Meet Iowa City Council At Large Candidate Kingsley Botchway

Name: Kingsley Botchway II

Address: 2352 Catskill Ct., Iowa City

Age: 32

Seat seeking: At Large (Elect two)

Occupation: Director of Equity and Engagement at the Iowa City Community School District

Educational background: B.S. in Criminology University of South Carolina May 2010, JD (Law) University of Iowa

Why are you running for council?

Botchway: I'm seeking re-election to continue the work we have only just started and expand on what I've learned over the last 4 years in order to ensure we are making decisions in the best interests of the entire Iowa City community. Over the last 4 years, I have advocated and been successful in ensuring different communities have been represented at the table when making decisions and I want to continue that work. Additionally, I've brought a level of balance to council ensuring that we continue to move forward on important issues while also ensuring we aren't leaving parts of our community behind in the process.

What are the three largest issues facing the city? How will you address them?

Botchway: 1. Affordable Housing

2. Access to appropriate health care, specifically mental health

3. Continued growth and continued support of important social service programs in the face of potential loss of backfill funding

1. I will seek to address the affordable housing crisis by working to continue the measures we have already taken since I've been on Council. Additionally, I will work to ensure we have a more aggressive timeline in addressing our affordable housing action plan. I also will try to incorporate other successful efforts from other communities to address the affordable housing crisis.

2. I will continue to support crisis intervention training (CIT) and ensure that all our officers and emergency personnel our educated on this important training. I will work to create a committee of our assisted living organizations to work toward solutions to address the crises they face. I will work to collaborate with other governing bodies and organizations addressing mental health in our community to ensure they have appropriate funding and support as the state continues to reduce and eliminate resources.

3. I will work to continue to support our local, small businesses in addressing space concerns in order to expand or start a new business. I will work to facilitate collaborative projects that can access or leverage additional funding from the state and federal government. I will look into alternative funding options used in other communities throughout our state to address potential loss of backfill funding.

With developments taking place on the city's Riverfront Crossings Park and district, additional projects are expected to follow in rapid succession. How do you feel about what has taken place so far and do you want to see anything change or done differently?

Botchway: I feel the change has been very successful and I'm happy with the progress. However, one thing we may need to look at doing differently is focusing more on affordable housing options in the area. Our current growth in the district provides some affordable housing. However, my concern since approval of the district has been whether or not we are incorporating all levels of income in this area.

Downtown and the Pedestrian Mall updates continue to expand in Iowa City. However, some have criticized the city for putting too much focus into the downtown area, while ignoring other outlying neighborhoods. How much attention should be placed on downtown and is enough attention being paid to neighborhoods?

Botchway: Downtown is important to Iowa City. However, other neighborhoods need a greater focus to truly be sustainable communities. For example, I live on the east side and there are some that don't go downtown. How do we develop the Towncrest area to ensure those residents have access to similar amenities afforded to those that live closer downtown? What about the Westside? Another way of answering this question without focusing solely on the economic development aspect is focusing more on facilitating vibrant and connected neighborhoods. You can tell the neighborhoods that are very connected and engaged, such as the Northside neighborhood. How do we facilitate that level of engagement and involvement in all of our neighborhoods?

In the 2015 city election, development was the topic of discussion, with voters in that year ousting most incumbents and bringing in then-newcomers with a more conservative approach to large-scale development and tax increment finance incentives. How do you feel about the last two years of council development? Are you happy with the new direction, does it feel the same, or are there things you'd want to see change?

Botchway: In general, I've been happy with the new direction of council the last two years. However, I do feel there has been a disconnect with the development community about Council's expectations and we need to facilitate a process by which we can work to mend this disconnect.

Iowa City — and cities across Iowa — could face revenue losses as the state revenues remain tight. The state is threatening to do away with the backfill funds it provides to communities in an effort to balance its budget. How would you balance the city's budget if the city were to lose funds? What funding priorities do you have?

Botchway: Our City staff has done a masterful job keeping our fund balances at high levels in anticipation of the state not following through on its promise for backfill funds. Additionally, at the beginning of my council term, we approved the creation of an emergency fund to provide additional protection if the city were to lose funds. In order to balance the budget if the city were to lose funds, we may need to look at alternative funding sources currently used in other communities in our state or review our strategic planning initiatives and determine what things may need to be postponed or delayed. My top funding priorities are affordable housing and access to health care, specifically mental health. While we have seen some success with appropriating funds toward affordable housing, we have not addressed mental health in the same way. However, similar to how we addressed the affordable housing crisis through a comprehensive plan, we need to develop an action plan toward addressing mental health and work with other governing bodies on this regional issue.

Affordable housing has been an ongoing issue in Iowa City. How serious do you feel this issue is? What efforts do you believe are successful and are there additional ideas that could be tried?

Botchway: It's a very serious issue. I ran on affordable housing 4 years ago in an attempt to bring this issue to the forefront of the Council priorities. While this has been successful and we have taken many great steps since then, more needs to be done. Inclusionary zoning has been successful and has ensured affordable housing in an area of great growth in the Riverfront Crossings District. Another successful effort has been the creation of an affordable housing fund. This fund has already been able to provide organizations, such as the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County, opportunities to use this funding to leverage additional federal and state dollars to increase the affordable housing stock in Iowa City. There are other ideas, such as property tax abatement for new homes, that are apart of our affordable housing action plan but have yet to be vetted and pursued. One idea, not found in our affordable housing action plan, is looking for opportunities to reduce lot sizes and build smaller homes with incentives, such as rent to own options and flexible loan financing.

What other big issues would you like to see the council address in the next few years?

Botchway: One big issue I would like to see council address in the next few years is social justice and racial equity. While it is currently a strategic plan objective, if re-elected I plan on focusing more on this objective through our strategic planning process. We cannot truly be a progressive city, if we still have residents from our diverse groups who don't feel welcome in our community based on how they have been treated or how they have been ignored. In these times and in the unknown future, we can only move forward if we do so together.