Thanks for your support!

A special thank you to everyone who helped make Tuesday’s primary election a success.  Your support has been a vital “vote of confidence” in my calm, sensible approach to leadership.  I am proud to have the opportunity to represent you on May 4th ballot.  My resolve is as strong as ever and we need to gear up to win in the general election so we can have the consistency city council needs to find solutions to the challenges we face.  Over the next 8 weeks I will be focusing on communicating critical information about the big issues that will differentiate me from others in the campaign including: how to handle an historically difficult budget; specifics on how to support the struggling school system during these difficult times; and how to position Roanoke to emerge from this recession as a healthy and vibrant community through progressive thinking and creative problem solving.  I will also communicate how I will help City Council and our new City Manager re-tool economic development strategies to make Roanoke a very business friendly community where people chose to live, work and play!

As always, please reach out to me and share your thoughts and visions of our great city.

Thanks, Dave

Healthy Schools. Healthy Cities.

Anyone in the midst of a campaign usually has the wisdom to stay away from discussing possible tax increases. However, last week, I openly discussed the reality that considering the current state of the national economy and with the difficult budget decisions Roanoke City Council is facing, everything — including possible tax increases — should be on the table for open, public discussion. To suggest otherwise would be political posturing and not a sign of strong leadership.

As regularly reported in the media, cigarette, food & beverage, and lodging taxes are often the first to be considered. In Roanoke, the idea of a food & beverage tax has been discussed – and implemented — multiple times over the last few years. While I own two restaurants that employ over 55 people and even with our revenues are down at least 30% from previous years — I am willing to considering this tax. However, balanced, informed and responsible leadership suggests we need to weigh this in the larger context of the economic development picture – considering the number of restaurants recently closing and the need for job creation in this economy.

Roanoke City Council is in the very early stages of our budget process and a possible combination of tax increases should only be considered after a round of belt tightening and expenditure reductions are explored. We have a lot of serious work facing us, more than ever before. I look forward to leading these discussions and hope all members of council are open to public dialogue on all facets of the budget.

The issue of funding for schools is front and center as these discussions heat up and we search for solutions to the budget crisis. During my first term on city council, I have often been the leading voice expressing the reality that sacrifices must be made by citizens and businesses alike in order to ensure children are offered a strong foundation for success. I have also been vocal about the idea that our schools are our most important economic engine and are perhaps the most important measure of our success as a whole – stating that the best way to ensure a vibrant future for any community is to create a strong, educated workforce.

I look forward to exploring all possible solutions and intend to continue finding ways to improve funding of our school system despite declining revenues on the local, state and federal level.

Thanks, Dave

Every Vote Counts

We are a few short weeks away from the Democratic Primary – the first election of this political season.  As a new political season begins and the rhetoric heats up, it is time to reflect about the role we play in our own future.

In a democracy, every candidate should be considered, every vote is critical — and should be counted. With the upcoming primary for Roanoke City Council, it is important to not only remind citizens to vote, but also to help inform citizens about all four candidates that will appear on the March 2^nd ballot. It’s important for citizens to ask themselves: What is best for Roanoke? Which candidates can work together to move Roanoke forward through these difficult times and into a promising future? Which candidates are reasonable, balanced and accessible? Which candidates genuinely listen – and more importantly hear – the voices of the people?

Every citizen in Roanoke has three votes in the primary on March 2^nd and their actions on that day will impact the future of our great city. I whole heartily encourage, citizens to exercise their rights and speak their minds by using all three of their votes on March 2nd. In the meantime, I remain committed to providing you as many avenues as possible to share your thoughts through interactive opportunities on Facebook (Dave Trinkle For Roanoke City Council), Twitter (Dave Trinkle) and here on my blog (www.DaveTrinkle.com). Please also subscribe to updates on these sites, as I will continue to share as much information as possible to help inform voters and remind citizens of the primary election.

Regardless of the neighborhood in which you live – I believe we can all agree we’re lucky to live in a democracy.  But a democracy depends the citizens to do their part.  It is up to us to manage our own future by paying attention, asking questions and taking action.  It’s up to us to decide who will be an effective and inspiring leader – then it’s up to us to go out and vote.

