Our First Responders are a community of capable, committed, courageous and driven professionals, but they don’t always have what they need to fully serve our citizens. To help change that, we’ll make sure that they are represented in public city council meetings so that their needs can be properly communicated, especially as they relate to properly allocated funding from the city’s budget.

Our teachers work just as hard as those in the rest of the region, but they have the lowest starting salary of any of our local cities! Our teachers deserve a fair salary that shows them our appreciation of their dedication to our children. We want to increase city funding for schools and prevent future funding cuts so that our teachers can be paid well for the work they do. We also want to increase resources for gifted and STEM programs in schools so that all of our kids can get a great education.

Opportunity abounds in this borough and throughout Suffolk. We want to identify and capitalize on all opportunities that can help Suffolk become better and stronger.

Right now, it’s not so easy to see what’s happening behind the scenes of city government. We hope to bring unprecedented levels of openness between the community and its politicians by ensuring that there are no hidden agendas. We want to make sure that citizens’ rights are protected and help lead the effort to have a responsive city council that resolves issues as they happen.

Suffolk is growing at a tremendous rate, but that growth must be planned and managed carefully to help prevent traffic congestion and maintain a good balance between businesses and residential life. We want to make sure that conservation efforts are always enacted in concert with city development. We also want to encourage Suffolk to have a 30 – 50 year growth plan that incorporates Geographical Information System (GIS) data to track population growth to aid in development planning and manage sprawl.

Local businesses are a treasure, and we want to keep existing local businesses thriving while attracting even more small stores to set up shop in Cypress (and the rest of Suffolk). We want to help Suffolk residents shop local by encouraging city leaders to make it attractive for small businesses to put down roots here.

A strong sense of community is critical for residents to thrive in any city. We want to make sure that all seven boroughs of Suffolk feel a sense of community while still having their specific issues and needs heard by city council. We will work to build community by helping voice each borough’s needs to city leaders.