First of all, I really have to thank Robert Winters for offering this website to present my platform. For me and many other candidates, the Cambridge Civic Journal's no-fee opportunity levels the playing field. I urge Cambridge voters to view all candidates at the RWinters website before you go to the polls. I hope to post my own campaign website sometime in September. In addition to my own platform, I'll include information and comments on other candidates. Stay tuned. I have very strong sentiment and recommendations for Central Square...I'll discuss that subject last. I am a lifetime resident of Cambridge, born on Otis Street and since then living in Central Square. After graduation from Cambridge Latin I earned Bachelor and Master of Engineering degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology. I am a licensed real estate broker and Notary Public. I have worked at a neighborhood pharmacy for many years and am also a small landlord who has not raised a tenant's rent in thirteen years! With two sons enrolled in Cambridge schools, I'm as fully concerned and committed as anyone can be to a city government that puts citizens' needs first. We're all looking at a city government that will price many of us out in a few years. My overwhelming priority as a candidate is to curb the city's spending growth. Every other issue- better city services, affordability, public safety, schools, etc., hinge on sensible money management. Cambridge officials cannot continue to increase annual budgets because of the new money we're blessed to receive. As the new revenue tapers off, residential taxpayers will pay more, not less than our neighboring towns, to meet fixed costs with reduced services. It's happening today- the purported "free cash" is already being tapped to buffer residential tax rates. An inevitable reduction in commercial property values will be disastrous if we keep spending more and more. As it's been said before, Cambridge has no revenue problem. We have a spending problem , and it has to be arrested. The centerpiece of my campaign is to make the Cambridge Health Alliance the primary insurer for city employees. For 2014, taxpayers will pay $68 million- a full eighth of the overall budget-on health insurance for its 3000 employees and dependents. That's a whopping increase of $8 million in one year. These costs are unsustainable , without equal in municipal government, and far above the allowances commercial employers can afford. City officials who benefit from this program simply pass on the increased costs with barely a comment. While health care is the biggest elephant in the room for every municipality or private employer, Cambridge has unique opportunities to reduce insurance costs while improving services to residents at the same time. Where does Cambridge health care money go? Most employees elect the ultra expensive Blue Cross option because of name recognition and the modest contribution they make themselves. Blue Cross is not a health care provider; the company throttles its own outlays however it can. The Cambridge Health Alliance is a network of clinics, hospitals, and community based professionals who are the primary, maybe sole health care providers for much of Cambridge. The Alliance needs money. Sixty eight million goes a long way even nowadays. This is money that can reopen closed neighborhood clinics, enhance coverage for everyone from cradle through old age, and keep taxpayer money in the community. A DPW worker who has a backache or bad cough can walk into a clinic around the corner instead of enduring the seven levels of approval insurers impose to see a clinician. Our health care dollars become a long term investment instead of corporate profit. City Councillors and administrators are very happy with the top dollar coverage they provide for themselves and friends. At the same time, they criticize CHA officials who announce service cutbacks caused by financial squeezes without allocating funds to fix the problem. Public money funds both programs; if those who make the decisions use the system themselves we'll see that money used very wisely. Cambridge has yet another terrific alternative to tame the health care monster: the state's GIC employee insurance program. Massachusetts finally cleared municipalities to join the state program because most towns just can't absorb individual plans' increasing costs. Somerville, being bankrupted by employee insurance, joined the system in 2012 and saw an immediate 25% reduction in premiums. Nobody died. After some hemming and hawing, things aren't so bad after all. The Cambridge City Council has to get serious about cutting costs wherever it can. Taxpayers are not obligated pay for Cadillac programs the city doesn't really need.