It Has Been an Honor

I started my first job with the city of Pleasant Hill as a laborer in the Parks and Recreation Department. I painted lines on baseball fields, mowed grass, and cleaned up our parks. That is where I got my first lesson on the impact that local government can have on each of our lives. Since then, I have been on the Park Board, City Council, Cass County Economic Development Commission, and now am currently the Mayor of Pleasant Hill. Although public service is extremely important to me – family is always my number one. 

As some of you know, my wife, Lezlea, and I had a goal for our family to someday live on a farm and raise our children in that type of environment. Those of you with that same goal know it is nearly impossible to find such a property in Pleasant Hill School District without spending an arm and a leg. An unexpected property came up for sale a few weeks ago that was surprisingly in a price range we could afford and turn into the homestead of our dreams; so, we decided to jump on that opportunity. As a result of that decision, I cannot be Mayor of Pleasant Hill any longer. I will be resigning as Mayor, effective August 17^th, 2018. I know this decision will make some people mad, disappointed, or even (for a few individuals) excited; but, this decision is in the best interest of my family. I have lived in this community my entire life and have directly invested myself into the city by working for or being an elected official of this town since I was 15 years old. I love this town and am grateful I will continue to be a part of the community for the rest of my life. My kids will go to our schools. I will still shop in our town. I will still help where needed - be that at the fair, on boards, guidance to those still elected, wherever and however I'm able.

You might be curious as to the path forward for the city. Once I resign on August 17^th, Mayor Pro-tem Mark Guffey will take the reigns as Interim Mayor. Mark is a great man with the best interest of all of the citizens in our community in mind. The fact that he will lead our town going forward made my decision to take on this opportunity possible. The governing of the city ultimately will not change. As Mayor Pro-tem, Mark will get his normal Councilman vote, and then be granted a 2^nd vote in the chance there is a split vote on the Council. There will be an election in November of ‘18 to decide who will finish my term. 

Before I was elected Mayor, our city had somewhat come to a halt. We were being prevented from creating plans for our community's future. We were losing businesses without any effort to retain them. We had to listen to ill-advised tax increase proposals every year. To put it simply, our city was being held back by poor leadership. It was my goal to allow our staff to do their jobs and let the City Council unleash our community's potential. We are now in a very good position for continued success going forward.

• Our budget is tight, but balanced.

• For the first time in over a decade, we have added more businesses than we lost. Developers are calling, businesses are coming, and our Downtown is becoming more stable.

• We just got in our bids for Country Club, and those came in below budget. Construction should begin this Fall to completely rebuild the street with new asphalt, curbs, and sidewalks.  

• The City Council has already approved to resurface Lexington from Myrtle clear to Rice St. At our meeting on August 13^th, we will approve to resurface several other streets in our community.

• We continue to build several quality homes each and every year. There is no question in my mind, in the 2020 census, our city will be of the 10,000 population mark.The 10,000 population mark will bring new opportunities and challenges. 

• For the first time ever, we are formulating a plan to address the aging sewer and water lines in certain parts of our town. You will begin to see real effort to improve our infrastructure proactively and not just continually be used as a line in a political campaign.

• When I first took office in 2011, our community was consistently ranked as a Top 20 safest city in the state of Missouri. The last two years, we have been Top 5 thanks to our great police department.

• We raised our starting Police Officer pay, added an additional full time officer, and bought them new standardized equipment.

• We are making Pleasant Hill a destination for bike riders and walkers across our State. From the Rock Island State Park, MoPAC trail, KC Connector, and MoPac SingleTrack Trail – we are truly going from a rail town to a trail town. I will also promise to you, we will build the bridge for the Rock Island Trail. This unfinished business of mine, will continue to be a priority of mine outside of office.

• We have created a top-notch park and rec system. We have revitalized the City Lake, our rec programs are hitting record numbers, built a new efficient city pool, and we have approved a design for an awesome park in our Downtown.

