Managed Community Growth

By Jeannette "Boots" Buteyn

We must ensure that there are enough schools, churches, parks, health care facilities, law enforcement, transportation, etc. to serve the needs of existing residents.

Schools - most of our schools are overcrowded, understaffed, and underfunded. There are ways for the city to help in this area which I will research in depth once elected.

Churches - Most of the schools in Palmdale have local church congregations meeting in them because it is extremely costly and difficult to build a church in Palmdale. I know this from direct experience with my own church putting up a building over the course of 4 years. The city needs to lighten up on church building projects and assist them in any way possible for two reasons: 1. Churches minister to and help people to improve their lives. They provide programs for the local citizens and it has been shown in studies that when you have numerous active churches in a community, the crime rate is lower. 2. In case of a disaster, churches are the ones that provide the fastest relief help and open their buildings to displaced people. We watched this play out on National TV immediately following Hurricane Katrina.

Parks - Many athletic groups are battling for park space for their programs because of lack of facilities. Those that are more vocal and political get preference over those that are not. I know this again from first hand experience. As Commissioner of Golden League Youth Football, I have seen over 400 kids packed into one small park with insufficient practice space and inept lighting while another larger park has lights blazing and maybe 10-20 kids practicing (sometimes none).

Health Care Facilities - The long overdue Palmdale Hospital Project will finally bring some much needed relief to the outrageously overcrowded AV Hospital emergency room. And as soon as it is built, we should be looking into an Eastside Facility as well.

Law Enforcement - This is very important for quality of life and safety of our residents. We need to squeeze as much money out of our budget as possible for more deputies. We also need to use strategic placement of uniformed officers in high crime areas. I support the (PAC)Partners Against Crime program and the use of Community Service Officers as well as Reserve Officers.

Transportation - We need to get the Palmdale Airport up and running with major airlines, not just one small one. This will bring a great source of revenue for the city and help alleviate overcrowded LAX and the traffic traveling to LAX. This needs to be a high priority for the city!

We can't just let the city's growth run wildly out of control. We must set priorities and have a good balance in order to have a happy city whose basic needs are properly met.