Questionnaires

Chamber of Commerce Information Request

What are the top 3 agenda issues in your campaign?

I would say that most important among our community’s goals are that Gainesville should be safe and sound for all, sustainable in its balance of population and environment, and vital in its economy and culture.
           
To those ends, by emphasizing courteous meetings, examination of all options, and more public participation, in my first term I have worked successfully with my fellow Commissioners to:

Improve Our Neighborhood Quality of Life by

Enhance Our Local Economic Development by

Sustain Our Environment by         

These three policy areas and the tasks within them will continue to be my top priorities for advancing our community as safe, sustainable and vital.  Some of the particular new opportunities I expect to focus on include the development of new energy resources, reversing decades-old trends in poverty and violence, and reclaiming the purity of our natural resources.  I believe that success on these issues also requires a regional approach.  So I will continue active participation in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization, the North Florida Regional Planning Council, the Florida League of Cities, Chamber of Commerce economic development initiatives, the Juvenile Justice Council,.the Prevention of Substance Abuse Coalition, and the County’s Affordable Housing Coalition and Poverty Reduction Advisory Board.

Gainesville-Alachua County Association of REALTORS®
2008 Candidate Screening Questionnaire

If you were an Alachua County Commissioner would you have voted for or against Impact fees?

Yes, I would have. 

Would you as a City Commissioner vote to implement impact fees in the city?

No.  The city already has the necessary infrastructure, costs more to build in because of land acquisition costs and construction costs, and needs to out-compete sprawl over our green spaces in the west of the county.

Will you be voting for or against the Property Tax referendum on the state ballot?

Against – the referendum does not solve the Property Tax inequities and its benefits accrue almost entirely to the rich (especially in South Florida along the coasts) while costing the rest of us crucial services.  It’s a fraud.

Do you think property owners who annex into the city should be held to county regulation?

No.  The land use and zoning regulations are changed shortly after the annexation.  Usually the regulations are roughly comparable at first.  But generally the city is going for more dense urban development.  So the change is useful and needed.

Do you support the narrowing of Roads?

Not if that is all that is done.  I also believe an urban economy cannot flourish if it is constrained by fatal transportation system decisions made post World War II that ended the downtown’s role as a destination point for shopping, working, residing, and entertainment.  What a waste of capital and people’s public and private investment.

To reverse this damage, but maintain traffic flow, a city should maintain a grid of roads that allow for pass-through traffic on roads outside the downtown area and destination traffic to the downtown on roads with dedicated traffic lanes to maximize traffic movement (which traffic engineering studies indicate is as efficient as adding an extra lane in both directions).

Why are you running? What issues are most important to you?

I am running again for the same reason I ran before:  because I feel the well-being of our country is being eroded by exceptionally uncaring and greedy people, and I want to assist a more positive spirit to prevail in Gainesville and Alachua County.

I would say that most important among our community’s goals are that Gainesville should be safe and sound for all, sustainable in its balance of population and environment, and vital in its economy and culture.
           
To those ends, by emphasizing courteous meetings, examination of all options, and more public participation, in my first term I have worked successfully with my fellow Commissioners to:

Improve Our Neighborhood Quality of Life by

Enhance Our Local Economic Development by

Sustain Our Environment by         

These three policy areas and the tasks within them will continue to be my top priorities for advancing our community as safe, sustainable and vital.  Some of the particular new opportunities I expect to focus on include the development of new energy resources, reversing decades-old trends in poverty and violence, and reclaiming the purity of our natural resources.  I believe that success on these issues also requires a regional approach.  So I will continue active participation in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization, the North Florida Regional Planning Council, the Florida League of Cities, Chamber of Commerce economic development initiatives, the Juvenile Justice Council,.the Prevention of Substance Abuse Coalition, and the County’s Affordable Housing Coalition and Poverty Reduction Advisory Board.

What is the greatest positive change in the city? What is the greatest negative change?

The greatest positive change in Gainesville, I would say, has been the impact of the City Commission/Community Redevelopment Authority’s partnership with developers and UF to begin making the downtown area a thriving center for commerce, residences, entertainment and culture.

The greatest negative change has been the on-going resistance of Beazer Corporation to clean up the Koppers’ Superfund contamination site at the same time that the contamination shows continued signs of movement toward our City wells.

What does Affordable Housing mean to you? And what role should local government play in providing an affordable housing solution for its citizens?

