Election 2012: Carson City Board of Supervisors Ward 4

In Carson City, all local officials run as non-partisan candidates. And unlike their legislative counterparts, Board of Supervisors candidates run for a ward seat but are voted on by all voters in the city, not just residents of their ward.

Occupation: Semi-retired and a licensed residential Realtor Email: ILoveCarsonCity@gmail.com Website:www.ElectJimShirk.comPhone: 720-5761Explain your background and how this qualifies you for the position you are seeking. My community involvement runs deep, which includes serving as: a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA); a volunteer on the City’s Cultural and Planning Commissions; and the liaison in obtaining the World Trade Center Steel I Beam from New York City to establish our City memorial for Sept. 11, 2001. After being discharged from the Navy, I went to work in construction starting as a carpenter apprentice. Sixteen years later I became one of the leading superintendents overseeing large projects. Directing numerous contractors and countless employees is very challenging. Meeting project deadlines on time and under budget is extremely rewarding. My personal ambitions led me to open my own construction firm. I know much better than my opponent how to start a business, how to run a profitable and successful business and, most importantly, how to meet payroll and budgets. My opponent demonstrated a lack of business knowledge by increasing your service fees and raising your property taxes to cover the budget deficit margin. You have a choice this November — my opponent who consistently follows the Board on tax and fee increases, or you can vote for Jim Shirk who will work for you, your family and your community. What are the top three issues facing the city, what should be done to resolve them?1. Financial responsibility: My opponent knew full well that the state would push financial burdens onto the city and should have found ways to curtail nonessential spending. To prevent another major budget deficit, we need to dramatically restructure our internal budget procedures. My recommendation: have the budget reviewed by line item with department managers in public rather than allowing the city manager to designate how your tax dollars are spent, which my opponent currently supports. We need our elected officials to be leaders not followers. My opponent voted to spend thousands on design concepts that exceeds the construction budget for the MultiPurpose Athletic Building; we cannot continually waste time and money. My opponent also voted to increase your water and sewer fees and then approved the funding for the remodeling of a public works building from this same budget, which is unacceptable.2. Convention and Visitors Bureau. Carson City has much to offer as a place to live, work, and play. The CCCVB is one of the major components contributing to our quality of life. We need to seize every opportunity for growth and prosperity for our business community by expanding our golf and sports tournaments. My recommendation for increasing visitors and tax revenues is to work harder and smarter with our city recreation departments to bring these and other events to town.3.CC Ballot Question #1. This is a Tax Increase! If passed, our sales taxes will be one of the highest in Nevada. My opponent’s approval to raise property taxes has drastically affected homeowners’ budgets. The combination of these two tax increases by my opponent equates to economical disaster; it will hurt your business and your family. My opponent claims that this project will bring widespread economic benefit to our community, but has failed to produce any document that will support these claims. With the growing demands on our City’s budget, combined with diminishing revenue bases, we first need to focus on implementing strategies to support our local businesses; this will increase our tax revenue and bring new businesses to our community. Before incurring any additional debt we must have a balanced budget and increase our reserves, which will safeguard our community. CC#1 Vote NO!Why should voters choose you over the other candidate?My opponent believes using your tax dollars to build a library will be the single incentive for visitors to travel to Carson City and businesses to relocate here. My belief is that private enterprise will bring sustainable growth, prosperity and economic stability to Carson City. My opponent raised your water, sewer, and landfill fees; we had a $3 million budget deficit and my opponent raised your property taxes to cover that margin. Now my opponent plans on burdening our community with bond debt in the millions to build a library. This is not okay. I believe the city should provide services at a reasonable cost to taxpayers. Balancing our budget must be our top priority because it is the first step in achieving success. Regardless of where you live in Carson City you can vote for Jim Shirk, ensuring Carson City will have a supervisor who listens, cares, and delivers.

Occupation: Educator Email: molly@mollywalt.comWebsite: www.mollywalt.com Phone: 297-5007Explain your background and how this qualifies you for the position you are seeking. Throughout the past four years as Carson City supervisor, I have made this position my top priority and have proven to be an effective and fiscally responsible leader for Carson City. Additionally, I am an educator in the Carson City School District, a small business owner and have three generations of my family living in Carson City. As supervisor, I have maintained an impeccable attendance record and proactive leadership role on numerous boards and commissions — Vice President of Nevada Association of Counties (NACO), Vice Chairman of Carson City Convention & Visitors Bureau (CCCVB) and Commissioner of Carson City Parks & Recreation. In 2011, Gov. Sandoval appointed me to the Board of Trustees — Fund of Hospital Care to Indigent Persons. Additionally, I serve on the Advisory Council for the Carson City Senior Center, Regional Commissioner of AYSO, President of the Pinkerton Ballet Theatre and Board of Directors for Food For Thought. My active engagement in numerous organizations coupled with my extensive experience as a supervisor for the past four years affords me a varied and vast knowledge of Carson City and what it needs to thrive, not just today and tomorrow, but 20 years from now.What are the top three issues facing the city, what should be done to resolve them?1. Carson City has been particularly hard hit in the recession. I have taken proactive measures to rebuild a healthy economy by focusing on connecting people with job opportunities and training, developing a diversified business environment through business recruitment and leveraging services, supporting businesses by encouraging our community to buy locally and fostering entrepreneurial opportunities. These efforts need to be achieved cost-effectively and be mindful of fiscal accountability. We can further enhance our economy by further implementing business-friendly procedures and ordinances. Several examples of successful efforts include the city amending an ordinance to allow businesses to expand signage in front of their locations, working closely with potential new businesses to encourage them to locate in Carson City and encouraging educational partnerships such as Dream It Do It to create career opportunities and training needed by our existing businesses. As supervisor, I am focused on continuing to make strides in improving our economy and making Carson City a great place to work, own a business and enjoy an excellent quality of life.2. Balancing our budget while providing quality services from a dedicated public work force is the basis of an economically healthy capital city. However, we must work diligently to streamline services and workflow and eliminate redundancy to optimize financial resources. As a supervisor, I will continue to focus on requiring each department/program to honestly and carefully scrutinize all costs and analyze each output/ benefit to determine where adjustments can be made to benefit the bottom line of the budget. Interregional cooperation with outlying counties to share services is another area we can continue to focus on to lower costs and balance our budget.3. Ensuring quality of life — Carson City is a great place to live, raise a family and retire. As supervisor, in order to maintain this balance, I will focus on building a healthy and diverse economy, providing quality educational opportunities for students of all ages and levels and maintaining a safe and welcoming community. My experience as an educator in the school district and my involvement with sports, arts and cultural organizations, coupled with my leadership role as Carson City supervisor, as well as numerous boards and commissions, gives me a broad perspective of the needs of our community. It is a priority to maintain and enhance Carson City’s quality of life, and I will continue to focus on these efforts. Why should voters choose you over the other candidates? I am serious about the work necessary to create healthy life styles, multi-generational recreation spaces and true Nevada culture. I remain focused on the hard work of creating lifelong learning and business opportunities for each citizen who wants them. I’ve focused on supporting and helping small businesses grow by fostering tourism, including sports tournaments and by prioritizing business-friendly city services. I continue to focus on quality of life by addressing parks and recreation facility needs, enhancing trails and preserving open space. I will continue to focus on action-oriented approaches that deliver results in creating a vibrant downtown through efforts such as the City Center Project. I have worked hard to earn the respect of our community by meeting with and listening to the citizens of Carson City. I am focused on fiscally responsible efforts and activities that benefit Carson City’s economy, safety and quality of life.