do that they're going to when they give their opening statements they're going to start here and go through and then we will do as we did before random responses to questions since all have to call on you but when you do their opening statements you can just move through like that let me tell you who's up here so we have mark johansen who is the i'm contested how lucky is that candidate for mayor and then then beyond that we don't have a contest and we're going to have two of the next four candidate two of four candidates elected for a four year term and those are our jerry o j these are in alphabetical order jerry o j mark owen douglas car and craig johnson for your term people and then that there will be one seat to your term and that sheila kelly jennifer notes and terri knight bloom so we're going to we're going to start and essentially what we did before we will have opening statements of about a minute and a half and then we will have questions from the audience and we'll have closing statements at the end all right would you like to start mark good evening ok all right let's try that again my name is mark johansen i'm the mayor of venice heights and i'd like to thank you all for coming this evening and i'd like to thank the league of minnesota women voters for sponsoring this forum i was appointed in october of two thousand and eleven to fill out the term a susan benefits and i was honored by my colleagues to be selected to fill out her term i am running for my first two year term as mayor prior to that i was a member of the city council starting in  five to the present my years of service i think it showed my deep commitment to this community and the desire to make sure that venice heights is a great place to live work raise your family and run a business i have used a number of key goals over the years to make sure that i had some guiding principles and the key one of those was listening to the citizens in hearing what the community wants and i've always incorporated  citizen voice into all of the decision making i've met made since i've been here i've also worked very hard to ensure that we have excellent police and fire protection to maintain reasonable taxes to promote quality development and to provide good roads public facilities and parks i would appreciate appreciate your vote in november thank you i'd also like to thank the league of women voters for sponsoring this event and all of you who have attended just to raise the hands of can you hear me back there ok my name is craig johnson this is my first time running for city  council like to introduce a little bit about myself for those of a of the you who don't know me my wife and i and nancy and i have lived in venice heights for thirty two years we raised our two sons here who went to mounds view high school and then they graduated from the university of minnesota we're currently empty nesters we have five wonderful grandchildren i work for three m company where i worked for thirty six years as a project engineering manager i'm responsible for nineteen plants in the united states i have a budget of one hundred forty million dollars that i spend on capital improvement projects very similar to what the city has going on here this work is is not alien to me i'm running because of the sports center and the bad news commons to to investments in the city made that put the city at risk we've seen our bond rating fall we now have major investments that we'll have to keep up  operate that are adding expenses to the city i want to make sure that those things are done correctly i have the ability to look at those to dig down into the details and find ways to solve problems in the city i would like your he has he moved up and i was honored by my colleagues to be appointed to this decision so i've been doing it for a year i was on a planning commission for three years i've lived in badness heights for ten years my background is in healthcare ministration i'm a law graduate i was at the university of michigan medical center for ten years subsequent to that i was the president and c e o of a major management corporation under to hospital regional hospital and i'm looking to do a number of things and in and on the council we started a number of projects we knew had the new health care center and urgent care center which i was very involved with we were going to build a new hotel there's a lot of positive things happening about insights at the same time there are a lot of other things that are happening as we go through to see me and you'll hear my comments regarding those thank you very much ok as you speak i've been reminded that people in the back can't hear quite so well so i'm having this trouble as you might have noticed family and did that decide to do that here because this is a wonderful place to live right now i have a five year old and a sixteen year old and for those of you doing the math he steps on so i did start right when i was a high school a been a size as an option and i believe recent decisions have put benefits at risk damaging the way we live in the quality of life and for forget thanks for the general supervisor of maintenance construction for ramsey county public works which i'm retired and in my employment i work a multimillion dollar budgets and maintain roadways and bridges as a council member in a way as i am to the everybody is going to have to tune into the repeat because i'm sure he picked them up so let's go on with you jennifer thank you thank you to the league of minnesota voters tend to be capable of being a little bit loud so hopefully around back there can hear me now my name is jennifer noticed as i've been in a seven year resident of wagner's heights i live here with my husband my two daughters soon to be three daughters i am choosing to run for office at this point because i believe experience matters i have experience representing the city thus far as a member of the health and public safety commission and also as an advocate for the beyond their yellow ribbon activities two years ago i brought to the council a proclamation because my husband is a member of the air national guard and i believe honor in that sector of our city is incredibly important something that we need to do to advocate for that i also believe that my experience as an attorney can be a benefit to the members of the