Candidate for
Council Member; City of West Hollywood

My name is Steven Koller, and it would be my privilege to serve West Hollywood as your city council member. I pledge to employ my extensive experience in serving others to give voice to the concerns, ideas and wishes of the creative and hard working individuals who make up our small community -- a unique landscape which possesses great potential to be an unprecedented urban oasis. In the relatively short history of West Hollywood, many concerned citizens have effected positive change while maintaining a superior quality of life for our good residents. It is my goal to learn from those who have come before me and to work with business, education and environmental leaders to keep West Hollywood at the cutting edge of civic innovation. We are a great community within a growing state within a changing nation. It is our duty to create a better place for us all, and to start today -- right here at home. I thank you for your confidence, and your trust.

Increase community involvement/ With 21,990 voters in our city, only an ever-decreasing minority of those decide who will sit on the city council. Therefore, the same 5,000 to 6,000 voters choose the same council members in every election. Most surprisingly, the large gay population chooses not to participate at all. It is my desire to show voters their voices should and can be heard, and local policies can have a trickle-up effect.

Ensure accountability/ Most current city council members have been inside city hall for more than a decade. They have become entrenched in local disputes that will not be resolved, because resolution would conflict with their interests. I believe a new city council could bring much needed change to the structure of the council itself -- most notably campaign finance reform. I find it appalling that more than $100,000 is being spent by some candidates to stay in power in this election. I would work to create campaign spending limits, as well as term limits for council members.

Provide equal rights for all citizens and compassion for all people/ I support marriage equality for all people. I believe the current political environment has ignored the essence of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's separation of church and state -- most notably when defending the segregation of the gay community from the right to civil marriage afforded to everyone else. As the son of an immigrant father, I believe it is in our best interests to improve and ease the process of immigration and citizenship for individuals possessing the best intentions for their own lives, their families and the lives of their adopted communities. I find the building of a border wall on our own border as reprehensible as reconstructing the Berlin Wall.

Spearhead civic responsibility/ With a population of 37,000 people sharing just under two square miles, West Hollywood has the highest population density of any city west of the Mississippi river. I do not believe it is in our best interest to encourage population growth by building large blocks of mixed-use, midrise housing along the Santa Monica Boulevard corridor. I believe we need to nurture our many historic sites, invent creative solutions to our traffic and parking nightmares and use development to improve our infrastructure -- making it the best our modern designers and contractors can create, while offering current residents of West Hollywood real security and serenity as they live their daily lives. As our residents age, they need to feel safe in their homes, their parks and their centers. And as our young people grow they need to have the best chance for education that we can offer them.