La Verne City Council Candidates Answer Citizen Questions at Debate

Richard BowenDistrict 3

We have about, I believe, 21 parks, so I don't think we really have a shortage of parks. I think everybody wants to stay well maintained, and especially with the water issues that we have now. As a side note, I got my new water bill, and after I got over the initial shock, I looked at the usage, and you guys should all look at yours because apparently I had a very small leak that was basically undetected, and I used 300 extra gallons of water a day. So when you look at your bill, I suggest you do that. One thing I think is that we should have more things. This is a great. I've been here 43 plus years, and I love that. When I first came here, Christmas morning scared me to death. I thought the whole place was on fire because here comes a fire engine here in the City, and then my neighbor says, "Come on, we do that." We go there every every house, and I think those are what makes La Verne. And I hear people talk about, "Well, we can't afford that anymore. Maybe we should cut back on that. Maybe we should cut back on Fourth of July." We have a spending problem. We don't have a revenue problem. So, and I said this eight years ago. I've been going to council almost 10 years, and I said that very first time I went. I said you have to manage your revenue and your spending because if we want our police and the fire, which we all seem to want, but we have to look at a line item, and I would do this the first thing, the first week I would be there, is I would go through the budget on a line item basis and say, what are we spending this on, and why are we spending? We just gave University of La Verne a $1,700 freebie for a fair they're having, what they had a few days ago—

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I think this is actually a very important question, and that's in fact, why I'm proposing the District One Improvement Plan. And the District One Improvement Plan has four parts involved in this particular question. First, beautification. How do we not only make sure that our green space are kept as they should be, but also right now we're experiencing a lot of dying trees. Trees are needing to be replaced. Residents aren't necessarily educated on when you have a dying tree, the impacts of a dying tree, and how to care for a dying tree. So I think that we need to be more strategic in the way that we are not only educating residents but also meaningfully replacing dying trees. And what I would do is I would collaborate with the University of La Verne. I had a nice conversation with somebody in my district. He's a professor. His expertise is trees, and in fact, apparently the City has also made some bad decisions with regard to the trees that we've put in, whether or not they actually fit the environment and the habitat, whether or not they're actually natural to this particular area. These are all things that require an expert opinion. We have a university right there with brilliant professors that are willing to partner with the City for free. I've already had the conversations. We already have the vision. Secondly, I'm advocating for the Let’s Move project. And what is the Let’s Move project? The purpose of that is to draw residents out, get them moving. Bonita in District One is one of the flattest parts of the City. There shouldn't be a cracked sidewalk anywhere, but there are. When we talk about Kuns, people don't go down and up Bonita because they're afraid of the sidewalk. So where do they stay around Kuns. I've been advocating for reducing the speed limit around Kuns since I joined the board of Hillcrest in 2020. Why? Because we know that our youth and our seniors congregate there. Why are we not lowering the speed limit, so they are not contending with speeding traffic. Same way San Dimas did.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

As far as parks and green space that we have in La Verne, we have a lot of green space, fields. Pelota Park for baseball, soccer fields everywhere. We utilize the Bonita Unified School District on a lot of those fields to get all of our residents to be able to play, to give our youth fields to play on. That's tremendous. We couldn't do it without the school district. That's the partnership that we have, City of La Verne and Benita Unified, and we appreciate that use. As far as trees are concerned, there are a lot of trees that I would not have planted. Liquid amber; those things drop limbs like crazy. Dingle balls that fall off and get a trip-up hazard, yeah. That’s not a good tree. I don't know what the right tree is. I prefer crape myrtles. They are pretty. They bloom, and they don't really get so large that they become a hazard for lifting sidewalks or any of that type of nature.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

To my knowledge, there hasn't been any sign problems in District One that I'm aware of. So, for Thomas and I, that seems to be a moot issue. As far as signs placed by others, that's not my job to police. I don't necessarily like that people are putting signs where they shouldn't be. That's not appropriate. But that's something that whoever owns that property needs to take care of.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

Yeah, I agree. There, at least to my knowledge, there hasn't been any issues. If there is an issue, if somebody's stealing in Steve Johnson signs, I promise you, I will replace it with 10— of his, not mine. Regarding other people and putting it in non-compliant areas, I have a lot of youth behind my campaign, and quite frankly, they are disgusted by the yard sign. So, I've actually tried to keep our yard signage to a minimum because there are people who care dangerously about the environment, and I think that's a pretty big deal. So, we've avoided cluttering public spaces, and quite frankly, have kept our yard signs to people who've asked for them.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Actually, I want to make a real quick comment on that, Mr. Allison. CASI puts signs and wants to sell signs and put them all over the City, so that doesn't kind of gell. Yes, I have experienced this. I have signs that were put in my HOA, and I have it on video. And we had a sign, my opponent put a sign right up the freeway, and the City did nothing. So, you say it's not my job. Whose job is it then? We have rules. When I signed up, I was given a whole list of rules. I don't particularly like signs; they're expensive. But unfortunately, if you want your name out there, you've got to have something. But when I contacted the City, and when other people contacted the City, City basically said, "Hey, not our job," and Ken Dolmer told people that, "Well, that's up to Caltrans, and if they don't do anything, then we'll put it on our radar sometime down the road." That sign sat there for over 10 days, and everybody knew it. And you've got a city council man, a sitting city council man that talks about law and order, that’s his big deal. But he did it, and he can't say it's just kids running around because it was an eight by the six or eight by 10 banner, and it's just wrong. And I didn't do it, and I wouldn't do it. I had people say, "Well, you go put one." No, my integrity has to be there when all this is over. I have to live here. I want to live here. I love to live here. If I do this, I run, and my integrity goes with it. No thanks, not worth it, in my opinion.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

Not as a predetermined policy. I would always look at all decisions and weigh a number of factors. My understanding of the Sierra La Verne situation is that there is a bit of a hazardous condition setup really by the structure of the City, in which ingress and egress off the hill may be complicated. So, I will guarantee to residents I'll never vote for a development that's going to put lives at stake, nor increase substantially the fire risk of residents that are living in the vicinity. So, if any development whatsoever came up for consideration, I'd be keen to hear from the residents on that, particularly those who are going to be most directly impacted by any development.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

