8th Ward Forum

I attended the debate at Mullanphy, hosted by the League of Women Voters of St. Louis, on Tuesday night. Below you will find the entire text of the debate with a few caveats. I did not include the opening statements or the closing statements. If you want to hear those ask the candidates - I imagine they memorized them.The questions are pretty much verbatim as read by Kathleen Farrell and I present them in bold type. The answers are almost verbatim as given by the candidates. I omitted some repetitions, all of the "uhs", and a few words I couldn't understand (designated as [inaudible]). Occasionally I omitted a parenthetical remark or a clumsy grammatical construction that did not contribute to the meaning of the comment. I definitely left out the cutesy politician stories ("when I was a boy", "my mother always said", "back home on the front porch" type of stuff). There are a couple of places where I paraphrased because I didn't think it was important they be exactly reproduced. I typed this as quickly as I possibly could and it came out to nine single spaced pages so my fingers look like spaghetti and this is not a perfect reproduction. I did strive to accurately convey the actual claims, promises and accusations. Actually, I tried to get as much as possible word-for-word and spent some time replaying the recording to get it all down but it's still not 100%. If someone was unable to attend but really wanted to this is the next best thing. There is no analysis or critique here - I will do that later! This product is free so it's also caveat emptor.

The candidate answers are designated thus:
CO - Steve Conway (D)
MK - Kevin McKinney (D)
SI - Robert Shelli (R)

1. Police Civilian Oversight Review Board: Do you support it? Why? How would you change the current proposal before the Board of Aldermen?

MK: Yes I do support and they need subpoena power, needs to be a separate department in the city. We need to get a vote on it. It is reactionary and should have been put in place when it was brought up in 2006.

SH: Haven’t read proposal but agree in principle and agree with body cameras. Cameras should have presumption of exfoliation.

CO: I’m cosponsor of current bill, I voted to suspend rules to accelerate passage, its important so citizens have confidence in police department and greater appreciation of them.

2. Where should the ward focus more commercial development?

SH: I’m unprepared for the question.

CO: I co-founded Tower Grove Neighbors Development Corp and we made a plan for business development. We have had 86 business licenses issued in last 3 years.

MK: It’s a shame there hasn’t been planning over the past 18 years. We need more development on some corner lots. We have limited amount of economic development and we need more.

3. What are your plans to bring more for-profit businesses to the Shaw Neighborhood?

CO: Over years we have done strategic planning in the neighborhood. We’ve brought Restituo, Ices, the Station, tremendous number of corner business. We have Salama’s Market under contract, IMO’s has been rented. I’m a CPA and appreciate getting the job done as fast as possible.

MK: We need business locations, office locations. Sherman School is a major building that would be a good place to have offices, a center for children after school.  A lot of people have said they want to work from home so we need offices.

SH: We need improved roads.

4. Question for Conway: How has tax abatement been used for housing development and how do you intend to use it in the future?

MK: Over half of the Alderman’s last 22 bills have been for tax abatement. We have adequate housing in Shaw. The problem is we are pricing ourselves out of Shaw. Gentrification is the Alderman’s second blood.

SH: Pass

CO: I take exception to the fact that tax abatement is my second blood. We give people no other incentives than tax abatement to encourage them to do a historic renovation. We freeze real estate taxes for 5 years or 10 years. It allows younger people to make a house payment.

5. Not everyone in the ward can afford $300,000 condos or a historic rehab. What will you do to ensure the diverse economic status and development of the neighborhood?

SH: I’m not prepared for that. My research is in roads and sewer projects.

CO: There is a tremendous amount of affordable housing in Shaw. We used to sell houses for $1 in Shaw. Most of the first renovations were people of moderate income.

MK: You have to incentivize developers and builders to build affordable housing, just as you are incentivizing developers to build $300,000 homes. If you give tax abatement on a $500,000 house on Flora why not incentivize a developer on Shenandoah at $200,000? That’s wrong.