that for thirty four years and i enjoy volunteering with the local civic minded organizations which include evadna sites lions club i'm a recipient of the helen helen keller restoring site award nominee active member of the badness citizens for responsible government the center for parental responsibilities that also have been safety representative and shop steward for the employees where i work for the past twenty years one of my successes in the last two years is representing myself and successfully challenging the ramsey county property tax assessor's office but in a case my decision to seek a seat on our city council isn't something new to me had i been successful back in two thousand and eight it's more likely to sports center would not have been approved and city hall would not have wasted two million dollars or city's revenue and additionally over many years various other issues of calm before the city officials and i personally feel the final  and reflective of the citizens will of our community thank you good evening my name is sheila kelley and i am a long term resident of this area i grew up in white bear lake and graduated from my previous high school and i have lived here in venice hates for twenty four years i've been a homeowner for that long and the reason i chose  was i was a single mother and i was looking to stay in the way area because i thought the way public schools were such a great school district i wanted that for my son and i was very happy to be able to live here in venice because of the affordable housing and that's one of the reasons why i'm running today is that i want to continue to work for affordable housing so that everyone who lives in venice heights when they when they grow up they can continue to live here and when seniors when they can no longer live in their houses and they have to have assisted living or sir live in apartments that they  stay in this in this wonderful city i'm also committed to serving i am a veteran a bit i spent four years in the u s navy i have spent twenty years working in research and development with the medical device industry i was a team leader i've done many project management and i know what it's like to collaborate with people i know how to manage to manage projects i know how to be timelines and how to work within a budget i've also been very active in my church i've had leadership positions in church i'm also active in mice ramsey county bar association i have a solo practice and wiper lake where i specialize in the state planning and elder law so i understand what it is to be a business owner i believe i have unique qualifications and experience that would benefit the citizens of innocent thank you ok thank you very much for your opening comments we're going to get to the question that i knew that you know was going to come up today so i'm as well do this first regarding this sports center other than what the developer proposed did you do any investigation of your own to determine how you would vote now course that doesn't apply to those who you weren't on but you can kind of comment along the same lines if you were not on the console what would you have done to determine a yes or no vote and now we're going to do this little random bit and we'll start with you obviously i wasn't on the city consul at the time but back in march of two thousand and ten when the council approved a project i was in front of the council asking the council to allow the voters to put it to a referendum and a lot of voters to vote on whether they wanted to fund a project as citizens wanted to fund a project or if to say he was going to force the citizens to fund a project in any case what happened as i see it the con verified numbers i won't spend any of the citizens money until i'm certain that the information i have in front of me is as complete and accurate and honest as it can be cra ok yes i did look at some of the things with eve the sports center i went through the financing it was very complicated they put together four different types of bonds they had they pay you know one hundred thousand they they made some not very good decisions they didn't they didn't do a proper market study on the on the other ice rinks the sports or the soccer fields in the area there was a soccer field on english in thirty six that  closed for indoor soccer their projections that they did believe were the projections of the developers that told them they were going to make money my calculations with all the money that's been transferred to support the arena and what i'm going this year is that we will well i was on the council when we voted on it and i listened to what the developer had to say and i did i did hear what they said but in turn i i just felt  there was a lot of information that i probably could find elsewhere so i went on and i sat with organizations that ram ice arenas for forty years and i thought well by forty years they should really know if they make money or not and what i found out is that they told me that the the projection from the revenues was overly stated and that the expenses were understate it so  after i heard that then i started reading on the internet if you just google our serenus profitable you can find out all kinds of information and a lot of what was different than what i was hearing in the meetings when i brought it forth and some of the workshops when i was told from the developer was that out i read the internet too much and i talk to too many people now right doug caroline yes i would have been how wary if i was on the council the time  been wary of the government getting that deeply involved in a private business venture i view government's role is to foster an environment but not to get in the business itself and we were essentially socializing the risk for the business we were putting our city's name on the bond rating and the city residents on the hook for if this is at the center did what it is doing now and not making enough money  i also would've tried to listen to other outside voices if you're getting information from one source with an agenda you have to get the information from many different sources to make a proper decision on thank you i've been on the council for a year and i came after the decision was made when you stop and think about it again using frank's comment of a band a rocket