By Mari Radtke
Nine candidates in two hours is a hefty undertaking. On October 19 all six City Council and three mayoral candidates came to give the public their views on a variety of needs facing Paullina. Two hours is not a lot of time to give each candidate an opportunity to give in-depth answers. They all did a good job giving enough insight into their thoughts and goals and purposes for wanting to take a seat in decision-making for Paullina.
The three mayor candidates are John Ilhe, Marlin Sjaarda and Steve Heeren. Council candidates are Dennis Werkmeister, Nichole Fintel Jacobs, Jay Bootsma, Jean Unrau, Glenda Heithus and Kim Myers.
Candidates gave the attendees a brief look at they what they want Paullina to look like at the end of their term. Fundamental concerns such as cleanup, drawing residents and shoppers were mentioned. Other concerns stayed within the visual need. Some candidates went more to city assets naming the EMS building construction as their primary focus for the next term of council. Other construction needs mentioned was housing. Teamwork and unification were both mentioned in varying ways. Planning procedures also got mentioned as a vision for Paullina.
Out of a few current topics 5 were selected for candidates to prioritize. Those 5 items were the city’s financial status, utilities, trees, the EMS building and streets. They were also asked for what could hold up any project.
Eight of the nine candidates put the city’s finances as the first priority of an elected official with the utilities second. The last candidate had them exactly reversed. All candidates put the EMS building as their next priority. Each had different explanations for why they put each government responsibility where they did. The mayor candidates each gave a viewpoint on the finance issue. John Ihle’s his concern for city finances as with the absence of a Treasurer for over a year. He gave his view of the duties of the Treasurer and ended that with, “I do not see how we can make an accurate budget without those figures.”
Steve Heeren’s position of the city’s finance was the transparency saying, “We need to know our revenues. We need to know our expenses and we need to know what our balance is.” Marlin Sjaarda also put the finances as his top priority. From his accounting perspective finances is always the top priority. He agreed the city has struggled, citing “staffing transition” and recognizing the bookkeeping/record keeping. He stated, “It’s not that the city finances are bad, it’s just that the reporting just isn’t there.” He went on to identify some activities that benefit finances.
Audience questions began with Bruce Billick asking why it is so important to build a new EMS building. Candidates were explaining its insufficient size when members of the fire department present, Corey, began to address the question. The City of Paullina has an emergency building that is too small for its emergency services.
After quizzing sitting or former elected officials about a city’s source of revenue, several audience members had comments and questions. First up was Kristen Kruse commenting to the candidates on the budget discussion. She asked, “What kind of non-transparency were you referring to when you say that you don’t know the financial situation of the city?” Before that question was answered, Steve Rupert asked if Paullina received any money from the MidAmerican wind turbines. Carol Honkomp, a member in the audience and a city council member got into the discussion by being clear that she is not sure of the answer. Dean Rice asked how we are going to balance the budget.
A question was asked about contract labor and why not sell unused equipment or have the city staff do the work. Tree removal was specifically pointed out. Sjaarda commented that a cost analysis should be done. Kaitlyn Top reminded the crowd that there used to be five staff members outside the office and now there are four. Sjaarda says he feels there is a need for a City administrator or City Manager. The discussion confirmed “we haven’t seen what our actual revenues are and what our actual expenses because it just hasn’t been recorded.” Ihle noted that his question isn’t about transparency but about accuracy. Kruse tried to challenge Ihle trying to say the spending is known it’s just not recorded. City council candidate Kim Myers asked, “If it’s not being recorded and wrote down, and we don’t have a treasurer, who do we fall back on for why it’s not being recorded?” Kruse admitted then, “My mom, who is the current mayor, spent months working on the budget for this fiscal year. Our house was covered in stacks of paper like feet high.” Kruse went on to share all of the effort undertaken to “address the issue” of not having these records caught up.” After more discussion Kristen said that the responsibility does fall back on the office staff – it does fall back on the mayor and the city office to get this budget done and it wasn’t just up in the air.
Werkmeister spoke to the question of the downsizing of outside staff from five to four. He went back to a day when the superintendent position was divided into two positions. At that time the city had five employees. One was let go and was never replaced. He advocated for the next council to consider who to fill that position and defended the work the four actually do. He went on to support contract labor noting that the city does not have all the equipment needed to do all the tasks that need to be done.
The zoning map was made available. Candidates were asked what if the zoning map works and if it is enforced. Only a few candidates were familiar with the map and the zoning ordinances. There was some blurring of the lines between zoning and nuisance concerns. Werkmeister was on the council when the zoning ordinance book was developed. He shared that he goal was to put compatible property uses together. Ihle was also on the council when the ordinance was adopted. He shared some example stories that led council to undertake the burden of zoning which was supposed to stop neighbor fighting. Heeren believes zoning works. “It alleviates a lot of the decision-making. Without the zoning code there are no rules to start with. I think it does work very well.”
Tami Evans asked how the mayor candidates would approach getting young families to come back to town. She asked, “Why would they come back to town?” Sjaarda identified the short-coming of housing and “it just doesn’t look good.” He gave a list of the nuisance issues being distributed to residents in large numbers. Heeren agrees it’s necessary to have the community look good. He also wants activities for children or young adults, suggesting a look at parks and recreation. He remarked that locations to build are an obstacle. Ihle agrees with both Sjaarda and Heeren. He talked about financial incentives for younger or older persons. He spoke about affordability of the houses available.
Kody Nelson brought up the issue of daycare. He assured the candidates that if there is no daycare in town, none of the other issues matter. Fintel Jacobs explained that she was part of the opening of Saving Grace Daycare. She gave a nod to the need for a licensed daycare facility.
Kaitlin Top returned to the discussion of painted houses and long weeds. She outlined the method being used (outside of the city structure) and spoke about the limitations of young families working out of town. She spoke about the threatening letters being a put off for moving to the city. Top’s comments got applause. Don Pipho shared his experience of replacing his sidewalks and the benefit of tree trimming. He commented that the letters are not being enforced. Heithus spoke to Don’s point that the sidewalks are in bad repair and some due to the tree root system. Hiethus addressed the notification system, including follow up being used.
Pam Schnoes asked about where new housing would go, noting the agriculture dominance of the area. Ihle noted currently ag land once having been identified as residential had been rezoned to industrial and ag.
Sjaarda spoke to the job of the Treasurer’s duties. He described them as a report to verify that the clerk’s book match the bank statement. He added that right now the clerk cannot do their job. The books aren’t balancing with so many transactions not being recorded.
Lauri Struve, Ambulance Chair asked what they would do if faced with a lack of volunteers sufficient to close the ambulance service. The question led to big support being given to the service and the importance and need.
Each candidate was given an opportunity to speak to the audience of 65-70 people and attract a vote.