Mayoral candidates respond to reader's questions about priorities, jobs

This week, candidates for Jefferson City mayor respond to several questions submitted by a News Tribune reader.

You may send your questions for the candidates to [email protected] so that might include your voice in future stories.

This week's questions are from Gart Pollard, and the candidate responses are below:

"If elected to the office of mayor, you will have the opportunity to influence and address many different issues. What is the singular most important issue facing our community at present? What specific policies or procedures would you introduce to the council or the city for consideration to address that issue?"

Third Ward Councilman Bob Scrivner: "Lack of growth is the most important issue of our time. If you aren't growing, you are dying. We are not seeing adequate growth in population, new businesses, new jobs, new home sales, new construction, population, city revenues, which fund programs and services desired by our citizens.

First, I would work to bring our community together by focusing on the idea "we are one community.' I would look to focus the immense talent and energy of all business associations, businesses, city and county leaders, city employees and staff, citizens living inside Jefferson City and those living outside our city to do something every day to make our city a place where new businesses choose to locate and bring new jobs, where existing businesses can grow, thrive and prosper, so they can provide more jobs that provide greater security, and help to create a city where people want to live, work and play. I would seek to establish two-way communication between City Hall, and our citizens and our business so people can be confident that City Hall is working for them, to benefit them, and is being good stewards of taxpayer money. I would continue to seek ways to embrace Lincoln University and unleash the tremendous economic development potential that a land-grant university within your community represents."

Leonard Steinman: "If I become mayor, I'm going to ask the City Council not to have ... private meetings unless they need to be. No more firings of people without giving them a written notice that they're doing something wrong first. A 15-second warning is not good enough for somebody that you're going to have to pay $90,000 to, like (former City Administrator) Steve Rasmussen."

Carrie Tergin: "Stagnant or declining population and economic growth, lack of vision, and lack of confidence in city government are critical issues facing our community. In order to grow and prosper, we need a vibrant and responsive leader to help build partnerships, with business leaders, county and state government, and schools. We must work together and combine resources to overcome the attitude that we cannot move forward. I will engage key leaders and citizens by holding round tables and community forums, so that the city is thinking forward and strategically, and not just responding when an issue develops. City government must have a clear vision, defined goals, be open and be held accountable."

Edith Vogel: "Restore faith and trust in the system that we have to work with. The citizens elect 10 people to speak for them. The council should have the pulse of the ward they represent to bring to the table for all discussion that has to do with the city as a whole. We need to have total transparency in the workings being done at City Hall.

The citizens must always feel that they are being heard. Sometimes, too much complacency takes place because they feel like the decision is already made by the "powers that be.' I would like to see that perception go away and open discussion to be given top priority, as allowed."

Roy Viessman: "There are many important issues that our city faces on a daily basis, and many of them hold great importance to myself and the citizens of Jefferson City. That being said, the issue that has been brought to my attention many times as I've gone door-to-door campaigning, is jobs. As mayor, I would do everything within my power to keep our current employers in Jefferson City and work with the City Council to find more ways to attract new businesses to our community.

I would propose that we form an Industrial Commission which would work in concert with the Chamber of Commerce to develop incentives designed to attract new businesses and new jobs to Jefferson City."

Richard S. Groner: "Excessive spending. I think we need to study each issue and have a debate about how the money is being spent so that we can improve the ratio of profitability, if you want to call it, versus deficits."

"Economic development is significantly important to every community. If elected as mayor, what are some of the specific actions you would take to promote economic development for our city?"

Scrivner: "See the above answer. In addition, I would work to promote a "getter done' atmosphere at City Hall. That is something we have already been working on, and I think we have made progress. Health and safety codes are necessary, but where there are unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy, it should be identified and eliminated. The process for obtaining building permits for new construction and remodeling should be as streamlined as possible.

I have called for an evaluation in 2015 of our chamber contract for economic development to ensure our economic development efforts are appropriately focused and that we are receiving the full benefit for our economic development dollars that we are investing."

Steinman: "If I become mayor, I have my ways of advertising the city on the back of tractor and trailers for our jail and for our community, where it's economical and it goes through 48 continuous states, plus five provinces of Canada. "Cause I've got friends that have tractor and trailers and whether I pay for them or somebody else pays for them, they'll put them on there."

Tergin: "As mayor, I will work to attract new jobs and grow our economy throughout all of Jefferson City. We must make sure that employers have what they need in our community, a trained workforce, and business processes are streamlined to attract and retain employers. We must develop and grow a diverse economy that creates good-paying jobs. Our city is amazing and has unlimited potential. We must better market the great assets we already have in our community, attract and retain employers, foster entrepreneurship, and develop a plan. We must embrace the incredible opportunity we have as a Capital City for tourism. The old (Missouri State) Penitentiary site and our gorgeous state Capitol on the river offer the biggest economic development and are the largest tourist attractions in our community.

Vogel: "I have no crystal ball to answer that question. I would hope the Chamber of Commerce will continue to work with the council to strive ahead. The national economy is still fragile, but we must make it easy and smart for growth. Government must get out of the way, encourage more small businesses to develop and grow. A mayor's job is not to create jobs."

Viessman: "The Industrial Commission that I proposed would bring jobs to Jefferson City, thus significantly contributing to economic development. I would be actively engaged in leading the charge by contacting new and existing businesses to see what we can do to help them grow and ensure that they stay in Jefferson City. We should create an atmosphere which would be conducive to growing businesses, i.e. less intrusive restrictions or perhaps even staying out of their way completely."