scientist when you build a building and you have too much debt too big of a building and none of revenue it doesn't take a whole lot of thinking to know you shouldn't vote for something like that there was a number of people that advised the council those people claim that they had all the answers they gave all the projections they told us what was told to people then what was going to happen as it turns out that all their projections and all of the things they talked about found not to be true we spent a lot of time this year trying to trying to divest the city from all of that and as a consequence of that the city became downgraded and it's and it's and it's that bond ratings and that's got to be changed jennifer notes and i think primarily i'm going to reiterate what's come before me in the sense i was not present when the vote took place but certainly when you're investing in an examination of an issue that large which is going to affect that many council members it would be foolish in my opinion not to conduct some outside investigation into the issue i actually applaud council member for his independent research we may all joke about using google as a source but to go out and to speak to the individuals who have had that experience over the years was something similar is invaluable and again i think when you're looking at something that's going to have that great of a substantial impact that you need to make sure that you're taking the time and devote the time necessary to make sure that you're confident in this case i'm not sure that that was done on all levels mark too handsome i was on the council and i can assure you that not only did we spend a significant amount of time on the issue we hired ehlers springs briggs and morgan our city attorney a sports facilities consultant as all outside verification of the information that was provided t city council all of those entities did look at the project and did give an opinion that they felt that it would would work i did vote most recently  to divest ourselves over the relationship with the sports center i have come to the conclusion that the decision was not the right decision but at the time based upon the information that was made available to us that was an appropriate decision that are we working hard at this point to address the issues yes we have taken steps to get a new manager run the facility we're working every day to make sure that all the issues are properly addressed and that the city will continue to be able to provide all of the services that it has always provided we are in a situation right now where i believe we're we've turned the corner on the issue and the city is going to move forward in a positive way as we move beyond this chapter and sheila kelley i pretty much agree with it which most people have said here but i would i think part of the problem was that the council was looking at things and they saw blade intersection and they saw somebody come up and give him a glorious answer to how to solve that problem and they decided to go for it without really knowing what they're doing we went alone we should have gone with other studies should not be just minutes hates taking on this this big project when especially for example white really that's our home ice wiper lake should be part of that then  think they need to work collaboratively with other cities in all kinds of services and this is this one example so now we're stuck trying to get out from underneath this i do think that was the right decision to stop the funding even though it did hurt our bond but they went with the  nixon experience developer he had never done this before he was a former city council person so i just wonder if not on purpose but they trust is somebody who they knew and they didn't do the vetting that they should have and that shouldn't happen and i won't let that happen if i'm a council member thank you ok we're going to turn into a question if you were here earlier we counted commissioners also addressed this to some extent this relates to water pressure on the aquifers from which the city draws it water are immense what do you think should be done to address this issue and we're going to start with you sheila yes it's a very sad thing when you look at wiper lake i work in my part lake so i see it every day and it's not  not pretty and it seems as though the problem is that we're using too much water the development that's happened over the last twenty thirty years has pulled has taken water away from the aquifer and wiper lake is a symptom of that problem all of the solutions seem to be expensive right now our sewer water goes out into the mississippi river so you know maybe there's some plan there they talk about you know maybe a sewer treatment plant here closer to process here and keep it back put it back into opera for we definitely need to make sure our storm water is collected and retain it gets back into that awkward for and also conservation we all have to be careful of how we use our water to use it wisely so that we can keep it for as long as we possibly can and get wiper back to what used to be and that's where a lot of our stuff gets stored a lot of our water gets i don't believe there brad in sight at this point has a water problem i may be wrong because i haven't delved into it in to the degree that maybe i well that's ok jennifer no it's i am going to share a little bit of mark sentiments in the sense that i have not heard from the citizens of venice heights that water particularly in our jurisdiction is a concern certainly in white bear lake that's been addressed as an issue but with regard to badness heights my understanding is that we have a strong system in place and certainly that if we are challenged by that that that will be represented will have the opportunity to that the issue i think the most important thing with regard to the council matter that you consider is somebody who has the basis for understanding the issues and someone who has the basis for taking the time and dedication to thoroughly examine them before taking any sort of hasty decision and that's why i believe ok one one thing that i think that we all can do and that's conserve water we all draw out of that awkward her and whatever way we can do to conserve water that would that would definitely help whether we're invest in sites or