What qualities, training, experience or skills would you bring to this office? I am an honest and hard-working person who is committed to my community. I have worked in the legal field for over 12 years and my training, education and experience will help me research and discuss issues with fellow council members and the community. How would you better life for city/county residents? As a community, we need to start at the roots of our community and explore options to better our entire foundation.
We need to start by creating a community of acceptance and value. Casper is a very giving and caring community, and we should build on that by reaching out to our residents and including everyone in future plans for our city. When adopting a budget for the city or county, what would you prioritize and why? Our infrastructure will be a priority in the budget.
The basic necessity of clean water and sanitary living should be a priority for every home in Casper. If our water and sewer system, water treatment plant or waste management systems fail due to lack of maintenance and age, our entire city will suffer. What do you believe will be the greatest challenges that this office will face in the upcoming year, and how would you approach those challenges? Community outreach is one of the greatest challenges that our city council currently faces.
We need to engage with our residents and find ways to encourage involvement and input for decisions. The homeless population is a situation that needs to be addressed and innovative conversations need to happen with community churches, mental health providers and businesses to find solutions. Casper and Natrona County have recently had some tough times involving the youth of the community.
In addition, the state at large is concerned about keeping young people in and attracting them to Wyoming. If elected, what would your approach be to improving life for the minors in the city or county? What is your stance on youth justice? The City of Casper has numerous partnerships with businesses that are equipped to market and attract industry and new business to our community. As a member of the city council, my job is to keep Casper safe, regulated and beautiful.
Having discussions with our youth, parents and educators would be essential to meeting the needs of our youth. What’s something about you that’s not related to why you are running for this office that you would like voters to know? I am the mother to three beautiful children and stepmother to two fantastic men. I love to fly fish and camp, and I attend every home Cowboy football game in Laramie.
Go Pokes! What qualities, training, experience or skills would you bring to this office? Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts My background is in business management and accounting. I have owned and run several businesses and currently have an accounting and business consulting business here in Casper. I have worked as a bank manager, insurance agent, sales supervisor, retail area manager and restaurant manager, among other things.
My education is in business administration and accounting. I have served 3 1⁄2 years on the Casper Planning and Zoning Commission and have been the chairperson for the past year and a half. I served on the Casper City Council for 4 months as I was appointed to finish out Steve Freel’s term when he moved out of Ward 3.
With my service on the P&Z as well as the city council I have served on the Old Yellowstone District Board and the Casper Historical Society Board. I have served in leadership positions my whole life in jobs as well as in church and civic responsibilities. I have taken many classes on leadership, and I have taught many classes on leadership.
I could write a book on what I have learned about leadership throughout my life. The most important thing about being a leader is to never ask anyone to do anything that you yourself would not be willing to do. As a leader you have to be able to make the hard decisions that there will always be those who disagree with those decisions, but you can’t please everyone.
How would you better life for city/county residents? I feel that one of the issues that is facing many in our community and around the world is mental health and the lack of help. I would love to help find a solution by getting mental health professionals, non-profit organizations, Casper College and UW along with city representatives to help find a solution for this shortage of mental health workers. I think if we all get together, we can get more people into that field of work, provide more assistance for those in need and possibly attract more professionals to live here in Casper.
This would definitely improve life for a large percentage of our population by giving more people a career and giving others the help they need to have a better life. When adopting a budget for the city or county, what would you prioritize and why? Priorities for any city should be for the safety of the community. .
.. In order to provide for the safety of the people we need to first focus on our first responders.
We are in need of additional police officers as well as firefighters. We definitely need to focus on recruiting people to Casper. .
.. We have many young people here who complain about needing a job so maybe we can start doing more recruiting at the high school and college levels to encourage them to enter into these great careers.
In order to attract more firefighters and police officers we need to be able to pay them a good living wage, provide for the training they need to do the job properly and provide a city that has recreational opportunities for them and their families. Our infrastructure will be another focus, as we have a lot of upkeep that has been passed along for many years . .
.. For example, the Metro Animal shelter.
When it was built people did not look at animals the way the do now so that facility is not able to take care of the animals in the way people want to see them taken care of. Many of our city buildings are in dire need of repair or replacement. Our streets are in terrible shape.
All of this costs money and the only ways to get the money for these things is to either cut spending elsewhere, raise taxes or find grants to help. These things are not popular with the community, but that is the reality of the situation. Casper has grown immensely in square mileage yet our population has grown very little so we have a much larger infrastructure to take care of with a budget that is not a lot larger than what it was before the growth.
So balancing needs and wants is a much harder thing than it used to be. What do you believe will be the greatest challenges that this office will face in the upcoming year, and how would you approach those challenges? The greatest challenges will be fixing the things that need fixed without raising taxes to the point that we create more problems for the people. We are all faced with huge economic problems and increased inflation, yet people still want to have all of the things they are used to having.
Trying to figure out how to balance the needs and wants will take some very creative thinking and not all of the solutions will be popular, but those decisions will have to be made. Casper and Natrona County have recently had some tough times involving the youth of the community. In addition, the state at large is concerned about keeping young people in and attracting them to Wyoming.
If elected, what would your approach be to improving life for the minors in the city or county? What is your stance on youth justice? We need to attract businesses that the next generation will want to work for, which is an interesting problem in and of itself. If we attract those businesses, they will need a workforce, which at the moment we do not have a large enough experienced workforce. We have many businesses in town that are begging for employees yet are unable to hire.
In order to fix that problem, there has to be cooperation between the city, the college and any business we can bring in. If we have a new business ..
. then we need to set up training through the college to ensure there is a workforce . .
.. There should be a way for the business to help pay for that training so they will have employees, and the city will have jobs for the younger generation with opportunities for advancement and for earning a good living.
We need to also start preparing our youth better in the home and at school for opportunities and work. Trade schools should be encouraged; careers like police officers, firefighters, EMTs and tradesmen of all kinds should be encouraged. We need to encourage local businesses to do career days or shadow an employee days .
...
As far as youth justice, there is always room for improvement. Our youth need to have advocates available that can speak to them fairly and help them get the outcome that will best serve the situation and give them the best opportunity for growth and rehabilitation. This should be something that a nonprofit should be formed to help with or law firms should be required to offer a certain number of pro-bono hours to help with this.
Many of the offending youth have bad home situations that add to their problems and many of them just need some guidance. Unfortunately, many people think that the school system should raise their kids for them and that is just not possible with all of the problem youth that the schools have to deal with. What’s something about you that’s not related to why you are running for this office that you would like voters to know? I was born and raised in Casper and have been married for over 38 years and have two children who were raised here in Casper.
My wife is a native Brazilian, and we all are polyglots, and we love learning other languages and about other cultures. Marcia Neumiller Andrew Towne Michael McIntosh Andrew Towne.
