Voter Guide: Lisa Burtenshaw

• Website: https://lisaburtenshaw.com/
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Interview Transcript:

Reporter:  All right. What inspired you to run for office?

Burtenshaw: So for the last four years, I've been on the city council, and the last two years I've sat in frustration, not being able to really effect the kind of change that I wanted to try and participate in. The City Council is the legislative branch, and the mayor is the executive branch. And so the mayor is really responsible for the day to day services and making sure that water, garbage, sewer, power, fiber is running smoothly. As well as the permitting side of it. And I just know that there have been a lot of frustrations in the community, and I was really hoping to get in and affect change. And also, there's growth, and we're going to have to grow through the growth. We've had 1500 people a year moving to Idaho Falls for the last five years. So that's a lot of people. And there that momentum is here. People have found us. We've got a great place to live. And so there isn't a way to stop growth. We're going to have to grow through the growth. And I am a community builder. And so the only way we're going to get through growth is to continue building. We'll build new parks. We're going to continue building the River trail. Those are all super important pieces we'd like to build, you know, through public-private partnerships, a community center for families. As we as we grow, we're going to need more of those kind of amenities. And this is a great place to raise a family, and I want to keep it that way.

Reporter: All right. On to question number two. What would you like to accomplish or change if elected?

Burtenshaw: I referred to it in my first answer. I think doing business with the city of Idaho Falls has become more difficult. I think that as well as the people coming, the city has also been overwhelmed. And we just need to become better at that. I hear frustrations, with people trying to get either a building permit or just giving getting a special events permit. It shouldn't be that hard to do business with the city, but I think it's intimidating. I think we have physical barriers that we need to work through. I think we have, customer service that we need to work to, but the people at the city are committed to making it better. We just need to have that as a priority.

Reporter: How would you like to go about maintaining or possibly creating a relationship with citizens?

Burtenshaw: Okay, that's a great question. So we need to work at knowing how to deliver information to citizens. We put all kinds of stuff on the website. And I'd even say this today, people are frustrated with growth, but we've launched a on our website. If you want to know what's coming into your neighborhood, if you're seeing growth, you can now go on the city website and click on a map. It'll bring up the plat of, you know, whatever has been approved. And, people don't know those kind of things exist in the city. They don't know that maps for snow removal exist. They don't know that maps for leaf collection exists. And I don't expect people to be able to go onto the website every day to figure it out. So we need a real concerted effort to know how people are getting their information on demand so that they can know when when their Leafs are going to get picked up, when there's snow is going to get removed. All of those things that the city does, when are their roads going to be closed? It's important.

Reporter: How are you feeling about your campaign so far? I love campaign season.

Burtenshaw: I love it. I think that campaign season at the local level is when people can affect change and people know that. And so they get out and they talk. They talk to their neighbors and they talk to me. And and I love it because I am really I mean, I love people. That's why my campaign says putting people first. I do love people. I love neighborhoods and so during campaign season, that's when people know they can affect change. So they get out and they talk about their issues and their problems and and then you can take that back and you can you can actually do something about it. So it's I love it. I love campaign season.

Burtenshaw: Those are all my questions. Anything else you would like to add to the air? You. Yeah, I would just say that as a community, we're going to get through this. The growth is here, and we've got to make sure that we're out. Collectively building community. Getting rid of fear. Getting rid of fear of growth. Getting rid of the frustration. We can make it happen as a community. Better than any city government can do it. We need to make sure that we are meeting our neighbors, having our block parties, and if the city is a barrier to any of that, let's get rid of those barriers because we are a community and we're going to build through it and it's going to be beautiful. I know it's painful and stressful now, but it is a wonderful place to raise a family and to have a great career.