Please use one of your three votes on March 2^nd to elect Dave Trinkle for Roanoke City Council.

Thanks, Dave

 

The Amphitheatre Stays on Track

Well perhaps I am not a great blogger- I should have had a post on this topic over a week ago and my posts are still too long! In retrospect what I write today is much different than probably what I would have written after the latest vote to keep the Amphitheatre A and E design funding in our capital budget. I was glad we returned the project to our capital budget but the process sure wasn’t pretty. I continue to learn a lot about this project and my role on council- especially over the last few weeks. I do believe that council made the correct decision last week to move forward to the next phase of design, usage and operational budgets for this project. We should know fairly soon about potential uses of an all-weather amphitheatre at Elmwood park and how that impacts the design and the operating budget. This will lead to about as accurate an estimate as we can get on what subsidy the city may expect to pay for this commercial amphitheatre with significant community usage. The question is not if there is a subsidy- but what subsidy is acceptable for this state of the art facility with- in my mind- huge economic potential for our downtown, our city and our region. I have heard much over the last week and as I said at the last council meeting this is not an easy decision. Ambivalence and uncertainty are a given with a “new” quality of life project that will change a downtown park, change the entrance into our downtown and change how we are use to doing things. I believe the change will be good, will be positive and offer many new opportunities for all ages from all walks of life. It will improve our quality of life here and will attract visitors and new residents alike. But by how much? At what costs? How different? All very good questions with no certain answers. This project has been the most prepared, studied, scrutinized project possibly in the history of the city- this is good and bad. It is good that people care and want to participate. It is bad because it is much easier from a leadership perspective to be overwhelmed with uncertainty and just shelf it or stop it when its time to make the big decisions. I believe we study too many projects and rarely do any actually happen. I believe we need to scrutinize and examine our entire capital budget process and I will help take a lead on this. However, I believe if we think a project is a good one as we have over many years and over many votes on this one we should not “can it” until we are sure it won’t work. We are getting to information that will help us with this question and I believe that is the right thing to do. There are many questions to come, much more public input and ultimately more votes on council after this phase concludes. We are not building the amphitheatre this year and in this economy but we will be prepared to move forward in better times if that appears to be the right thing to do at that time. Yes that may be a year or so away and may be with a different council- but those concerns should not paralyze this council as fear to make decisions has in the past. I am glad council took the time to study, debate and re-examine the second decision and I support the third decision in this recent debate to proceed to A and E renderings. I believe council as a whole can move forward as a team and continue to scrutinize the project and make the best and most informed decisions as the next phases of this project present themselves. While we disagreed recently, I do believe we would all like to see this project happen if it is feasible. That is what we will learn with this phase of the project. There are many concerns here- have we given enough in capital funds to the schools (I would say given two new HS and the largest capital projects in our history we have), what other capital projects are deserving, should we not spend any capital in this economy, what about Salem, and many more questions studied and not studied??? So please post comments and I will do my best to be a good blogger and respond. - Dave

Check Out Our Forum to Discuss the Issues

As many of you have noticed there has been a lot of dialog going on regarding some of the issues that have been addressed.  I have recently added a forum to this site in hopes that everyone can join in on the discussions and voice their opinions and suggestions.

You can access the forum by selecting the tab at the top of the page or at the bottom of the left column.  You are required to register by selecting a user name and password.  The register link is at the top of the forum page. You will then login after you register. 

You can use the forum to comment on a post or start a new post.  You will notice that there are 3 categories, Municiple Issues, Media Interviews and Hot Topics.  Feel free to add any topic for discussion under these categories. There is also a poll area where we can poll subscribers and you can see the real time results.

I have started a new topic for discussion under the Municple Issues regarding Countryside.  There is also a poll question regarding the purchase by the city.  I encourage you to continue the comments and discussion in our new forum.

If you have any questions or problems regarding the forum please direct them to info@davetrinkle.com.  I hope you find this means of dialog helpful and I look forward to your feedback.

Dave