Runoff candidate Q&A

In an effort to provide a more in-depth look at where the runoff candidates stand, reporters Rick Smith and Melissa Roadman sat down the with the four candidates and asked them the same series of questions (exact wording of the question may vary). Below are their responses. Follow up questions are noted in italics.

QUESTION 1

What do you see as the biggest issue facing the city? How would you go about addressing it?

Carletta Knox-Seymour: I still see one of the biggest issues is the flood protection. I think that that is still the concern for our city and how we continue to go forward with that. How I would handle it is to stay steadfast in what we're doing, the approach that we're taking which is the applications that have been made for monies, waiting for those to come in, and also to be proactive as much as possible with or without the monies. What I mean by that is to do as much as we can with watershed management and removing debris and those kinds of things out of our waters, making sure that we have good passage with respect to water flow. I would continue to do those kinds of things.

Ralph Russell: I think the biggest issue that I've become aware of during this campaign primarily in talking with people, knocking on doors, is the lack of trust of the current council. And I think that lack of trust is mostly related to a lack of communication. There are a lot of citizens that take exception to how the city council has spent the flood recovery money, for example. And as I dig deeper into those concerns with citizens, I find that there wasn't a lot of communication from the council during the planning and during the decision making on how to spend that money. Once the decisions were made, they were communicated to the oversight committee, and this next time around with the sales tax extension money, I'm going to suggest to the council if I have the opportunity that rather than obtaining input from the oversight committee after the decisions have been made, I'd suggest that the council solicit input from that oversight committee prior to the time they actually make the decisions, the spending decisions. In talking with members of the oversight committee, they felt that their job was really compromised because of the fact that they weren't able to provide much input prior to the decision. And I think this additional communication, this additional step in that whole process, will really help a lot in overcoming that lack of trust.

Chuck Swore: The issues that face the city are certainly numerous, and I think as a council member, understanding your position in the function of city hall as a policy maker, you rely an awful lot on our professional staff to give us the proper information on whatever the issue is. I probably have a different perspective when it comes to some of the issues because all of the natural responses, such as streets, etc., are going to get addressed. They're going to get taken care of. So you know I look to things that probably are more on the back burner. Things that I think have a major, major impact on our community. For instance, one of those would certainly be quiet zones for the train. Not everybody is going to worry about that. But the impact with visitors from out of town in our brand new convention center, in our brand new library --  having to actually stop presentations for the train --  is an issue that I think we need to address and get taken care of. The other issues are all so standard, if you will, that our professional staff will be researching on how we should handle the street repair, and issues such as that.

Susie Weinacht: I think one of the biggest issues facing the city is budget priorities. I think that we need to maintain our current level of funding public safety and infrastructure. There are some risks to be managed with the hotel. We know about those – Westdale and some others. But we're in good shape with the Aaa bonding, so I think we have a reason to be hopeful and to be moving forward into the next five years. I also think we have, not just think, we have a stable tax rate. And it would be my hope that we'll keep that in place as we move forward. We always have to keep working to create jobs and manage costs. I think that those are some of the greatest things we have looking at us in the next couple of years. And other candidates, when we talk about that Aaa bond rating, I'm aware of, and also agree with, the use of the revenue bonds versus the general bonds for funding major projects within enterprise departments. I also know without having to get into it any further that …  that's been a practice in the city for the last three to four years. So I think that one of our biggest challenges is going to be budget priorities, and how we do that and move forward, and how we regroup to make sure keep our Aaa bond rating.

QUESTION 2

How do you feel about City Hall incentives, including tax incremented financing, for economic development? If a company is looking to locate in the metro area, how are should the city fight its neighboring cities to win the company's investment?

