Thank you for checking out this blog. This is an opportunity to post questions for me to answer. Below are questions that were asked to me at the Meet and Greet on 10/5, most of which there wasn’t time to answer, so I am answering them here. Please ask questions in a comment and I will answer those questions. I think it’s important for folks to be able to ask questions and find out more about my thoughts.

Question 1: Address the fact that the Mayor is a non-partisan position and share your thoughts on how you believe your own personal “partisan” beliefs vs your role as Mayor in a non-partisan position?

First, I believe that the issues confronting Rockaway Beach are non-partisan in nature to begin with. I don’t think it matters what party you belong to, Rockaway Beach issues are our own and have Rockaway solutions.  To me it’s all about getting the community, with different backgrounds and viewpoints, working together to come up with solutions that make sense. I truly believe you get a group of people working together that have different beliefs, backgrounds, viewpoints and opinions you get creative solutions that land somewhere in the middle. It’s no longer an us vs them, but we need to come up with ideas and solutions that we can all live with. I spent a couple decades working on cross-organizational teams (across offices, states, and countries) where the only way to get things done was to work together to come to common solutions. All that said, I don’t fit nicely in any party – I always consider each issue on its merits not what any party platform says makes sense.

Question 2: Please speak to the issue raised in our community’s social media that married couples both serving city government should “be a concern”?

I can certainly see why this question would come up, of course I’ve asked myself does it make sense. The one thing I can say is while we both have the best for Rockaway Beach at heart, we don’t always agree with each other and certainly will challenge each other when we don’t. Since the Mayor position does not have a vote, I do not think it poses a risk of the ability to push forward any particular action even if that was a concern. I guess I would ask you to look at what we both stand for and make your decision based on that. If you feel like only one of us should be in city government, I can also respect that and would suggest you seriously consider the most qualified candidate – Stephanie Winchester for City Council.

Question 3: Do you believe limiting STRs will help with the need for affordable housing? Why? OR why not?

This is an area I am passionate about. I cover this pretty thoroughly above, but to answer the question, I am certain that limiting STRs will make no difference in availability and certainly the cost of long-term housing. The cost of long-term rentals is a reflection of the cost of real estate and the cost to build. I do believe there are policy decisions that can result in more affordable housing options, and the city council has done nothing toward that end. Most importantly, by not doing anything it is exacerbating the housing crisis as there will be a lag in seeing results from policy changes – it’s not like any change will all of a sudden result in more housing,

Question 4: What is your stance on seat #s vs block voting? And why?

I am absolutely opposed to numbers on seats for the city council. I think this is terrible for the voters of Rockaway – no councilor should get elected unopposed because of a number on a seat while other councilors run against several candidates. Seats were added after almost 70 years of n seats with no vote or any other official action, and it is to the detriment to US the voters. I will work to make sure this gets put in front of voters to choose, what do they want! There are several areas of our city charter that I believe need updating and the voters need a say in that.

Question 5: What differentiates you from our current Mayor?

The thing that differentiate me from the current Mayor is that I will represent all stakeholders in Rockaway Beach, not my like-minded circle. My job as mayor isn’t to get what I want, it’s to LISTEN to the people of Rockaway Beach and push for win-win solutions. I am dedicated to getting more committees formed to address key Rockaway Beach issues with community members that have opinions on all sides of the issues. They will not be hand picked people on the committees with the same viewpoints, it defeats the purpose. People will apply and be selected based on what they bring to the discussion, one of those things is their differing opinions. You don’t get good solutions by having people that agree on a committee – you get the suggestions you want which again would not be my job as Mayor.

Secondarily, I will 100% support keeping our Fireworks show on the 4th of July, which the current Mayor has told people he would like to eliminate. I believe this is a great Rockaway Beach tradition – it’s great for our businesses, it’s great for second homeowners who come down with family and friends, and it’s great for the many residents that we watch bring down generations of family members and friends every year for the 4th of July to share their beach town (us included).

Update 10/8: the Mayor today has professed his love of fireworks shows and would never consider cutting the fireworks in Rockaway Beach. Well, fact is the council absolutely considered it (enough to directed the city to look into drone or laser light show as an alternative to fireworks in the October workshop reporting back in the November workshop). While the Mayor being a fan of our fireworks show is contrary to what I have heard from multiple sources, I stand corrected, and I say GREAT!  If he gets re-elected, hold him to his word that’s now in print and keep our Rockaway fireworks tradition alive. There were a couple councilors who made the practical point at the Nov workshop that there would be a lot of blowback if the fireworks went away and businesses have said it’s critical to them. They basically decided to table it to a future discussion. The Mayor did, however, say “virtually all the towns up and down the coast are shutting down their fireworks displays, we are one of the few cities that.[hard to understand but basically still has one]….” not in the context that it’s great for Rockaway that we are one of the last towns keeping the tradition alive.  What it comes down to, I will say I stand corrected and be happy that regardless of the election outcome our fireworks show seems to be safe.