Update from District 6: Lorie Zapf's Resolutions for 2014

Lorie Zapf

Happy New Year, Clairemont! I hope you had a great holiday season with your loved ones. In the spirit of the New Year, I would like to share with you my resolutions for 2014, as one of your city council representatives.

• Improve the City’s public safety: 2013 brought new revelations about the current standard of the City’s public safety departments. Our police department has been struggling to recruit and maintain experienced officers, and we’ve seen criticism of our fire department and ambulance response times. I was happy to stand with Councilmember Faulconer to support a police recruitment and retention plan last year. In 2014, I want the City to prioritize not only staffing, but infrastructure improvements for our first responders. At some locations, police and lifeguards work out of trailers, our fire-rescue boats are in dire need of replacement, and our 911 dispatch system technology is ancient and outdated. As a City, we have an obligation to make sure our first responders have the equipment necessary to respond to emergencies when we need them.

• Maintain good fiscal standing: Most importantly, I want to keep San Diego’s budget out of the red and in the black. As we continue to restore city services from the cutbacks of the past decade, we must be careful not to overextend our pocketbook. This is why it is so important to continue implementing and improving voter-approved saving initiatives like managed competition, so that we have the money to keep our core services afloat.

• Improving infrastructure- It’s no secret that San Diego has a multi-million dollar backlog of infrastructure improvements. They include fixing our decaying streets and City-owned buildings like libraries and rec centers. I held a workshop with Councilmember Kersey to find out exactly what infrastructure priorities the public wants in District 6, and this year I will work with Mr. Kersey and the City’s Infrastructure committee on securing our share of this infrastructure investment.

• Make San Diego more bike-friendly: In a city with near-perfect weather, it really is a shame that we don’t have a more connected network of safe bike paths. Last year I was happy to sponsor a resolution to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety on City streets, and we also approved a much-needed update to the Bicycle Master Plan which will more than double the current bicycle lanes and infrastructure. This year, I want to focus on implementing that plan, and as the Chair of the Smart Growth and Land Use committee, I promise to keep this issue on the front burner.