Platform Pillar 4:Equity, Dignity, and Access for Magna

Building Equity, Dignity, and Access

I know that in 2025, some political discussions surrounding the word "equity" can turn people off. Let me explain what this means though.

Magna is a working-class community, blue collar through and through. Growing up here, I have had many blue-collar jobs, from working at the copper mine in security and as an EMT, to working in machine shops. While I have traded that blue collar for a white collar, I have always understood my roots, and the roots of my family in the working class.

And I remember a time where my family and I needed a helping hand.

My plan for improving equity, dignity, and access comes from an understanding that the government can't just give handouts to make problems go away. We don't have the money as a city, and it isn't effective in my (fiscally conservative) opinion. I firmly believe that charities, churches, and service organizations are the path to truly helping people in desperate situations. Be it the Boy Scouts mowing a widow's lawn, or food from the food bank to someone recently laid off. Our existing charities cover much of the needs in Magna.

But what they lack is coordination and city cooperation. Handing out food boxes is all well and good, but also helping with local police to coordinate traffic, city support in preparation, and publishing dates on city resources is better.

My goal is simple in this task. Create a Community Resource Council of these charities, and see how the government can help. By coordination, leadership, and cooperation, especially paired with volunteers from a volunteer corps of the community.

From this, we can also perform compassionate-driven code enforcement in the cases of mental distress, overwork, widows and the elderly, and the needy by connecting them to volunteer efforts and charitable organizations. We can also build a list of service projects that can be handed to people looking to help Magna be better and look better. As a council, we could pair charities offering man-hours to charities offering resources, and build a sense of pride.

We can also use the metrics and cases from this to design a micro-grant program to help businesses, people, and the community with improvements to their structures, yards, and facilities—perhaps fixing up businesses on Magna Main, or as a stopgap for disaster relief. Perhaps utilizing professionals who donate their time while we as a city pay for the materials.

We could increase the pride in our community with a community effort, and the role of the government here will be leading the charge and helping build that pride. And that starts with bringing people to the table.