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Marlin Willesen

Marlin for Addison

AddisonProudTM

I COMMIT TO YOU...

A UNIFIED POINT OF VIEW

My Top Commitments to You:

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  • Unify Addison: Unfortunately, some of our residents are politically divided. At present we are wasting too much time and negative energy fighting one another. It's time for us to work together for the greater good of our community. ​

  • Pragmatic Decision Making: I tap into the brain power of anyone that can help us with better decision-making. Council members make roughly 300 voting decisions over a year's time. I make decisions and cast votes based upon what’s best for Addison and seek input from anyone that can help me discover the best solution for our voting items. 

  • Strong Communications: I take phone calls, I return calls, I listen and will share my thoughts with you. I believe in open and honest conversations. I may not tell you what you want to hear, but you will know where I stand and why.

  • Perfect Attendance: I don't miss meetings.

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More on My Platform:

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  • I offer a younger-generation perspective which means I represent a more diverse demographic, bring new ideas and a broader set of interests.

  • Being a public servant at the highest level of our town (i.e., Addison City Council) is a serious commitment. I have the time and energy needed to properly perform the duties of the post at a high level.

  • I will continue to be an ambassador of our Town. You can see my work at my AddisonProud Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo or Instagram sites.  Whether it's sharing a great story in person or sharing something positive about our community via the various AddisonProud social media sites... I'll continue to highlight the many things that make Addison great. 

  • I will continue to make voting decisions that keep our tax rate at a low level through continued economic development / re-development.

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More on the Fine Details of My Position:

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  • Growth: In Addison the commercial sector powers much of our economy. 86% of our property taxes are generated by commercial property owners. If we want economic growth to continue we must hold firm on only approving high-quality development and increase the recruitment of more companies moving to Addison. I believe there are times we as a Town need to take action to stimulate growth to reach a desired result. At present our Economic Development team is doing good work with limited resources. Our current Economic Development Fund receives funding at a property tax rate equal to .023716. This equals ~$1.3 million for the 2022-2023 fiscal budget. This rate was created at the inception of the Economic Development Fund and has remained unchanged since 2011. As a Council Member who has seen first hand the effectiveness of economic incentives to stimulate growth into our economy I would like to see the contribution rate to the Economic Development Fund increased to .025 with the funds focused on attracting more companies to move their headquarters or a regional office to Addison. This allows us to reach greater heights faster. We simply need to build upon the solid foundation that already exists. 

  • Safety: I admire our first responders and love our under 4 minute average response times. I've done ride-alongs with APD and seen the real crime that can occur on a Friday night. I've witnessed our firefighters as they battled the Super 8 Motel fire. How can you not love those that place themselves in harms way to protect us? They are heroes and I will continue to do what's needed to provide them the resources they need to protect us all.​