Carletta Knox-Seymour: I do think that incentives are good in terms of how we attract industries to our city. I believe that there is an industrial property tax exemption, and what I think about that is that that could be the most effective in recruiting new businesses and as long as those businesses plan to provide stable jobs and just so because jobs create housing. So, that's a good thing. And that they would also be good corporate citizens. And I would expect that these businesses contribute to charitable organizations as well as civic and cultural kinds of programs. So if a company was looking to go to Marion or Hiawatha, how should Cedar Rapids handle that? Well in terms of incentives we need to be able to have enough, and I think we already do, have enough incentives for Cedar Rapids to be a number one pick. What we have in place right now (is good). Our city is growing because of the flood, the post-flood. We have a new hotel; our downtown is growing. We have a corridor situation between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids that makes us a very open field for growth. And so what I think is that as we present those kinds of thing to developers wanting to come to Cedar Rapids, we have the ability to have a wide open opportunities for those industries to come to us.

Ralph Russell: That's a very touchy issue and certainly one that the council needs to establish some additional policy. Right now we have a fair play agreement in place with Marion, for example, but we do not have one in place with Hiawatha. I'd certainly suggest that we work hard with Hiawatha to put that fair play agreement in place. And that agreement certainly isn't cast in stone, but it would provide guidance. My sense and my opinion in that area is that this council has done a great job in really getting economic development on it's feet again in the last four years. I think incentives were a key part of that. And I think we need to continue to provide the incentives. But when it comes to incenting a company to move from a neighboring community in to Cedar Rapids, we have to proceed very, very carefully. It shouldn't be an all out war. I'm in favor of regional economic development, but I'm also in favor of promoting the city of Cedar Rapids. And there has to be a fine line, there has to be open communication and there has to be evidence that everybody gains if we are moving a business from a neighboring community to the city of Cedar Rapids.

Chuck Swore: Well they're certainly necessary in some cases, and I think we do a very good job of looking at them individually. Each one of them has unique criteria. Each one of them has different results that they're going to project that the assistants will help them with. I certainly, if I get hung up on anything, it's the fact that I want to know when they get this tax abatement or TIF assistance. I want to know that it's going to be built by local contractors who use local craftsmen. I'm not interested in us supplying any kind of an incentive to somebody who's going to bring their construction crew from out of town. If a company is looking to locate in the metro area, how hard are you going to fight to see that they come to Cedar Rapids rather than one of Cedar Rapids' neighbors? As hard as we have to. I'm prejudice. I want them in Cedar Rapids. I'll do whatever I can to assist staff in seeing to it that they understand there's a value in being in Cedar Rapids. And I think success begets success. And we'll find ourselves with more and more businesses that want to come to Cedar Rapids once they see the success rate of those who do come here.

Susie Weinacht: I think we must be very, very careful anytime we're using taxpayer dollars to try to bring jobs and growth. To use tax incremental financing for economic development and growth, the developers must show that there's a cost benefit for the taxpayers. There's a role for that. There's a few cities who have use TIF and taxpayer giveaways irresponsibly but generally there's a role as long as it's used wisely. And I think Cedar Rapids has used it wisely. I also think that both sides of the river need flood protection. And using a combination of federal, state and local dollars, the council must be prepared to allocate the revenue to match state and federal dollars. And I see this as a budget priority in part of my developmental philosophy for the city. Continuing development in the neighborhoods, for example NewBo, Kingston, Ellis Blvd. We need to prioritize what I'm considering the rebirth of our inner city – urban infill rather than sprawl. In terms of economic development, if there's a company that wants to locate in the metro area, how hard should Cedar Rapids fight for the company to locate here rather than in Marion or Hiawatha? Well, Rick, as you and I know, we've been through that. I wasn't on the council then but we fought very hard for a company here that we actually went to one of our bedroom communities. I believe that we should fight. And fight might be the wrong word. I think that we need to be working with our surrounding communities to make sure that we're bringing the best business into the community that will be most suited for that business.

QUESTION 3

Now that the sales tax is passed, how would you prioritize the revenue's spending? How can the city best show the public how it is using the LOST revenue?

