Empowering Those That Serve Us

As Mayor, I will create a culture of empowerment for our public servants. The first line public servants that are working closest with our citizens offer a unique perspective on issues that are faced by our community. Being a leader is all about knowing you don’t have all the answers and by opening up lines of communication throughout your organization, you are paving the path for real solutions and real ideas. This will be accomplished in a variety of ways.

Real Ideas

• Being accessible – Being in a unique situation where I own my own small business, I have the ability to be accessible on a daily basis. I will set office hours every day and have regular brainstorming sessions with not only the department heads but also the first line public servants. I want to understand what is happening within our community on a daily basis.
• Retention – It is crucial to retain quality public servants for so many reasons. Not only must we continually be evaluating the pay structure of our public servants to make sure that we are remaining competitive with other cities but we also need to create motivation to stay with Erlanger that far exceeds pay. Last year, as a newly elected councilwoman, I worked to add one week paid maternity/paternity leave to our public servants. This is a benefit that has little to no cost to the city but has a huge impact on our staff. To be able to be at home that first week with your family’s newest addition when you are dad is so important. You can’t put a dollar amount on that bonding experience. Our current mayor was also able to add the birthday of our public servants as a day off. These are added bonuses that have little impact on a budget but giant impact to staff.