Elections for municipal positions are approaching and candidates for Jefferson City Council Ward 2 discussed Tuesday ways in which community needs can be addressed.
The News Tribune hosted a virtual forum for the Ward 2 candidates Laura Ward and Edith Vogel to discuss issues and respond to questions from the community.
Ward and Vogel said funding would prove to be one of the biggest challenges the council faces.
Ward said the council faces the challenge of identifying where funding is needed most. For instance, she said, the city has storm water needs, equipment and staffing for public safety, and regular infrastructure maintenance.
"Some of the streets in my ward that I know need addressing get pushed back because there's infrastructure needs underneath - water mains - that are scheduled to be replaced so there's no need to throw money and making it pretty on top of it and then have it torn up again," she said.
Vogel agreed and said funding needs were also a topic of discussion when she served on the council from 1999-2007.
"We're just rehashing the same thing over and over and over again, and all I can say is that the main problem is funding," she said. "If I had a glass ball to look into it and say, how do we take care of that, without raising taxes, which the citizens are opposed to much of the time, it's a very difficult situation."
Infrastructure and housing
One of the issues facing Ward 2, Vogel said, is the aging infrastructure and housing that comes with being one of the oldest parts of the city.
"I still use the term personal responsibility," she said. "If you're going to be a landlord and you're going to own homes in the oldest part of Jefferson City, you need to be responsible for it. It's not the citizens of other wards of Jefferson City to provide the money to take care of those homes landlords should be held accountable for property that they own that they're not maintaining."
Ward said she agrees and they need to find a way to hold landlords who are habitual code offenders responsible. She also discussed other projects within the ward such as the High Street Viaduct Bridge and two-laning Monroe Street.
"We have a lot occurring over in that area," she said. "We have a new surgery center that's going to draw more visitors to that area. We also have the new Jefferson City High School Sports Complex that's also going to draw a big crowd to that area."
Ward said one of the reasons she wanted to run for the council to begin with is the preservation of historic neighborhoods to help promote economic development. That goes along with the need to address dilapidated buildings, she said.
"It's not fair to the property owners who are keeping their properties nice, that's affecting their property values," Ward said. "The city had to step in because the city was having to take care of the properties, keep them boarded up, keep animals and people out of them, cut the grass, abate the area. Those fees weren't being paid, property taxes weren't being paid."
Vogel said the city is at a disadvantage because it doesn't have the money to take care of some of those situations the way they need to be done.
She said hats off to organizations such as United Way, Habitat for Humanity and Catholic Charities for their work done to address affordable housing, especially after the 2019 tornado, which hit most of affordable housing in the area.
"Hats off to all those people," she said. "I don't have the answer. All I know from being a conservative voter living in Jefferson City my whole life it seems like we're in a stalemate and we can never fix it because it costs a lot of money and I don't have the answer."
Ward said the issue was around before the tornado, and there's organizations working to address the situation the best they can.
"I think it's going to take a lot of people around the table to figure this out. I mean, we're taking steps. We have a community block grant that addresses our underserved, lower income neighborhoods, that helps with maintenance issues on properties," she said.
Transportation
In terms of transportation, Ward said she recognizes needs in the community and receives calls from constituents about needing transportation closer to their destination. The hours JeffTran runs are also a struggle, she said.
The issue, she said, comes back to funding.
"We just continue trying to look at our roads and where the best location for drop offs and pickups would be because where people live that need transportation, they aren't close to places that they could get to for food or basic needs, or even a job," she said. "It's just something we need to keep working on."
Vogel agreed funding is the main problem behind access to public transportation.
"You're paying $1 to ride the bus, but it doesn't cover the cost of running the bus throughout Jefferson City," she said. "I don't know what the answer to that is, but I do commend the city and the people that are assigned that task to try to make public transportation easier for the citizens of Jefferson City."
Tax motions
The city council is currently discussing two tax motions that would go on the August ballot for voter consideration.
One would extend the city's sales tax for another five years while the other would introduce a public safety tax to address needs by entities such as the police and fire departments.
Vogel said she's not up to speed on the topics. She said she supports the sales tax, but she would like to see more information on the public safety tax before discussing it.
"I would really like to see the proposal and what they would like," she said. "I'm not against law enforcement and fire having the best equipment available to them, especially after last summer's rioting if we don't have the equipment and personnel to take care of that situation then that's our own problem. Once again, it's a money issue."
Ward said she supports both of the taxes because of the support they would offer the city to address needs in the community.
The sales tax, she said, helps with infrastructure projects, street resurfacing and transportation among other things.
"Regarding the public safety tax, that's something that we're currently discussing adding to the ballot in August," she said. "This would address our public safety personnel things like cameras, equipment and their salaries.
"(The sales tax) helps with instrumental projects in our city."