6. Do you support and what would you do to get us a Community Education Center in the middle of Shaw?

CO: Just quickly, we incentivize every developer at every price level in the Shaw neighborhood. We’ve always committed 8^th Ward funds to funding Community Education Centers. School board and feds cut the money. When we do the budget in April I will ask the Recreation Department to commit money.

MK: Just as we work with developers and contractors we have to work with the school system to build the broken lives of our children. After school programs are very important and let’s talk about improving after school care and quality of life of children in the ward. We should commit funds just as we present half of our bills for tax abatement.

SI: Pass

7. Why don’t we put up some basketball courts in the neighborhood?

MK: Mullanphy School has goal posts but no hoops. Sherman School would be a great location for goals. I played basketball her for a year and half and I started playing at Tower Grove Church. I know the neighborhood kids that play ball. But we need to do more than that. We need more people playing ball, talking to the kids and talking with them to make a difference in their lives and in yours.

SI: I’m fairly certain there is money in the budget for basketball hoops.

CO: The hoops at Mullanphy School broke. I personally paid to replace them twice. I said if they break again I won’t buy them again. I support hoops. More important is opening this facility again for children in the neighborhood.

8. Tower Grove Park is a major area attraction but pedestrian access, particularly across Kingshighway, is difficult and dangerous. What plans could you put into place to improve it?

SI: I would develop Kingshighway at the corners, at Magnolia and Arsenal. A midway crosswalk could be disruptive to traffic. I don’t have a good answer to that.

CO: Journey Church and residents have asked and we have investigated a couple of times. The city cost of blinking red light has come down but was in excess of $150,000. We asked them to give us a figure for flashing red light by Journey Church. I would support that and I would fund it.

MK: With closing of Kingshighway overpass this is a good time to stripe the street and painting crosswalks like we did on Magnolia and Tower Grove. We could put in temporary crosswalks easily.

9. Why has Salama’s Market been targeted when it is a heavily used store in  [inaudible]? How can you keep these community stores in Shaw?

CO: Salama’s Market has not been targeted. Years ago I offered him a façade grant from the Cltural Resoiurces Board to get him to improve the exterior. A couple of years ago the City’s Health Department went in there and food was rotten, there were dead mice in there, most of the freezers didn’t work, most of the coolers did not work. The visual blight it has on that corner of the neighborhood is unacceptable; whereas Berhe at the Shaw market accepted the grant. We give them a $10,000 façade grant and they have to match it. Look at the dramatic improvement that Berhe made on the corner of Klemm and Shaw. They’ve not been targeted. Joe Salama runs the store; his brother Sam Salama sold the city the store. We hope to have an RFP out on it sometime soon.

MK: Berhe and the folks at Shaw Market have done an excellent in changing the focus of their market and working with the community. I can’t say that much about Sam Salama’s. I do know that it’s taken the city about 2 4 years to get that figured out and it’s not happened yet. Thinks that we really want to happen we make happen; things that we really don’t care too much about, they can wait.

SI: Pass

10. What’s your position on eminent domain?

MK: I’m from a town in Tennessee that used eminent domain as a last resort. People will say you have to sacrifice the small or the weak so the larger community will benefit but when it comes to taking people’s homes that’s something you really got to think about, and think long and hard about it. If they take their home, they’ll take my home and then they’ll take your home. I know we need the jobs but I would use eminent domain as a last resort after everything else had an opportunity to work through.

SI: Use of eminent domain should be vanishingly rare. [inaudible]

CO: I’m personally opposed to using eminent domain in my time as alderman we’ve never done an owner occupied property. We’ve done two properties over the years, both cases that served a greater purpose. One was just trying to shake us down for as much money as he could possibly get. Mr. McKinney was alluding to Geospatial, the alderwoman has indicated there are 40 or 41 homes that may or may not get taken by eminent domain. That is in the 5^th Ward, it does have city-wide implications. In some cases there is only one home on each block.

11. What can you do to make sure our neighbors are not displaced due to rising rents or property taxes. In other words, how can you prevent the gentrification from hurting other residents?

SI: Uhm, I don’t really have a way of doing that. If the rent goes higher, that’s certainly going to price some people out certain properties. If prices go down they will be more accessible to more people. That’s the way things work.