I identify two different kinds of affordable housing.  One is workforce housing – affordable for skilled blue collar and low-to-mid salaried professional workers or retirees to buy or rent.until they have enough capital saved to buy.  This would be housing now selling in Gainesville for roughly between $75,000 and $200,000.

The other kind is housing (most likely rental) affordable to low-wage workers and people living on smaller pensions and disability benefits.  In the past, in urban areas, this has been mostly multi-family housing, some single occupancy lodging, and (now disappearing in Gainesville) the occasional mobile home park. 

For me, the most important government role in affordable housing provision is to incentivize the market for developers and landlords to generate such housing.  I have recently asked City staff to study how Community Redevelopment Authority incentives might be used to encourage development of affordable housing.  The idea of awarding tax increment awards for including affordable housing in redevelopment initiatives is one the City is exploring.   The City has also increased the allowable density in its redevelopment areas to allow developers to make a profit while building smaller, more affordable housing units.  Although the development called Jefferson at 2nd Place is aimed at students rather than workforce citizens, the design allows for a profitable density of units and may serve as a model for workforce housing development.

Increasingly, energy costs can be said to make up a sizeable portion of housing costs, especially for those in need of what we are calling affordable housing.  Government can help through providing contractors with incentives and training in energy efficiency and conservation that can be translated into energy cost savings for both homeowners and renters.  In Gainesville’s situation as owner of a public utility, the City has generated several programs in this direction over the past two or so years.

The City Commission Candidate Questionnaire from the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry, Inc.

Do you support the initiative to establish a One Stop Homeless Service Center (GRACE Marketplace) on North Main Street?

My short answer is, Yes -- at this point, I see the North Main Terrace site as our last possible location for a One Stop Center as supported by the large cadre of citizens who participated in the long process to develop the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. 

If someone comes forward soon with a better option, I will work for it.  Until then, I will push forward on establishing the One Stop Center at North Main Terrace.  But it is not what I hoped or worked for, as the following explains:

Two year ago I asked the City Commission to set up the option I preferred, which was to establish one or two shelter sites in each quadrant of the city with transportation, security and services provided for each site.  This was for winter shelter, though I suggested it could serve as a model for on-going assistance.  The other City Commissioners did not support this proposal, though it did result in an increase of winter shelter through Holy Trinity Episcopal and St. Francis House.

I continued on the 10 Year Plan Implementation Committee and helped get the Office of Homelessness and the One Stop Center goals moving toward reality.  On the City Commission I pushed with a bit of success for an adequate budget for the OOH so the goals of the 10 Year Plan could be properly pursued. 

I also pushed successfully to direct City staff to do a thorough search for an adequate site for a One-Stop Center. 

As part of the search, I asked City staff to investigate the Compassionate Outreach Ministries’ Activities Building (the warehouse-like building by the retention pond at Tumblin’ Creek Park) as a possible shelter and services site, and brought the City Manager there for a tour after consulting with the church’s pastor.  But nothing was forthcoming from that visit. 

Likewise, in the midst of this process, I asked the City Commission to make Tent City into a primary shelter site with sanitation, security and meal services as well as social services.  But the Commission rejected this idea, too. 

In the end, 125 sites were investigated in the city, and these were finally reduced to two that seemed operationally and politically feasible. Of these two, I preferred the Waldo Road site near the airport because it could be established quickly, had direct bus transportation from downtown, and could also be a shelter site.  Unfortunately, the Commission rejected that site and chose the North Main Terrace site.

It is this two year history of democratic process and activist involvement that leads me to believe that if we do not secure the North Main Terrace site as the One Stop Center, we will have no centralized effective case management based service center for some time to come.  So for now I support it.

Homelessness is by definition a housing problem.  What concrete actions would you take to increase housing options for the homeless in Gainesville?

a)  I will continue to be part of relevant groups to increase my awareness of our options and to push them forward.  I currently serve on the Alachua County Affordable Housing Coalition, the Implementation Committee for the Plan to End Homelessness (on which I originally served as chair of the Homelessness Prevention Committee), and the Alachua County Poverty Reduction Advisory Board.   I am trying to fit the ACCHH into my schedule and have recently attended my first monthly meeting. 

b)  I financially support The Preserve, Arbor House, Interfaith Hospitality Network, and Gainesville Community Ministry.  And I work with my church as an Interfaith Hospitality Network volunteer, as I have done for many years.  I will continue these activities.

