Election for MV City Council is coming soon, March 3rd. Lots of important issues for your vote. But where we live, how we live, and how we can express our commitment to democracy and the environment is right here at the local level. And here is where our support and vote can make a difference in our lives.
As an environmentalist, I pay attention to land use issues and witness the elected and the appointed office holders at public hearings. I know how department heads and the city manager react to questions and criticism. As a former trial lawyer of complex financial/tax litigation, I look at budgets.
In the coming years, our coping skills will be tested by the new state laws' erosion of local control through removal of single-family R-1 zoning ordinances, and what that means to a city as hazard prone as MV. How we prioritize our spending with a budget challenge so severe that we are on the cusp of paying more to people who have left than to those at work for our safety and the other basic services that only government can provide is formidable and divisive.
Kirk Knauer is a person who understands these challenges and the reality of what it takes to meet them.
He has the experience to analyze, critique, and do the math. Many years ago, Kirk and his family of wife, 3 kids and a dog, bought a landmark tiny cottage surrounded by public lands and above our creek. I was in shock for what that meant, the threat, the loss. But he and his family know how to walk the talk.
Authentic, true to himself as well as to the environment, he settled in and brought his family life in Cascade Canyon in FB photos to all of us, reminding us of the privilege of simply living where we live.
We need a bright light of honesty and vision, strength of character, not beholden to ideologues, developers, activists, or one-pony interests, but who knows and cares about us, one of our own.
Please support our guy, Kirk.
For more information and to donate and to help, go to his website www.kirkjknauer.com, and Facebook kirkjknauer.
Thanks for your time.