Thanks. Hello, this is Colleen Schumaker with the League of Women Voters of Portland, and you are watching the Video Voters Guide. We in conjunction with Metro East Community Media are here to talk with candidates running in the May 2020 primary election. With me today is Alicia McCarthy running for Portland City Commissioner position 1. Welcome Alicia. Thank you for having me. Please tell us a little about yourself, why you are running for the office, and what unique characteristics you have among all candidates for this office. Thank you. I'm running for the Portland City Council position 1 because I love this city. I like living in the city. I'm a mom to a young daughter who will soon be in the Portland Public Schools, and quite frankly I'm concerned about the state of our public school education. So I want to have an all in approach for our future generation and continue to encourage education in the public school system. I also believe that we need to continue to move Portland forward. And as a National Public Doctor, I've had the opportunity to interact with a diverse population within the Portland City and working with individuals experiencing homelessness, college students, working families, people experiencing mental illness and drug addiction. And during this time, I've sat there and listened to multiple people's communities within Portland and they think that I know their needs and what their need. So that's kind of what the driving force was that I think that we need to take out the politicians within city government and start to introduce people that are in tune with all communities within the city of Portland. And I believe that I'm a commonsense candidate with a back-to-basis approach and here to move Portland forward. And I think what makes me unique for this position is that I am not a politician. I've worked with people and I, like I mentioned, National Public Doctor, so I have a holistic approach to practicing medicine and I believe that I can bring that to the Portland City Council. Thank you. Thank you. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting devastation of small business, city employee layoffs and housing displacement will be it with us for some time. How would you seek to address the fallout, including the reduction in city revenue? Yes, there's definitely no doubt that this is going to be an issue and it's going to be an issue that's going to stick around for most likely five to seven years after. I think that it's important now that the city works with a local economist to predict and start to see areas that we can, when this pandemic ends, where we can start to work in, I believe that we need to have an overhaul look back at the city budget and we're going to have to start to reintroduce areas that are, you know, we're going to have to make cuts and see where it can happen and where we can start to provide other support for our community. I do believe that we're going to have to pull in everyone in the community to come out a thriving city again on the other end, just making sure that we're including everyone and understanding that we are a community, Portland City as a community. If we maintain our current government structure, what city bureau would you want to oversee and why? I think the city bureau of fire, emergency management and communications because of my background, I have worked in the emergency department for 10 years as New York Tech and I worked on ambulance for two years and currently a primary care doctor here in Portland. And within these systems, it's, they're multifaceted and complex and I think that you need to have someone in those positions to manage the bureaus that have experience and know how they work in order to provide the seamless amount of care and interactive people that are also managing those bureaus. How would you address the public's significant concerns about police and community relations, the use of deadly force and officer accountability? Yes, so I mean we're in interesting times once again with the, you know, the level of mental illness that is happening and the police aren't trained to present with those situations. So I think that we need to have more training and also further dividing who's responding and helping assisting in these calls. I think that that is a component to the beginning of force or maybe the fear that is kind of instilled in someone that makes them to then want to use force or increased aggression. So I think that more training and getting a public awareness of the increase in mental health that is going on in drug addiction and the increase in homelessness, I think that all plays into the police and the calls that they're going on and I think that that's kind of somewhere we need to look at the compassion fatigue and the burnout that police are experiencing and how this is relating to increased in aggression and force. The city's park system faces serious financial challenges. Even more so since the closures caused by the pandemics, what idea do you have for securing the financial stability of our well-loved park system? Yes, definitely as a young mom and now that it's getting sunny here, we spend a lot of the times at the park and I think that we need to place emphasis on the park system. There's, it's once again, I think it's going to be a community that's going to come into this because we are of trying times right now. We don't, we need to reallocate the budget and we need to see where the city budget is. And I think that bringing it into each park, allowing their community centers, their community, neighborhood associations to have emphasis and input into this, keeping the parks weeded and all that stuff. I think that we need to start maybe adding it into neighborhood associations and having more of a whole input into this. Trying to pull money out of places where it probably isn't is kind of maybe a fantasy that that could solve the park system. Well, thank you very much, Alicia. We have about 30 seconds left. Is there anything else you would like to share? I just want to say thank you for having me. And like I had mentioned before, I just believe that I have a common sense approach and willing to listen to everyone in the community and realize that Portland is very diverse and that we can start to go forward. This has been the Video Voters Guide. Thank you for watching. The primary election is Tuesday, May 19. Be sure to inform yourself about the candidates and the ballot measures. And exercise your right to vote.