CO: The rents going up or down is based on the market rate. There is a tremendous amount of affordable housing still available in the Shaw neighborhood and in the 8^th Ward. I don’t understand the questioner’s position that rents going up or down are there’s some reason there’s not affordable housing in the 8^th Ward. We just had a lot of houses selling from $80,000 to $130,000. Market rate sets the standards. The Magnolia apartments are low to moderate housing, it has been here for many years and we are very comfortable with that and those projects on Magnolia. But the rents aren’t that high.

MK: How you can determine that rents are too high in Shaw is that Sherman School closed. It had 300 kids in its prime, it got down to 125 and they closed it down. Why”? The people and the kids left the ward. They couldn’t afford to stay in the ward anymore. Yes, gentrification, unfortunately, is here but we can do some things that make things better for the people in Shaw here today. But it takes hard work andit takes rolling up your sleeves. And it takes being a full time alderman to make things better for the people that live here in Shaw.

12. Will you state clearly where you stand on the building of a new stadium for the NFL?

CO: Alright I’ll just finish upon Sherman School. They lost the fight to stay open and the school board in their infinite wisdom moved the boundary down to 39^th Street and took some of the haw people and put them in the Shenandoah school and that contributed to the loss. I’m opposed to spending a billion dollars on a new stadium.

MK: I’m an NFL fan. But I don’t think we need to be building a stadium for the billionaires. I think we ought to approach the development of the stadium as we would any other developer. We would help you get your land together, infrastructure, water, roads but we’re not building your house. I think we have higher priorities. If we’re going to build a stadium let’s spend some money on Sherman School to turn it into an after-school center, a community center for our children. That would be a higher priority for me.

SI: We should probably get a quote for how much it costs for a coat of paint for an entire stadium because building a new one is kind of stupid. [applause]

13. What would you propose as a mutually beneficial solution to the City vs new Life Evangelistic Center conflict?

MK: Larry Rice in some means is doing some great things to provide housing for the homeless. No one else wants to take that on and he does. We need to work with other groups that want to get involved as well. The problem I run into with Larry is his place is supposedly licensed for 30 beds and he has 300 or more people there. That’s not right. Let Larry house 30 people and let’s work with other people. It’s a very important task and we can’t pile on Larry for trying to do what he is doing.

SI: Mr. Rice has done some good stuff with the homeless and needy but the shelter is only treating a symptom. It involved mental health screenings, and jobs programs.

CO: Larry Rice’s heart is in the right place. Sometimes he’s [inaudible]. He tried to do something up there at Vandeventer and 44 a couple of years ago, put a homeless shelter tent to make a point about that property there. Over the past three or four years the mayor’s put together a better coalition of homeless organizations to provide services. Eddie Roth oversees the program. Larry Rice has an ongoing problem with the downtown neighborhood because he is not responsive to the neighborhood there. He wants to do the right thing for the homeless.

14. Should police be fired if their body camera is turned off?

SI: I think I answered that earlier. They can turn it off if they go to the john or something but if they are in the squad car they should probably have it on for their own protection and for the protection of civil liberties.

CO: I don’t know that the absolute penalty would be firing. But it would be a serious violation if we get the civilian review board in place. If it is off during an arrest, depending on what the circumstances are, you may be fired, you should be fired. Not if they are going to the bathroom or getting a cup of coffee at the Quicktrip. If they are on call or on duty that’s probably a firing offense in anyone’s book.

MK: Yeah, I’m going to hold the police to a very high standard. I don’t think they need to be fired but its part of the disciplinary process. The body camera is like their guns, the mace, their handcuffs, the batons, and Taser. They have to take responsibility for that. So if they don’t there’s a disciplinary hearing they’ll need to go through, just as if they leave their gun laying down and something happens. They’ve got to look at the body camera as a part of their job.

15. For Conway: Where did you stand on the holiday entertainment contract for the city?

CO: I voted for it, we feel comfortable about it, that operation is not coming to St. Louis for the first part of the contract. We have a penalty clause written in there. We get paid because they didn’t show up and we have the opportunity to allow other people to use the music venue this summer. Then they‘ll have one more chance to make it at the end of the summer and then the contract will expire if they don’t do it.

