As a small business owner in a harsh economy I am well accustomed to balancing a budget by making those changes necessary to be able to keep the doors open without sacrificing quality and service to my customers.

I believe that we can weather our current crisis and avoid future problems without sacrificing the safety and quality of life for Denver’s citizens. I look forward to working with the next mayor on the budget and have several ideas that I would bring to the table. I will also welcome suggestions from the citizens of District 1.

We must both develop creative new revenue sources and at the same time tackle inefficiencies and duplications in City government. With my experience as a small business owner, I will work to implement policies that will make Denver attractive to new business.

Denver is known as a very clean city, a quality that helps attract new residents and businesses, and I will work to keep it that way. Instead of asking individual residents to pay for their personal trash services, I will propose that we look at the savings we could gain by changing the Dumpster pick-­‐up schedule to every 8 days instead of once a week. This would not require individuals to remember a complicated schedule nor would it compromise the cleanliness of our alleyways.