#SmartGov4Herndon requires the engagement of the entire community — residents, businesses, community organizations, town staff, and the Council. If Herndon is to be the best it can be for all of us, it requires input and active participation in the life of the town from EVERYONE!
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An active member of the Herndon community for over a decade, Steve Porter believes that #SmartGov4Herndon comes from fully engaging the community, listening to all viewpoints, carefully considering the potential outcomes, and then making the best decision in a non-partisan manner. Sometimes that means staying the course and sometimes that means innovating with new ideas and approaches. Through it all, Steve places a high value on transparency, fairness, and honesty.
Been knocking doors, distributing literature, and — most importantly — talking to our community. Clark Hedric, Keven LeBlanc, and I divided up Herndon for purposes of canvassing so we could cover more doors. I am mostly doing Herndon 2 but would be happy to talk to you regardless of which precinct you are in (Herndon has 3 precincts). But if you are wondering what my literature looks like click on the title above to access the full blog entry!
At the Public Hearing on September 14th, 2022 I delivered the following remarks about Traffic Safety. You can also view the meeting at Town Council Public Session – Sep 13th, 2022 (granicus.com) (my remarks begin at the 01:20:50 mark). Madam Mayor, Members of Council, and Mr. Ashton, My name is Stevan Porter and I reside at 905 Vine St in Herndon. As a candidate for Council, I have been spending time talking with members of our community and many people … read more
By now I hope everyone realizes that the top priority for #SmartGov4Herndon is community engagement. I believe that fully engaging our residents, businesses, organizations, and government can provide better and more cost effective solutions than relying mainly (or completely) on government. So what does this look like? Well a great recent example is the recent effort started to provide desks for virtual learning in the Herndon/Reston area. A resident saw a need, created a Facebook group, invited some friends, and … read more
I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to a special group of supporters — the people who have been sharing my posts and talking to your friends and neighbors about me. It makes a HUGE difference especially in a campaign where where positive name recognition is so critical. While doing door to door this weekend I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who had heard of me. Even better a number of them were saying … read more
Another important aspect of #SmartGov4Herndon is financial responsibility. Especially with the economic impacts of COVID-19, it is critical that the Town use YOUR money carefully, avoid taking on new debt unless absolutely necessary, protect our reserve funds, and maintain our AAA municipal bond rating. Politicians often like to focus on taxes but I do not believe that is the right approach. Taxes are simply the means to pay for the spending decisions that we make as a community. So before … read more
#SmartGov4Herndon requires community engagement. But to be fully engaged also requires that our community be well informed which in turn makes transparency and access to data critical. This transparency must necessarily start with me and the other candidates for Town Council. My promise to all of you is that I will answer any reasonable question you put to me as truthfully as I can. Sometimes the answer may be “I don’t know — I need to learn more” but I … read more
My campaign’s hashtag / motto is #SmartGov4Herndon, but what is Smart Government? For me it begins with understanding that a healthy Town requires the active engagement of the entire community — residents, businesses, organizations, and the government. Our community is full of dedicated, talented, and diverse people. I believe that it is critical that Town Council do a better job of not only soliciting feedback from the community but also directly involving them in implementing solutions. When all the elements … read more
At the heart of making good decisions lies the need for good data to base those decisions on. I am a troubleshooter by nature and profession. Whether it is resolving a technical issue in the IT realm or saving a life as a paramedic, determining the best course of action requires getting as thorough of an understanding of the situation as possible. With that information you can then look at your possible courses of action and decide on the best … read more
I have had some people tell me that the Town Council and its members/candidates need to stay away from divisive or controversial topics. I personally believe that is a serious mistake. Ignoring issues in the hopes that they will simply go away is not #SmartGov4Herndon. Government is about controversial and potentially divisive topics. Things that are not controversial seldom need government intervention. It is the job of elected officials to give a fair hearing to different viewpoints and then try … read more
I want to take a moment to thank my friends and followers (here and on other channels) of color for their thoughtful and respectful efforts to help me better understand the issues. I was fortunate to grow up in a place (outside of Seattle) and time (70’s – 80’s) where race really was not a big issue. That is not to say there were not some of the more subtle, institutionalized elements of racism as I look back but certainly … read more