  • Compensation Philosophy: Our City Council Members realize that the Town of Addison employees are its most important resource and its vital that we have the ability to recruit and retain a talented workforce. With this in mind Council created a Resolution formalizing a Compensation Philosophy. One of the main points of the Compensation Philosophy is "To remain competitive with other metroplex cities in regards to the Town's compensation program by paying employees better than the average of our comparison cities.". To accomplish this we must perform market study updates on a regular basis and adjust our compensation accordingly for our compensation to meet the requirements of the Compensation Philosophy. I remain diligent making sure we stay current with market study updates being performing. We have a commitment to our our employees that we need to fulfill. By doing so it will help with our recruiting and retention of top talent. It will also build trust with our employees.  
  • Housing Incentive: We have great employees that we need to retain and top talent that we need to recruit. One way to do so is by provide a housing incentive. At present our Town staff is ~ 316 but only only 14 live in Addison. I propose a housing incentive equating to 3% of salary up to $5,000 per year for all of our employees who choose to live in Addison. I know that employees who are residents see things at night and on the weekends. That local knowledge helps in creating a more informed employee. I also believe long term residents take more ownership of shaping a better community. A new housing incentive policy is something that will not cost us much but will pay big dividends down the road once implemented in conjunction with a greater percentage of our staff living amongst us. This is also something our comparator cities will not be able to match.
  • City Secretary: Past City Secretary Irma Parker) did great work but retired in January 2024. We will need to recruit and hire a great City Secretary that can fulfill the heavy demands of the position. I've learned over the years serving on City Council the importance of this position and am a Liaison for our City Secretary search and recruitment. I look forward to securing someone special to join our team at Town Hall that will be with us for an extended period of time.  
  • Support for Electric Vehicle, (EV) Charging Stations at our Hotels: At present the only Addison hotel with an EV charging station is the Home2 Suites by Hilton Dallas Addison. The EV market is growing rapidly and their drivers when in need of hotel are making choice based on available EV charging stations. In short our hotels are not on the map when it comes to EV charging destinations. I propose that we as a Town help our hotels get EV charging stations via Town of Addison economic development funding, state of Texas and Federal funding. I would like our economic development team to be a valuable resource in the education process of how our Addison hotels can get started with EV destination chargers with as little money down as possible from the hotelier. When this starts to take traction our Addison hotels will be better equipped to compete with other hotels offering this service and have a leg up on Airbnb rental locations.    
  • Underperforming Hotels: Tourism is an essential component of a healthy Addison economy and Addison hotels perform the critical role of offering available rooms to our visitors. Unfortunately we have a few that are underperforming and one in particular that has some very serious adverse effects that touch many aspects of our Town. It’s imperative that we as a Town insure each hotel's business practice matches their approved P&Z application, all are paying their correct amount of hotel occupancy taxes, properties are safe, up to code maintenance wise, and not causing an overly high amount of Police/Fire/EMS calls for service. City Council and the Town staff have had extensive discussions regarding "Underperforming Hotels". I believe that if we have a hotel operating like an apartment on a parcel of land that's zoned for hotel use that City Council take the mandatory measures to help the operator in question come back into compliance. We must always make sure all Addison hotels perform in a suitable fashion. Please utilize the links below to see the City Council discussions regarding "Underperforming Hotels".
  • Apartments/Independent Living: I love our high-end apartments. Take a tour of AMLI Addison, Fiori, Savoye, Savoye2, and Vitruvian West, Addison Grove and I promise you will love them too. I also like many of our well-maintained older apartments. A great example is Waterford Court Apartments. I would also like to see the Town encourage redevelopment for some of our 50+ year old apartments into other uses. Specifically I would like to see a mid-rise senior living development that provides our community  with a great independent living option. Look to the northeast corner of Spring Valley Road and Marsh Lane to get an idea of where this type of development might best be located. Here is a great video of Ventana by Buckner in Dallas. This or something similar would be a great addition that I would like to see for our community. 
  • Parks: I'm a huge fan of our parks and am a big advocate of maintaining them at a high standard. Whenever we add green space or re-develop park space I'll advocate focusing on realizing a premium park. We only have 18 parks at present so anytime we re-develop or have a large maintenance project it's important to me that we capitalize on the long-term opportunity to make each one very special. In the future City Council will be making decisions regarding Les Lacs Pond when the current pond retainer edge fails. We have a great opportunity before us to upgrade this stormwater system that also serves as scenic park space. If we do so at a premium level, this will be impactful to the surrounding neighborhoods and the Town as a whole.
  • Better Street Lighting: I've put forth great effort improving the street lighting on Morman Lane, Sopras Circle and Surveyor Boulevard. With overwhelming support from residents we were able to get a new street light installed at the curve on Morman Lane. We were also able to get all street lights upgraded with LED bulbs creating a safer environment for drivers, pedestrians and discouraging crime. Thanks to all residents who signed the petition in support of this effort and to the Town staff who took action to get this done. In the future I will ask the Town to improve the lighting more with better designed street lighting that directs the light down to the street. The light fixtures I have in mind can be found in some of our residential neighborhoods such as Asbury Circle, Addison Grove and Oaks North. 

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Marlin Willesen | 4100 Juliard Drive | Addison, TX 75001 | Marlin@AddisonProud.com | 972.233.4222 |

© 2017 by Marlin Willesen

Political advertisement paid for by Marlin Willesen for Addison City Council campaign | Liesl Mayerson, Treasurer  

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