MK: meanwhile the great people of St. louis go without music, these events get cancelled, we don’t get to have any fun. When the events were going to be held, if we wanted to go to them we had to pay. No, I’m not necessarily for it. I didn’t think it was a good idea when they voted to do it and this jst proves it now these guys can’t produce what they’re supposed to do.

SI: Pass.

16. What plan do you have to bring participatory budgeting to the ward? Maybe you can also explain what that is.

MK: I know they do it in the 6^th Ward and the 15 Ward. Basically it’s an opportunity for you the citizen to decide how the money’s being spent in that particular ward. I think its well past time that occurred her in the 8^th Ward. I’m very much in support of that. I think it’s more than giving the opportunity to decide where the money should go but it gives the people the opportunity to decide. If you want a park, if you want a façade on a building, to develop a vacant piece of land then we all sit down, we discuss it, we debate it, and then we vote. Those things should come from the people and I plan on bringing participatory budgeting to the 8^th Ward.

SI: I was previously unfamiliar with that term but from the description of the candidate it sounds like a good idea to me.

CO: Mr. Shelli don’t be misled because the dollar amount is about $280,000 a year that we have available in discretionary capital improvement funds for each ward. Here in the ward we generally do about $40,000 of new dumpsters and about $135,000 to $145,000 of new street paving each year.  A long block costs about $19,000 per block in asphalt. We have very little available for other projects but sometimes we have the ability to respond to projects like redoing the medians and paying for a maintenance contract for  the medians on South Grand or doing the new banners for the Shaw neighborhood. Those are things those neighborhood groups have asked for and particularly we just finished fixing up the underpass and Jeanette did work with that and I begged for the money to have the underpass and I know Monte worked on that. There is very little money available.

17. How will you be more active and engaged with 8^th Ward citizens who live in Tower Grove East?

CO: The nice thing is I like to look at some of the things we’ve done there. We did the Grand Avenue streetscapes project, one of the most incredible displays of smart development in the city – bicycle friendly, pedestrian friendly We had all of the sustainability ideas going three or four years before it was even en vogue. If you look at the corner of Arkansas and Wyoming, the medians, we did a historic overlay district for Tower Grove East so they could qualify for the historic tax credit on historic renovations. I work with each of the different groups, each of the block captains. Some of the greatest success in Tower Grove East was closing down a number of nuisance properties over the years. So we are available for each and every one of the neighborhoods. I know that people always have that jealousy syndrome going on.

MK: I’ve talked to a lot of people over in TGE and they feel that they’re stepchildren in the ward. They feel like they’re not getting the things they deserve, any of the attention of the ward. I’ve pledged to those folks that I will come work with them to accomplish some of the things they would like to see done. I think one of the biggest things is they have the 6^th Ward alderman committed to do some things as well. It’s very important we continue that relationship. The difference though is proactive vs. reactive. We’ve talked about the medians and banners and we got that done, but there wasn’t any plan to maintain the medians until about 6 months ago and the medians got on the TV and the alderman was able to come up with some money. That should have been part of the plan the whole time.

SI: Well, certainly, well, you know, I’m ready to be a civil servant, civil employee and then take all you on as my bosses. If you want me to do something please let me know. I look forward to speaking with any or all of you about what you would like to see done in this district.

18. Can you explain the boundaries of Ward 8 and will you support a reorganization of the ward geographically?

KM: [McKinney explains the boundaries] Getting back to the banners. I was here and the neighborhood organization did a great job getting the banners up but I thought it would fall to the alderman to get them repaired and that never occurred.

SI: [Adds one item to boundaries]

CO: Yeah, just look for my lawn signs. To go back to continuing maintenance on Grand medians, a fantastic lady in TGE, Ann Moore, originated the medians and the beautification and she had set up a support network when they put it in place many, many years ago and the contributions were supposed to come from the various neighborhoods. That kind of fell apart, Ann wasn’t getting paid, and what Alderwoman Ingrassia and I had done was agreed to come up with the money for two years to fund part of a maintenance contract and allow the neighborhood associations – they had come to the housing corporation to get additional funds - to maintain that the way it was supposed to be. With respect to the banners I know Laura Kinsell-Baer is in the room tonight, I made her order extra banners this time, 33% more so if they get ripped they can be replaced.

