracting successful events and groups to Bend. The economic impact to the community across many sectors has been enormous.

Keeping our community successful takes the work of all of us. We must be vigilant as to the activities in our city and lend a hand whenever possible. It is essential that we have leaders that want to “pull the rope” to help along the idea that is Bend.

Important issues that we must pay attention to in our City include:

  •  Creating jobs, Economic Development – being innovative with job creation, in-migration and creating a “City of Bend that is Open For Business”.

We must be innovative. I strongly support and have been working with Visit Bend on a plan for in-migration and job creation. The concept is to work to increase our investment in tourism as a way to introduce business leaders to the region. We want to attract companies with living wage jobs. We want to attract owners that want to have their companies here. We have great natural assets, it is up to us to utilize them for greater economic development

  • Clarifying the Role of City Government – focusing on excellence in delivery of basic services of police, fire, water, sewer, roads.

Government needs focus on the fundamentals right now. We should excel in providing basic services that taxpayers rely on-police, fire, water, sewer and roads. We need to be able protect public safety and make sure community needs are covered.

  • Growth & Development – we must work to create synergy between the business community and the City of Bend. Growth is essential to the economic vitality of our community and the City’s policies governing growth (i.e., permitting, SDC’s, UGB, etc.) need to reflect this.

We must work to create synergy between our business community and the City of Bend. Growth is essential for a community but our growth should be by thoughtful design rather than by default. I have seen property owners’ plans tied up and quality infill development halted due to onerous codes. We need to make Bend work for everyone. We need to be “Open For Business”.