March 25, 2013

 

Dear Neighbors,

 

I have enjoyed this campaign. My greatest joy has come from meeting so many of you. Thanks to this election, I have spent the last six weeks knocking on your doors, touring your businesses and answering your calls. Every time I hear one of your ideas, one of your stories or one of your worries, I am reminded why I enjoyed being a City Council member and why I want to be Mayor. I have always liked helping my neighbors.

 

On April 2, we again find ourselves determining what course our City takes in its future. In this election, we face a clear choice: Do we devote immediate attention to preserving the core neighborhoods in the heart of our City by electing a leader with a proven track record of leadership, experience and neighborhood preservation, or do we choose four more years of on-the-job training and attention diverted from our neighborhoods.

 

I have advocated for our neighborhoods for more than 20 years. I live with you, in the heart of our City fighting to improve our neighborhoods and strengthen our community.

 

My efforts to preserve our neighborhoods earned me the nickname “Mr. Neighborhood.” It may be a criticism, but I take it as an honor and a challenge. In my years with the Council, I developed legislation to make it more difficult to take single-family homes and turn them into rentals. When restrictive garage ordinances limited the ability to build suitable garages in the older sections of the City, I authored the Carriage House Program. I have fought for regulations that force landlords to clean up and improve their properties, tougher noise ordinances and safer neighborhoods.

 

My belief in our neighborhoods led me to Chair the Housing Rehabilitation

Committee for more than 20 years. In that time, the Committee rebuilt and

rehabbed more than 1,100 homes. Providing this affordable housing strengthens La Crosse’s neighborhoods and attracts more growing, middle-class families. Furthering these efforts is why I have proposed “Phase One” of my Neighborhood Revitalization Plan: A two-year, $3 million investment into our homes, our neighborhoods and our schools without a single penny increase in property taxes.

 

As we preserve, restore and rehabilitate our neighborhoods, we also need to protect them. The City needs to enforce existing ordinances, not only for various

maintenance standards but also for criminal activity. “Phase Two” of my

Neighborhood Revitalization Plan includes a 3-1-1 phone line to report Quality of Life Crimes — such as public urination, noise disturbances, acts of graffiti and blocked alleyways, among many others. This phone line will reduce the negative

effects these crimes have on our neighborhoods. If we can reduce the Quality of Life Crimes that degrade our neighborhoods, we can discourage those who

perpetuate them from settling in our City.

 

Preserving, rehabilitating and protecting our neighborhoods will grow the

substantial tax base they represent. Holding the line on our rising property taxes begins with the safeguarding and preservation of our neighborhoods and the substantial tax base they represent.

 

An executive budget — “Phase Three” — can further correct our City’s finances and prevent additional increases in our property taxes. This process requires the Mayor to assume a central role in the Budgetary Process. It is a lot of work, but I have done it before when I Chaired the La Crosse County Finance and Personnel Committee, and I will do it now for the City.

 

With my many years in public service, I have experience with public budgets, union negotiations, health insurance contracts, personnel issues and municipal bonding. City Hall needs this experience, especially after the last eight years of turmoil. My opponent is a decent man with an expertise in TIFs whose City Hall experience is limited to seven years as an assistant planner in the planning department, one of the City’s smallest departments.

 

La Crosse is a wonderful place. Our challenges are many and varied. With

experience and leadership, those challenges can be managed. Please join former Mayoral candidates Rich Smith, Jon Olson, Chris Olson, Randy Magno and Mike Brown in supporting me for Mayor of La Crosse. Together we will continue to make La Crosse a community we are proud to call home and where we are happy to raise our children.

 

I ask for your vote on April 2.

 

                                                                                 Sincerely,

 

                                                                             Douglas Farmer

 

P.S.

I have been asked numerous times if my opponent’s supporters are the same ones who supported the City Administrator a year ago — Yes, the same treasurer, the same fundraiser and nearly two-thirds of the same donors.

 

My position is and always has been clear: As stated in my Tribune Guest Editorial last year just before the referendum, I believe in an elected Mayor, chosen by the voters and answerable to the voters should run this City.