Housing and Affordability: We know Albany and the Bay Area are on the forefront of a national housing affordability crisis. Years of under-building has left our housing ecosystem without the supply it needs, pushing vulnerable neighbors out of our community or onto the streets.

• Encouraging Housing Construction: We believe that Albany can build more housing by funding new 100% affordable projects, opening our zoning code to allow more building, and providing the services and protections that our community members need to stay housed or regain safe, stable, and affordable housing.
• Our Action and Leadership: To move this goal forward, we helped usher the 100% affordable Verana Hill project to completion, started the City's program to provide short-term payments to low-income tenants at risk of eviction, and have consistently supported protections for our neighbors who rent.

Environmental Protections: As young leaders, we must do everything we can to protect our shared environment, limit emissions, and protect our green spaces.

• Reducing Albany's Emissions: We have both represented Albany on the Board of Ava Community Energy, Albany's Community Choice Energy supplier, where we have pushed for a cleaner, carbon-free energy mix and a variety of community services that provide e-bike subsidies, electric cooking retrofits, and community resilience hub investment. Together we will make sure Albany's energy gets cleaner and more of your bill comes back to Albany via energy efficiency and resiliency programs. 
• Local Programs and Impacts: Albany can make important climate progress on our own, that is why we started the City's heatpump rebate program and started the pilot program to electrify an entire City block. Together, we will keep creating innovative local programs that make it easier for Albany residents to transition away from fossil fuels. 

Transportation: We believe our city should be easily accessible for everyone. This means making it easier to walk, drive, bike, and use public transit to get around our City.

• Safe Streets: Albany's walkable, bikeable streets are one of our greatest strengths as a community. That is why we have built the accessible infrastructure that we all use whenever we are walking kids to school, visiting Solano, or just out for a walk. We have funded the crossing guard program that helps kids access schools, created the Complete Streets plan and bulbouts that make walking safer on our major thoroughfares, and fine tuned new bicycle infrastructure along Adams and Kains.
• Looking Forward: We firmly support the City's recently approved Active Transportation Plan, which gives our community a long range idea of how to move forward. We also know that many of our neighbors rely on public transit, as do we! That is why it is vital that we engage with our regional transport network, support funding mechanisms to ensure services are consistent, and work with our community to right size transit options to our needs. 

Golden Gate Fields: We know that the closure of Golden Gate Fields is on many of our minds. This change for the largest property in our City will have profound effects. This is a once in a lifetime chance to create a the waterfront park our community has always wanted; we want to navigate that opportunity to get the best result for Albany.  

• Financial Stewardship: When Golden Gate fields ceased operating, Albany stopped receiving tax revenue from its business. Instead of facing a loss, the City was made whole because of the deal with UC Berkeley Aaron had negotiated to contribute $600,000 a year to the City's budget. Now, with a purchase of the Fields by the East Bay Regional Parks on the horizon, we are making sure Albany stays on firm ground with Measures P and Q, which Robin put on the ballot along with the support of every other Council Member.  These measures will restructure two of Albany's largest special taxes that relied heavily on Golden Gate Fields in the past to ensure we have the funds we need for ambulance services and storm drain management. Managing this transition means being proactive and honest with our neighbors about what it takes to fund our City, and that is what our track record reflects. 
• Our Community's Voice: Our community has made its voice clear, repeatedly: Golden Gate Fields should become a park. This is the clear will of the voters in Measure C--which zoned the land for waterfront recreation--the clear preference expressed by our community for the vast majority of the land during the Voices to Visions project in 2010, and the loud response to each attempt to develop the site by its owners or billionaires like Rick Caruso. Now the State has approved a $125 million investment in our waterfront and the East Bay Regional Parks are close to making this dream a reality. Simply put, we have to recognize the chance in front of us. As the project at the waterfront moves forward and decisions are made about what amenities are available, we are committed to keeping our community at the table with the State, our neighbors in Berkeley with a stake in this property, and the Parks. Our close relationships with our State representatives, neighboring electeds, and Park officials will be integral to guiding this input. 

Finance: Albany's finances are healthy, but we still face many challenges. We are committed to ensuring that our city services do not suffer.