This is an issue that the City doesn't always have the last say. The state has been more and more aggressive in requiring what we can and can't do. But look at all the ADUs around; those are horrific. We've got a neighbor that has four ADUs in what used to be one house, and they're renting rooms. It gets to be ridiculous, but there's nothing that the City can do when the state says you have to allow those to go in. At some point in time, I'm sure there will be houses there at Sierra La Verne. It's not going to be our choice. It's not going to be the City choice, but I think at some point in time, the state is going to say you have to let that plant be developed, and we. We don't have control. That's one of the problems that we have with the state.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I will tell you, Mr. Johnson, I'm surprised because the only people that control whether houses are built at Sierra La Verne and the old Lutheran site is you, right now on the council. The council is the only group because it's not state owned. It's not state-mandated. That is the two pieces of property that they can't do anything with. They cannot mandate it. The City of La Verne is the only group that can call for a rezoning. And if you don't rezone it, you can't build anything there. So that argument about the state taking over is pretty empty. Number one, it's unbuildable. When, years ago when the swap with Marshall Canyon and Sierra La Verne was considered. Lewis Homes went in there, and they came out and they said we won't even entertain it because it is unbuildable because of the water and other things. But I want to reiterate this: the only people in this town that can decide to build houses on Sierra La Verne or the Lutheran, is the City Council, and all it takes is a three-to-two vote. So, when you look at when you're voting, this is not midterms. This is our future, and I will tell you, I will not vote for either one of those properties to be rezoned, because once you open up rezoning, it doesn't matter if you say 15 houses, 20. If they want to come in and sue you and say we want to put 300 in there, now you've got to fight. And these guys don't play well with others, so no rezoning eliminates that. And I will never vote to rezone that area from agriculture to housing.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I was on the water committee. I voted no. Again, three-two-vote out voted two of us. Danita, actually, she's in the audience, and Kashifalghita’s appointment, and Lau's appointment, and Crosby's appointed person all voted yes. We voted no because, I voted no, because I said it's going to hurt the residents terribly. And what we were told after they spent $140, $150,000 on the outside consultant, it got fairly contentious at one point, and the mayor came in and he said, "Well, we have to make up for previous mismanagement." And I think today, he would take those words back, but I looked at them and said, "Who mismanaged? We've got a council that's been there minimum four years. We've got two that have been there six years, and we've got one that's been there over 10 years. So, who mismanaged it? And the only thing you can do in that case is look in the mirror. So, when people talk about what they will do in the future, I keep coming back and saying, "What have you done?" Because I know what I've done as a regular citizen, with putting together LV3C, looking at water rates. The water rate was ridiculous. The rates, the 15%, the 35, and then 15. The 15 has not come in yet. I called last week when I got my bill, and I said, "This is crazy. We've had two increases." And they said, "Well, actually, we've only had one so far." And remember, they took away, coincidentally, at the timing. They took away the Waste Management billing. So suddenly you look at your bill and say, "Well, yeah, that's pretty tough.” Add $70 to it, and then think of what it is. So, it's crazy. And they said, "Well, we have to make up for past." No, you don't. There was a way to get to the same place and replace the reserves, which is what they’re trying to do and do it over time.

I just want to say that yes, infrastructure is great, but when I was on the committee, I looked back. What have you done over the last five years? They hardly did anything. They used it for overhead. They borrowed money from one sewer to the water, and they spent 1.8 million dollars last year just in overhead for wages and other things. They didn't do the repairs. That's why we're in trouble with that. They have to do what they say they're going to do.

I just want to say that yes, infrastructure is great, but when I was on the committee, I looked back. What have you done over the last five years? They hardly did anything. They used it for overhead. They borrowed money from one sewer to the water, and they spent 1.8 million dollars last year just in overhead for wages and other things. They didn't do the repairs. That's why we're in trouble with that. They have to do what they say they're going to do.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I mean, so quite frankly, I'm not sure what can necessarily be done now. I would be very interested in convening a study group to figure that out. I do think that Rick says something that's important, and it's having a strategy. One of the things that I'm proposing is in all city services, in our financial, we're looking several years in advance because when you don't take care of infrastructure along the way, then all of a sudden you're asked to foot 100% increase. And I think that's mismanagement and poor leadership. There should have been incremental increases along the way, so that they are less jarring, and not so significant all at once. I'd also be very vigilant in assessing our existing city services and infrastructure to ensure that we're not looking at a situation like this on some other issue related to our infrastructure. That requires planning. It requires understanding the cost of deferred maintenance, and these are conversations that aren't necessarily happening, largely because I don't think there's anybody on the City Council with local government education and training. That's this particular education I will bring to the dais through my master's in public administration as well as my doctorate. I teach this, I've taught it, and there are simple things that could be done in leadership to ensure the residents are not blindsided the way that we were. And so, I will bring that poised leadership to the dais to ensure we are not surprised because, quite frankly, people in District One cannot afford these expenses. People in District One are hurting. I'm concerned right now that we're going to have a big housing turnover, and when that happens, and investors are going in, talk about ADUs and subdivision of property lots. We're going to lose the character of this small town if we don't get more responsible in the way that we are maintaining our infrastructure and not pricing out our senior residents,

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

Water is a very expensive commodity. We do live in a desert. It does cost a lot to bring in the imported water that we need. We have had some major pipeline repairs we've made in the past couple of years, and those expenses need to get amortized through the water bill. There's no other source to recoup the investments.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

So, I've served on the Hillcrest Board for 10 years. I'm a life member of the Church of the Brethren and served on many committees there, including property and other maintenance issues. So, I feel like, at least with the communities that I've been involved in, in Hillcrest and the Church of the Brethren, those are the two that I've given the most charity or payback to.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

