As an Army Intelligence officer, communicating timely and relevant information to decisionmakers has always been core to my mission. I believe elected officials should similarly keep the ultimate decisionmakers, local citizens, informed about what is going on in their community.

Even as a candidate for city office, I must admit that I sometimes struggle to find information about city policies and procedures. I have also talked to residents during the campaign who want to know more about events that are happening in St. Joseph and struggle to know where to look.

We live in a world with so many channels of information, it is difficult for any organization, including our city government, to reach people effectively. According to the survey, the most preferred source of information about city news and events was Facebook. Unfortunately, even that source was only identified as the first choice of 40% of respondents.

If elected, I plan on maintaining a presence on social media where I can keep residents up to date on developments in city government and in the local community, both in written and straight to camera updates on a regular interval. I will also do “ask me anything” (AMA) type posts and try to apply contemporary and interactive communication strategies across a number of platforms.