• Stable Finances: In our time on Council we have crafted a variety of new revenue generating measures to both fund Albany's existing services and expand programs to meet new needs. That is why we championed some of Albany's recent measures to fund Emergency Medical Services and Sidewalk Improvements, and why we are committed to creating new pathways to fund our City's core services going forward. To soften the impact of new measures like these, we have always made sure the tax structure is progressive and includes rebates or exemptions for lower-income households. While no one likes taxes, we know the alternative is cutting staff and services, leaving our community without the services they rely on. 
• Regional Cooperation to Balance a Federal Retreat: With all the uncertainty at the federal level, our stewardship of local resources and ability to create chances for regional cooperation will be more important than ever. Albany has already seen some federal grants be revoked due to this administration, but we know that by standing with our neighboring cities we can ensure we have the resources we need.  

Public Safety: Our Police and Fire Departments are vital parts of our core community services. 

• Surveillance: When the City first approved the use of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, the initiative was presented as a necessary, and limited, step to integrate with the practices of our neighbors. Since then, national news has proven that the company the City contracted with for these cameras has betrayed the public's trust repeatedly. We support ending the contract and removing ALPR cameras from the City. 
• Alternative Crisis Response: While our Police Department has a strong emphasis on deescalation and community policing, there are times when residents are better served by having someone besides an armed, uniformed officer helping. The City's Police Department previously had a contract with a provider of unarmed, crisis response services, but unfortunately this provider was unable to continue this service. We want to bring a crisis response team back to Albany. 
• Funding Medical Services: Albany is one of the few cities that provides its own ambulance services through our Fire Department, giving Albany residents faster response times and better service. To make sure this service stays strong, we created and passed Measure K in 2022, which funded increased staffing for the Fire Department, negotiated the deal with UC Berkeley that funded a new fire engine, and support Measure Q to ensure that the sale of Golden Gate Fields won't reduce our emergency medical coverage. 

Other Accomplishments from Aaron and Robin:

• Together, we finalized an agreement with UC Berkeley for the University to pay the City $6,000,000 over 10 years to support key City services including a new Fire Engine, a deal Aaron negotiated as Mayor. 
• In 2024, in response to conversation with his daughter, Robin proposed a Gender Equity Policy to ensure all City contracts achieved pay parity across genders. Aaron helped him write the proposal which the Council eventually passed. 
• In 2024, in response to significant comments from the public on every side of the issue, Aaron worked with Mayor John Miki to create Albany's Ceasefire Resolution. Aaron and Robin worked with Councilmembers and public to ensure this difficult issue was discussed without name calling or attacks. 
• in 2024, Aaron proposed the creation of an Ethical Investment Policy to ensure our City's savings don't support fossil fuels, weapons manufacturing, or other practices that do not align with our larger goals and values. Robin helped finalize this policy as the City's Environmental, Social, and Governance investment policy. 
• in 2022, Aaron worked with Preston Jordan and the Fire Department to craft Measure K to provide around $2 million a year to support the City's Emergency Medical Services response capabilities. Voters passed this measure overwhelmingly after Aaron helped lead the campaign. 
• Aaron and Robin have both represented Albany on the Board of Ava Community Energy, our publicly owned clean energy provider. Aaron served as Vice-Chair of the Board and helped recruit Ava's current CEO as well as move up the timeline for Ava to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from the mix. Robin has served on the Board since 2024, where he has helped continue Ava's clean energy journey and supported the local programs that benefit our residents. 
• During the midst of the pandemic, Aaron worked closely with City staff to design the City's Shadow-Debt/Emergency Rent-Relief program. This program provided short term funding for impacted and low-income residents who would otherwise have been displaced from Albany or become homeless. Robin and Aaron both worked to ensure this program was able to continue sustainably with ongoing funding. 
• In 2024, Aaron and Robin worked with local students to create and pass Measure V, which allows 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections. This measure followed the latest science on brain development, encourages early voting registration, and was passed with more than 70% of the vote by Albany's voters after both Aaron and Robin worked to support the campaign.
• Both Aaron and Robin have worked with their colleagues on council to reduce the expense our residents face to improve their lives and engage with local services. They have both helped pass policies to waive the fees for street tree planting, bike parking installation, gas to electric appliance conversions, and candidate statement fillings.