So, I was on the Planning Commission, 2020-25, Hillcrest Board for five years, where I chaired the Health and Ethics Health Services Committee. I was General Counsel for Rotary District 5300, which included La Verne. I participated on La Verne's General Planning Advisory Committee. I'm a founding member of La Verne's CASI. I'm an ASYO coach several seasons over. I've been a tenured professor at the University of La Verne since 2013, and I've served on at least six different nonprofit boards. That serve the City of La Verne, including House of Ruth, East Valley, the American Mock Trial Association, and several others.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I don't have the same credentials as some of my esteemed people that have been here for those years. I worked. I ran a $30 million company, and when I worked, I traveled a great deal. So, most of the time on the weekends, I spent with my family. But what I did do, is many years ago, about 10 years ago, we got together with about 20 people and said, you know, we've got to look in to what's going on here. So I formed a group called the La Verne Coalition of Concerned Citizens. At that point, we had about 20 people. Today, we have over 1,800, and those people join. We don't know how they vote. We don't know what their religion is. We don't know what their color is. We don't know race. We don't ask any of that. What we do ask is, do you live here? What do you want to know about La Verne? And what do you want to keep up? We're filming this tonight. We'll have over 600, typically six or 700 people watching this tonight. So not everybody shows up here. And what we've done, what LV3C has done, we worked to expose the Marshall Canyon swap that the City claimed they had nothing to know about. Last week, my opponent said he didn't even know about the 10,000 units in the future plan at Pomona in the Fairplex. And quite frankly, I looked at him. I said, "You're in the council. What do you mean you don't even know about it? That's nuts." We looked at many things. We fought to support the police based on the illegal videotaping, and ended up with them getting a $5.5 million dollar settlement, which again hurt our city terribly. But it should have never happened, and the City allowed it to happen under previous under a previous council and under a previous city manager. We looked at the we got people together to stop the expansion of Afflerbaugh. That place is filled with criminals, and they say they're youths. Yeah, they are youth. They're youth criminals, and they're right up the street from many of us. And people, for the most part, don't even know about it. So, I've done a lot inside the City.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I agree. I well, so actually, I don't know if I agree, right? So, there's the question is loaded, right? Lived in duplex condos, apartments in a safe neighborhood, right? I don't think that that's impossible. I think that is still something that is on the table. That's exactly why I'm advocating for creation and expansion of neighborhood watch programs, particularly in District One, because we are starting to see a greater need for that. And I think that neighbors helping neighbors, which is another initiative I have, will help make sure that we have safe neighborhoods. But let's talk about the housing costs. I agree that the housing costs are out of control, and this is why I do think we need to be creative about the propagation of housing throughout the City. Mixed use, there is area, there's space in District One for mixed-use housing. I'm advocating for the building of a business corridor that connects the A-Line with the Old Town, so that we do get more mixed use, but we also get more businesses where we're able to get more tax revenue to undergird the City's services that make that housing far more manageable and less impactful on our infrastructure. I do think we also got to get much stronger and heavy-handed about requiring developers to honor the affordable housing ratios rather than allowing them to buy their way out of them or to circumvent them. And you know this is another idea that I have in my head. I'm mulling it. I shared how me and my wife were able to get lucky and get our house, where somebody literally just passed it on, sold it to us for the appraised value, and we were able to get in. Most people can't do that, and we've heard from, actually close to a dozen people now, that are in the same exact position we are in. So ,I'm actually advocating a neighbor-to-neighbor program, where homeowners, before you go to buy, consider who you are selling to. If it is a young family, if they are involved in this community and they want to stay here, then prioritize selling to them before you sell to anybody else,

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I grew up in apartments. I grew up in little tiny house. I had three brothers and my single mother, and she worked. She was able to buy a house when I was about 12. So, we've all been through this. When I bought my first house in 1977, I was single. I was dating my now wife, and we decided that we wanted to find a house. And I grew up in Arcadia. Well, the first thing I knew is, I couldn't live in Arcadia, that was for sure. So, we found a house in Monrovia. We both had nice cars. We sold them both, and that was our down payment. And we had two old cars then. Did we like it? No, but we knew that's what it took. Older school obviously, but you don't see those kind of sacrifices today. You say, okay, what am I going to give up? If you're going to Starbucks and you buy $10 lattes every day, every month that's 300 bucks. And if you're having your food delivered for $20, that's things that older people obviously didn't do. So, people have to, and I appreciate what Mr. Allison said, yeah. If you could get your neighbors, hey, are you going to sell your house? Would you mind? I have somebody that might like to buy it. Great idea. But sometimes you look and you say, can I afford to live here? No. Do I move out somewhere else? Get a house there, work hard and come back to where you really wanted to start? Absolutely. I bought here 43 years ago. I've had three houses here, and I don't want to move. And I want everybody, but not everybody can afford to live where they want to live. You know, I might want to live in a penthouse in New York. No, not really. But you know, could I afford it? No. And so you realize, you know, you work hard, and guess what? You're going to be able to buy something. May not be the house you want day one, but 10 years from now, 15 years from now, work hard. That's where you'll end up.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

Well, this is very reminiscent of the way Laurie and I bought our home. It seemed like we were going paycheck to paycheck, making the down payment, and I was glad we had my parents to go and Lauriei's parents to go get some dinner, and it's not easy. It wasn't easy when we were growing up, and I'm sure it's not going to be easy for Stephanie, my daughter, when she's ready to buy a house. But fortunately, we will be able to help her, and I know I couldn't have done it without my parents' help, and I feel sorry for the individuals that don't have that type of assistance. I consider myself very fortunate.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

We need to support and encourage businesses that bring in that sales tax revenue, and the council has been very proactive trying to reach out to businesses to come into La Verne. But we do have some empty spaces up on Foothill that could easily be occupied, but right now the businesses aren't moving in, it does hurt our city's revenue. I don't have the perfect mechanism to make a change of that, but we do have spaces available. If anybody does have a business that you know of that wants to move to La Verne. I'm sure our planning director Eric Scherer would love to hear about that and bring them in. We did just bring in a Mexican restaurant, Los Jarritos, that's opened up now, and I'm hoping that that's going to be a tremendous opportunity.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

