More on Justin Stofferahn

Stofferahn is running to increase student involvement in Carbondale government, wanting to raise it from the non-existent level it is now. His four more specific objectives are:

--establishing a city funded weatherproofing program targeted primarily to start at home purchased under the city’s rental conversion grant program. Unlike current state and federal weatherproofing programs which target lower income families, this program would tie in with the grant program so that new homeowners would also have funds available to make the building more energy efficient.

--post notices of housing violations on the city’s website in a database searchable by location. He feels this would be of great assistance especially to students who would like to find out about problems a property had in the past before the student signs the lease.

--establish a tiered schedule of fines for noise violations. This one actually came out of a meeting between city residents and Carbondale interim police chief Grubbs, with recurring noise violations mentioned by several attendees as a problem needing addressing. In general, first violations at a location would get the basic fine, while subsequent calls would increase the ticket amount significantly.

--set up a program, funded by the city and administered by SIUC’s financial aid office, to provide 100 $200 grants to SIUC students to help defer the cost of textbook purchases through Carbondale bookstores,

He’s not sure from where funding would come for the two grant programs, so they would wait until the city gets on a stronger financial footing or he has found an alternative funding source. The increased ticket amounts for recurring noise violations and the searchable database of housing code violations, he would work on getting council approval and implemented as soon as possible. Stofferahn would also like to see the budgeting process opened up with multiple hearings on different sections of the budget. He feels that one hearing and a vote is just not enough discussion to decide how to spend 42 million taxpayer dollars.