Posted: Monday, December 28
There has been quite a bit of conversation recently about the many issues facing our city, particularly those facing the business community. This discussion is both healthy and necessary if we are going to navigate Sacramento through these trying economic times.Our City, like many communities, has seen a growing trend toward putting politics over policy and divisiveness over decision making. We have to change this culture. Good people will disagree, but there comes a time to put those disagreements aside and get to the business of turning our City around. I am running for City Council because I want to be a part of this change.
I am no stranger to working through volatile issues and times. Early in my days of community service, I served as President of the Oak Park Neighborhood Improvement Association. Working with community leaders we created change in our neighborhood by targeting drug dealers and cleaning up our parks. We fought to open the first new school in Oak Park in 40 years and worked with City leaders to open a neighborhood supermarket when opening a business there was considered a risk.
When I was appointed to City Planning Commission in 1993, businesses were leaving Sacramento because it was a place where it was simply too difficult to “do business”. City leaders embarked on efforts to fix what was broken, creating the Development Oversight Committee, stream lined processes and consistent policies and practices geared toward removing unnecessary roadblocks and tangled red tape to help business thrive. These coordinated efforts resulted in the creation jobs and opportunities.
Now is the time for us to once again come together and identify areas in which we can do better.
As a lifelong Sacramentan, public official, and candidate, I welcome the opportunity to work with you and others in the community to right the ship. Bringing those with divergent points of view together, I tackled tough problems in our community and worked to create jobs. I know that we can work together on the issues we face today.
Please feel free to call me at 446-4434 or email me at Patrick@patrickkennedylaw.com to share with me concrete ideas how we can work together for a better Sacramento.