c)  At the City Commission’s recent Annual Goal-Setting Workshop (12/3/07), I requested that the City “formalize financial and development instruments in CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) regulations to generate sufficient affordable housing.”  The City Commission approved that staff be directed to explore integrating this proposal into the City’s annual goals for final approval by the City Commission.  The staff report is expected to come before the Commission in January or February.

d)  When the City Commission turned down my proposal that Tent City be turned into a City park where homeless people could camp and receive basic services, I requested that we ask the Office of Homelessness generate a list of proposals for housing of the homeless.  This was accepted.  I expect to work closely and supportively with Jon Decarmine in generating and implementing workable ideas. 

e)  County Commissioner Rodney Long has recently called upon the County Commission to focus on generating affordable housing for Alachua County, similar to my request at the City Commission’s Goal-setting Workshop.  I will work to have the City coordinate its efforts with the County in the hope that greater momentum will come with cooperation.

f)  I have supported (and defended at public meetings) the Alachua County Housing Authority’s efforts to increase housing for the homeless and very low income, including its initiative on Northwest 13 Street to remodel a motel into transitional housing for women coming homeless from abusive households or after discharge from the Veterans Administration.  I will continue to be a community advocate for the ACHA’s excellent work.

g)  The City Commission has adopted a policy in its Comprehensive Plan to foster increased density in the development within the city’s boundaries.  Our zoning policies now allow for building of more units on a single site, bringing down costs for renters and buyers.  I will continue to look for ways to insure that city-supported development includes low costs housing options along with policies to help homeless and low income individuals gain access to low cost housing (such as IHN now does by contracting with landlords so that IHN clients do not have to pay security deposit or last month rent charges).

According to our last Point in Time Count over 50% of the homeless were Gainesville residents when they became homeless.  What can the City do to help prevent our residents from becoming homeless?

a)  One of the next areas that the Ten Year Plan Implementation Committee will turn its attention to is homelessness prevention.  As chair of the Prevention Committee, I will be working with Jon Decarmine at the Office of Homelessness to plan the implementation of our strategic plan’s prevention objectives. 

The three initial objectives include (1) provision of healthcare to very low-income and homeless persons to prevent medical circumstances that contribute to homelessness, (2) enhance educational, job training and employment related options for at-risk and homeless individuals and families, (3) provide supportive services and other assistance for individuals and families at-risk of homelessness. 

Within these three objectives, we have identified 16 initiatives that we believe will significantly help prevent homelessness.  Most of these overlap with the services to be provided at the One Stop Center.  So, with the endorsement of the Homelessness Plan Implementation Committee, I expect to ask the City and County Commissions to promote the use of the OSC services by people at risk of homelessness.

It is noteworthy, I think, that about 60% of Gainesville’s homeless people told the Point in Time survey that they had been homeless less than one year.  This suggests that a very large proportion of our homeless are not chronically homeless and retain hope for returning to productivity and independence.  We can certainly build on that hope.

b) Research on homelessness indicates that many people become homeless when their financial obligations become overwhelming (for example, when they have to decide between paying rent and utilities or food bills or medical bills or transportation costs).  Along with other City Commissioners, I have been pushing GRU (1) to increase financial assistance to low-income citizens (which GRU currently does through the SHARE program by which funding is provided to St. Francis House, Catholic Charities and GCM to help pay utility bills) and (2) to subsidize low-income customers to improve energy efficiency in their homes in order to lower utility bills.  I am intent on increasing such initiatives and their funding (and I believe the Commission as a whole will be, also).

c) During the last budgeting season, the City Commission decided to re-allocate the bulk of its federal Community Development Block Grant monies to low-income housing assistance programs.  The City and County Housing Offices, in cooperation with the Office of Homelessness and the Alachua County and Gainesville Housing Authorities, should continue this policy and emphasize the seeking of grants and funding sources for supporting low-income housing assistance.  The current City Commission has emphasized this to staff and I believe will continue to do so, as will I. 

d) Along with promoting affordable housing through redevelopment funding and through zoning codes, the City could explore having its own housing assistance program modeled on the Section 8 program, which I take to be the most efficient method for insuring affordable quality housing in a market without enough market-rate affordable housing. 

I have proposed this at City Commission meetings – but to date staff has assessed this idea as beyond the City’s financial means.  It puts Gainesville in the race-to-the-bottom mode of social service provision that federal policies have promoted since 1981 (or perhaps since 1969).  But I believe the City’s redevelopment funds can be wisely and prosperously used in this fashion – so I will continue to explore this possibility for the City.