One of the proposals I am proposing is asset mapping. First, we got to figure out what businesses do we have in the City and how we can best strategically support them. I was talking to several District One residents who own businesses, have nonprofits, and they feel there's zero city support. So, the first thing I'll do is get them on an asset map, get us showcasing the businesses that we have within our city. I would like to see us partner with organizations like Hillcrest, with big meeting areas where we can get our nonprofits out, set up a booth, and people from our community can go and actually see what resources are available to them within the City, so that we can frequent and support our nonprofits and businesses within the City first. I think we need more strategy in our economic development. First, I don't think it's enough to say we have some empty stores, so maybe they'll come. No, we need to have a gap analysis. What are we missing? Second, what do we need that is going to drive significant revenue? Third, what is the strategy behind recruiting those particular businesses to fill the empty doors? We cannot just wait and see. We need a strategy. Claremont is a city that is very comparable to us, but their sales revenue is twice ours. They have a car dealership. They've been innovative in the way that they're approaching their economic development. We need to, I think, follow suit, particularly with the fact that we're keeping our city services such as fire and police in the City. We cannot keep going back to Measure LV. We cannot keep going back to the residents for more revenue. We need to be strategic about our economic development, and it should have happened yesterday, because of the amount of costs that we are putting on our residents today.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

My first job was at a meat packing plant. I did that for about six years. One day I said, "You know, sales guys look cleaner and have better suits, and they don't wear hair nets, and they don't have bloody meat cups all day." So, I tried to get a sales job. Turns out I did, and turned out I was fairly good at it. And I worked my way up through the ranks, and what I realize in sales is sales don't just fall out of the sky. I hear the City, for years now, saying, "Well, we're going to find somebody. We're going to find businesses.” Well, who's going to find them? Pardon me. You have to have somebody, as Mr. Allison said, you have to have a plan. You can't just say, “Oh, you know, Staples is going out.” Well, everybody loves Trader Joe's. At least I think a lot of people do. But they don't generate a lot of sales tax. Grocery stores don't generate a lot of sales tax. Gyms don't generate any sales tax. It's great to fill an empty building, but what about filling one that pays sales tax revenue to the City? Instead, the City wants to well, let's build more houses, let's build high density, let's get the revenue from the tax, or let's go to the citizens and Gene, we're going to raise your water bill, or you want a fee, you want a fee to do something. We'll jack that from 100 to 150. It's the death of 1,000 cuts. Pardon me if you've never heard that phrase, but when you open your wallet at the end of the month, and you see a fixed amount in it, and the City says we're going to take a little more of that, a little more of that. We cannot do that. We have to have a plan. We have to have a city salesperson identifying specific businesses with a plan to go get them. Sales don't fall out of the sky. You have to work. You have to sell your benefits, and that's when they happen, and that's what will bring tax revenue to our city.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Well, I think this goes back to kind of what we just talked about, and like the water infrastructure. Without infrastructure, if you think it's bad not turning on your faucet and getting water, try flushing your toilet and having it go nowhere. That's a crisis. We saw that with the fire or the fire issue. You know what is our infrastructure? Our infrastructure is what keeps us going every day. A city that gets older has to look more and more at the infrastructure and what it takes, and what you have to do is look at the expenses you have. And when you have expenses, and you have somebody looking at it, and looking at a line item, why are we spending money on this? Why are we spending money on this? Because infrastructure is critical, and again, who does that in our city? I'm told we have a group called RKA. They've had a non-bid agreement for over 30 years. We pay them over a million dollars a year. They are not city employees. They're an outside consulting group. My question would be why? Why haven't we rebid that? Why don't do we know we're getting the best deal? We might, but if we don't look at it, and you say $100,000 here, $50,000 here, suddenly you're talking real money. And when people are talking about, oh, we can't afford the Christmas because it's $15,000. Well, guess what? I could find $15,000 next week They don't want me to look at that. So that's what I'll do.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

Asset mapping, just like we would use it for business, applies here as well. The City needs to have an inventory of all of its assets, including its infrastructural assets. Secondly, assessments should be done regularly on these assets to ensure that there is no significant harm being caused by deferred maintenance. Third, I think we need to be vigilant in democratizing our capital improvement process. What do I mean by that? I think we need more resident input in the areas of the City that needs that maintenance. I don't think anybody knows better what needs to be repaired than the people who actually use the infrastructure. And that's why I'm committed to quarterly town halls and getting out and actually knocking on the residents' doors every single year, so that we are collecting this data. We're bringing this data back, but we're not only collecting it, but we're tracking it, and we're doing it in a way that our residents are able to hold us accountable through a list. A scorecard where you can see exactly what the ideas you are presenting are, where and how we are tracking them, and how we're making progress against them. That way, if you're not seeing movement, hold me personally accountable as your representative because I am making that commitment. That's the level of governance I think we need to get back to in this city in order for us to best care for our resources.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

So, this falls under public works. Danny Wu is our director of public works, and he's been doing a very good job. We've got a lot of street improvements. We've got the water main line that came down. That's been repaired and is operational. But infrastructure is always going to be something that we have to deal with, whether it's your own home maintenance, things happen. Sewers get plugged. Got to get the drain cleared. We route, I don't know how many miles of sewers every year, jetting to keep those clean and making sure that they continue to flow. It's a huge job, and I believe the City is doing a very good job to take care of that. There are very few times that you have sewer coming up out of the streets. I've only seen that once in La Verne, and that's been 15 years ago.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

I think the City of La Verne has always been I believe the City of La Verne has always been in a good place. For as long as I've lived in La Verne, this is where I've always wanted to be. I love La Verne. I think La Verne is an excellent city. It's well managed with our current City Manager Ken Domer and all the other departments. I believe the City is doing very well. Thank you.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I mean, we have city restrooms. I don't think it's relevant. My opinion of men in women's sports. I will say that I have a daughter, and I will expect that my daughter will be in a city that will not expose her to unnecessary risks. I get the politics behind this topic. Unfortunately, I vote as a father first, and so I'm going to vote in a way that is going to leave me feeling comfortable that my daughter is kept safe in all city spaces, including public restrooms, I'm going to leave it at that.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Well, this is an easy one for me. No. Women are women. Men are men. There's an X X chromosome. There's an X Y chromosome. And as far as I'm concerned, as far as I know, not a scientist, that's the only two. So, if you have an X, you don't play against X Y, period. As far as tampons in the boys' room, boy, that's about as insane a thing I can even imagine. So yes, does everybody want to keep their kids safe? Absolutely. But this should be an easy one, and I'm kind of glad it came up. My kids aren't in school anymore. Thank God, because if they were, I'd be down there every day. But I have time left. I'd like to ask Mr. Kashifalghita. He's been a council person for four years. This is in his district. We picked this location specifically for District Three. He does not show up. What does that tell you about his regard for you, the citizens of our city? So, I would ask him that question. I don't know what he's going to say, but I'll tell you what, he should be here, and he should be answering all the questions. They're totally important to the future of our city. He wants to be a council person for four more years. What has he done for the last four years, and why the heck isn't he here now?