• We have completely rewritten our entire code making it easier for our citizens and builders to follow. This will also help our staff more clearly identify issues and work through solutions.

• We have hired new staff. From our City Administrator, City Clerk, and Public Works Director - we are driving results through accountability and high ethical standards. We are putting our community first, while making sure our staff know they are valued.

There is no question our City is in better shape today than when I took office, but there is still more to do. We must make sure we have leaders in place who don’t dictate, but engage all of our community leaders and assets to work together regarding our future. 

• With the increase in housing permits, infrastructure needs will continue to rise. We are going to have to work to get MoDOT to expand 7 Highway to 4 lanes. This project will not only take commitment from the State, but most likely from our community. 

• As we grow, our police officers will continue to need our support through budgeting more equipment to maintain our safe town.
• We need to create a community strategic plan to access the needs of the community from the citizen perspective. 

• More and more people want to come to our town, so more subdivisions are going to be built and our community needs to understand we must be proactive and not reactive to this growth.

• With the new policies and codes in place, our City Council is ready for the growth coming our way. Many difficult decisions are on the horizon.

• Plus much, much more.

In conclusion, I simply want to say thank you to each and every one of you. You believed in me when I was only 22 – electing me as City Councilman for Precinct 20 almost eight years ago. At the time you elected me, I was the youngest sitting elected official in the state of Missouri. You took a chance on a kid who felt called to serve his community. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve you. Although public service work is never done, I look forward to this next chapter in my life as I take a break from elected office. My growing family needs my focus. Wish us luck as we adjust to farm life. 

Exciting times are ahead as new leadership directs our city. Remember that for progress, change is pertinent. Growth is coming our way and we need to prepare. May God continue to bless our beloved community. Each of you hold a special place in my heart and in the lives of my family. You and your belief in us has influenced our lives more than you will ever know. Thank you.

Be The Good

With my family and as Mayor; I am constantly presented with opportunities to make decisions that will alter the course of my family and/or our community. I asked for this life and do not take lightly, but is one that carries a burden. Every event that has happened in my life helps influence the decisions I make as a father, boss, and leader.

One of those ‘events’ happened to me this past weekend, and it was honestly pretty scary. My youngest son decided he wanted to be a submarine when he grew up and took a dive into the deep end of our local swimming pool. Luckily there was a young local girl, Kylie Lockard, who thought quickly and got Christian from the water. Thanks to our local Fire District, pool staff, and after a rush to Children’s Mercy, he ended up being just fine. Holding your two-year old’s hand while in an ambulance headed to a hospital is something that I just honestly do not want to be a part of again. These type ‘events’ always make you reassess what you are doing in life. Am I doing everything I can to make my family better? Am I doing everything I can to make our community better? Am I setting my children up for success? Am I keeping to our community’s principles and not making personal decisions? Literally everything that happens around you can change the course of life.

Events in my family keep our family continually changing. Ava has started getting deep into soccer, t-ball, and school. R.J. is enjoying karate and begins his next pre-school year soon. Christian has become really mobile and I honestly think he is borderline crazy at times. My wife and I have had to relearn a family life balance about every 6 months with these continual changes. Although times can be rough sometimes, we always find that balance and keep moving forward learning with every new experience. We make it a point to strive every day to make sure our kids continually learn and our family continually grows. We play outside, we watch and learn new things, we punish them for doing wrong, and we focus on the good. Our kids are no where near perfect, our marriage is no where near perfect, and I am personally nowhere near perfect – but we understand there is an ability to always be better. It is a choice. We choose to be better. We choose to be the good.