Carletta Knox-Seymour: The first thing is prioritizing that I see is to make sure that we follow the money, meaning that the money, what the referendum stated, that we follow that so that the people continue to have trust in our city as our officials, that we follow that money and make sure that that money goes to those kinds of projects that were stated. I also think that we would make sure that all the old infrastructure is replaced, which includes storm, sewers, sanitary sewers, waterlines and bridges. I also think that we make sure that all street crossings in the city are ADA compliant and any necessary streetscaping that we would see that is needed.

Ralph Russell: The one-cent local option for streets is a wonderful thing and everybody worked hard to get it passed. I'm very much in favor of that. Certainly everybody wants the street in front of their house fixed. There's no question about that. I think the process we need to follow as a community has three steps to it. The first step is to have the engineering and public works department provide a recommendation annually, at least three months prior to the budgeting process on which streets need to be repaired in the next year. That analysis, or that recommendation, should take into consideration only the technical aspects, which ones are in the most need of repair. Once that list is available, there needs to be a public input process. In other words, a hearing, maybe not a formal hearing, but a forum where the public works department presents the plan as they would recommend it for the next year and then the citizens are allowed to speak on it, provide input until everybody's been heard. And then at that point, that recommendation from public works and input from the community goes to the city manager. The city manager provides his recommendation then to the city council. The city council then is ultimately the body that is going to decide how that money is spent.

Chuck Swore: Certainly prioritizing is something that I feel staff is going to bring to us. I happen to chair the infrastructure committee. Staff has already brought us their evaluation process that they're going to go through evaluating streets. I don't think that's a city council member's job. I think that's the professional staff job, and I think it's incumbent upon us as city council members to support what they bring to us or certainly get some reasoning behind why we think it ought to be different. We certainly have the right to do that. But on the other hand, I think us as a council will support the things that our professional staff brings to us and then transparency is available to anybody. You know, it isn't like we're going to hide any numbers. They're available at every infrastructure committee meeting. They're available at council meetings. They're available online. Those folks who are worried about where we're going to spend the money, we're going to spend it on the streets. And if they'll just ask, we'll tell them where every penny went.

Susie Weinacht: First, I think it's awesome that it won. We all know what it was like to have teeth-jarring experience as we traveled across all four quadrants of our city. We have to be accountable for the money. And I promise to make that happen – every penny to streets. While the city employs engineers to look at and assess our streets in asking how we're going to do that, I believe keeping the citizens oversight committee is essential to review and make recommendations.  One change I see in that though would be that the citizens' thoughts and ideas should be in a mix prior to the council making decisions about expenditures, not after. Also, keeping residents in the know regarding how the money is spent is a huge priority that I see. And it just means better public outreach, which includes several methods of communication. One of the big ones that I would see is using our CR magazine, which is distributed four times a year to all Cedar Rapidians. So I think that that's a huge piece. Then also (having) monthly updates to the neighborhood associations, which is currently happening, and then website and other modes of communication.

QUESTION 4

The city will be applying for state funds for flood protection. How should the city come up with local matching dollars?

Carletta Knox-Seymour:Since we cannot use our local option sales tax revenue for anything but our streets, we are going to have to be creative and make sure (of) how we bring those monies in. I think one way is to increase our … property tax, not just by way of our taxpayers our residential taxpayers, but the more that the we bring in new industries. And even though those kinds of things what I talked about before in terms of incentives we bring those new industries in and not all industries have to be given I think a 10-year TIF, for example. So we need to bring in more jobs, we need to increase our tax base, and I think that is going to help mitigate the concerns that we would have in terms of how we go forward. I understand that it's going to be $5.5 million per year for Cedar Rapids to have to make sure the we have our monies in place so I think also we need to make application for other kinds of grants along the way as well and we may have to do some bonding. But those are the kinds of things that we have to do to make sure that our city grows in the way in needs to grow.

