Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/201420
FAYETTEVILLE CITY COUNCIL Chalmers McDougald, District 4 Kenneth Kleiner, District 5 UCW: In your opinion what is the number one issue facing the City of Fayetteville? Jobs/Economic Development is the number one issue facing our city. Young people need good jobs to support themselves and become productive members of the city. I believe people with careers are involved less in criminal activities than those not employed. Working citizens make for a better city. UCW: In your opinion what is the number one issue facing the City of Fayetteville? The economy is the biggest issue facing our community. With the continuing losses of manufacturing jobs and more and more small businesses closing, we need to do all we can to reduce our dependence on Fort Bragg and Pope. I am a military brat and will always be proud of our military and the communities connection to Fort Bragg and Pope, but we have too many current businesses that are almost entirely dependent on them to survive when there are major deployments, especially if the deployment is sudden. UCW: What can realistically be done to decrease the crime rate in our community? Good jobs and a well-trained workforce are the keys to reducing crime in our city. UCW: The Fayetteville City Council has teamed with the Chamber of Commerce on Economic Development – how can more businesses be attracted to the city and what economic development initiatives would you endorse? Businesses are attracted to cities when there are well-trained workforces, lower crime rates, affordable housing, great recreational activities, and other amenities that make for a good life. We should be working to make these and other productive improvements in our city — public and private sectors working together to meet the needs of the people of our city. UCW: With diminishing federal funding, how can Fayetteville continue to provide quality services and where /how can alternate funding be raised? