Dearborn City Council Candidate Campaigns on Transparency Issues

Editor's note: All nine elective offices in Dearborn are on the primary ballot — mayor, clerk and all seven city council seats. There are five candidates for mayor, three for clerk and 21 for council. Dearborn Patch will run profiles of candidates seeking the office of mayor, city clerk, and city council leading up to the Aug. 6 primary election.

Today we feature Colette Richards.

Candidate: Colette Richards

Office sought: Dearborn City Council

Occupation: Media secretary for Dearborn Public Schools

Education: Mercy High School (1987), San Diego Community College (1993)

Family: Married to Scott Starks. I have one son, Bailey Dunsmore, and one stepson, Brandon Starks.

Previous elected office: None

Current public service: Dearborn Rotary Club Board of Directors president nominee; Dearborn Goodfellows; Special Education parent advocate and a member of Wayne County Parent Advisory Committee; City Beautiful Commissioner.

What are two key issues in Dearborn?

Business district improvement.
Spending our tax dollars wisely.

How will you address these issues?

1. I believe we need to be more pro-active in attracting new businesses to Dearborn. I would like to survey all the businesses to see what their opinions are on the processes of opening a new business here, what the city can do to help them, and how we can make it more appealing to bring in new businesses.

I think if we work more closely with the chamber of commerce in our area, we can come up with a plan to drive more businesses to fill the vacancies we have in Dearborn.

2. Communication about what the city is doing with our tax dollars goes a long way. I’d like to be more upfront about major expenses to the citizens of this city. I think if we are going to cut services, we need to be upfront about any upcoming big plans that we might be looking at that require us to spend tax dollars.

I realize not everything needs a study session, but there should be some sort of communication to the residents of Dearborn about plans for our future, especially when we would be spending their tax dollars. I’d like to come up with more effective techniques to communicate this information to everyone. Since we have a limited budget to work with, we obviously can’t keep things the way they “used to be."

I’d like to help find ways to improve our future while preserving our past. I think it’s going to take a new perspective to find those avenues to change for the better and maintain what is already important to residents.

For more information, visit http://www.coletterichards.com/

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