Ralph Russell: Now that we've got the one-cent local option sales tax for streets, that money I believe should all go toward streets. So we no longer have a local match capability after next June from the one-cent local option. The GRI money, which I believe you're talking about that we're applying for, has to be matched with local dollars that either come out of our general fund or come from additional bond issues, general obligation bond issues that are sold. So, I think that is essentially the only way we can come up with the match. Ok so there are going to be local dollars and we're going to have to find those. And you're committed to finding those? Absolutely. I'm very much committed to finding those. We talked at one point about the need to restructure the city's debt. I think that's a very important first phase that we do as a city before we look at issuing additional general obligation bonds to pay for the local share to match the GRI funds.

Chuck Swore: I think as we look forward to the opportunity to have those GRI fundings, we'll find ourselves in a position that it'll be incumbent upon our finance committee – our financial department ­– to give us the opportunity to select various ways of where that might come from. For me to say that we ought to look to this fund, or look to that fund, or cut this or cut that, or develop other funding somewhere else, again I'm a council member, and I want the people that we hire to give us those opportunities to select to prepare that.

Susie Weinacht: Not sitting on the council at this moment in time and having purview to the entire details of the budget, I look at one avenue is that we'll no longer be bonding for streets. So that one would be the most obvious to me. That hopefully there will be money in the budget once I sit down and able look it over. We'll have some revenue in our coffers.

QUESTION 5

The city budgeting process is always a balancing act. What would your funding priorities be? How would you decide where to make cuts if necessary?

Carletta Knox-Seymour: I think once again our making sure that our priorities would be our flood concerns, making sure that happens. We're already set for our street repairs. In terms of any kinds of, well let me also continue on, I also think that we also need to make sure that the city is current on its contribution to employees for their retirement plan for all city employees. And I would also look at our city transportation, making sure that it stays solvent due to the federal government cutbacks. People still have to get to work and live their lives. And I would also look at youth recreation and making sure there's something for youth all year long. Those are the kind of things city council could go forward and make sure that those things are in place. In terms of cutting back on anything, our city, because of the 2008 flood, our city is still trying to find ways to come back from that and we've lost a lot of income due to homes being lost and businesses being lost. So I don't know where I would cut back on anything at this point in time, simply increase in what we're doing at this time.

Ralph Russell: The general fund budgeting process is difficult in every community. And my priorities in budgeting would first go to the needs of public safety. A big portion of our general fund budget every year goes to police department and fire department. Those are the entities that I believe need to be funded first, closely behind that would be our city administration. I would like to spend some time with (City Manager) Jeff Pomeranz looking at the overall spending for our administration element of our city. In comparing with other communities, I think we're a little bit on the high side there, and I would certainly encourage him to look for ways to become more efficient on the administration side. And other needs, other specific needs each year, are going to change. And it's going to be a little hard to make a general statement about other things. But certainly public safety and administration have to be at the top of the list.

Chuck Swore: We have not changed the levy in four years, and Jeff Pomeranz prides himself on bringing us a balanced budget. I hate to keep sidestepping, but again, appreciating what it is, how a council member performs, compared to professional staff is something that I think, especially in our new form of government, if you will, you know, we're not department heads. We are part-time policy setters. I think that I've got complete confidence that our finance department, Casey Drew and his staff, will bring to us a balanced budget. And they'll have those members of the various departments who need to make adjustments. They'll be the ones recommending the adjustments. I myself, I don't want to say, 'Well I think we ought to cut back on this or cut back on that' because I don't think that's specifically something that a councilperson has to take part in. We need to make decisions based upon the options that are given (to) us by the professional staff. I don't want to cut anything. I want us to be in a position that we can balance the budget by rearranging; not cutting, but perhaps we have more shared functions within the city. I think there are a lot of opportunities for us to eliminate some duplication between departments. We've taken some great steps in that direction in the past, and I look forward to staff recommending some more.

Susie Weinacht: I think we're looking at public safety and infrastructure. We know that that takes the largest part of our budget. And there's no room for cuts there. That speaks to our quality of life. We need to stay safe. We need to have infrastructure. We need to infill. We need to have property tax on our rolls. As far as cutting, again Rick, I'm not in there. I haven't been able to have purview of all of the budget, so I don't know that I can speak to exactly what we should cut or if anything should be cut or if we should really just reprioritize and maybe spread the money in different ways.