19. Eminent domain in the north parcel and the COB bill.

SI: I’m not familiar with either one.

CO: Citizen Oversight Board, I’m a co-sponsor, I voted to expedite it. It’s coming to us like a blue plate special. I will be supporting exactly the bill in front of us. If there are amendments attached I will support it with or without amendments. The north parcel for Geospatial job: I support that bill to keep the jobs from going to Illinois or Fenton. I supported that bill, we talked about it earlier.

MK: COB is something I would definitely support, with subpoena power, and setting it up as a separate department. My concern is when the cosponsors had an opportunity in 2006 to pass the civilian review board bill. If you had it in 2006 there’s a highly likely probability that some of the things that transpired wouldn’t have transpired because the police would have been held accountable for what they were doing from 2006 forward. Again, we need to be proactive rather than reactive. They only reason we’re talking about civilian review now is because of things that have gone on. If those things hadn’t occurred, civilian review board wouldn’t have ever come up. We had a chance in 2006 and we should have passed it then.

20. Should the City of St. Louis aldermen be allowed to make changes to the Fire Department pension system?

CO: We are allowed and we have made changes to the pension system. The firefighters endorsed Mr. McKinney because of my position with respect to pension reform. Right before that came before us you saw the expose on the news and in the Post-Dispatch about what the costs were. At that point in time the salaries of the Fire Department were $55 million. The annual pension cost was $28 million and growing exponentially. It was the fastest growing item in our budget. It would have been irresponsible of me as your representative not to support reform.

MK: So basically we morally told one group one then and then we did something different. Now you put yourself in that position. You’re working for someone and you’re working for them for twenty years, twenty-five years and you’ve worked under the assumption that you are going to get the pension. And when it comes time to get the pension it’s no longer there. Well, you say that happens in business all the time. We’re talking about the government, the fire fighters, the people standing there and serving you. It would be one thing to tell new hires we have a new plan for you guys and you gals but if you’ve been there now we should have honored our word. If it means changing some things, change some things. Change how much you pay the alderman. Change how much you pay the mayor. He’s not going to lose anything on his pension when he goes out but those firemen lost their pension. That’s not fair. [applause]

SI: I’m glad firefighters are living longer. I suppose that’s part of why pension costs are going up and that’s good. But if we made a commitment to pay these pensions we ought to do it. That’s basic stuff we learn in kindergarten. If you say you’re gonna do something do it.

21. Should the alderman have a lifetime pension?

MK: I don’t think so. No. The aldermen get a decent salary, $20,000 or $30,000 for part time. Do they get paid enough? Yeah, they get paid enough. Do they need a pension? No, they don’t need a pension. I mean if you can’t give a pension to a firefighter - and actually the aldermen are making more money than an entry level firefighter so that’s not right at all.

SI: I can’t think of a good reason for an alderman to get a lifetime pension. Mr. Conway might have some ideas. [boisterous laughter]

CO: You know I love this job. After 24 years I stand before you all the time and I take whatever you’ve got to give me. But back to the firefighters, just a summary. No other city employee at any level had anything like that. What was even more amazing was the pension was based on the last two years pay. Mayor Schoemehl  added the ability to add sick leave to last year’s pay. And more than half of the firefighters were going out on disability which was an even more lucrative benefit for them if they went out.

22. How will you prioritize your duties as alderman along with your regular jobs?

SI: I’m a general practice attorney. A lot of what I do is minor drug offenses, personal injury. A lot of that work is in court, mostly in the morning, or occasionally at night in the county. But I don’t actually spend a large number of hours at it. I could devote a large amount of my time to working as an alderman. An addendum to before: I did not recognize the civilian review board thing when I answered earlier. I support that though I haven’t read the exact proposal. I would have to read it but in theory I do support it.