wait her no matter where but i do think that some of the things that the county used to pump water into white per lake so i don't believe that this is a new problem it's been a problem for quite some time it's just that the county when they would pump into the lakes they were shut down by the state because they were drying out of that aqua for and basically all it was doing was just recycling the water so so some of those problems were created from from other agencies and stuff so also the other thing is is that i think in the past that the water runoff from from storm water can be treated before it goes into a into a lake and i don't know if there's much of that or on weight per lake i think bald eagle lake and the rest of the lakes in the wells both of which are a large expense this kind of ties the council's hands because our ways of paying for it are either cutting services or assessing higher property taxes or taking out a loan to cover that one time large important to the issue of the actual contamination that's all something we need to plan for a bad day how does this what does this tell us about the larger system that we get our water from are we drawing down too much is the indication of something larger as a council we should be planning for that and i'm not aware of had no sites haven't any any water concerns i do have a concern that it seems that every year or utility rates continue to go up and we continue to pay more for water i myself conserve the water as much as i can but bottom line is we need water and and i have nothing to add to the conversation difference but i think for being good to the environment and taking care of our water systems venice heights is lucky to have a lot of wetlands and i know there was a program that was being discussed about using those wetlands to try to filter the water before we i'm the representative from the city of venice and it's the venice lakes area water management organization so i'm intimately involved in the process of making sure that we have good quality water and that the water that we do have in our community is protected and we're able to not water runoff but to make sure that the quality of our water that we have in our community is of the top possible quality it can be a number of things the city has done to ensure that we have  adequate clean supply of water is to make sure that we have the odd even sprinkling ban we have conservation pricing we as you know are the the source of water for the st paul water utility like venice is actually and soccer is actually its reservoir so venice heights is being very proactive in its management and we also have very strong balances to make sure that we have the resources necessary to address water issues should they come up in the future ok this is likely to be your final question unfortunately there are so many of you we don't get you know you didn't get a chance to answer quite so many questions the ramsey county commissioners had i don't know if that's a benefit or not but so so let's look at this if you could spend an additional one hundred thousand dollars on public safety how would you spend it and let me give you don't want to talk about that exactly you could if there was another hundred thousand dollars to be spent in badness what would your priority be so either think about it on public safety or if there's something else you'd like to emphasize and we will start with you mark starting with me ok yeah right lucky puppy one of the things we've done over the years that i bet on the council is making sure that we are providing a good level of public safety service and as as our needs have grown we've worked with the fire department as well as the folks at the same paul down in st paul at the sheriff's department and we've been able to keep our growth in our budget for policing to a level that is reasonable and  far less than it would cost for us to actually go out and have our own police department if we were to add anything it would be to have one additional patrol car so that we would have some over capacity during busy times because that right now we're sharing a car was short of you and at times service gets a little bit delayed but we have excellent public safety and very limited crime in our area so that's a good sign that things are working here in  heights and public safety yes with my time involved with a bad health and public safety commission we're involved in a heart safe drive so one of our big things is to get a events a little it seemed a little confused but a question here and we have because venice heights doesn't have a public safety problem nor do we have a water problem but i thought maybe the question would go along the lines where would i save what was the price hundred i guess i'm going to answer the question in a manner that probably reflects a little bit of terry's concern is that one hundred thousand dollars seems like a gift at this point when we already know from a tax perspective that we as citizens are struggling  what i would propose is that there is a deficiency and a public safety department which i'm certainly not aware of but we look at different models for bringing some of those funds and for example or i'm a member of the woodbury public safety commission by virtue of my in washing county and it is a nonprofit organization that takes in private donors funds for taking care of some of those expenses for departments such as your fire department  your protective services so your law enforcement exciter to buy those tools that they need to get the job done and to provide a better service to the citizens but the benefit of that is a partnership with the private sector so that funds is not falling back on the citizens and yet they're benefiting from it so i think that there's a better way to explore just this apparent gift that's coming to us of one hundred thousand dollars to address if there are needs in the public safety department and to leave those funds one hundred thousand dollars back in the pockets where they belong which is in yours and jerry well i think what i would do is i would sit down and talk with the police department the fire department and not tell them how much money i had but ask them what their needs would be if they if there is any special needs that they could use at this time and see what kind of items they come