Platform

The Challenge

Ashland's housing market is severely constrained. Rental vacancy rates are low, ownership is out of reach for many, and people experiencing homelessness need safe places to sleep and effective connections to services and housing. Expanding attainable housing choices is essential to retaining the workers, younger adults, and families who want to make Ashland their home, while a functioning homelessness response requires the City to follow through on plans it has already developed.

Dan's Approach

As a co-founder of Sunstone Housing Collaborative, Dan has hands-on experience developing affordable housing partnerships. He will bring that experience to Council through practical housing reforms, public-private partnerships, and stronger implementation of the plans Ashland has already developed. Ashland has already adopted many of the plans and policies we need; Council should track whether infrastructure investments, code changes, and publicly owned sites actually result in housing getting built.

What Ashland Needs

Ashland needs a stronger housing ladder — workforce housing and affordable multifamily apartments for working families, permanently affordable homeownership through community land trusts, ADU infill that lets people stay as their needs change, and better use of homes that aren't serving year-round residents. Accessible housing options matter at every stage of life, whether someone is starting out, raising a family, downsizing, living with a disability, or hoping to age in place.

A Homelessness Response That Works

That continuum also needs to work for people who have lost housing. Dan supports ensuring OHRA has the resources and dedicated coordination to manage Night Lawn effectively — connecting guests with services and maintaining clear expectations for safety, sanitation, and surrounding public spaces. The City should move forward with the adopted 2200 Ashland Street master-plan recommendations — severe-weather shelter, basic services, and ultimately bridge or transitional housing — rather than revisiting the planning. Those pieces should work together with community and regional providers as pathways toward stable housing.

Key Priorities

Support larger affordable multifamily projects, including family-sized rental housing.
Expand permanently affordable homeownership through community land trusts and nonprofit partners.
Accelerate workforce and accessible ADUs through financing and practical homeowner support.
Pursue a CET, MUPTE, and Oregon's Moderate-Income Revolving Loan program (MIRL) to expand housing finance options.
Evaluate an Astoria-style vacant-home tax dedicated to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
Implement Ashland's existing homelessness plans with clear responsibilities, timelines, funding strategies, and public reporting on results.
Strengthen the pathway from managed overnight shelter and outreach to services, transitional housing, and permanent housing through partnerships with local and regional providers.

Go Further

The Challenge

Ashland faces real fiscal pressures — rising costs, aging infrastructure, and competing demands on limited resources. The city's budget process must be transparent, strategic, and focused on delivering value to residents.

Dan's Approach

Dan has overseen multimillion-dollar budgets in his professional and nonprofit work. He will start with prioritized services and measurable service levels, determine the staffing required to provide them, and use position control to keep staffing aligned with sustainable revenues. That means reviewing vacancies before automatically refilling them, using attrition and restructuring where appropriate, and making specific position reductions when analysis shows they are necessary. Compensation should remain competitive enough to recruit and retain qualified employees, not be governed by an arbitrary across-the-board growth cap.

Fees and Fiscal Accountability

Routine fee adjustments that keep pace with costs are appropriate for Council action following a transparent public review process. Major new fees or substantial increases should go to voters with clear sunset provisions, so residents can evaluate whether the program has delivered on its promises. Every fee proposal should show the annual household cost, affordability effects, available assistance, and how the money will be used and publicly reported.

Key Priorities

Demand clear, accessible budget reporting that residents can actually understand
Prioritize core services: public safety, infrastructure, and parks
Set service priorities first, determine the staffing needed to deliver them, and then make the specific position and budget decisions required for long-term financial sustainability
Scrutinize overhead and administrative costs before cutting community-facing programs
Pursue grants, partnerships, and alternative revenue streams to reduce pressure on the general fund
Ensure capital projects are properly scoped, bid, and managed

Go Further

The Challenge

Ashland faces real and growing risks from wildfire, climate change, and public health challenges. The city has adopted good plans — but plans only matter if they're funded, implemented, and honestly evaluated.

Dan's Approach

Dan will push to implement Ashland's Community Wildfire Protection Plan with clear priorities, measurable risk reduction, and a sustainable financing strategy — while making sure the cost of wildfire protection does not fall disproportionately on households least able to afford it. He will push for honest assessment of what's working, what isn't, and what tradeoffs the community is willing to make — rather than aspirational plans that don't get implemented.

Key Priorities

Implement the Community Wildfire Protection Plan with clear priorities, measurable risk reduction, and a sustainable financing strategy
Ensure the cost of wildfire protection does not fall disproportionately on households least able to afford it
Support the Climate and Energy Action Plan with realistic timelines and accountability
Invest in infrastructure resilience — water, power, and emergency services
Ensure public safety staffing (police & fire / EMS) is adequate and sustainable
Promote community preparedness and neighborhood resilience programs

Healthcare and the Asante Transition

The $4M Asante payment is a one-time opportunity. Dan supports directing as much of it as possible through grants to existing providers — like Rogue Community Health and La Clinica — plus transportation, care navigation, or wherever it can be most  useful in addressing barriers to our residents' health and wellbeing. It should be seed money to leverage state, federal, and philanthropic funding — not put toward replacing hospital services or creating a new property-tax-funded health district. See the FAQ for Dan's full position.

Go Further

The Challenge

Ashland's identity is deeply tied to its schools and university. Keeping working people and younger families in Ashland helps sustain school enrollment, youth programs, and the healthy intergenerational community those institutions support. A thriving Ashland needs people at every stage of life — including younger adults and families who can afford to establish themselves here. The city and these institutions must coordinate effectively rather than leave opportunities on the table or work at cross-purposes.

Dan's Approach

As a current Ashland School Board member, Dan understands the relationship between city government and the school district from the inside. He will work to strengthen coordination, shared resources, and mutual support between the city, ASD, and SOU.

Key Priorities

Formalize regular coordination between City Council and the School Board
Support SOU's vitality as an economic and cultural anchor for Ashland
Invest in youth programs, parks, and after-school opportunities
Ensure city planning decisions consider impacts on schools and families
Advocate for safe routes to school and family-friendly public spaces

$50K Ashland Youth and Family Activities Grant Pilot

Create a $50K annual grant program to help local organizations offer more activities for kids — sports, arts, music, camps, outdoor recreation, after-school programs, and other enrichment opportunities — keep them affordable for Ashland families, and bring more visiting families to town.

Go Further

The Opportunity

The Council–Manager form of government works best when the elected body and the professional executive each understand their role and have the tools to do it well. That means clear priorities, shared expectations, and a structure for accountability that works throughout the year — not just at annual review time. Dan's experience on the Ashland School Board has shaped how he thinks about making that structure work.

Dan's Approach

Dan believes good governance starts with the Council agreeing on what it expects — before evaluating whether those expectations have been met. That means translating adopted priorities into clear, measurable expectations for the City Manager, tracking significant Council direction so everyone has the same record, and building in regular feedback rather than saving everything for the end of the year. It also means the Council holding itself accountable: evaluating its own performance as a governing body, not just the performance of the person it employs.

Key Priorities

Agree on expectations up front — establish shared Council priorities and measurable expectations for the City Manager before evaluating whether they've been met
Track significant Council direction publicly, so members, management, and residents share the same record of what was asked and what happened
Give feedback during the year — interim check-ins rather than leaving every concern for the annual evaluation
Council self-evaluation — assess the governing body's own performance, not just the executive's
Respect clear roles — Council sets policy and priorities; the City Manager manages operations and staff
Engage residents meaningfully — not just through required public comment periods

Go Further