Events in our community keep our city continually moving in different directions and right now we are at a major crossroads. As you have heard, Shawn Henessee, our City Administrator, has accepted a position in Washington, and the City Council and I are in the middle of making a decision on the future of our City Administrator position. We have selected a candidate, but still need to reach a contract agreement with said candidate before it is official. Once this decision is made, it will have lasting effects on what the community will look like 5, 10, 15, and 20+ years down the road. It is a decision that should not be taken lightly. The individual selected, along with the City Council must do everything we can to keep the progress we have made over the last 2 years going. We are on the brink of delivering on our economic development policies, we are putting the finishing touches on creating a more streamlined community through our improved codes, and we are now actually holding people within and contracting for the city accountable. Every decision our Council makes, clear down to the smallest budget item can alter the future of our community. No matter how simple or large that decision is, we must always ask if it is in the best interest of the community as a whole. We must always be "Community First, People Always." Although there are important people in our community, people come and go. The community of Pleasant Hill will be here forever. We must always focus our decision making on what is best for the community. We must always be and do the good.

All of the decisions I have made have made an impact on my life. Some people make fun of me for being the 'oldest' 29 year old ever. I would at times tend to agree with them. I understand the life I have chosen makes it difficult to find time for fun. I try to get out to the lake and relax, but that is usually just filled with phone calls from a citizen complaining about potholes or a text from a family member in need of something. Being a Supervisor at Honeywell FM&T, Mayor of a town, and being married with 3 young children lends you to live a life that kind of just wears you down. I have lost a lot of sleep wondering if the decisions I have made in these different important resposiblities were right. I frequently get asked if I ever regretted a choice I made for my family, or a vote I made with the city. I have already sat down and talked with this to my wife, and I can honeslty say that I have zero regrets in my life. I created this busy life I live, and I would not change a thing I have done to get to this point. If I died tomorrow, I hope each and every one of you know that I died a happy man that lived everyday to his fullest. Saying you could die tomorrow and be okay with the life you have lived, does not mean I do not want to live the rest of my life. I want to be there to watch my sons play football, walk my daughter walk down the aisle to greet her future husband, and to annoy my wife as a 67-year-old grumpy bump on a log; but my faith in God and my drive to live every moment makes me comfortable with the life I have lived.

Too many times in today's society, too many people only care to do what is good for themselves. They have an expectation someone owes them something, without having earned their way to it. They literally only care about their self-benefit from a situation. Instead of doing what is good for you, try to think of what is best for your family or your community. Be the good that others need you to be. I implore you to start thinking like this as you make each and every day decisions. A simple decision to head to the pool with your family, can have lifetime effects on the future of your life. Live every day trying to make every moment worth it. Live every day trying to be the good.

Thank You Pleasant Hill, Missouri

Today, I spent a majority of the day down at the city soccer complex helping the Pleasant Hill Soccer Association clean up the mess left from the flooding this past week. I am grateful to the 50+ volunteers that showed up today to get the fields ready for our local teams. Thanks to all of these volunteers, we were able to get the fields in good enough shape - pending anymore rain - that our teams should be able to get back to practice and games as scheduled.

As you all know, the election is coming up on April 3rd - just a few days away. I am not going to be a politician and feed you a bunch of taglines. Today, being out with the community and seeing all of these individuals choosing to take time out of their day to simply serve their community however they could really inspired me. I was reminded why I ran for the City Council and then Mayor in the first place. This position is not about being ‘in charge.’ An elected official's sole job is to be a public servant. That is why I became a Pleasant Hill Parks and Rec employee some 15 years ago, volunteered on the Park Board, and then asked you to allow me to serve you as a Councilman then Mayor.

I am going to ask each of you to go visit ChrisJHicks.com. Here you will be able to read all about my family and myself. You will also find multiple blogs with information that has been important to me over the last several months. If you don't have time to read all of my posts, please take the time to read these two specifically: ‘Our Walk Counts More Than Our Talk’ and ‘Commitment Made, Commitment Kept’. Unlike any other individual running for this office, I actually go into depth about what our City Council has done over the last two years, and clearly lay out our path forward into the future. You should expect those running for office to give you more than a quote; they should be able to explain to you the ‘how.’ I am proud of what we have accomplished so far and truly look forward to what is coming next.

Beyond the election, I simply want to say thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you over the past 7 years as a Councilman and now as Mayor. It has been an honor that I will cherish the rest of my life.

