Questionaire Responses

4 of the five mayoral candidates have sent their questionnaire responses to the Shawnee Green Party:

Joel Fritzler
Sam Goldman
Steven Haynes
George Maroney

Looking over the responses, George Maroney's focus is on safety. Half of his answers involve improving or increasing the safety of Carbondale as an answer to the community's problems. He views city government's function as maintaining civic infrastructure and public safety, then getting out of the way of business.

Sam Goldman's long involvement with both SIUC and the local health care community are evident from his answers. He sees both SIUC and SI Healthcare as economic drivers for the region and would have the city be supportive of both. Like Maroney, Goldman believes city govenment should encourage business and " where warranted, change regulatory policies and actions to assure that they are not unnecessarily burdensome to business, while preserving the quality and standard of living our citizens expect. We need to aggressively pursue business enterprises and offer incentives for them to “set up” shop in Carbondale. Of special interest is the development of business activity at the Southern Illinois Airport." Incidentally, Goldman's website was developed by city councilwoman Mary Pohlmann.

Joel Fritzler's answers emphasized his experience with the city due to his service on the city council and his time with the Carbondale Main Street program. His responses to the sustainability and environmental question posed by the survey are more detailed than the previous two candidates, nor does he mention the city needing to lessen regulatory burdens on business as they do. He does not mention the university or health care as economic drivers for the region and there's no indication of any proposal to increase city growth, save for downtown revitalization. Fritzler goes into the most detail of any of the candidates in his answers to the survey questions.

The last of the four to turn in a questionnaire response, Steven Haynes, also emphasizes his council experience and as well as the importance of SIUC to city economic well being. He does not view safety as such a vital issue as Maroney does, nor does he place as much emphasis on healthcare as an economic engine as Goldman. He would enforce current statutes and regulations to enhance sustainability and environmental health within the community. Haynes gave the most general answers of the four, twice refering readers to his website for more information on his positions in response to a question. None of the other candidates referred to their websites in response to any of the questions.

Edited to fix an error in Sam Goldman's name. Edited again to correct the spelling of Mary Pohlmann's name.