Straight answers.

What's your Albany story?

I grew up here. I went to Oak Elementary, played football, played in a band here. Albany is an amazing place to grow up. I was baptized here. Learned to serve here. I graduated high school here. My wife and I were married here.

Was there a moment you decided to run?

It started in Mrs. Johnson's third grade class when I learned what the mayor does and that I was, at the time, too young to serve. Fast forward a few decades and I'm definitely old enough, and I have also gained a wealth of experience and knowledge on how the world works and what is possible when a committed community with passion and heart is given a vision to chase.

You and Jessica are both on the November ballot. Really?

You're not electing a package deal. Jessica and I are two different people in two different races, and anyone who knows us knows she has never once taken my word for anything without checking it herself. She would answer to Ward 3. I would answer to the whole city. If we ever disagree at a council meeting, you'll get to watch. What we share is simple. We both love this town too much to keep waiting for somebody else to step up.

What's something Albany got right that you want to protect?

The showing up. Albany still turns out for the Veterans Day parade, for River Rhythms on a summer night, for Friday night football. You can't buy that and you can't rebuild it once it's gone. Growth is coming either way. My job is to make sure the town that shows up for each other is still here when it arrives.

What does a mayor actually do all day?

Less than people think, and more than people think. Albany runs on a council-manager system. The city manager runs the departments, and the mayor chairs the council and only votes to break a tie. What the mayor really controls is the conversation. What gets asked in public, whether the answers come in plain language, and whether you can see how every vote landed. I know how to run an honest meeting, and an honest meeting is where a city starts working again.

What's the first thing you'd ask City Hall to do differently?

Complete a comprehensive top to bottom review.

Would you support a city gas tax to fix the streets?

No. And not because the roads don't need the work. I spent college summers on Albany street crews, so I know exactly what that work is. The way we fund and run street maintenance today doesn't work, and putting more money into a system that doesn't work doesn't make any sense. Fix the system first. If a temporary fee is needed to bridge us while the permanent fix gets built, I can support that honestly, as long as temporary means temporary. And I want Albany to explore something bigger: a street operation run well enough that fixing roads stops being only a cost. That is an idea to investigate in the open, with real numbers.

What can a mayor actually move on housing?

A mayor can't set mortgage rates or the price of lumber. What the city controls is time, meaning how long it takes to get to yes. Every month a project sits in line costs money, and that money ends up in the rent. I want clear rules, faster answers, and growth that plans its own maintenance from the first drawing.

What would you actually do about homelessness?

Start with what I believe. No one should be homeless, hungry or thirsty in America. But the solution is not on the government alone. We must act with compassion. And compassion is not leaving people in camps while the city pays again and again to clean up the aftermath. Camping isn't good for the homeless individual or the surrounding community. I hold two limits at once: no sweeps without somewhere lawful for people to go, and no unlimited camping anywhere. The county runs services. The city runs land use and policing. And I want Albany's churches and charities at the table in one coalition, because they were doing this work long before it was a campaign issue.

What's your plan for police and fire?

I want Albany's police, fire and emergency services to be among the best in the country. I don't say that lightly, and we don't get there by wishing. Our police delivered the lowest overall crime rate since 2019 with roughly half the officers per resident the country averages. Our fire crews faced more than five hundred moments between July 2025 and February 2026 when five calls were running at once. The people are already performing. My job is to get them help: chase outside funding so Albany taxpayers don't carry this alone, learn from the best departments in the country no matter what state they are in, partner deeper with our neighbors, and grow the quiet programs that prevent calls instead of cutting them first.

What does a healthy downtown Albany look like in 2030?

Thriving businesses, plenty of parking, ongoing events, clean and safe streets and parks.

The world is changing. What does that actually mean here?

Remember when a natural disaster would occur and the nation would come together with a benefit concert, toll-free number to call and donate, celebrities from all walks of life and politicians from across the aisle coming together? Now disasters that used to stop us dead in our tracks are sandwiched between stories about wars and crime.

When money is short, how do you decide what gets cut?

Fix what we own before we buy what we don't. That is the first filter every time. Safety, streets, and water come first because everything else stands on top of them. The new and shiny waits its turn. And whatever gets cut gets cut in the open, with the numbers on the table and the public in the room, not decided in a back hallway and announced as a done deal.

How will you work with councilors who vote against you?

I am a pragmatic leader. I see problems for what they are and I expect honesty and transparency from my partners in government. Their constituents are my constituents. We should all want what makes Albany safe, stable and thriving. Disagreements should never be the end of dialogue.

What will you not do as mayor?

Allow the city to become a surveillance state. Individual liberties are the foundation of the nation I love. The government should not be monitoring where you go and when you go there.

How do I reach you, and what should I expect back?

Email the campaign and a real person answers. Stop me at the store. Come to a coffee. And expect honesty over comfort. Sometimes the answer is no or not yet, but you will always get the why.

Where do you stand on data centers?

No. Data centers take the most of what Albany has the least of, land, water, power and trust, and give back a handful of jobs and a tax bill negotiated away before ground is broken. Albany is short of shovel-ready land, short of homes, and already asking police and fire to do more with less. The same shovel-ready acres should go first to employers measured in jobs per acre, hiring Albany people at wages above our median. The paper has the numbers from Prineville and The Dalles, the law that gives the council the pen, and where I stand on every piece of it.

Read the data center paper