Regardless if you support me or not, please get out and vote April 3^rd. May God bless you and have a Happy Easter. 

Commitment Made, Commitment Kept

In my previous post, Our Walk Counts More Than Our Talk, we discussed everything our City Council, city staff, and I have done over the last two years. I am asking for one more term to finish the work we have started. We have laid the foundation for our city to have development growth and to further secure the quality of life we value through infrastructure improvements, ordinance revisions, and park improvements.

As citizens, we should have the expectation that every individual running for office will make clear to you their goals and expectations for when they are elected to serve as your representative. A real strategic look at what they plan to do should be expressed to you honestly. The past two years I have kept the commitments I made when I was first elected, but there is still much that needs to be done to keep us going in the right direction. Some of those items are as follows:

• Maintain our citizens’ quality of life that we all value.
• Focus on helping to develop and implement the new Neighborhood Watch programs local volunteers are organizing
• Continue to seek every opportunity to adequately pay our police officers and provide them proper equipment to maintain our quality law enforcement
• When discussing any development possibilities; we must take into account the impact on infrastructure, crime rate, city hall staffing, and any other variables to make sure our safety and values are top priorities.

•  Help our Downtown succeed for decades into the future
• For several years, our city has taken a back seat to helping our downtown. There is no question, these buildings are privately owned and should remain so going forward. This does not mean our community does not have a vested interest in the success of our Downtown. Our City and Downtown both recently approved and have started the process to implement Main Street Revitalization Program into our community. This program will bring together all the different groups trying to help mold a better Downtown and assist them where needed to work toward one common goal – maintain a priceless and historical Downtown and bring long-term success to those business owners.

• Improve our infrastructure
• Finish the Country Club project as promised. This project will repave and add sidewalks/curbs from 7 Highway to Mulberry St.
• Maintain our strong street overlay budget. We have budgeted $540,000 to our overlay fund for this year and have added an additional Public Works employee to the budget to allow more individuals to help improve our existing infrastructure.
• Increase our water/sewer budget to address our aging water and sewer lines
• Continue working with MoDOT on ways to improve traffic flow on 7 Highway. With more houses being built in our community, we must look for opportunities of improvement to manage traffic flow through our town.

• Create a structured plan for growth
• Work with our Planning and Zoning committee and fellow citizens to develop a community 2030 plan that will guide our Council in making decisions when developers begin developing our currently undeveloped land
• Use our newly passed Economic Development Plan to begin a concerted recruiting effort for business that will benefit and fall into accordance with our 2030 strategy as mentioned above

• Lower/maintain our tax rate
• Work closely with all governing bodies responsible for the tax burden on our community to prevent any increases to our personal property or sales tax rates
• Use our new Economic Development Plan to broaden our tax base through commercial growth and/or possible industrial growth to add needed revenue to the city in an effort to reduce our overall sales tax. Although the city receives a small portion of the 9.475% applied to our community(only 2.75%); the city is going to have to be the one to do what we can to find unique ways to lower that burden.
• We will NOT raise our personal property tax through raising the debt levy. There is no question avoiding this action will result in the city’s budget to remain tight. That being said, I do believe there are opportunities to reduce spending if needed. We are operating at a balanced budget with many great projects moving forward in our community.

• Grow and maintain our parks
• Continue working with Missouri State Parks to get the Rock Island Trail off of Cardinal and 58 Highway coming into town and on the actual rail bed as promised
• Continue developing improved relationships in town with our other local entities, such as the school district, to better optimize our community’s tax base for needs that add value to our quality of life such as recreation through open lines of communication.

• Create better tools for our citizens to get access to city services, programs, and assets
• Build a better website with app capability to make for easier access from your phone to pay your water/sewer/trash bill
• Provide easier access to create work orders for pot holes and other issues

• Make it easier for our citizens to get stuff done
• Finish our Unified Development Ordinance which will make it easier for our builders/developers to understand our code, and for future councils to decide on exceptions. This ordinance will also make it easier for you to find exactly what it will take to add a deck onto your house, or to put in a swimming pool as examples.
• Continue to work with developers with our new policy to identify specific commercial/industrial growth that will benefit our town and keep our quality of life.
• Work with our local business to find what codes or ordinances are preventing them from doing more business in our town and get them repealed or corrected.

• In addition, we will continue to work with our fellow citizens seeking any and all ideas and opportunities that can be implemented to benefit our community.

None of what I mentioned can be done by me alone. It is extremely important to me to work hand-in-hand with our City staff, our many boards and committees, our elected City Council, and you, my fellow citizens, to identify the goals of all for the community – develop a plan for the Council to focus on – and implement said plan going forward. Curveballs will come across our plate, I’m sure. I have all the confidence in the world that our City is prepared to handle anything that comes our way. When I make a commitment to you, I promise to keep that commitment.

I am proud to be from and the Mayor of Pleasant Hill, Missouri. Excited is an understatement when I think about our future, and I am asking you for one more term to allow the Council and I to finish the many projects we have started. We are on the right path, and I hope you will allow me to continue to be a part of the journey.

Our Walk Counts More Than Our Talk

Being the Mayor of Pleasant Hill is such a privilege. Representing you to the City, helping our employees succeed, and working with the other local leaders in our State is a very unique opportunity that I do not take lightly. I have been an elected official now for 7 years in our City, but the last two years have been the best of which I have been a part. Our current Council and staff bring a diverse set of talents, experiences, and perspectives that together produce positive discussion on our community’s future.
 

It is key to work as a team, to communicate with your Council, and to provide as much information as possible to the community. We have been able to accomplish so much in a short period of time because we work together with the community to reach the goals we all share. Some of the tasks we’ve accomplished since April 2016 are:

