My fellow citizens,
It is a great honour to stand before you today and present my vision for this fine city. To look out at all the familiar faces brings a warmth to my heart, and the opportunity to have even a hope of serving you is truly humbling. Today, as we launch this manifesto, I am prepared to shoulder your expectations and raise this city to new heights. Our vision here is clear – to make Los Santos not only a home to such kind, giving individuals, but a home to ingenuity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and industry for years to come. Each of these campaign pledges aims to promote these principals.
We will create a new fund for businesses, tentatively named The Patterson Foundation. This will be a grant that all local businesses can apply to – whether to help a new start-up get on its feet, to allow an existing business to grow or expand, or indeed for any reason that our business leaders can make their case for. I intend for this grant not to be limited, or indeed limiting, in its scope, and instead to be a tool to inspire growth for our citizens. Tentatively, we intend to set the upper limit of this grant at $20k per month, although this is subject to review. Funding for the Patterson Foundation will be drawn from various sources – primarily donors, the first of which is of course myself, as well as rerouting of various civic funds such as a portion of police fines, profits of our great healthcare system, and other avenues we continue to explore. Our hope is that the Patterson Foundation can be not only a ladder to greatness, but a crutch for businesses fallen on hard times – in this instance, the grant would function more like a loan to allow its great work to continue.
Alongside this, we will be investing heavily in the arts. A few months ago, the Los Santos Got Talent garnished a great response, and we will seek to build upon this foundation. We will look to work with promoters to subsidise funding and provide locations for similar events, and ensure artists are fairly promoted and compensated in the absence of a competition element. We will also take steps to incentivise media coverage of such events with funds made available to provide our cities journalists and news services with higher payment for covering such events. The arts are important to this city, and we do not want to lose sight of the talent that walks among us.
Investment in this state is important to my campaign, and this will be reiterated by our commitment to protecting our environment. We will conduct research into the feasibility to introducing electric alternatives to the city’s public services and subsidising the move from private businesses to electric vehicles. We will review fishing and hunting laws to strike a fair balance for our wildlife, and on completion of these reviews we will begin to set forward a plan to slowly move our city to a greener future. More immediately however, we will look to increase the powers of our police force to deal with the slew of vandalism that currently afflicts this city, through increased fines and the option of jailtime for repeat offenders. Not only will this help conserve the beauty of out scenery and architecture, but it will also allow for measures taken to be paid for by those that would see it harmed.
Funding is central to many of these plans, and to meet these lofty goals we will be looking at ways to incentivise investment in municipal government from our wealthiest citizens. It is my belief that donations to The Patterson Foundation, to the arts, or more general, non-specific donations should come with some recognition. We will look at a variety of options here, such as the renaming of streets in honour of those who would seek to aid our fine city, a citizens recognition award, and many other options that we will review and discuss.
On the subject of laws, I will be looking to revise the gun ownership laws of this city. The goal is to provide the best options for gun owners, to allow for the great American pastime of hunting to continue in a fun, safe and sustainable way, as well as to allow for increased personal protection. As I look to expand the availability of these personal and legal firearms, we will also work with law enforcement to ensure stringent background checks remain in place. We will also seek to increase speed limits across the state to account for our ever-growing automotive mechanic scene – starting at modest 10mph increases across the board (From 50/70/90 to 60/80/100) with further room for review down the line. I believe that both of these changes will offer a greater freedom to Los Santos citizens and allow them the opportunity to lead a more fulfilling life with less scope to accidentally fall afoul of the penal code.
And on this, out final manifesto point. In my time as the owner and director of Patterson Cab Company I have been criticised for hiring drivers with a less than spotless past. Some see it as a weakness, as a form of corruption – but not so. I believe in reform. I believe that a man does not need to be defined by the mistakes of yesterday, but by the toil of today, and the dream of tomorrow. Therefore, I will pursue and enact Criminal justice legislation to allow small-time offenders to work off their debt to society, with a view to showing the world that they are ready to re-join the workforce. This will be a program consisting of intern roles at participating local business, of which Patterson Cab Co will be one, with a reduced pay to begin with. On top of this, they will meet regularly with a designated parole officer to discuss their efforts towards reformation. Both their employer and their parole officer will complete a report, which will then be considered by the mayor’s office (in lieu of a judge) and if successful, a candidate’s criminal record (or the criminal convictions covered by this act) will be formally expunged. We will, with hard work and great care, allow people to free themselves from their mistakes, and allow them the freedom to pursue all the of the opportunities we will create in this city.
These manifesto promises are multiple, and the scope of my vision of this city is large. We have a brilliant city, full of brilliant minds, and it is the goal of this campaign to enable you all to fulfil your fullest potential. Whether that is to make all the money you can, to create something wonderous, or simply to put yourself back on the right path – Oliver Patterson wants to make this city the home of YOUR success. In each individual liberty and each individual victory, we are all raised up. And while my competitors, fine people though they may be, fumble for an answer and tell you what it is easiest to hear – I speak only from the heart.
The power is yours, my fellow citizens. A vote of Patterson is a vote for opportunity, personal liberty, and ingenuity. A vote to make our city the home not just of great ideas, but the home of a great reality.
This July, Vote for Patterson – and Lets Go Places Together.