my name is nancy de boer and i have a large position on the city council which means i represent the city as a whole which is the position i offer also i have been on council for this is my eighth year so i will be up for well i think the city has gone through some really challenging budgetary times and we have made a lot of cuts we have like forty less people working here and have done a lot of reorganizing in order to do the best we can with the people that we have and dividing up everything from people that have retired or left so keeping that whole energy going of all the different people in different places doing all kinds of things is a really important thing i really appreciate the city employees and the amazing contributions that they have made the dedication that they have shown the way they've come together as teams in all different areas in order to really make city services quite seamless i don't think the public is aware of the level of sacrifice that so many employees have had in the last few years but we really appreciate it and we want to make sure that everyone is treated correctly and that their jobs are reasonable and  fulfilling for them also i think it's really important that we improve our communications as a city everything has changed in the world of communications and that you can't even find everybody's phone number in a phone book anymore and so it's important for us to be open with what's going on and communicate with people and figure out new ways to communicate with all different segments of society in holland and beyond so i think that's really important and also we have treasures in our city that are really important that does one windmill and windmill island gardens our civic center of an royalty farm bout bouse pool are all real important community really regional assets and it's really a time for us to face those things and pay attention to them and work on developing them and make them even better than they've been in the past and make them real destinations for the community and we need to fundraise in ways that may not have been done before or with in court in corporate ing more private investment along with the public and so that would be really great thing to see all of those things start coming together this next year i love being on city council in the city of highland it has been such a fulfilling position for me to learn from all different people it's been very challenging and rewarding i believe love living here we've loved raising our family here and my motivation for coming a part of city council was to give back to the community and use the time i have to give to the to the world around me and so it has been so wonderful to be a part of this and to tackle problems because howland is big enough to have the issues that the rest of the world has but i think we're small enough and dedicated enough to come together to work out solutions for those and that's so exciting because really how one city's biggest people and their greatest resources are all the people that can come together to solve problems and work together because they realize that as our city seal says together united we're going to do so much but  god be with us and that's what's really important that we come together to solve problems