up with and then and then knowing that i have that hundred thousand dollars in the in the pot over here i would just listen to what they had to say and i would see a foot hole would benefit if we could improve the service to the taxpayer of the city that would be one of my decisions and maybe i wouldn't have to spend the whole one hundred thousand dollars if need be maybe it would only take twenty five thousand dollars to each one and we could we could make it work and the city could save that other person that money and put it in reserves what do you think sheila kell y yeah is kind of a strange question ellison have a hundred thousand dollars to spend but i guess from what i would do first of all i would check with the department's public safety the sheriff to see if there are areas that need to be covered that have been covered but otherwise i would take that money and put it into the reserves we've lost a lot of our reserves because of this whole sports complex situation and we need to have extra money in place in case there is emergencies or trouble ahead and that's i think a better use of that money than trying to come up with some use for just because for public safety or any other reason might call and if the money was primarily used for public safety and that's what the money is used to work then i  to two areas in addition to talking to the police and the fire department i would talk to the businesses here find out what their needs are what what don't they have they would like to see what is it that they've been talking to the police department about that for reasons that the police department can't respond to what would they also like to see the second thing i would get to assist officer program what kind of programs can we put out there to assist the officers to make it easier for their jobs to make it easier so people can call and get a better response they have a terrific response now the fire department and this and the public safety department do a great job pr insights we've met with the shit with the sheriff in new sheriff we've met with a number of the officers they are first class operation and first class people johnson ok well i'm going to be different i'm going to give the money back milton friedman had three ways of spending money you spend your own money on yourself very prudently you spend other people's money on yourself like i'm going to get a bigger big screen t v and the worst way to spend money is to spend other people's money on other people and that's exactly what we're talking about here if we get one hundred thousand dollars we're going to figure out another way of spending it i'd like to look at it improving the operation of the city ferreting out the waste reducing the taxes overall a good example is the capital projects funds that build up in this city which a good example right now that you've seen when you voted in precincts one two and three is the bad news common center that's about a five million dollar investment if you had to borrow that money you code not rent that facility renting it every single day of the week we're losing between two hundred fifty and three hundred thousand dollars of money keeping that facility up and running we've got it no i don't know what we're going to do with it but that was another very very poor decision and i stopped him we respond to that please because i think it's important that people understand all the picture the bad the comments and i want to apologize for doing this but i just can't let this sit give you twenty seconds thank you ok the commerce is making money right now i'm sorry i'm sorry i apologize ok so let's because we've got a little bit of extra time i want to throw in one other something here and if you could just answer this very briefly so maybe like thirty seconds and then will you and then we'll go to your closing remarks do you feel there are sufficient public transportation services available in badness heights and we will start  with you is there sufficient transportation public transportation transportation well it when i first moved into van ascites thirty four years ago there was a bus route that ran past my house and i did utilize had to get to work a couple of times but for some reason the market isn't there i'm a free market guy i do not believe in public transportation i certainly don't believe in trains going back to eighteenth century technology the world is changing we're moving into google cars california has already approved them that's the way we ought to go personal transportation there's a there's an effort to put in some sort of a bus service and rail service in the future and it's very possible it could go through the sites and that would be through the metropolitan council for mass transit system and and i would i would think that maybe that would be something we should look at as a city because as as a traffic on thirty five it into st paul it gets kind of crowded and that might be something in the future that we could take a look at sheila kelley if you live on the outskirts of venice hates you have transportation there's a bus stops for example in ninety six  edgerton but unless you can walk there you really don't have if you don't have a courage a way to get around this area right now and it is a concern especially because we pay a fee every every year on our property taxes for transit and yet it's that gets the money not the least metro so as i was a council member i would work to make sure we got our fair share of that of that transit money and it whether it's bus or whatever the process is that's so that we need to have here in these metro little concerned about the question i'm not sure what city council could do to change that but as an example the state provides bus service here and badness sites and then there has to lie in small deal that's on call that services all of badness sites and wiper like thank you jennifer notes i think that at the present time we have sufficient public transportation but i think that dialogue needs to remain open i think what we found is that our environment our demographic excuse me is a is a gene and with regard to access to transportation we need to make sure that we're continuing to meet the needs of our residents so i believe at the present time we're sufficient but we continue to explore those options that become