QUESTION 6

What should the public expect from you as a city council member? How will you work to resolve conflicts and reach conclusions? What will you do to help residents inform and collect feedback?

Carletta Knox-Seymour: What the citizens of Cedar Rapids can expect from me is to listen. As the city planning commissioner, what I have already done with respect to the way I handle thing is, when people come before us as commissioner, it is my job to listen to examine and then make decisions. And I would carry that over as a city council at-large member – to listen, to examine, and to make decisions. And in terms of any kinds of conflicts, we should all be respectful of each other and to make sure that we understand what the other person is trying to say or needs to say. And in terms of conflict, just like any other situation, again, I guess, I think I'm just going to stress the respect part. If that's not in place, and if adult people cannot respect the other person's views without going overboard and where it would result in some disrespectful scene, I think we need to step back and make sure that we can all sit at the table together and be able to listen and just be respectful.

Ralph Russell: I think the thing I bring to the council that we don't have today is my background and experience in the planning and design and implementation of public improvements. We're heading into 10 years of major street repairs. I'm very knowledgeable both technically and fiscally about how that needs to be done. I think just having someone with my background and experience on the council for not only streets but also for implementation of a flood protection plan is really important. I think I can help a lot in establishing better policy on how we do that and also provide some oversight and maybe some technical help as well to the staff in terms of how we spend the money in a very wise and smart way.

Chuck Swore: I hope that I've demonstrated I'll look those folks in the eye and I'll tell them why I don't agree with them. You know, many times a city council member gets accused of not listening. Well if I don't agree, that doesn't mean I'm not listening. Perhaps, just perhaps, I'm listening to folks who are on the other side of the story that have convinced me that that's the proper way to proceed. I pride myself in looking into issues from both sides. I go out and visit sites. I go out and talk to neighbors. I'm proud of going out and being a part of the Cottage Grove drainage issue and the flooding on Sunland. I went out and visited those folks. I had them take me down in their basement and show me the kind of damage that they suffered and then told them very bluntly, we're going to get this done. I think it's something that people should expect. I've had people call me up and have various kinds of problems, and I react. I go see them. If people appreciate a councilperson that will come face-to-face and listen to their problem then I'd appreciate their support December 3.

Susie Weinacht: Well I think, Rick, what they can expect from me is to be able to be that fresh set of lenses looking at everything that goes across our council desk. I've had my sleeves rolled up and my boots on the ground next to everyone for a decade working on everything from education initiative to flood recovery. I think that they can expect from me an independent voice that has the ability to bring people together and move our city forward. How will you work to resolve conflicts in the city and on the council? What kind of conflicts are we talking about? Good question…let's just say on the council, if there are conflicts among council members. How are you going to participate in that? Well, Rick, you and I know that we are all very different folks. We all have very different or very same or in-the-middle perspectives, so when we come together on an issue, it's the same as you and I have talked about issues. There is a common ground to be had. I truly believe that. And then you work from there. A lot of it is getting to know each other and having relationships. I believe that trust filters into those relationships, but I think trust comes as you've worked on initiatives together and you've talked to people. And that's where I come in, and I've been working with people in all kinds of venues, different avenues, again, everything from education to flood recovery. And I've worked with folks on council. I get along with each and every one of them. Even if my perspective is not the same as your perspective, that doesn't mean that we can't make things work together for the good of the whole. And that's how I operate. That's my philosophy. The long and short of it is, the story I would say and I've shared with people as we discuss this kind of thing, is if you have a stream and you have many rocks in the stream, they're all heading in the same direction but those rocks all smack against each other. And what used to have jagged edges when you pull that rock out down the stream, it's kind of smoothed off. But they're all moving in the same direction, and they're moving together. And that's my philosophy on life, and that's how I work with the council and every person I across our city and anyone I meet.