My passion is the City of Florence. My husband, Wally, and I both grew up in Florence and raised our children here. My grandchildren are being raised here as well. This community is my home as well as my heart and my “job” as mayor is a labor of love.
I grew up in a small house on U.S. 42 when Florence was still considered a “bedroom community”. Over the years, I have witnessed Florence grow from that small town to one of the best places to live in Kentucky.
Our progress isn’t just a reflection of one person, but rather a collaboration of local elected officials, city employees, first responders, and our residents and community at large. When community is prioritized over politics, it is amazing what can be accomplished.
Building a culture of collaboration, execution, and public service over partisanship is my proudest accomplishment as mayor. I firmly believe Washington, D.C. and Frankfort could learn a lot from our community about how good government can operate.
In the spirit of collaboration, the city embarked on a strategic plan in 2006 designed to stabilize our finances, foster a strong business environment, deliver the best city services to our citizens, and position our city to be able to withstand tough economic times or financial crises passed down to us by our state or federal governments.
Since adopting and executing this strategy, Florence has become one of the most financially stable cities in Kentucky and a model for economic growth. In the last 18 months alone, we have generated $205 million in new business investment, creating hundreds of new quality jobs. We also accumulated a $5-million “rainy day” reserve fund and established a $12-million dollar infrastructure fund to ensure quick action when the state approves road and infrastructure projects in our city.
More importantly, because of our financial planning efforts, we withstood the Great Recession of 2008 and we are able to bear the burden of substantial increases in pension costs without raising taxes or cutting police and fire protection. As many other cities scrambled to raise revenues or cut services, Florence’s strong economic development has allowed us to continue to thrive in this difficult environment while keeping our tax rates — among the lowest in Northern Kentucky — unchanged for 10 years.
While I’m proud of all of our accomplishments, many challenges still lie ahead. How do we continue to keep Florence’s retail sector thriving in a growing online retail environment? How do we continue to attack the heroin and opioid epidemic that is wreaking havoc on our families? How do we make sure we remain economically competitive? How do we make sure our economic prosperity extends to all areas of Florence? How do we collaborate with our state officials to relieve congestion on state roads and build new infrastructure to support future growth?
It is easy for a politician to play armchair quarterback and proclaim what he would do if he were in charge. The reality, however, is that a mayor doesn’t have dictatorial power – leadership is based on collaboration with city council, city employees, first responders, other elected officials, and residents. A leader must inspire a shared community vision and have the skillset needed to execute and deliver results, which is something our team has consistently done in Florence.
My opponent has no track record of leadership accomplishments, no real executive-management experience, has never managed a multi-million dollar budget, has no economic development experience, and has never dealt with crisis situations, such as the heroin and opioid epidemic now facing our community. Instead, much of his campaign is rooted in distortion, partial truths, and criticism of my administration with no realistic alternative vision that doesn’t include jeopardizing our financial future.
The City of Florence has had the foresight and discipline to position our government to handle – even thrive – during challenges, such as those facing us today and those we expect tomorrow. As your mayor, I will continue to facilitate our culture of collaboration and executing our strategic action plan to insure that Florence remains one of the most affordable and greatest places in Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati to live, work, and raise a family.