• Created our community’s 1^st real Economic Development Policy.
• We are now working with our builders and developers to gain perspective as to what their needs are to be successful, then translating that into policy.
• After hearing a multitude of issues, we chose to change trash services.
• This change resulted in a better, more accountable contract with a quality provider.
• Began collaboration on a strategic development plan
• This Strategic Development Plan will outline what zoning and development should look like in our undeveloped areas.
• Opened the Rock Island State Park
• We continue to meet with the Director of the Rock Island Trail and the Department of State Parks to ensure this trail gets finished on the existing trail bed and off of the highway as promised.
• Opened the new MoPAC SingleTrack Trail at the City Lake
• This project was constructed by many unbelievably gracious volunteer community members.
• Received a grant to finish the MoPAC Trail to the City Lake.
• Received final approval in February for the path of the trail and hope to begin construction this summer.
• Raised our starting Police Officer pay and supplied them with better city provided equipment.
• This goes without saying, but our law enforcement is due our thanks and much more. They are and should always be a top priority.
• We hired several new City Hall staff.
• City Administrator, Shawn Henessee
• City Clerk, Jessica Elliot
• Public Works Director by promoting Josh Alig
• Expanded Oats services through a grant
• Our citizens that use this service are a valuable group of our community. Expanding Oats services allows more local citizens to have access to local businesses, meeting their needs and reinvesting back into our local economy.
• Stopped further tax increases to personal property through the debt levy.
• Some might have you think increasing the debt levy is a good idea. Increasing the debt levy would add to your burden as a citizen and our local businesses by increasing your personal property taxes. There is no good reason that I can see for local government to take more money out of the pockets of our citizens and businesses at this time. We have a balanced budget, and will continue to as long as I am mayor. Our budget will continue to be tight until our full debt is paid (specifically the bonds passed in 2006 which will be paid in full by 2026), but that is how anyone that is fiscally responsible handles their finances when they go into debt.
• 2016 FBI statistics placed our community as the 3^rd safest City in the State of Missouri.
• Developed better relationships with our State House and Senate
• Staying in communication with our other government leaders gives our city the advantage and ability to stay in front of issues concerning our City and citizens
• Developed better relationship with the School District.
• Having open lines of communication with other community leaders means the city perspective is proactively considered early in plans of future needs instead of reacting to issues too far down the timeline.
• Approved plans to completely rebuild Country Club from 7 Highway to Mulberry.
• Project will begin this Spring, and we are beyond ready to get this going!
• Held our community’s first public State of the City event.
• Communication with and involvement of our citizens is VITAL. We are here to serve you, and your feedback is not only welcome, but necessary for Pleasant Hill to prosper.
• Reviewed our codes to better align them with state statute.
• We have improved our roofing, grass, nuisance, and mobile home codes.
• Currently in the process of rewriting our entire code and develop a Unified Development Ordinance.
• Over time, new codes get updated, added, and/or removed – our codes became outdated without having leaders that took time to review them consistently. You deserve better, and we’re working to ensure our community is up to date, with relevant and value-added codes for future growth and development. We will work with our local builders, developers, and citizens to make sure this process goes smoothly and we get it as right as possible the first time.
• Designed a new Community Recreation Center, decided this is a project for future implementation
• This is an example of being in-tune with our community. We heard you, the many of you that posted and voiced your thoughts on the need for a Community Recreation Center. Unfortunately, we do not feel now is the time to ask citizens for an increase in taxes. We’ve done work and now plans are ready for future Councils to hit the ground running when the time is right in the community.
• Started preparations to become a Tree City USA city.
• Continued our focus on improving our community's infrastructure.
• Kept our budget commitment to put more funds towards our Public Works Department to continue fixing our roads, sewer, and water. Currently, we are working on a strategy to address our aging infrastructure on a larger scale to save money in the long run. Our water infrastructure is in need of updates, we are already checking out how we can handle this in the most fiscally responsible way.
• Plus handled a variety of citizen concerns along the way
• These are the most important. It is one of my greatest joys hearing from all of you. I love that you all hold me, and the other community leaders, accountable at all times. That is exactly how it should be. I do this for my state level leaders. It makes me so proud to see that you all care. I ask that, whether I am mayor or not, you all continue to get involved. Take time to come to a meeting. Say hello to your council members and mayor when you see them out, their families as well. We are here to serve. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve you.

None of this was done by me alone. In most cases, it was accomplished by our staff and Council working together for you. Our City staff, our many boards and committees, our City Council, and you, the citizens, are a pleasure to work with. If successful this April 3^rd, there will be much more work to do. In my next blog post, I will discuss our upcoming goals for the Council.

I am proud to be from and the Mayor of Pleasant Hill. Excited is an understatement when I think about our future, and I am asking you for one more term to allow the Council and I to finish the many projects we have started. We are on the right path, and I hope you will allow me to continue to be a part of the journey.

Motivation

Why am I running for Mayor? What is my motivation? 

These are excellent questions to ask anyone running for public office. In response, you will get a mixture of answers. Some want to spearhead a change, some believe another person is doing something wrong and they’re running in spite, some just want the power and name of the position, and some truly have no alternate agenda beyond the need to contribute to their community. The biggest negative to me in an elected official is when the individual is only doing it for their own legacy or to fulfill their own narcissistic nature. I prefer an individual to run that has no agenda, but has the sole intention to do what is right for their community/country, regardless of their own benefit or loss from the decisions made. They should be selfless.

That is what I strive for, in life and as an elected official. I have a need to help people and my community wherever I can. Serving the community as a parks and recreation employee while in high school from 2003 – 2007 was my first experience with the fulfillment that comes from helping others. Seeing the difference we can make in the community as a city from this perspective at an early age allowed me to gain insight only learned from experience. My next venture of serving the country through employment with my company, Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technology, opened my eyes to the difference one can make for the country as a whole through giving the best of yourself. Constantly seeking a new niche for adding value led me to serve the community over the years as a little league football coach, Pleasant Hill Park Board member and president, little league soccer coach, and more. Being a public servant is the avenue through which I choose to serve my community today and – ultimately – why I am running for Mayor.

