To the Editor:
My name is Rachel Bruce and I am running for the open seat on the Woodbury Town Council on November 8 to represent the good people of Woodbury. I am a public servant, a regional planner, and an involved member of our community running to serve the town that raised me.
I am running for Town Council because I want to ensure that our community continues to thrive now and for years to come by preserving the things that make Woodbury special, while at the same time embracing and preparing for the future. I was born and raised here with roots stretching back four generations. I am a proud Monroe-Woodbury graduate and (thanks to the help of local scholarships) studied regional planning and political science in college.
I am deeply connected to this community and have the experience to help lead it, with a decade of service in local and state public government. After graduating, I served as a Policy Advisor for Economic Development for New York State where I managed major cross-agency economic development and procurement programs and oversaw components of a $100 Million budget. For many years I interned in James Skoufis’ District Office where I assisted with constituent casework. I have remained an active member of our community for years, serving as Co-Chair of the Woodbury Land Preservation Committee and as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. I am also a member of the Junior League of Orange County and a lifetime Girl Scout. I regularly attend Town Board, Parks Committee, Library Board, and other important community meetings to keep well-abreast of the issues we are facing, as well as the decisions and progress our local government is making.
I take the term “public servant” literally. My experience in government has taught me many things, the most important of which is the importance of always putting people first, even if we may disagree at times. As your Town Councilwoman, your family’s needs and quality of life will be my priority. Thanks to the work of Supervisor Burke and the Town Board, Woodbury has taken tremendous steps forward in the last few years from opening the brand new John P. Burke Memorial Pool, to the collaboration with Mayor Giacomazza to build a strong relationship between the Town and Village Boards.
As someone with a decade of experience in public service and government, who is an involved member of our community, and who has a strong history of working across the aisle, I believe I am the right candidate to continue the progress of the current Town Board while energizing it with new ideas that will support our community, our family programming, and our values.
Here are some ways I believe we can accomplish this: First, we need to keep our community affordable by staying within the 2% tax cap, making the best possible use of your hard-earned town tax dollars while maintaining the best quality of life possible for our residents. This means continuing to prioritize excellent parks and library programming for all ages, maintaining and continuing to improve our town facilities (including increasing ADA accessibility), supporting our first-responders, and supporting essential town services.
Further, we need to prioritize making our town government as accessible and transparent as possible. The current Town Council has done a great job of doing this with the reimplementation of public comment and a joint newsletter with the Village. I believe we can add to this by meeting residents where they are with the creation of an official Town of Woodbury Facebook page, and bringing new groups to the table with the creation of a Youth Advisory Council to engage Woodbury’s young professionals and leaders in local government while informing programming for our community. If you have any questions or want to get involved, please do not hesitate to contact me at rachelbruceforwoodbury@gmail.com. You can also follow my campaign on Facebook at Rachel Bruce for Woodbury Town Council or visit my website at rachelbruceforwoodbury.com. Thank you for your consideration for this position and I look forward to meeting you soon.
Rachel Bruce
Woodbury