Candidate Forum

Made it to last night's League of Women Voters candidate forum despite the rain, which apparently slowed up several of the candidates as well as Kevin Clark was the only one to make it on time for the 6:30 meet 'n greet. The others slowly trickled in between 6:30 and about 6:50 and worked the room , talking with as many people as possible. A table at the back had a sample ballot and campaign literature from everyone except Yolanda Dean. Not content with leaving his promo material on the table, Chris Wissmann moved from person to person handing out buttons. About 60 people were in attendance, about a quarter of them looked of college age, probably there to support Justin Stofferahn and Pawel Sawicki as I saw a few wearing Sawicki t-shirts.

The forum followed a question/response format. The candidates had received the questions 2 weeks before, with the exception of Dean, who, due to a mixup, said she had only gotten them that day. The moderator read the question and each candidate had 2 minutes to respond. Topics covered were:

-potential budget shortfall. In general, the candidates agreed there was no easy solution to this. Wissmann said to work to end unfunded state mandates, Corene McDaniel emphasized this year's budget would be balanced but suggested looking at reducing employee hours to 37 1/2 per week, while Joel Fritzler pointed out that the last two budgets had only been balanced by dipping into city reserve funds.

--city manager. Great job. Everybody said so.

--comprehensive plan. Need to look at business and housing. Dean said we need to make consumers aware of programs available for them and used her recent purchase of a house as an example. Clark noted that Carbondale housing and neighborhood watch groups need to be emphasized.

--environment. This was right up Sawicki's avenue as one of his major platform planks is encouraging business recycling. Fritzler pointed out the city had not yet met the climate control agreement it signed several years ago. Either McDaniel or Wissmann pointed out the lamps in city traffic lights had all beeen replaced with LEDs cutting the energy cost significantly. I believe Stofferahn wanted to encourage landlords to use Energy Star rated rather than the cheapest appliances when building rental properties

--housing. It's bad and older units are getting worse. Need to look at zoning. The city needs to work on ways to give landlords and tenants incentives to maintain properties. it would be nice to remove all the old single wise trailers throughout the city, and non have been added since 1974, but due to grandfathering, they can't be removed. Even when they are no longer occupied, the owner can keep them in place for "storage". Dean wants the city to make it easier to buy houses, while Fritzler wants to encourage either demolition or rehabbing of them.

Each candidate was then given a minute to explain why they were running and why you should vote for them:

Dean--speaks the language most people understand. What is good for Ccarbondale is what she wants.

Clark--activly involved in Carbondale not-for-profits. Very good at communicating and implementing behind the scenes.

Wissmann--after 6 years, he's shown what he can do. Works hard but quietly for the benefit of the city.

Stofferahn--wants to give back to the community, would bring in a different perspective and new ideas.

Sawicki--his hometown. He wants to make it better, to make it the best city it can be, to make it more of a center for tourism.

McDaniel--been on the council 8 years. Once you're elected, it becomes not "I" but "we". Have to develop a relationship with others, but when it comes to a vote, it becomes I again and I try to do the best for you.

Fritzler--four years on council, has a background with the community with Carbondale Main Street and currently works with both city staffs and that of SIUC.

The forum ended about 8:30 but the people stood around chatting with candidates and each other for another half hour or so. The Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring another one of these this Friday, then the NAACP has one next Monday evening.