CO: I have all the time that I need to perform my job as an alderman. Some weeks it’s a fifteen hour week job, some weeks its 50 or 60 hours, depending on the issue. When we had the protests going I was there every single night. Whatever time it takes to do the job I dedicate that time. Back to the pension, the aldermen are considered city employees because they do get pay and they do get a pension. After 20 years you get about 38% of your two highest years after the age of 65. More and more of the aldermen are doing that as an exclusive job.

MK: I’m a self-employed housing developer and I have the ability to pass my business down to some associates. We do most of our work out of state so I’m not here competing against Sal or Sean for development money. Presently my wife is the CEO for Habitat for Humanity and I wouldn’t try to work a part time job to supplement that so I would be doing the aldermanic job full time. Full time means availing myself when you want to see me, not when I’m free for you to see me. If you want me at 8 or 5 or 2 I don’t have to stop something else to see you. I would like to develop some office space here in the 8^th Ward so I can have an office here to see you too, in the 8^th Ward.

23. Are you for or against red light cameras?

 CO: I would support it except people who are making right turns on red. One of the most dangerous situations we have in the city is people running red lights. A child who grew up in this neighborhood wrecked the car, had too many friends in the car and was t-boned. I told my son to wait three seconds after the light goes green to make sure there’s no more cars coming. That is a serious, serious problem. When we passed that bill we did not envision the enforcement of the St. Louis rolling right turn stop. Unfortunately they’re taking that to the letter of the law. I support removing the right turn on red as an exception to the red light camera bill.

MK: The red light camera is the opportunity to catch someone after they’ve already done something wrong. I don’t know if it’s the right thing or not but I do know a lot of people are against it, think this red light camera is a waste of time. I think it really needs to be looked at. If I had to vote right now I’d vote against it. I don’t think we need to have it. We might leave the cameras up to catch some people who do some things and see what’s going on with traffic but the frequency people are being summonsed over the red light cameras, I don’t think it’s worth it.

SI: Yeah, I’m not a fan of red light cameras. Yeah, besides being caught on more than one occasion I hear a lot of people upset about them and quite frankly, most people, myself included, a hundred dollar hit for a very minor traffic infraction like going right on red, that can set someone back considerably. I think it does more harm than it does good.

24. How should we avoid a Ferguson-like situation in the 8^th Ward?

MK: By talking to your neighbors, by learning who your neighbors are, by making a concerted effort to meet and greet neighbors. By making a concerted effort to not go around your friends and family and tell bad, racist jokes that then perpetuate the way you feel. By actually spending time with people in your neighborhood, on your block and on your street and learning who they are and not walking out of your house with blinders on. Also, creating more jobs for the youth in our neighborhood. We need to create work opportunities for our children.

SI: The question is kind of ambiguous but I would say greater oversight over the police. I would say a lot of things became apparent in the aftermath of the shooting and the subsequent decision not to prosecute, well, they were disturbing to say the least. I think, like, entry level, we should focus on what we are doing in law enforcement, primarily how we train our police, how they are trained to respond to certain situations, and we can go from there.

CO: A couple of things: the first response when Vonderrit Myers was shot was to ask the police to move out. We got together with the safety committee and the police were catalysts for a lot of what went wrong in Ferguson. They were definitely not the way to handle it. We made the decision to pull the police out, utilize volunteers and deescalate the situation. That was part of the main strategy we adopted and it worked because not on my watch would we see that type of outcome. The other thing is Lawrence Johnson started the Shaw conversations, an incredibly important thing for the future of this neighborhood and to all the neighborhoods that we get together on a regular basis and talk about things we don’t often talk about. I’m supportive of it.

25. For Conway: You had a high profile during the protests in Shaw. How would you describe your role and if you could adapt that role what would you change? I want the other two candidates to talk about what their role would be.  

CO: My role was to keep you informed, protect your home and protect your safety. There was nobody else to do it. I didn’t know I was going to do it. I did it the best I could. I gave every single bit of information I had available from every resource whether it be the police, the neighborhood association, the ministers, the pastors. We put together a whole barrage of resources to have the outcome we had. I look back on these times and I know the one photographer, he took some pictures of me and I could  not believe the expression on my face. I look back and I’m so thankful we had the outcome and the cooperation of all of you that we did, so thank you.

