Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
I know the best spot in my ward for …
Lunch, and that’s Cambie.
If loving this is wrong, I don’t want to be right
Pizza.
This year, I really want to achieve …
Getting additional funding from the Inflation Reduction Act for the climate work in the city. And getting a significant amount of money put into the affordable housing trust fund from land sales.
What I order for the table
A cheese board.
Never have I ever …
In my time in Missoula, never have I ever spent more than a month without being on the trail.
How can we alleviate tax pressure on homeowners and renters?
There’s been a burden shift in taxes and the legislature has given big tax credits to centrally assessed properties and large corporations. And homeowners and renters have taken up that burden. So the biggest thing we can do is lobby the legislature for turning those dials the other way. Instead of shifting them to residents, they need to shift it back to corporations. They also need to allow us to institute tourism tax on a local level, which is currently not allowed.
Change my mind about …
Homelessness costs more than providing the services and the support system to keep people out of homelessness.
I wind down by …
Reading a book, usually something that has nothing to do with work.
What’s a specific approach or policy that a community elsewhere in the country has employed to reduce homelessness that you think might also work in Missoula?
I think we need more housing at all levels. The biggest thing we can do is we can get more housing built and we need to have services available so people can get a job and that they can have addiction services and mental health services. And they can have an address, and they can have a place to shower to go to job interviews. It’s very hard to even get a driver’s license if you don’t have an address.
I geek out on …
I’m very into my dogs. I have two rescue dogs and they were rescued as puppies. One is named Ruth, because she was named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg and we got her very shortly after her passing. And the other one is named Nali, short for Denali, and that is completely my daughter’s naming. But it was better than the other dog that was named Sugar.
My best dad joke
Why is six afraid of seven?
Seven ate nine.
Three infrastructure priorities?
I really like roundabouts. Building out bike lanes. And I would like to see something happen at the base of where Pattee Canyon Drive and Southwest Higgins meet. That intersection worries me.
My cry in the car song
I have to tell you, I’m not really a crier to songs. I would say that a movie where an animal dies is always the one that would make me cry.
That fire levy though …
So, I think a lot of it all comes back to funding. We absolutely need to support our firefighters, give them a living wage, make sure that they have equipment. We need to make sure that we have enough of them that when you call them, they are there quickly. If there is not a major overhaul quickly in our tax system, which I don’t anticipate happening, then we have to run a fire levy at some point soon.
Unusual skills
I do not get, ruffled very easily. That’s what my friends always tell me. I’m kind of unruffleable.
Together, we could …
Make a significant difference in the direction of climate change.
