Laguna has no shortage of plans, studies, consultants and ideas.

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What I believe has been missing is consistent execution.

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Too often, we solve one piece of a problem without stepping back and asking how the whole system works together. We approve a project without clearly tracking delivery. We add spending without always measuring what improved. We collect data without consistently using it to make decisions.

 

That is where my approach is different.

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I want to know:

What are we trying to accomplish? Who owns it? What does it cost? What could stop it? When will it be done? And how will we know if it worked?

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That is how I have managed businesses and teams, and that is how I would approach City Hall.

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REVENUE, VACANCIES & LOCAL SPENDING

Laguna does not need more development. We need to make better use of what we already have.

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What needs to improve

We have studied vacancies and economic trends, but we still do not have a clear strategy connecting empty storefronts, resident spending, parking, hotel activity and City revenue.

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Residents are spending significant amounts of money outside Laguna while commercial spaces here remain empty.

At the same time, the City has discussed new taxes and fees.

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Before asking residents and businesses for more, I think we should first be much more aggressive about strengthening the economic base we already have.

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What I’ll do differently

I would use current spending-leakage data, vacancy data and resident demand to identify exactly what Laguna is missing.

That means:

• tracking vacant storefronts and how long they have been empty

• identifying the categories where residents are leaving Laguna to spend money

• actively recruiting businesses that fill those gaps

• working directly with property owners and brokers on long-term vacancies

• looking at hotel capacity, parking, seasonality and visitor patterns together

• measuring progress quarterly

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Instead of waiting for the right business to appear, I want a strategy for attracting the businesses residents actually use.

 

Why it matters

More resident spending stays here.

Existing businesses get stronger.

Vacant storefronts get filled.

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And the City has more opportunity to grow revenue without immediately turning to new taxes.

This is not about making Laguna bigger or busier. It is about using what we already have better.

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BUDGET, STAFFING & ACCOUNTABILITY

 

Laguna has added staff and increased spending.

Residents should be able to see what improved because of it.

 

What needs to improve

For FY2025–26, the City projected roughly $98 million in expenditures against $96 million in revenues.

At the same time, we continue adding recurring costs through staffing, contracts and consultants.

The question I keep coming back to is simple:

• What result did that spending produce?

• If we add staff, what should get faster?

• If we hire a consultant, what exactly are they delivering?

• If a department receives more money, what should improve?

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What I’ll do differently

I would require regular budget-to-actual reporting and measurable goals for departments.

Before adding recurring costs, I want the expected outcome defined.

I would also:

• review vacancies before automatically refilling them

• evaluate consultants and contracts against actual deliverables

• tie staffing increases to measurable service improvements

• identify recurring savings rather than relying on one-time fixes

• regularly report whether spending actually improved services

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Why it matters

Residents should not have to guess what they are getting for additional spending.

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If government costs more, residents should see something measurable in return:

faster permits, better maintenance, completed projects, stronger public safety or improved service.

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The measure should not be how much we spent. It should be what we accomplished.

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WILDFIRE PREPAREDNESS​

Laguna has invested heavily in wildfire preparation, and that work matters.

But preparedness is only as strong as the whole system.

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What needs to improve

The City has spent more than $25 million implementing wildfire recommendations and has invested in fuel modification, warning systems, evacuation planning and technology.

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But testing individual pieces does not prove they all work together during one emergency.

A wildfire does not happen department by department.

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Evacuation, communications, dispatch, first responders, traffic control, public works and backup systems all have to work at the same time.

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What I’ll do differently

I want a true full-system stress test.

Not just another individual exercise.

Test the entire chain together under realistic failure scenarios:

• What if Laguna Canyon Road is blocked?

• What if cell service goes down?

• What if we lose power?

• What if two neighborhoods need to evacuate at once?

• What if dispatch has to relocate?

• What if emergency vehicles are trying to enter while residents are trying to leave?

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Then identify what failed, assign responsibility, fix it and test again.

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I would also make it easy for residents to see which wildfire recommendations are completed, which are still underway and what is holding up the rest.

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Why it matters

In a real wildfire, residents experience one emergency system.

If one critical link fails, the rest of the plan can break down with it.

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Preparedness is not knowing every department has a plan. It is knowing those plans work together.

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EMERGENCY CARE

Providence’s plans became public in January.

Council directed a Hospital Action Plan in March.

The first Hospital Task Force meeting occurred in July.

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What needs to improve

When an essential service is threatened, months matter.

I believe too much time passed before residents could see a fully coordinated process with clear decision-makers, experts, alternatives, funding options and milestones.

The issue is not simply having meetings.

It is how quickly you turn a serious problem into an execution plan.

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What I’ll do differently

When an essential service is threatened, I would immediately establish:

• who is leading the effort

• what outside expertise is needed

• the available alternatives

• estimated costs

• regulatory hurdles

• possible funding sources

• County and State partners

• decision deadlines

• public milestones

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I also want every emergency-care option compared side by side.

