My Stump Speech

Now that the last of the meet-the-candidate events is over, I'm posting my stump speech here for those who weren't able to attend. Like a basic black suit, this is a mix-and-match piece which was excerpted as necessary to fit the various time limits at the various venues.

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Four years ago, I ran for city council saying I wanted to see American Fork provide a neighborly experience for our children and families, with all that entails—parks, ballfields, safe routes to school, a mix of cultural and recreational offerings, and the preservation of our beautiful neighborhoods . Underpinning this vision, I said, was the need for strong leadership and careful attention to finance, planning, management, and economic growth.

These last four years, I have been hard at work on this vision, and I believe the need for strong leadership and planning has never been more important than it is now.

Road maintenance has been deferred far too long. Public safety continues to be priority one, and the City must commit to paying for top quality police, fire, and ambulance protection. These are costly but essential priorities. With careful planning, the City can provide for these needs without overwhelming the taxpayer's wallet and still have a little money left over for quality of life.

If there's one theme of my campaign I want you to understand, it is the great importance I place on long-range planning. Long-range planning would have seen pressurized irrigation completed in 1994, when it was first considered, for a total price tag of $9 million dollars. That's $40 million cheaper than the $48.95 of the 2006 pressurized irrigation bond, which translates to an 80 percent savings over today's water rates. Long-range planning in the coming years is the only way we can prevent this from happening again. It's the only way American Fork can get out of debt and provide for road maintenance without overburdening the tax payer.

There isn't time at an event like this for me to tell you everything that's in my heart. Please, I hope you will visit my Web site at http://www.heidiforcouncil.com/ to learn more about my platform. Let’s talk more tonight before you go home. And you already know you can call or email me at any time. I am always happy to listen.

For tonight, let me make you a fistful of promises.

1. I promise, for the next four years, to prioritize our city’s most pressing needs, which in my opinion are road maintenance, public safety, and long-range planning.

2. I promise to remember that I must pay the same taxes I ask you to pay. When this is a hardship on you, it is a hardship on me.

3. I promise to listen to both sides of any issue, to keep an open mind while I listen, and to analyze the numbers and their consequences carefully.

4. I promise to be available to you. You already know that you can call me on the phone, write me a letter, email me, or stop me at the library or the grocery store, and I will respond. I love hearing from you, and I always follow through.

5. Finally, I promise to continue my advocacy of the quality of life issues that make this the kind of city we all want to live in.

You can trust me when I make these promises because this is what I have been doing for the past four years. It's what I did for years before that when I was volunteering for the City, and it's what I will continue to do for the next four years.

It has been a great privilege to work side by side with the residents and families, citizens and neighbors who make American Fork the kind of city we all want to live in. I would be so pleased to continue this collaboration for four more years.