Porterville is a wonderful city with incredible diversity and outstanding people. However, there are many issues that if handled well, will greatly improve our city. Great city staff, safe neighborhoods, well maintained roads, adult & youth recreation programs, better outcomes for our children and a more friendly business environment are all important qualities of a great city. While improving quality of life is very important, everything comes with a price tag. Brian will work to improve the quality of life while at the same time being fiscally responsible.
Working with members of our community, Brian will use maintaining and enhancing the quality of life of the people of Porterville as his guide in making decisions. Why would we spend our hard earned money on things that are not going to make our lives better?
Fiscal Integrity
Porterville has to earn its income just like any business does, because Porterville is always competing with other cities for residents and businesses. Brian will work hard to create a city where people want to live, play and shop and where businesses want to locate. He will work to develop niche markets that will encourage people to come to Porterville to shop and live, thus increasing our tax revenue. We can create a better Porterville without placing a greater tax burden on our citizens, even in difficult economic times.
When projects arise, using data-based decision making will help take the politics out of making the right choice. It's important that we shift our focus to getting results. This means that we need to look at baseline data (where are we now) and set reasonable, measurable goals that we can compare with our baseline data to see if the decisions we have made have improved the quality of life we are seeking (cost/benefit ratio). This helps us monitor the efficiency and efficacy of government services that we pay for.
Honest and Open Government
Public input about decisions are extremely important in the decision making process. This also means that we have to give the public the facts about agenda items, where it can be easy to discuss the relevant information needed in close session. Information needs to be available for review and open discussion early in the decision making process. If we don't have a lot of public input, it typically means that the public is not engaged in the community and it is more likely that apathy and ignorance can overcome us. This is why it is important to listen to everybody to make the best decisions and find ways to increase the amount of input we receive from our community.
Community Building
Increasing the social captial in Porterville is vital to our success in building a better Porterville. Social captial has been defined by L. J. Hanifan as "those tangible substances [that] count for most in the daily lives of people: namely good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among the individuals and families who make up a social unit....The individual is helpless socially, if left to himself.... If he comes into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the coöperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neighbors."
Improving the communication and the connections within, to and between social networks can reap large rewards in motivating people to get involved and also give invaluable input on ways that we can build a better Porterville.
Summary
Government's role is to strengthen and support families, not supplant it. Through improving the quality of life, spending within our means, providing an open and honest government and striving to improve and increase the social captial within our community can we strengthen the family and thus drastically improve our city!