Transparency and Accountability

We need to completely redesign how we go about keeping residents updated and engaged. We need to go above and beyond in communicating to tax payers. We also need to track our progress on citizen issues and be accountable at all levels. Each person in Gilbert who wants to know what's going on in the city should have easy, accurate and quick access to all public information. Every taxpayer and utility customer should have the ability to receive copies of city meeting agendas via email whenever they are published. All meeting notices should be published in the city bulletin boards, on the city website and be available via email to those who want them sent to their inbox. Doing the bare minimum of communication to constituents is no longer acceptable because I will not accept it!

Furthermore, the City Council needs to adopt a rule that requires any unresolved item that gets introduced as New Business, be automatically placed under the Old Business section of agendas until the matter is resolved. All items in Old Business should have the last name of the person responsible for providing a status update on the issue. This creates accountability everyone in Council Chambers on issues brought before it that we are doing our work for the public.

Access to public meetings

All public meetings by the City Council or city commissions/boards should be open and available for the public to attend and participant in person or via an online meeting tool like Zoom/Microsoft Teams.

We live in a world of technology and post-pandemic which taught us that we can participate in government both in-person and through technology. That's why I believe we need to make every public city meeting available to members of the public through online technology. The cost to use this technology is minimal, but we need some upgrades to technolgy in the City Council chambers. And our meeting leaders need to open their minds to doing things differently so that remote participation is easier for the public, particularly in the winter when it is harder to get out. If businesses around Minnesota can do this regularly to include stakeholders on issues, there is absolutely no reason why our city government can't do the same.

All regular and special meetings of the City Council should be posted on the City's website, public bullitan boards and social media accounts a minimum of 3 days in advance - including full adgendas - so the public has the opportunity to review material in advance.

Review our Legal Representation

Put an end to legal log-jams

Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of having attended so many City Council meetings in the past four years, is having to watch item after item get passed over to our City Attorney for research or follow-up only to have it disappear into legal bureaucracy and red-tape. Even more frustrating is that only one member of the current council will take the City Attorney to task. That's about to change.

If we are going to pay a law firm to represent us and protect us, I don't think it is unreasonable that they also serve us in a timely and efficient way. When a citizen issue comes up that needs legal interpretation, it should take no more that one meeting for them to get back to us with an answer. When the City has employment and staffing issues that need a legal opinion, we should have it within 24-48 hours of requesting it. And if we don't get this type of response, we need to be strong enough leaders to demand a full RFP for legal services.