When I walk into City Hall, I strive to do what I can to assist those around me so they can do the best job possible for the citizens of our community. I believe strongly that the Mayor and Council’s job, per our Charter, is not to insert themselves into the day-to-day operations of our City unnecessarily. There are occasions when we as a Council have to step in and assist with specific citizen issues or help hire specific employees, but typically that should all be handled by the trusted City Administrator and City Hall staff. If they cannot be trusted to do the best job for our community, then the council and mayor should ensure the position is filled by someone who can. That first Council I served on when first elected to the City Council in 2011 with Terry Wilson, Larry Rosanbalm, Steve Long, and Paul Beason truly set me up to learn how to be a quality public servant. These individuals helped to instill in me the importance of doing things above yourself. They taught me the need to educate myself on every issue, consider the background to those issues, and to understand how those issues and decisions will affect individuals outside of the obvious spectrum.

I am seeking reelection because of the people. It is not only the great citizens of our community that make me proud to serve them, but also the staff that run our City. The top-notch City Council leaders we have, our city hall staff, police, public works, parks and recreation, community development – they’re all phenomenal. From those in City Hall answering the phone, listening and assisting each of you daily to each one of our brave police officers who choose to put their lives at risk so that we can sleep easy at night, it is my privilege to serve the community with them. We have public works guys that will work all hours of the night in -3 degree weather on a holiday, sacrificing time away from their own families to make sure our water works when we wake up after a water leak or pushing snow to clean our roads. This year, we have had a few new staff members come into City Hall. Along with the new came learning opportunities; but, overall those learning opportunities made way for improvement in the way we do things instead of just doing business the “way it has always been done.” It is truly an honor to serve you citizens and to serve with our local government employees.

I don’t like to leave unfinished business. My first two years were filled with a lot of opportunity. My next two blogs will go through what we as a Council/staff have accomplished so far, and what we plan to accomplish if given the opportunity to serve another term.

Pleasant Hill has been fortunate over the last couple decades in that many of our problems have been minor issues that could easily be resolved through common cooperation. We do not have many of the major issues other towns have because we have always had good people in positions to continue to propel our community forward. I would like to think our community is in better standing than it was two years ago, when I first became Mayor. I ask you to let me continue the progress we have made, and keep us moving forward for the next two years.

Once again, I would greatly appreciate your support on April 3^rd as I seek reelection for Mayor of Pleasant Hill.

One More Term

I believe each and every one of us are here for a divine reason. Our reason may be very different from one another, but the overall purpose for all of us is to make our world a better place in some way. Some choose to ignore or not follow that path for reasons of their personal choice, but others choose to take their God given abilities to do what they can to make their community, state, or country better through teaching, serving, leading, building, designing, feeding, helping, saving, preaching, protecting, etc. I may never know my exact divine purpose for being here at this point in time. I do know that I have excelled in areas in which I believe may be a help to my community. The last seven years as an elected official, and the last ten years at Honeywell have shown me I have the ability to earn trust through my honesty, lead when called upon, and a knack for finding solutions to issues others have identified. As a public servant, every day you must work with leaders and community members who all have different ideas and visions for how to achieve our individual perception of what it takes to make our community better. I believe we must elect individuals that have the ability to see past themselves and their own self-interest/legacy to bring together all of those ideas and visions to make one decision that will have the best result for their community at-large. This is always my intention as an elected official, community member, supervisor at Honeywell, and husband/father to my family. Pleasant Hill is a great place to live, and I will always do everything I can to keep it that way.

I am declaring my candidacy for re-election as the Mayor of Pleasant Hill. I will officially file in the coming days. In the coming months I will be sharing notes and videos to my website chrisjhicks.com about why I am running, what we as a Council have accomplished so far, our goals as a Council going forward, and more.

I would greatly appreciate your support on April 3^rd.