available especially those options that may be part of a larger mass system ok mark johansen our business community has told us that they do not have sufficient public transportation to get workers to and from businesses here in venice heights and that's been a significant concern of the business community when i number of years ago there was much more bus service to venice heights and the metro council has taken away almost all of the funding for this portion of the metro area and the representative from the met council has not stood up for the taxpayers of venice heights who are being taxed for that service so in what would that look like well the city wouldn't be running a bus service but we would be partnering trying to coordinate between existing services like the lines of beale or bridge example expanding on the model that jimmy has two events they run a shuttle  we're going to have three new or have an additional hotel or somewhere we could partner with businesses to get regular semi regular shuttle service between the big transit areas the downtown to the airport to bring people to stay in there we're paying taxes for it and we're not getting be value for our dollar the second issue would be seniors we have more system living programs going to be built there are number ways that maybe we could work with the people that own those facilities to help the seniors get around better better coordination with the bus service so they don't have to wait long times to catch a bus so i think that's important as well ok we're going to have a closing statements and as i mentioned earlier we do that in reverse order so we will start with you sheila kelly and then you no need for me to call on you just go right down the line and do that well first i'd like to thank again the league of women voters for having this forum and for all of you to come in here and listen and evaluate all of us as candidates i think it's great when we all are participate in democracy and this is of like the base level of democracy this is where your voice can really be heard i believe i bring a unique blend of qualifications and experiences to this council i'm a veteran i'm a mother i've worked many years in the medical device in history i have developed medical devices i worked on projects i know what it means to have a budget i know what it means to me the timeline i know how to work on teams i've been a team leader i also went to law school was working full time and know how to show we say multitask and take out a lot of a lot of work i know my own understand what it's going to seniors are going through how they struggle to stay in their homes what they have to do when they're certified and they can't take care of themselves anymore we don't have facilities here in venice states for for seniors we have one senior citizen cottages and we're going to another  apartment but we don't have the programs in part because this is in place for when they need a little bit of extra care and we need to make sure we have the full spectrum of care for everyone from when they're young all over to their seniors and i would be one candidate who were who would work for  that i thank you very much time times are tough people are losing their houses losing your job city hall needs to live within its means just as the taxpayers have to do the government's role is to serve the people not to serve itself by raising taxes spending and on non essential amenities tax dollars should never be used to satisfy the wants of the few at the expense of the many i am the only to your counsel candidate who is attended city workshop and council meetings while discussions occurred regarding the two thousand and thirteen bad insight city budget and the sports center debacle while applying common sense i'll make sure that development projects are approved by the city would not shift the tax burden upon the residents and the other businesses and this would be accomplished in part by performing my own research and not relying solely upon the word of developers and city staff thank you for coming this evening and please consider to vote for terry nye abloom this november eighth thank you everyone for your attendance tonight it shows your dedication to the city and your investment in moving this city forward as i started explaining at the onset i'm running for office because i believe experience matters i have experience representing the city on the health and public safety commission i have experience coming before the council for a proclamation beyond the yellow ribbon committee where i'm a member of the steering committee on the larger ramsey county and beyond the yellow ribbon group i believe that this is a wonderful place to live i know that there's been some struggles in the last couple of years but there's been a lot of positives and i'd like to continue to focus and move forward on those positives while repairing the damage that's occurred in the past several years my experience working with municipalities i believe makes me a unique candidate and gives me that baseline understanding of the challenges that we're going to continue to face as a community the challenges are not restricted to the sports center alone they're not restricted to budgeting alone each and every time the city council meets they deal with a number of issues that's involved in the fiscal and the every day management of the city and i have the experience working with city council city staff working with state and federal agencies on these issues and examining them as we move forward we're going to have to continue to work together to make sure that we're meeting the will of the people when they ask the question what's the role of the ramsey county commission what i didn't hear is that our role is to a factual at the will of the people and i believe that that's my purpose here is to find out what the people are interested in make sure that we represent you and making the best decision so that we can all be happy in the community in which we live well i'd like to thank everyone for coming this evening and giving up their evening from doing other things and thanks to the league of women voters but as your city council member i did challenge the financial records of the sports complex and i know that's  only one one part of what we do in the city but the the idea that i did