Josh Cummings
Born in 1974, Josh grew up in South Louisiana. Following high school in 1993, he enlisted in the US Air Force to serve his country, travel the world, and earn money for college. After 8 years and assignments to Colorado, Missouri, Turkey, Texas and Louisiana, he finished his undergraduate degree with honors from Louisiana Tech University. He was selected for Officer Training School and went on to flight school in a joint program with the Navy at Naval Air Station Pensacola. After excelling in this highly competitive environment, he had the opportunity to fly the F-15E Strike Eagle. While stationed in Alaska as a member of the 90th Fighter Squadron “Dicemen,” in 2005, Josh met his beautiful wife Julie and convinced her to marry within 6 months of their first date! After a 4 year assignment as an instructor with the Navy in Pensacola, Josh returned to the mighty Strike Eagle in 2011 and the Cummings Family (which had grown to 4 with daughters Anabelle and Zoey) moved to Boise as he flew with the 391st Fighter Squadron “Bold Tigers,” out of Mountain Home AFB. In 2014, Josh put his family and love for Idaho first by retiring from active duty in lieu of accepting an assignment elsewhere. Through his 21+ year career, Josh had indeed served his country, traveled the world, and completed 2 Associates Degrees (Electronic Systems and Communications), a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies, and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. He retired at the rank of Major and will fondly tell stories of his career at the first opportunity, but knows that it’s not enough to simply dwell on the accomplishments of the past, but always strive to the future.
In 2014, Josh entered the business world as a real estate investor and Realtor. Since that time, he has become a broker and opened his own company here in Meridian, Crosswinds Realty. He is known by his clients and fellow agents as a man that truly loves his work and cares deeply about raising the bar of professionalism across the real estate industry. He also owns and operates DH Car Wash on Fairview.
Josh is a Bible-believing Christian and loves to share his testimony with any who ask. His faith is central to both his worldview and the integrity that defines him. The concept of servant leadership was exemplified by his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and inspires him each and every day.
Top 3 issues:
1 – Continuing the award-winning services of the MLD that enrich lives every day.
2 – Financial stewardship and transparency.
3 – Serving ALL of our patrons with an eye to the future needs and ways to improve our library services.
Media link to your campaign:
www.Josh4MLD.com
David J Tizekker
I am a business owner of a financial services company in Meridian. I work everyday helping people protect their assets and their health care. I was born and raised in Idaho and went to Meridian High School. I later attended The College of Idaho in Caldwell. I have been married almost 30 years to my beautiful wife Carolyn. We have 9 children and 2 grandchildren. With many kids in school, we use the library frequently. We love and support the library. Although we use many programs the library offers, my kids especially love the summer reading program, audio books (on CD) and video games. It is amazing the variety of things our local library offers.
1. I am concerned about financial transparency: On transparent.idaho.gov, I can go and see exactly what each state employee earns and how the various departments are spending their budget – down to individual items. The MLD has aggregate numbers for their publicly released budget. We do not know how they are specifically spending on line items. What does the head librarian make? What do we pay in maintenance for each building? How are vendor contracts decided? And what do we pay for these? I would like to know how my specific tax dollars are being spent.
2. I am concerned about how citizens and parents are being treated by the board. Everyone should be able to have their concerns heard at meetings. If people disagree, but peacefully they should be able to talk to trustees and have their concerns addressed. They should be responsive to citizens and reflect the standards of the community and not of the ALA.
3. In regards to the material in the library, the material is “accessible to minors without parental consent”. Although the libraries will say its a “parental responsibility” issue, how can the parents take responsibility if they do not know what is in these books BEFOREHAND. Libraries refuse to mark or segregate these books. We seem to regulate the internet use on the library computers. We have videos with ratings on them (R, Pg-13), but we don’t allow this for other forms of media. The policy seems inconsistent and subjective. This makes it difficult for parents to help their children. The Boundary County Library has done exactly that by working with community members.
Please contact me at 2088910040
Xavier Torres
Xavier Torres is running for the Meridian Library Board Trustee, a 6 year term. Xavier and his family live in Meridian. He’s a proud of father of three children. He grew up in the central valley of California in the small farm community of Hanford. He is a graduate from Fresno state university with a business degree and works in corporate sales and real estate investments.
He and his family made the decision a couple of years ago to move to Idaho. While he was in corporate sales, he traveled to Boise and fell in love with the area. It reminded him of the central valley growing up. He and his family enjoy the seasons, family friendly environment, conservative values and all the friendly people. The focus on family and good values is what attracted his family to this area.
When growing up, Xavier’s parents worked long hours to keep food on the table and a roof over their head. He says he was blessed to have a library built at his school when he was in the 1st grade. He volunteered during recess to help put books back and collect books being brought back from other students. After school the library allowed him to explore the world from a quiet safe place.
Xavier, a registered Republican, decided to run for the Meridian Library Board after learning about various issues concerned citizens raised about the current library Board. Specifically, Xavier’s top 3 concerns he would like to address, and support include:
1) Financial Transparency: he would like to analyze the current financial and operating expenses and ensure the library is fiscally responsible with the over $9M yax levy that is funded by property taxes paid by taxpayers every year.
2) Support and optimize existing library programs, while also applying conservative community standards to create an exceptional experience for everyone that visits the library.
3) Empower Parents by advocating for a citizens group to review library policies and books to ensure minors access age-appropriate material.