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

You know, I think there's a boys' room, there's a girls' room, there could be a third restroom. That would solve many of those issues. But that's all I have to say.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

40 is enough. I go up Wheeler. I have a little car, and people think I'm doing 50 when it's sitting still. But I go up there, and I look in my rearview mirror, and I think I'm stopped, and it is kind of crazy. So, I would hope the police could spend a little more time up there, added stop signs and things. All they did have to do is give some $700, $800 tickets, and I think you'd see that pretty rapidly. I'd love to see it also get rid of the little kids on motorcycles that are going up there that are going to die one of these days when they get hit by a car.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

Speaking to District One residents, this is a big concern. I actually would advocate for traffic enforcement, increased traffic enforcement. I do agree writing some tickets will help set the stage, but we have youth that are crossing White. White is also a problem to get to Roynon, and they are desperately concerned that they're going to be mowed down. I live on D Street. The way cars speed up in D Street makes absolutely no sense. And then Wheeler. I'm hearing residents say that the way the City trims the hedges, you can't actually see on down Wheeler until you're already out into the lane, and there are cars speeding by. Right. So not only do we have to increase enforcement and education so people know that we're bringing back that small town character where people drive like they make half sense, but I also think we need to be careful with the way we're trimming hedges and listening to our residents to ensure that we're maximizing visibility as they're getting in and out of their neighborhoods.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

I agree. I think the way to solve an issue like that, if it is truly an issue that residents want to want us to take on, we can go with the automated traffic cameras, and get you get sent a bill if you're speeding. But that's probably not what you really want because we all go too fast. I mean, just our nature.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

Well, I was a part of that being on the council, so not everybody's happy with the way the firefighters felt about the negotiation, but there was a contract that should have been more clear, and that's about all that I can say about it.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I mean, I spoke with the fire department, and I honestly think it was a misstep on the City's part for just not paying the 15%. They went, and they got the training, and they're talking to other people from other agencies, and you're hearing that the average that the other agencies are giving out are between 18 and 22%, and then you get back to La Verne and you get offered five. That makes no sense. That's a kick in the you know, morals, morale of anybody. And as I understand it, we're talking about the distinction between, like, a paramedic and an EMT, which, according to the firefighters, they help me understand this by using the paralegal-to-attorney analogy, right? Like you go to school as a paralegal to become an attorney, and then you get a $300 per paycheck bump. I don't care how noble of a person you are. I don't care how honorable of a person you are. It was dishonorable for the City to put these heroes in that circumstance in the first place. And if it means coming up with the extra $100,000, get creative and come up with the extra $100,000. But don't send the message to our paramedics that they are better off getting trained here, going to work somewhere else, because what that means is we're paying for their training, we're not getting the benefit of their training, and then we're paying on the back end for their retirement through our unfunded liabilities. And I don't think that that is a good strategy to take in this entire relationship. So, I think it was mishandled. I would definitely have handled it differently.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I think the council dropped the ball. I mean, they had an MOU. You read the MOU. It says you go to EMT school, you get a 15% bump, and it took six or seven months to get that, and also the agreement, as far as I know, is there's an arbitration. It goes to the council. Council could decide this six months ago. You know what they did? They passed it on. They handed it to an outside arbitrator. Which costs more money, from what I understand, and from what I understand, the firefighters had to go get lawyers. So, it all costs money, but when it boils down to it, they got $37,000, and for all the money, you don't see Ken Domer taking a cut. If his MOU says he gets this, he takes it. You see Danny Wu, who we talk about so wonderfully. He takes his. Everybody takes theirs. So how can they turn around and tell the firefighters they're not going to get theirs? Three people went to school to get a better degree to get something that when they come to your house, you may survive because of their training. How much does that worth? And the council didn't do a thing; they handed it off. They didn't want their name attached to it. So, what did they do a week before the election? Suddenly, they come to a settlement.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I mean, I actually do think that's very serious. Wendy Lau is also on the board, and she's a voting member. She has to recuse. My being a professor at the university has always been service-oriented. If you know what professors get paid, then you know for sure I'm telling the truth. And, so if I'm elected, my service would be first to this city. Meaning, you know, I haven't said this out loud yet, and I'm probably getting a little trouble. But I have almost every intention of resigning as a professor, so that I can devote my time to this community. And that has everything to do with the fact that I think it would be inappropriate to have two council members have to recuse every single time an issue comes up for the university. That being said, I have a fiduciary duty to the residents of District One, not to the University of La Verne. I have four degrees from the University of La Verne. I have the student loan bill to prove it. I owe that university nothing. Like seriously, you saw my student loan bill. You never mind. Too much. That's what I got to say. My first priority would be to the residents. My fiduciary duty would belong to the residents, and I will ensure that I'm voting always in the best interests of my residents.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

Voter ID? I mean, you need to be identified in some way to register to vote. Beyond that, I don't know. I voted no for about 39.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

