Category: Policy Proposals

A good way to help the residents of Ward 2 would be to raise Ralston’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. Housing costs have been steadily rising in Ward 2 without an increase in pay that reflects the higher cost of living: homes that used to be affordable for blue collar workers are now far too expensive. Ward 2 also has very little affordable housing, making it difficult for anyone working a minimum wage job to be able to pay their rent. Increasing the minimum wage would not only help people afford their rent and be able to buy homes: it would also reduce the number of people receiving government assistance and the amount that they are receiving, so that money could be redistributed. Because of the history in Ralston, the built environment in Ward 2 is not designed to accommodate people that are living on a low income, and this built environment is not changing fast enough to meet the residents’ needs. Rather than doing a total upheaval of the housing in Ward 2, an increase in the minimum wage would help to make sure that people that are working full-time will be able to pay their rent and continue to live in Ward 2.

My contribution to Ralston would be to have the elected officials have the maximum length of their terms dependent on the percentage that they were elected by. So for example, if the mayor was elected with a percentage of 80% of the votes. This would translate to an unlimited number of terms. Although, this can be overridden depending on their votes for the next term. As another example, if the current mayor who is currently on an unlimited term setup, only beats the other candidate by a couple percent (within 1-5%) Then his maximum terms are permanently shortened UNLESS the candidate that came close to getting more votes than current doesn’t run again. This would make sure that there is a fair rotation of electoral candidates and also promote good behavior and follow through with good promises to keep their votes significantly above opponents if they want to keep power.

The people of Ralston will have power.