MK: I think the demonstrators that we had here in Shaw performed admirably. I don’t think they were out there running around acting crazy and doing things we saw in some other locations. I think the demonstrators in Shaw conducted themselves extremely well. I think the police felt like, after what went on in Ferguson, that things needed to be handled a little differently. I appreciate that the Safety committee was out working and keeping people informed. I think in a lot of instances it’s the communication between each other that really makes the difference. The Myers family, they appreciated the fact that they had the opportunity to demonstrate themselves and express their opinion on the loss of their son. I know there are activists here now that appreciate that as well.

SI: Considering some of the real low points that occurred during the protests in the Shaw neighborhood, not the least of which was the tear gassing of some people in a closed area, if anyone’s familiar with that, I’m glad it didn’t go any worse than it did and I hope we learned something from it. Hopefully if it occurs in the future we can do better.

26. What one or two concrete ideas do you have to increase participation in this kind of event and in voting among African Americans and all races in this ward beyond white citizens?

MK: I think it’s a matter of trust, spending time with your next door neighbor and explaining what’s going on and how its needed. Actually trying to develop some rapport with them. I know a lot of people will vote in the presidential election, but this election is March 3^rd. A lot of people are getting excited but it takes hard work to get people to trust you, to actually want to sit down with you and talk about how things can be better. They want to see things that are better. They don’t want to just talk about it. So I think in the African American community, its more about ‘you just telling me want to do something is one thing but doing it is another.’ And they want to see it get done.

SI: I agree, results talk. If people see good results from their alderman they’re more likely to participate the next time they have the opportunity.

CO: We have to make sure that everybody, black or white, feel that they are a stakeholder. We each have an individual obligation and we have a reason and a stake in the outcome to participate. Inclusion is a big part of it, do the boards on which you sit include African Americans? The outgoing president of SNIA was African American, on the housing corporation there’s requirements that 51% of the board meet the requirements so that we have representation of everyone. That’s the type of inclusion we’re looking for. Convince people they are stakeholders and treat them as such. That’s how I carry myself in life and how I react with everyone in the ward.

27. If you had one thing you could accomplish in the next four years; & top priority?

SI: Streets and infrastructure are by far my most important concern. Secondly, I guess my top priority would be to live up to everyone’s expectations. If you voted for me I hope you’re satisfied with your choice.

CO: I have two main priorities. One is public safety and two is Tower Grove Park and that’s why I took over and became chair of the Ways and Means committee, to see that we get adequate funding of Tower Grove Park. For 10 years I took care of that. We made sure the park got its funding. Number 2 is funding public safety to the level we need in the City. That is both the fire department and the police department. I support putting additional police on the streets. I support cops. I support neighborhood ownership model and I support putting the 160 police officers through a variety of additional business licensing tasks. Those are all [inaudible]. Those would be my priorities going forward.

MK: I know the alderman talks a lot about Tower Grove Park and I serve on the board of Friends of Tower Grove Park. We hear periodically how every year there’s always a cut. That doesn’t really count as maintain funding. But my main priority is the children of the ward. I want to try to make sure we do something with Sherman School that will benefit the children of our ward. I also want to make sure we improve the after school programs for Mullanphy, Shenandoah and the children of our ward. That is the number one priority I would deal with right now.

28. If elected, which boards would you continue to serve on or seek to serve on?

CO: With respect to Tower Park, whatever the parks department does that’s the percent Tower Grove park funding goes up or down. The problem with Tower Grove park is it looks too darn nice compared to the rest of the city. I’m looking forward to taking the Ways and Means Committee. I’ve chaired the Health Department and Housing Committees. The health department does a tremendous amount for us in the city.

MK: I’d like to be on the Conventions and Tourism Committee, the Health and Human Services Committee, the [inaudible] Committee and Public Safety.

SI: You probably see this one coming, but Streets. [laughter]