An Honor to Serve
Dear Neighbor,
It has been an honor to serve as your current Mayor and to be on the Sausalito City Council these past almost four years. I am proud of what the City Government has accomplished and my part in helping make Sausalito better.
We've accomplished alot and laid a great foundation for a bright future in Sausalito. But there is alot more to do and big challenges ahead.
Today, I submitted papers with the City Clerk to run for another term of office. In the campaign that will be gearing up in September, I look forward to hearing from you about how Sausalito is doing and what needs to be done.
In the past four years we have completely rebuilt the city government, with a new City Manager, new heads of almost all of the departments. We have a new labor contract that has decreased the wasteful cost, and lost institutional memory, from staff turnover. We humanely dealt with a homeless camp crisis.
We invested our money smarter, earning more interest. We put budget surpluses away into a pension trust fund and have substantial cash reserves and savings for a rainy day. We've increased the number of Parks and Rec activities for residents and extended Jazz by the Bay into the great weather of September.
This fall we will see the downtown area improved with a $2.4 federal grant and we approved the formation of a 'business improvement district' that should help fill empty storefronts and drive more tax revenue into our coffers.
We have challenges, and we can solve them. While we ended the most recent fiscal year in June with a budget surplus, we may have a deficit this upcoming year, primarily due to much higher insurance cost. So we need to be careful in our spending both tactically and strategically.
As some of you know, I am a business person and bring my business perspective to add to the wisdom of my colleagues on City Council. We need a multi-year plan for generating the kind of sustained budget surpluses in Sausalito that really allow us to revitalize our infrastructure and up-level our city services. The thing is, those kinds of surpluses do not come from cutting; they come from policy decisions that promote economic growth. If we have more economic activity then, without raising tax rates, we will increase tax revenue.
This is money we can spend on ourselves, on our infrastructure, on our seniors, on our kids, on our quality of life, all without raising taxes.
This is an optimistic and can-do mindset. It's what I bring to life and try to bring to City Council. This is how we can move Sausalito forward.
If you believe in what I've done so far, please support my re-election campaign by clicking below. Otherwise, I look forward to engaging with you during the coming weeks and earning your support.
Thank you!
Ian
