I’m a naturally curious person and a quick learner. As a Representative, these traits will help me get up to speed and contribute effectively, even when issues before the Board are outside of my previous experience.

My top priority is affordability. Too many people are cost-burdened by housing or pushed out of the city by rising rents. For renters, my primary goal is to increase competition among developers and landlords. Unless they’re worried about losing their tenants, landlords are incentivized to keep raising rents year in and year out. Right now, much of the development in Stamford is done by a couple large developers. I want to make it easier for smaller developers to compete with the big players, which should help to bring some power and flexibility back to renters.

For homeowners, mortgages are locked in – there’s not much the Board of Representatives can do about those. However, the Board does have the power to cut from the city budget. As a Representative, I’ll scrutinize the budget and work to ensure that homeowners’ property taxes are no higher than they need to be.

The Connecticut State Legislature recently passed House Bill 5002, which set “fair share” housing construction targets for each city and town to ensure that the entire burden of development didn’t fall onto cities like Stamford and Norwalk, instead requiring our neighbors in Greenwich, Darien, and New Canaan to do their parts. Unfortunately, this was vetoed by Gov. Lamont – however, the same ideas apply at the city level. We cannot ask one or two neighborhoods to shoulder housing for all of Stamford.

To that end, the Comprehensive Plan should make clear what each neighborhood’s “fair share” is, then work proactively with residents to determine how best to achieve it. The first priority should be to leverage existing infrastructure by building around it when possible. In the longer term, though, we’ll also need to make responsible investments into our schools and transportation infrastructure, ensuring that we maintain quality of life going forward.

I also think it’s important to note that the Board of Representatives doesn’t play a formal role in these decisions, which are ultimately made by the Planning Board and Zoning Board. Informally, Representatives can help to serve as a means of communication between communities and these Boards, but ultimately we are not the ones who will have authority on these matters and cast votes on these questions.

Currently the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) gets funding from two sources: first, the “fee-in-lieu” contributions from developments which do not contain any affordable units; second, the “commercial linkage” contributions from a percentage of all development fees collected by the city. Recently, the current Board of Representatives voted to substantially increase development fees, justifying the increase by saying it would result in more money for the AHTF. I think this move was counterproductive, since the Board failed to add exceptions for affordable housing or small developments. As a result, any increase in funds to the AHTF from this policy will be offset by additional demands placed on it.

A better strategy is to increase the percentage of fees that go to the AHTF. Currently, it is only 10%. I support working proactively with the AHTF Trustees to determine what funding level is required, and increasing the contribution percentage as needed.

I support the current processes for safeguarding how the money is used. Applications and evaluation criteria are publicly available on the city website. Trustees meetings are open to the public and recordings are available. As Representative, I will listen to any concerns about AHTF funds are used and bring those concerns before the Trustees as needed.

UPDATE: At the October 6 Board of Representatives meeting, the Board voted to increase the AHTF contribution percentage from 10% to 15% and to reduce development fees affordable housing -- both of these are positive changes in my view.