You know this is actually a pretty interesting one, and I'm not going to pretend that voter disenfranchisement doesn't happen because it is. It's a big issue. I also know that like a whole lot of ballots get mailed out, and nobody is maintaining those ballots. And I mean, full disclosure: my mom still gets a ballot at my old address because that's where she lived. Anybody could pick up that ballot and take it and turn it in. And so that small example does give me a bit of pause for concern in how we are actually doing our ballots. And so I do think that some safeguards should be in place. However, I think that should be balanced against the fact that you have access to free identification. That way, the voter disenfranchise issues that would concern me so much about requiring, you know, certain classes' identification would be mitigated to some extent. But that's my analysis from a public policy perspective.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Well, in this case, just say yes. You have to show ID to do anything, I just had a trip back east. Guess what? Get to the airport, show your ID, get get your boarding pass. Get up to pre-check, show your ID. They take your photo. They you go into a liquor store, buy something, have them show a photo. You mean to tell me some? Can't produce a photo to do the most important thing any of us can do, and that's vote for the leaders of our country, our city, everywhere. This seems so silly to me. It just seems like you go and you show your ID, and you proudly show your idea, and look at look at L.A. They just had 20,000 people. They think are non-citizens in a city. What I heard was, well, that's not a lot of people in the City. That's 20,000 too damn many. And if it's one, why would anybody allowed to be be allowed to vote in our elections that doesn't show an ID, and then complain about it. Say, "How dare you ask me to show an ID?" That's crazy. What does Kashifalghita say? He's mulling it

over. All right.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Well, we've heard Foothill Transit, and they want to redo Foothill Foothill Boulevard. One of the council meetings we went to, and by the way, all of you were always invited to go to city council. They're pretty damn exciting. But anyway, they want to redo Foothill Boulevard just like Claremont. Well, if you've gone to Claremont recently, you hit the Claremont border, and it's a mess. It's two lanes, the bike lanes. Nobody's ever in the bike lane, and it's just planters. And all it did was turn it into a two-lane highway, which is insane for the amount of traffic. Imagine that on Foothill Boulevard. Now, also imagine what it would take to make that happen, not after the fact when it's done, but the construction. You might as well. They probably have to shut Foothill Boulevard down. Can you imagine this city with Foothill Boulevard shut down for any period of time, and then to end up with two lanes, one in each direction? That seems crazy. So, we actually the council did ask them, well, why don't you look at Baseline? You know what the answer was? We don't have the ability to do anything on Baseline. Caltrans only has responsibility of Foothill Boulevard. So, they don't really care either. They just want to do it, and Foothill is the only property they can do it without any issue.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I think this is a decision I want to hear from my residents on. That's exactly why I'm proposing the beautification committee, so that we can be strategic about beautifying the City while at the same time not decreasing its functionality, and so I do agree that maintaining Foothill as an easily traveled thoroughfare is important, particularly with some of the housing development that has gone up on Fruit. But I definitely want to hear what the residents, my residents, think about it and what their considerations are.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

I'm also in District One, which is going to be the Arrow Highway corridor. That's the problem that I see on a daily basis. Arrow Highway's traffic signalization is atrocious. It's just terrible. We've had commuters from outside the City come to our council meetings to complain about Arrow Highway between San Dimas Canyon and White Avenue. The traffic lights there are just terrible. If they're going to do Foothill any way near that, I would not be for it as well.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I think the simple point here, here's a lot here… First of all, the simple point is grant funding is available for a lot of these things, and the issue that I see is that we don't leverage our resources at the university enough. That is exactly why I'm proposing a District One improvement plan, and I'm not proposing a District One improvement plan because I think District One deserves more resources than the rest of the City. I would hope that all other City Council people would also want to improve their district and to come up with strategic ways of incorporating their residents voice in making that happen. And so, I don't think that District One is more improvement is more worthy, but I do think that a strong District One is a strong Laverne. Considering, like I said, people do go in frequent areas of District One because of its nuanced benefits. How would I pay for it? That's where all of this comes into play. First of all, we have a capital improvement process that has a lot of stuff on it. Does it have the right things on it? Not always, right? That's why I'm bringing the resident voice to democratizing that process, so that one, if any of my ideas does require any city resources, then it's because they are deserving of those city resources and have actually gone through the democratic process, but a lot of this other stuff doesn't require more money. I'm talking to residents that are willing to chip in for improving the lighting around their homes and on their neighborhood. I'm one of them. I'm talking to residents that are willing to get out and beautify the City, use their resources to make this city better. I'm one of them. I'm talking to residents who are out … This is a big question! … Like, I'm a member of the CERT program. Every city uses our CERT program for 5Ks, 10Ks, etc. Why don't we? Why don't we?  We have volunteers …

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Yes, I will commit to that.

AllisonDistrict 1

Yes, I could commit.

JohnsonDistrict 1

Yes, that’s a four-year commitment.

JohnsonDistrict 1

No

ThomasDistrict 1

I’ll commit for four years.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I’ll absolutely commit.

JohnsonDistrict 1

I know the City did annex a small parcel.

JohnsonDistrict 1

Not that I'm aware of.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I've heard this issue for years now. Like people bring it up, city, then it just goes away, and then two or three years later, somebody brings it up again. The City should make a stand. Tell us where they stand. Are you going to do that? Are you going to look into it? What is the net effect? What is the drain on potential services we have? What's the effect for the citizens involved? Again, you got to listen to citizens. We've gotten away from that, and it's crazy. We've got to go back to the citizens and ask them, "What do you think?" Because remember, the org chart for this city says citizens first. Council reports to the citizens, and the City employees report to the council. Right now, it seems like it's reversed. The City manager tells the council what to do. Council does it, and the citizens be damn. So, as far as medians, I think it's ridiculous. We need streets that people can drive on, and to think about Baseline or especially Foothill, to redo those, and well, Baseline in particular, right. Very expensive, obviously, and they cut down they cut down on the actual drivability. So, I think that's a real issue. If they look at out of control speed, such as police giving tickets.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I would want to study on annexation to actually understand the tangible benefits and drawbacks of it. I will not make that decision here tonight. And the same thing with I think you were talking, I thought we all answered it with regard to Foothill earlier, but you're saying not Foothill. Well, that's what I thought we had said that we wouldn't. But if you're talking about slowing down Wheeler, yeah, I'm in favor of slowing down Wheeler 100%. I have a lot of residents out there. Well, he has a lot of residents out there that really want to slow down Wheeler because they live right there.

Citizen response: It sure works in other cities.

Yeah, so I would be all for that.

