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.

Justin Stofferahn

Had the opportunity to talk with city council candidate Justin Stofferahn earlier this week. The main theme of his candidacy is bringing the student perspective to city council, esp. since the USG president, who apparently is a non-voting student representative to the council, never bothers to show up. His main issues are:

--city assistance for middle income families in weatherproofing their homes
--housing code violations online by location
--increased fines for additional noise violations at the same location
--city funded grant program to help students buy textbooks

Stofferahn got interested in running for city council after becoming friends with Joe Moore and hearing about his experiences while running for council. His interest in politics in general grew while interning for Sen. Durbin last summer and currently he's interning for Rep John Bradley and serving as president of the College Democrats (who really need to update their website). He's a junior at SIUC but will stay in the area to serve out the 4 year term.

Upcoming events include a fund raising concert at the Big Muddy Independent Media Center, a forum on campus sponsored by the Students for Peace and Democracy (who need to update their website too, but not as badly as the Democrats) and forums/debates on March 23, sponsored by the AARP and March 24, by the Jackson County League of Women Voters (the Jackson County League of Men Voters being defunct since 1983).