It started with the Microsoft data center project. I’m probably the last person you would expect to oppose that project, at least on paper. I spent 38 years working in technology, earning a living building complex software that ran in data centers. I know firsthand how important data centers are to everything we do. I also know firsthand how important economic development is having spent so many years working in financial services.

But a career’s worth of managing large technology projects taught me that not every proposal is a good proposal. So I started digging, and what I saw in the proposal and how it was presented to the public bothered me. Other problems I found convinced me to run for Trustee.

Here are three of the big, expensive mistakes I found while digging:

• The village narrowly approved a deal to subsidize residential development east of Douglas with a $30,000,000, or $126,000 per home, tax break. The village will not see any tax revenue benefit from that deal for 20 years. Existing homeowners trying to sell their homes will be competing against new homes built with generous subsidies.

• The village underestimated expenses in tax increment district #4, requiring a $1,000,000 per year transfer from our general fund through 2034. Total funds transferred: $14,365,000.

• The village loaned a developer $4,000,000 to build on our only remaining undeveloped lakefront property. The loan was originally due in 2022. After originally buying the property for $1.4M, selling it to the developer for $1, we have now spent another $3.4M buying out another loan the developer had on the property in order to have complete control over the property’s future. We’ve spent $8.8M on the property and it’s worth less than half that amount.

You the residents, taxpayers, and business owners deserve an advocate that keeps your short and long-term interests at the center of every decision. Caledonia is unique and needs leadership to help it retain that uniqueness in a world that constantly changes.

We need to start doing things for people, not to them.