• Who operates it?

• What does it cost?

• What approvals are needed?

• How long will it take?

• What could stop it?

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Why it matters

Residents should never have to wonder who owns an urgent problem or what happens next.

When the clock is measured in months, losing months matters.

Urgency should look urgent.

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FINISH WHAT WE FUND

My rule: We fund it, we finish it.

Putting money into a project is not the same as completing it.

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What needs to improve

Laguna has major infrastructure needs ahead.

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The Facilities Master Plan identifies roughly $314 million to maintain existing facilities, with even larger modernization and replacement scenarios.

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At the same time, projects can spend years moving through planning, design, permitting and construction.

Residents should not have to search through multiple reports just to figure out what something costs, how much has been spent or when it will be done.

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What I’ll do differently

Create one simple public dashboard for every major City project showing:

• original budget

• current budget

• amount spent

• original completion date

• current completion date

• major milestones

• delays

• change orders

• project owner

• next decision

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I also want projects prioritized using clear criteria:

public safety, infrastructure risk, legal requirements, resident impact, available outside funding and the cost of delay.

Before continually adding more projects, we need to know what we are actually going to finish.

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Why it matters

Residents do not benefit from a project because money was allocated.

They benefit when the road is repaired, the storm drain works, the facility opens or the public-safety improvement is completed.

 

Approving the money is the beginning. Finishing the project is the job.

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MAKE DECISIONS WITH CURRENT DATA

We have data.

The bigger issue is whether we are consistently using current data to make decisions.

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What needs to improve

Some of the information still repeated in Laguna is years old.

The often-cited visitor estimate traces back to a 2007 study, while later tourism analysis relied on 2017 data.

Housing, commercial vacancies, parking, traffic and other conditions also continue to change.

A study can be useful when it is published and still become outdated.

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What I’ll do differently

Build a simple City performance dashboard using current information on:

traffic, parking, permits, vacancies, resident spending, tourism, housing, capital projects and City finances.

And for every major decision, ask:

• What is the current baseline?

• What problem are we solving?

• What result are we trying to create?

• When are we measuring again?

For tourism, use current visitor and mobility information.

For parking, measure occupancy by location and time of day.

For permits, track real turnaround times.

For vacancies, track the actual rate and duration.

For projects, compare promised delivery with actual delivery.

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Why it matters

If the conditions change but the information does not, we can end up solving yesterday’s problem.

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Data should not sit in a study. It should help run the City.

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IRVINE BOWL & PUBLIC ASSETS​

Laguna already owns and supports extraordinary public assets.

I want us asking whether we are getting enough value from them before automatically building or spending more.

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What needs to improve

We tend to look at public assets individually instead of asking what the entire portfolio is doing for residents.

How often is an asset used?

What does it cost?

When is it sitting empty?

What restrictions exist?

Could community partnerships increase its use?

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What I’ll do differently

Start with the Irvine Bowl.

Explore more appropriate off-season programming:

educational speakers, cultural events, nonprofit gatherings, sister-city programming, community events and other uses that fit Laguna.

Not just more concerts.

Then apply the same thinking to other City-owned facilities and public spaces.

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Why it matters

Before building something new, we should make sure we are fully using what residents already support.

Not bigger. Not busier. Better utilized.

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WORKING TOGETHER AT CITY HALL​

I also think we need to be clearer about what civility actually means.

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What needs to improve

Civility sometimes gets treated as though everyone should agree.

That is not how strong teams work.

Different opinions are healthy.

The problem is when disagreement becomes personal or prevents people from working together afterward.

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What I’ll do differently

I have spent my career building teams around people with different backgrounds, priorities and opinions.

• I will ask hard questions.

• I will challenge an idea when I think there is a better one.

• I will listen to staff, residents, experts and Council colleagues.

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And I understand something very practical:

• It takes three votes to get anything done.

• That means having a good idea is not enough.

• You have to explain it, listen to objections, improve it when necessary and build support.

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Why it matters

Residents do not need five people who think alike.

They need five people who can disagree, make decisions and still work together the next morning.

Someone can vote against me on Tuesday and still be someone I need to work with on Wednesday.

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Civility is not agreement. It is being able to disagree honestly and still do the work.

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THE DIFFERENCE

This is the pattern I want to change.

• We study the issue.

• We hire the consultant.

• We create the plan.

• We form the committee.

• We allocate the money.

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Those can all be necessary steps.

But none of them is the outcome.

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The questions I want asked next are:

• Who owns it?

• What is the deadline?

• What does success look like?

• What could stop it?

• How does it connect to everything else?

• How will residents see progress?

• Did it actually work?

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That is what I mean by looking at the whole picture.

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My approach is simple:

1. Define the problem.

2. Look at the whole system.

3. Set the outcome.

4. Assign ownership.

5. Fund it.

6. Set the deadline.

7. Execute.

8. Measure the result.

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Laguna has had plenty of plans and discussions.

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My focus is turning them into results.