Groner: "First thing is 30 additional nursing students for Lincoln University. I believe that to be economic development, and the city should have some skin in the game as far as that's concerned. The next one would be another educational-type thing, and that is institute robotics at an advanced level so the future workers have the ability to keep up with the needs of the hiring portion of the economy so that we could keep the jobs here."

"Budgets for municipalities can be very complicated. To increase spending in one area it may be necessary to reduce spending in another area in order to balance a city's budget. If elected mayor, what areas of the city budget would be most important to you to preserve and protect from reduction? Presently, as a mayoral candidate do you feel there are areas in the city budget that could be reduced? If elected mayor, what ideas would you propose for increasing the city's revenue?"

Scrivner: "I feel our first obligation is to protect public health and safety. That doesn't mean those departments will be able to have everything they might want, but I would hope we would always be able to provide what is needed for each department whose duties are to maintain a safe and healthy environment for our citizens.

I would never say there are no areas where cuts could be made if we had to, but there comes a point of diminishing return. In the last two budget cycles, we have identified and cut most of what I feel could be cut without starting to impact the delivery of service to the community. Employees deliver service. Employee costs make up almost 76 percent of the general revenue budget. If additional significant cuts were made to the budget at this point, I believe citizens would begin to see a decline in services delivered. I think a better solution is to grow revenues.

There are basically four significant revenue sources: 33.14 percent sales and use taxes, 24.5 percent franchise and utility taxes, 17.8 percent property taxes, 7.22 percent intergovernmental taxes. The primary engine to increase these revenues in the first three categories is growth. That is why it is so important to focus like a laser beam on business growth and the new jobs business growth brings. Growth in businesses locating here, existing businesses, construction, home sales, retail sales, all bring growth in revenue to the city which funds the programs and services people expect the city to provide. I think another area of promise for increased revenue is tourism and sports tourism. When people visit either for a day, or preferably overnight, new money is introduced into our economy, where it circulates and produces a positive boost to our economy and helps to increase city revenues to be spent on city services."

Steinman: "In order to do a complete budget, not only do you have to go through the management of each particular phase of the city, but you need to go through with the crew and see what is wrong, what is going on. The other thing is (crews) should have direct communication with our police department cause they see things that happen and we have radio communication, but we need communication to get through. And more volunteerism toward everything in the city, just like I have for the 17 years since I've been back."

Tergin: "As mayor, funding for public safety would be my top budget priority, especially police and fire protection. Infrastructure needs must be prioritized, and we must have a plan for implementation, while reducing non-essential services. The current fee structure needs a long-term solution. For example, some parking permits and bus fees had not been increased for many years and then the price increased significantly, rather than incrementally. We need to be more thoughtful and not reactionary; we can do better by reviewing these issues annually, which also helps in budgeting and planning. City government must foster an environment where employers and the entrepreneurial spirit can thrive and achieve great things."

Vogel: "Public safety and public works are my top areas to protect from reduction. We have to take care of what we have before we can add on. As a mayoral candidate, I would look hard at special interest items that only affect a small group of people, in other words I wouldn't be offended to cut some of that out. We have to maintain roads and public safety first. We have a responsibility to the folks that come into our borders on a daily basis to work, shop and get health care. They spend their money here.

I do not have any ideas (on how to increase revenue). Taxes are always a negative because most people feel they pay enough already. We must be fiscally responsible for the taxes we already collect."

Viessman: "Budgets for municipalities can indeed be very complicated, but I can say with a great deal of certainty that three very important areas of the city budget which should definitely be preserved are our police department, fire department, and the many facets of city infrastructure.

In order to adequately answer that question (about budget reductions), I would have to look at every part of our city's budget. Jefferson City's budget isn't necessarily so complex that the "zero-based' budgeting method is necessary, but a performance-based budgeting method could allow executives and elected officials to have a transparent view of the trade-offs between alternative expenditures. This would allow city government to make accurate, up-to-date financial decisions. In order to increase our city's revenue, it is necessary to expand our tax base. This must be done by keeping the jobs we have, and by increasing the number of available jobs by attracting new businesses to the community. By putting more people to work in good jobs, we expand our tax base, thusly decreasing the tax burden per individual."

Groner: "I would look at the entire budget, and we would just make cuts as necessary to keep within our income. I'm not in favor of increasing taxes to get more money. I'm interested in efficient spending. So we would basically go down the budget and decrease the spending overall in each different department to make sure we have a balanced budget.

I have some concerns about automobiles parked behind City Hall. I drive by and I see essentially maybe two dozen in round numbers. It's hard for me to visualize how we could be using two dozen vehicles efficiently. And I don't know what their policy is now. I worked for the highway for a while, and we had to sign in and tell people ahead of time what we were doing and where we were going and then we actually signed out for a vehicle. ... When we got finished the vehicle went back and was available for somebody else to use. I can't see how we can have 24 vehicles behind City Hall; how many people do we have working in City Hall? I haven't counted that up either. ... My point is I think we've got an excess number of vehicles. I haven't studied thoroughly, but just in casual observation with the size of the city and the structure of it, I don't think ... they can be used efficiently.

Annexation (to increase revenue). I'm concerned that we have allowed people to capture assets by the nature of the existence of the city, but believe that they should be outside of the reign of paying for those benefits. So I would annex. And a particular example would be those two hotels on the west end of the city that are right outside of the city limits (the Hampton Inn and Comfort Suites). I believe they need to be a part of the city to help pay for the burdens of the city for the benefits that they're deriving by being next to the city. That sort of captures the issue."