I wanted to share some additional information about myself, to help describe who I am as a person and who would be representing you on the West Fargo City Commission.
My full-time job is as a Finance Analyst. I’ve been in several analyst roles in many different areas. I am currently employed at Doosan Bobcat. Shortly after I started there, I was put through a training course on CliftonStrengths. Through the training, I was able to start understanding how I work. One of my top 5 strengths is “Context”. Being high in Context, I work to understand the background, enjoy digging into the past and understanding why decisions were made. Therefore, I am telling you all this background detail. My remaining top strengths are Deliberative, Responsibility, Analytical, and Achiever.
I have recently gone through the Leadership Development program at work. This is a group of selected individuals that learn about leadership, network and do some self-reflection. The main takeaway from the program is creating a purpose statement. The purpose statement is something that describes you, as a person, what drives you, why you do the things you do. Through a lot of thought, and to spare you the details in how I came up with it, my purpose statement is:
“Continuously Study Improvement”
I am always thinking about ways to improve things. I’m one of those people, like many, where my mind is racing from the time I wake up to the time I fall asleep (even though my eyes and body may not agree with my brain). When there is a problem or a puzzle of sorts that needs to be solved, I enjoy thinking about it as I move about my day and a lot of times think of a resolution when I least expect it.
I have found, through the different jobs I’ve had over the years that when I care about the topics, I am thinking about them more and about how to improve them. I think a lot about what the City is doing, and how that affects the Residents. I often think about work too, how to improve different reports and dashboards I’ve pulled together.
I know that when it comes to the City, there is a lot that needs to be understood and what makes things work. One thing that I always find myself thinking about is how the decisions they make affect the Residents. I live in an area that’s been affected a lot by the development of northern Sheyenne Street.
A couple of summers ago I contacted the City to get some yield (or stop) signs at 2nd Ave and Francis Street. When the City vacated 4th Ave at Sheyenne, there was additional traffic pushed to the surrounding streets that were outlets to/inlets from Main Ave, Sheyenne Street or 7th Ave. We would see numerous vehicles come to a tee at 2nd & Francis and saw and experienced many instances of potential collisions. Thankfully we didn’t see any collisions and we got a yield sign. Had I been on the Commission when 4th Ave was vacated, I would have worked to make sure that all the intersections in the area were safe, including adding control to them at the time of the change and not as an afterthought.
When making decisions, no matter where it is in the City, the impact on Residents needs to be looked at. Often, Residents don’t know what kind of decisions affect their lives until it’s too late. It’s important to have someone on the Commission that looks at these potential issues or concerns and addresses them before it is too late. If the City chooses to go back and correct things, it costs additional taxpayer money. And the spending of taxpayer money is a whole other issue I’ll discuss later.