Yeah, so I would be all for that.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

My flyer says citizens first. If you've seen me for eight, nine years going to council, I've always asked that question. What do citizens think? We used to have a mayor that would say, "I'm going to go ask the citizens.” He doesn't ask that anymore, and you wonder why. And they make decisions, and it's like, we're not going to ask them. I would put together every 90 days, I will make this pledge, every 90 days, at least 90 days, I will have a forum like this where people can come and ask questions and get answers back-to-back instead of going to the City Council, getting your three minutes to make comment, and having somebody look at you and what I call the Mount Rushmore look. You get nothing, no feedback, nothing. That's wrong. Citizens should be able to ask questions and get answers.

When was the last time the City had a forum? Never. This is ridiculous. You say, "Oh, that's what we should do." We should have been doing it all along, and now we're saying we're going to do it in the future. I've done more forums than the City Council ever has.

When was the last time the City had a forum? Never. This is ridiculous. You say, "Oh, that's what we should do." We should have been doing it all along, and now we're saying we're going to do it in the future. I've done more forums than the City Council ever has.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I've already knocked pretty much every door in District One. I'm still knocking doors. I'm getting people opening the door saying, "You've already been by here. You better believe I've been by here, and I'll be by it every year if I get elected, that's my commitment. I will take democracy to the front door of every resident by not only knocking and getting information. I have a doctorate in research. I know how to do research. I will collect the data, compile the data, interpret the data, present the data, and then present the data in such a way it can be tracked by the residents. I've also proposed the quarterly town hall meeting that will take place in the community, so that people can show up, and they can ask questions, and we can have those conversations. I will never expect for a resident, the only way a resident to be heard, is for them to come to the City Council meeting. That's not the game that I'm playing here. I'm bringing a new flavor of governance where people know their council member. They have my cell phone number, and when there's a problem, they know that there's a porch with a rocking chair with their name on it. And that's the level of governance I'm bringing to District One.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

Residents' voices? I mean, city council meetings, we're there to listen to residents. So that's a part of every council member's platform is to listen to residents. So, I don't want to change that at all.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

No.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

And my answer to that question is absolutely.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Absolutely.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

Yeah, I have something to say about that. On Sept. 8, I was actually about to look up the date. I believe it was the City Council meeting on Sept. 8. The City Council voted to have the city manager and finance director conduct a best interest determination to determine whether or not to have major projects rebid every five years, which used to be the rule. I stood up and I said that makes no sense to have somebody who's not accountable directly to the residents making a best interest determination on whether or not city services should be rebid. Nobody cared. They voted five to zero to allow the City manager and the finance director to make a best interest determination on major projects rebidding requirement. That's less transparency. I will always err on the side of transparency because the City spends our dollars, just like she wants to know every dollar I spend. I want to know every dollar this city spends, and whether or not it's actually something that we should be doing, and we owe our residents that fiduciary duty. This is a fiduciary duty that this current council has delegated to people who are not directly accountable to the voters, and I think that's a problem.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

I am very satisfied with our attorney. She's done a very good job, and I have no problems with her.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

And again, I will say I'm very pleased with the attorneys that we currently have. Thank you.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

So, I will ask, why bid anything if the City manager likes them and he doesn't care how much they spend. He doesn't live here. He doesn't pay taxes here. Lives at Fullerton, and you don't even want to look at the record of Fullerton when he was when he was the City manager there, and now he's going to decide who is our is our best practices without even putting out to bid? That's insanity. Thirty-five years, the City attorney company, one way or another, has had a no bid contract. How do we know if they're doing a great job? They may do a great job, but have you ever seen the City attorney say anything against the council, no. It's just whatever the council does, city attorney says yes., “I've looked into this and it's fine.” Well, that's what bidding process is about. If we want to hire a city attorney, then hire one and have them be responsible for the citizens. But you have millions of dollars of our money going out every year to people that never get a bid, and if you look at Mike, what I've said over the years is, put them out to bid. It was $75,000 or more that was in the City's contract. They never did it. So, when they talk about changing the rules, all they do is decide. Well, we didn't do it then. What the heck? We're not going to do it now. So how does that change anything? The state even says, six years ago, the state said you should do an audit every five years. The state said they would pay for an outside audit. Tim Hepburn ran on that. When he got in, he says, "Oh, we don't need an audit." Suddenly, it was not a big deal, but it was a big deal when he was running. Why? What do you got to hide? An audit tells you, an audit isn't looking, saying you're a crook. An audit says, "Here's what you're doing right. Here's what you're doing wrong.” Correct what you're doing wrong, and you've got a great, great thing going.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Absolutely.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

It's right here on my financial plan. It needs to be public, and it needs to be presented in a way that's visually appealing, so you don't have to be a budgetary master to understand what the numbers mean. Red, yellow, green.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

That should not be a problem.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

No.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

Yeah, I don't know if I could agree to that either.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I’m not sure about the 50 feet, but yes, I think there should be setbacks because I think when you look at those, and I think most everybody in the City, all you have to do is go to other cities and see what they're doing. They're on the sidewalk, and the front doors are on the sidewalk. And we have we have other issues. The homeless issue. Nobody wants to address that. Talk about talk about what's going on over in in Azusa right now. They're unloading homeless people at 1:30 in the morning, and people are saying they're in my backyard. This is going to be a problem. You have houses right up against the street. Guess what? Knock, knock, knock. We're here.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

A great sports complex, if we had the if we had the infrastructure support, it would be great.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

Yeah, I think I would start with a bank, and I mean it, a public bank. And there's a lot of benefits that can be derived from La Verne having a public bank, including down payment expenses for our staff to be able to live and raise their families here, including being able to fund some of our major projects, including our city services. It creates a revenue source, a significant revenue source that can go into funding. I would love, also, a youth center, but the bank is the answer, and I could just pay for the youth center.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

What would I want to build? I would have to agree with Bruce. Youth sports would be my choice.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Well, I don't know what you know, if you know, about my personal views on things, I have a wide variety. I grew up in a very different home than most people. In fact, I'm probably the only person that grew up in the kind of home, I won't get into it … But I always look at people as people, and that's why it always interests me when people say, "Well, what about this?" “And you know this person, and this person?”

I'll tell you. Good example here tonight is the fact that this gentleman is not here. Why not? So do I let my personal issues, especially be on the council? Absolutely not. That's not the point. I say LV3C is a great example.