There is currently a free meal on the Downtown Plaza six days a week, hosted by various religious and civic groups, to help meet the needs of the homeless and hungry in Gainesville.  Do you support this use of the Downtown Plaza?

I will answer this specific question in the last paragraph of my answer to this question.  But in my view, this question would be better phrased, What are the best options for making sure that homeless people have nutritious food to eat (and the social networking benefits that can come with gathering for meals).  

As poverty and homelessness have increased in the U.S. over the last 27 to 35 years, and as the actions of our federal and state governments have exacerbated rather than mitigated this cruel trend, local communities have experienced the impact and have had to shoulder the responsibility.  To date, mainly religious and civic groups have led the response. 

Because charitable efforts have proved to be not nearly enough to adequately feed the hungry and shelter and restore the homeless, a strategy to wake up the society has been necessary.  Some homeless and poor people have done this by holding signs and begging.  Some charitable and activist groups have done this by feeding people in centrally located public places, like our Downtown Plaza – or by such mechanisms as assessing and nationally publicizing which cities are meanest in their policies.

I endorse those strategies as wake up calls.

Recently, this kind of strategy has begun to be successful.  It has started to move local citizenry and businesses and elected officials to recognize that they can, should and must be part of the response – whether for compassion or for prosperity. 

In Gainesville, this recognition has led to the engagement of many citizens in the development of the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.  It now appears that we are building on the response of charities and activists to have a community-wide systemic response. 

The highest ambition of the Plan is to restore most homeless people to at least minimal prosperity, to prevent others from falling into homelessness, and to provide safe housing for those who cannot get back on their feet.  This, we could say, is for the sake of compassion for the homeless.

A related hope of the Plan, I would say, is to no longer have large groups of homeless, often the more chronic and discouraged of the homeless, gathering in public places in a way that discourages more well-to-do citizens from gathering, living and doing business.  This, we could say, is for the sake of the wider community’s prosperity.

At this point in the evolution of our response to homelessness, I am hopeful that the One Stop Center and future homeless shelters, perhaps along with St. Francis House and/or the Salvation Army, will be the primary meal sites for homeless people.  This would respond to the hopes of a larger number of people and, I hope, will insure more homeless people come to receive case-managed services and support.  I am hopeful that these sites will replace the Downtown Plaza as the location of meal services by local religious and civic groups. 

As I understand it, local groups can by right serve meals in public parks.  But I hope they will give this new approach a try to see what we can accomplish.  If it doesn’t work, back to the public places.

ACCHH believes too much attention is given to defining where homeless persons are not allowed to be and not enough attention is given to creating safe spaces for them to be.  Would you support designation of a safe, secure area where homeless people would be allowed to spend the night?

Yes, I would support designation of a safe, secure area where homeless people would be allowed to spend the night.  As my answers above make note, I have offered several proposals to the City Commission regarding establishment of such a place.  To date, none has been accepted.  But because we have pushed on this, the Commission has directed the Office of Homelessness to come up with a list of options to provide safe, secure shelter.  I expect this will be a substantial step forward and I am hopeful that the process we have followed will generate substantial community support for some of the OOH’s proposals.

What do you see as the most important needs of the homeless in Gainesville and how would you work to address those needs?

The homeless population in Gainesville and the U.S. includes a wide diversity of people with a variety of reasons for becoming homeless.  In Gainesville, the Point in Time Surveys have shown we have elderly, employed, unemployed, health impaired, veterans, families, children, substance abusers, newly homeless and chronically homeless. 

I stand with the “housing first” advocates – that getting people into safe shelter, especially where they have a sense of normalcy and control, is the first and greatest need.  Thereafter, services for nutrition, employment, mental or physical health, counseling, life-skills education, financial aid and education are all necessary, some more than others, depending on the person in need.

I believe the statements I’ve made in the previous five questions describe how I will continue to address these needs as a City Commissioner and as a member of the community.  But to put it in brief, I will work as closely as possible with the homeless advocate groups in town, as I have in my first term, to understand what is needed to solve the problems of homelessness and to move the City and County Commissions to meet those needs.

Builders Association of North Central Florida Questionnaire

Please tell us what made you decide to run for Gainesville City Commissioner

When I was first elected, in 2005, I ran because I was concerned about Alachua County’s and Gainesville’s policies regarding economic development, neighborhood and environmental protection, and investment in human development and personal prosperity.  I was particularly concerned about:

I am running for re-election to continue the progress we’ve made on these same matters.

