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Friend --
Throughout this campaign process, I
have been asked a lot of tough questions and have been given a lot of
tough love on the changes citizens feel need to come to our city. Most
recently, my neighbor asked with an aching heart, “How could another
teenager lay dead on our city streets?”
This is such a hard topic to
unpack. Some of it is very real, and some of it is rumor, and when
we’re afraid and grieving, it’s hard to tell the
difference.
What’s real is the life lost; the
lives lost. What’s real is the fear. What’s real is a woman in a park
running from a shooting with her babies. That’s real, and that’s
unacceptable.
What I know about the people of
Kokomo is that once we set our minds to something and work together to
achieve it, we can do just about anything. If we decide that we are no
longer going to allow ourselves and our neighbors to live in fear,
then we absolutely can come together to make that happen.
Last weekend, my family and I
joined about 60 others in Studebaker Park at a Unity Block Party to
come together and show we CAN enjoy Studebaker Park with our families
- To show that all is not lost in Kokomo even when things are scary
and overwhelming. It takes adults like you to stand up and say that
Kokomo is not defined by the bad things that happen here. We’re
defined by how we respond to the bad things.
My son Jack asked me what I was
doing last night as I started to reply to my neighbor’s question. I
told him some people had questions about whether or not people from
Chicago should be allowed to come to Kokomo to live. He just looked at
me and said, “Yes. Always. This is America, and all people should be
allowed to live wherever they want.” He’s nine.
As the adult in his life, it’s my
job to create a community where that ideal can become a reality, and
that means there’s hard work that needs to be done.
On of the mayor’s responsibilities
is to create and implement policies to keep our city safe. From a
policy perspective, I’ve pulled a few pieces from my full platform
that apply here:
- Immediately develop a competitive
talent attraction package for new and transfer police officers to
increase our police officers to 100-102 sworn officers so they spend
less of their time in response to calls for services, and more time
developing innovative programming focused on prevention and
intervention of drug use and substance use disorder.
- Proactively connect first
responders with community organizations and public health officials to
fill the gap between the criminal justice system, prevention and
treatment programs, and health care facilities to most effectively
respond to our community’s crisis.
- Augment training programs to
ensure our public safety departments have continued professional
development in leadership training, technical training, sexual assault
response training, bias-training, mental health training, and
trauma-informed training.
- Create and support a robust
network of neighborhood groups who come together to identify
strengths, wants, needs, and more in their own neighborhoods, and work
to connect them with appropriate city departments and community
resources.
- Develop a network of strong,
proven mentoring programs around each school in Kokomo allowing
teachers to focus on their number one priority: our
children.
- Commission a task force,
including community members, to evaluate, prioritize, and recommend an
innovative plan to rehab, repair, and replace vacant, abandoned, and
blighted homes.
- Enforce codes to the fullest
extent possible requiring landlords to clean up or improve their
property when they are in violation of local ordinances, and work with
tenants to protect them from retribution, including connecting them to
community resources that can help.
- Our alley system is outdated and
under maintained so we need to assess current use and state of our
alley network, categorize the assessment for basic repairs, redesigns,
and repurposes, and the staff and train Street Department
appropriately to implement the plan and begin
construction.
- Knowing street lighting provides
comfort and makes us feel safer and more aware of our surroundings,
request assessment from Duke Energy in neighborhoods where lighting is
sparse. Prioritize locations based on neighbor interest, cost, and
need where the area is a walking route to schools or vital services
like hospitals, trolley stops, or groceries. Then develop lighting
agreements and begin installation.
- We must develop partnerships with
existing organizations at all levels to support, train, and place the
hard-working people of Kokomo in jobs that support their families. We
start by launching a Work Based Learning Task Force to assess the
current state of job training programs and employer needs in Kokomo in
partnership with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Then
we establish a strong partnership with human services organizations
who have relationships with underemployed adults in Kokomo connecting
them and supporting them as they get the skills needed for the jobs of
today, and tomorrow. Finally strengthen partnerships with unions to
leverage their well-established and effective apprenticeship programs
to develop the skilled workforce we need.
We can’t pretend issues this big
can be solved with platitudes and vague statements about a potential
plan to staff up public safety personnel.
I’m always willing to sit down to
talk about things and work through complicated issues, even when it’s
hard. Please never hesitate to reach out.
Click here to view my entire platform.
In Your Service,
Abbie Smith
Democratic Candidate for Mayor for
Kokomo
Abbie Smith for Mayor
http://www.abbieformayor.com/
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