About the Candidate

Hi! I’m a local businesswoman and candidate for Manhattan City Commission. I have three differentiators:

  1. I have actually been attending Commission meetings for the past year without being paid to.

  2. I have contributed over $1 million in payroll and benefits to the community as the Founder and CEO of a living-wage cleaning company, Good Witch Cleaning Services, LLC.

  3. I live in a co-op in Northview, the food-desert-on-a-floodplain that many of Manhattan’s working class call home.

I’m tired of seeing Commissioners prioritize Developer and Business interests at the cost of our citizens. I recognize that politicians need to gather facts, listen to the public, and then build a solution. And I know that without deep pockets, politics is a team sport. That is why I’ve partnered with Martha Sweeny, a like-minded candidate with a shared platform, to restore common sense for the common good in city politics.

Data Driven, Human First

Needs Over Wants

Townies over Tourists

Seek Sustainability

Data Driven, Human First

The decisions we make are only as good as the data they’re based on & the humanity we act on.

Manhattan residents are paying the lion’s share of our infrastructure and maintenance costs, with only 60% of the land in City limits being taxable (the other 40% is owned by churches, other non-profits, and Kansas State University). On top of that, our growth is limited: after all, who needs a rock and a hard place when we have a fort and a dam?

This unique financial situation requires proper diagnosis and care to ensure our city’s longevity. Commissioners are gatekeepers to the taxpayers’ dollars. As a Commissioner,

  1. I would expect City staff, outside organizations, and developers to provide cost and revenue estimates for each decision that comes before the Commission, and I would make decisions based on data, not feelings.

  2. I would also push for us to get a city-wide by-parcel ROI (return on investment) analysis— a one-of-a-kind, powerful diagnostic tool that would allow us to determine which development projects to fund, which zoning types pay for themselves, and and how to avoid bankruptcy. I’ve even identified a provider. Learn more about them here.

Needs over Wants

The whole point of civilization was to reliably meet the needs of our whole community.

Pet projects and private development cannot continue to be funded first— especially in a county with a poverty rate almost twice the national average & in a community where 1 in 6 of us don’t know where our next meal is coming from.

I see the City Commission making financial decisions based on each single project, without considering our community’s needs or the City’s overall financial health. As a Commissioner, I would bring a wider perspective of our budget and our community’s needs— not wants— into each decision made.

Townies over Tourists

The very idea that tourists can outspend a family who lives, works, and plays in Manhattan is outrageous. We must prioritize the interests of townies over tourists.


Prioritizing tourists as the City Commission has historically done diminishes locals’ quality of life, degrades our environment and parks, converts starter homes into short-term rentals, increases the cost of living, erodes our small town culture, and makes us dependent on tourism— which spells disaster in economic downturns.
As a Commissioner, I would place the interests of our own taxpaying citizens above those of infrequent flyers.

Seek Sustainability

Sustainability is a bi-partisan value.

Sustainability at the City level feels like common sense.

Instead of spending $23 million in sales tax on the Museum of Art & Light, sustainability would have made needed repairs to existing infrastructure at the Sunset Zoo, Blue Earth Plaza, and Northview Pool. Past City Commissions failed to budget for maintenance in our downtown garage for 11 years, but sustainability would have accounted for maintenance as an obvious cost.

Sustainability isn’t something hippies made up, it’s the Midwest value of taking care of what you already have before buying something new.

As a Commissioner, I would take care of what and who we already have before overextending our staff and our budget.