Please list the top two most critical issues facing our City and what you would do to address them.

Critical Issue #1:  Greater economic development is needed to support business vitality and creation of good and appropriate jobs for all Gainesville citizens.

Policy Responses I Support and Work For:

    • Continued support for the improvement of our airport’s amenities and flight schedule.
    • Increase in ready availability of offices, labs, manufacturing sites and warehousing for new businesses to occupy when needed (to be promoted through City and County incentives for entrepreneurs or by partnerships or direct development).
    • Continued improvement in partnering with UF and Santa Fe CC to move research innovations through incubation to the market, along with appropriately trained workers (following such examples as Madison WI, Georgia Tech/Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle, New Haven/Yale which the City, County, Chamber and UF have visited together).
    • Insuring a dependable supply of energy for development while at the same time looking to increase local entrepreneurial and job opportunities by encouraging the  conservation, efficiency and local fuel (e.g., woody biomass, solar) industries.
    • Insuring availability of diversely-priced attractive housing for all who live and work in all parts of Gainesville.
    • Increased investment in early childhood development, education, recreation and juvenile justice services for all our children in order to provide Gainesville with productive workers, healthy families, and effective citizens

    Critical Issue #2:  Maintaining a sustainable balance between our population and environment is needed for our well-being now and for the future.

Policy Responses I Support and Work For:

What is your position on the implementation of Impact Fees as a funding source for the City of Gainesville? Would you vote yes or no to impact fees if it was put to a City Commission vote?

Given my current understanding, I would not support or vote for impact fees in Gainesville.  My understanding is that impact fees can be appropriate for green-field development where basic infrastructure must be newly provided.  But in brown-field development such as occurs within the City boundaries, the infrastructure already exists and so impact fees are not so necessary for fairness.  Perhaps more importantly, within the City boundaries, impact fees are likely to impede redevelopment and revitalization because redevelopment often already has higher start-up costs for land acquisition, soil reclamation, in-city construction, and repair of existing infrastructure.  To add impact fees to these costs would likely slow or stop the city’s growth in economic vitality.  This would be to everybody’s detriment, including residents outside of Gainesville whose livelihoods depend on the core city’s vitality.

Do you think that the relatively new process of having an elected mayor (rather than rotating this amongst commissioners) has had a positive effect on City Government?

Gainesville has now had three elected mayors.  The primary responsibilities in this position are to moderate City Commission meetings in an equitable and collegial manner and to be the City’s primary official representative at ceremonial occasions.  My sense is that for the most part the current mayor has handled these two responsibilities well over the past two and a half years and that the Commission has acted effectively and cooperatively during that time.  On the other hand, it was my observation over the previous four or five years that City Commission meetings were not infrequently marked by acrimony, frustration and resentment.

So whether the mayoral system works well seems to depend a lot on who the mayor is and who the other commissioners are.

But it seems to me that there are also other problems with having an elected mayor rather than rotating mayoral responsibilities each year.  One is that some citizens may not recognize that all seven people on the commission have an equal opportunity to influence policy and to cast a vote – so they may over-rely on communication with the mayor and thereby under-educate other commissioners as to their points of view. 

A second problem is that, since other commissioners will not and cannot have mayoral responsibility, they may be less tolerant of a mayor’s personal style in facilitating meetings. 

A third problem is that, since the mayor is more likely to become the focal point of a City policy decision (because the mayor is authorized to always speak last and summarily on each issue, is somewhat empowered to interrupt other commissioners and citizens, and is more often cited in news reports by the media), other Commissioners may feel less incentive to be thoroughly versed in each issue that comes forward for decision.

A final problem is that having an elected mayor can introduce some aberrations in the decision process that have to do with experience.  In the current case, the mayor has a minimum of six years more experience on the commission than any other commissioner, and will have eleven years more than some in her final year. 

Is this imbalance a good thing or not?  Should the mayor always have been a commissioner for a prior three or six years?  The alternative in the mayoral system is to elect a mayor who has never served on the commission and consequently would have little experience with the important subtleties of the process. 

Rotating the mayoral role seems pretty much to avoid these four problems.  Overall and in the long run, it seems to me that the rotation of the role of mayor among the commissioners is likely to be a more effective and stabilizing mechanism.

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