We don't know who most of the people are. We don't ask them anything other than if you live in Laverne, you like it here. What do you want to do to make it better? That's what we do, and so that's what we've done for years now, almost eight years, nine years. So, I don't know if you're alluding to something in particular.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

So I did support that bond measure from the school district. It did not pass. I'm sure Brittany has some questions or some other opinions on that, but I supported it because my kids went to school there. My future children, I assume, will be in the unified school district, and I want there to be a nice school.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

Did I support it? Do I support an increase in taxes? I've already talked to our residents, and I know the people behind the doors. People can't afford any new taxes. So, like I said, I will commit to four more years of no new taxes. That said, I did support Measure A. I know students now who whatever decisions led to it, their ACs are in disrepair, and you know, that to me is a problem. But I've heard from residents loud and clear, we can't afford any new taxes without ... Actually, I mean I'm just going to stop it there. No new taxes.

Moderator: So you did support, but now you're saying you would not.

I would not. I mean, if I had had the conversation with the residents, and I love this lady, she's so brilliant. But you know, I would have made made it clear that the residents weren't ready for that that increase. That said, I'm not going to Monday morning quarterback. I was in favor of Measure LV. I stood and I stand by my advocacy at the time, but moving forward, I have very clear perspective on what district one residents.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I went to the board and I asked them. I had a meeting with them, and I said I didn't agree with it. I said because you've already got two bonds out. People want to know, and I took a little different perspective. I wasn't against the taxes per se. I wanted to know what they did with the money in the past, and that's a question I've asked from this council and everybody else. What have you done with the money we've already given you? And their answer was, well, we need to fix all this stuff. And I said, for 20 years you've ignored it. So, why didn't you fix it then? And I got all sorts of different answers. And I said, great. You know, come. We did a forum. LV3C did a forum, and we said, come and tell us. Tell us your side. You know how many of them showed up? None. They they told me they thought it was a hostile crowd. A hostile crowd to talk to the citizens about a $256 million bond that would increase people's property tax anywhere from five to 700 a year, and none of them wanted to come and talk. And I said, "This is your chance to explain what you've spent the money on, why you need this, what you're going to do with it in the future." And they, just like this gentleman here, said, "We're not coming." Not talking, we can hopefully get this passed without having to explain ourselves. And I thought that was wrong.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

I decided to run for two reasons. One, that two years ago, or more than that, we went to district voting, and the whole premise was sold to the citizens that oh, we'll invite more people. It'll invite more diversity. You'll have more people running in smaller districts. It'll be easier to run. It'll be less expensive. Two years ago, when Wendy Lau and Rick Crosby's districts came up. Nobody ran against them. We had two people that are appointed, not elected. This year, about three weeks before the deadline, I called up to see who was running, and I was told Steve Johnson, Kash, and Mayor Hepburn, I said, who's running against him? No one. I went and talked to my wife. I said, "You're probably not gonna like this, but somebody's got to run." We've got to have our voices heard. Otherwise, think about it. You wouldn't be in this room. We would be at the next council meeting, swearing in three people that had nobody running against them. How is that a democracy? How is that hearing the voices of the same people year in and year out, and there's not even any competition? I'm here to have my voice. I'm here to have the citizens' voice heard. I'm here to say we have to change things because this is our future. I hear the word midterm, not for La Verne. This is it. This is our future.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I never actually thought about running for city council... in April, and I've shared this, I had somebody try and get into my front door and window. It took police 15 minutes, actually 13 minutes and 45 seconds to show up. All that time, my kids were barricaded in the back of my house, absolutely scared and traumatized. My kids demand every single night that one of us does a round to make sure our doors and windows are locked. We have to do something. I get it. It is great living in Laverne, but we take advantage of the safety that we have, we take advantage of the things that we have to the point that I think we've become complacent. We've lost our creativity. We've lost our small town governance. We've lost so many things that have made La Verne special and exactly what it is. And it just so happens I have the qualifications to offer a very unique perspective, not only in my public administration. I mean, I teach some of the classes that our directors had to take to get their their degrees. Right? I have a doctorate in public administration. I have an ability to elevate the conversation around public policy in ways that our current council is just simply not equipped to do. I have an energy and a creativity that I think can take low-hanging fruits and substantially enhance the quality of life of residents here in La Verne. Why would I devote my skills and talents to enriching any other community than the ones that my kids are being raised in? That's why I'm running for city council.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

Why am I running for city council again? I love La Verne. I mean, La Verne is where I grew up. La Verne is where I met my wife. La Verne is where my children have been have been raised. I love La Verne, and I want to keep it a nice place to live in. And that's that's about it. I mean, when it comes down to it, It's a matter of family, and La Verne has the best families around.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

I would love to talk to you.

Richard BowenDistrict 3

Okay, 90 seconds for that. Well, tonight you've hit about all five of my points in the first 30 days. That's one of the main things I have: Sierra La Verne, getting getting cell service in northern La Verne. If you live up there and you realize in an emergency, we're cooked. Pardon the expression, but it is dangerous. It is dangerous, and for eight years they've ignored us up there. That seems silly. The bids that we talk about. We've got to save money for this city to survive. And yes, I absolutely agree. One of the first things I want to do is make a motion to go back to at least at-large mayor, because right now, think about it. You get to vote 20% every four years, and then someone else decides who your mayor is, the five representatives that sit on that dais, and that's wrong. The citizens should have their voices heard, and I will make darn sure that I do everything I can to make that happen.

Thomas AllisonDistrict 1

So, with regard to my role as a council member, I plan to, quite frankly, take advantage of the fact that we're in districts. I want my residents to know my name. I want my residents to have my number. I'm getting calls and text messages. I think we just want to have conversations. I think I can do that when I'm representing a district, maybe not the entire city. So we'll see what District One residents think of districts after I'm done, and I'll leave it up to District One residents. Again, I talk to a lot of our residents. There's very strong opinions about the at-large mayor. I cannot, with good conscience, hearing from my residents what I have, continue to stand by a non-at-large mayor. My residents want to vote for their mayor. They also want to vote for their councilperson. I would advocate for that as a city councilperson.

Steve JohnsonDistrict 1

That's been my platform all along: is to have an elected mayor. So I have no qualms repeating that. I believe that we should have an elected mayor.