LETTER: Greever-Rice offers practical, sensible government

Tracy Greever-Rice brings to the Fourth Ward City Council race the most experience with city government. Her qualifications include service on the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Energy and Environment Commission, neighborhood and homeowner associations, the Vision Commission and the Board of Adjustment. Few candidates in recent memory bring this much experience to their first quest for public office in Columbia.

Greever-Rice is smart, thoughtful, thorough and dedicated. She will demand that decisions to spend tax revenue be based on evidence and effectiveness, not on emotions or whose pocket it will fill. She will support economic development that ensures long-term growth and good-paying jobs — jobs that lead to better futures for those who work them and for the rest of the community (not just retail development that returns few dollars to the local economy and sends the rest out of state). She will focus on putting police protection where needed — as dictated by actual criminal activity — and work to ensure equal access to public health and safety (including clean and safe water, air and food). And she will strive to make public policy responsive to real people, not just to those who have the money to hire lawyers and consultants.

Tracy Greever-Rice will serve the Fourth Ward with distinction and the city of Columbia with fairness and equality. A vote for Tracy Greever-Rice is a vote for practical, sensible and responsible government.

Alyce Turner lives in the Fourth Ward.