did challenge makes me think of of different things that come up in the city were i'm going to ask the question well are we doing the right thing it's just not only the sports center it's the other things that happen in the city like there and it's happened so it's all the time we've we've got people in front of us that are asking for this or asking for that and you ask what's best for the taxpayer the city and that's what i'm here to do so as a former fire chief and supervisor of maintenance and construction i understand budgeting and i understand fiscal responsibility so i look positively at opportunities to improve the quality of life in our city and together as a team the the city council can work together to preserve that high quality of life by the taxpayer the city telling us their opinions on things so i thank you for coming this evening throughout my life i have service has been a theme back from volunteering at the hospital overside down there it's now fairview i think to the library to being part of the community emergency response team to my service the bad news sites health and public safety committee i've been committed to service in this community making the best of the world better not only locally because billy and i but i believe it starts on the community level here listening to residents trying to do the best by being fiscally responsible and listening to the residents and thank you very much thank you for all coming this evening thanks to the league for sponsoring this very informative program does let me say by bother people by interrupting mr johnson i apologize for  that let me go on to tell you that i've been in the health care business for a very long time i have a graduate degree in that in health care i have a law degree i've been involved with large university teaching hospitals about a corporation of my own and medical management you have to work with people together collaboratively you have to work with staff you have to work with business leadership you have to work with all different kinds of people we need to develop a better business atmosphere and run a site we need to get the people involved more so we don't run into a situation like we did with the sports center it's important that we spend our time and effort and moving in the direction of that insights and terms of its credit rating and move it more in a positive direction so when we do go out and we need to build new roads or new streets or or water facilities we need to do those kind of things to get a better interest rate it's important leadership is a very important factor i've been a program leader of the vel of all kinds of programs so i believe that i can bring the kind of leadership that that is heights not only needs but also deserves from the people thank you very much ok thank you thank you for coming and thank to the thank you to the league for putting this on i want to say that what i offer the voters as i offer a distinct difference i've never held a job or worked for the city the county the state i hold both engineering degrees and a master in business administration i've worked in the private sector for thirty six years where you need to make good good economic decisions or you lose your  job i believe that i can make better decisions that have been made here in the past the vanna site city government has now expanded the size of our government here with with many buildings that need maintenance they've increased  our annual operating expenses the decisions made over the last three years have reduced our bond rating to junk bond status and this is a read and they've also reduced our reserve funds that we have for making capital investments in roads and city sewer and water my education and work experience makes me well qualified to dig into the details of the current operations and discover and to discover where we can improve the operation of the city and reduce cost i want to thank you for coming tonight and i would appreciate your vote in november thank you well i will also thank you all over the time i've been on the council and as mayor i've worked very hard to make sure that the sites is a great place to live and a great place to raise a family and a place that we can afford to live and raise a family i worked very hard to ensure that when taxes have been raised it's been a fashion that's been reasonable many of the tax levies i voted against increases because i didn't believe that we needed to raise taxes the way they were being done i worked very hard to make sure that we have strong reserves which we do i work very hard to make sure that we are always in the bottom in terms of the amount that we tax our residents and we always are consistently in the either the bottom or the second to the bottom level in terms of tax level cities of comparable size i've always made sure that everybody that comes to the city is treated with respect and is given a fair hearing  in any council meeting at that over which i've presided and i'll always continue to put strong emphasis on what the community thinks and wants i am committed to making sure that venice sites continues to be a great place to live and i would appreciate your support in the next two years as your mayor and my door is always open please give me a call if you have questions or concerns i can be contacted at my home or work phone number all of the information is on the website thank you well i'd like to add also all the thank you from the league of women voters to wagner's heights for allowing us to use this facility which has turned out to be a great place for us to have this meeting to also the badness heights economic development corporation who helped us in putting on this event obviously to all of you who came and listened and i hope to learn something into the eight candidates who participated we also want to think that we're ramsi washington suburban cable commission long name actually sleeping out more production services department for taping this and in case you want to watch it again it's going to be on channel eighteen or eleventh a ten o'clock and nine fifteen in the evening ten o'clock in the morning also october twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth at eleven in the morning and nine fifteen and will you all please remember to vote on november sixth and can we give the candidates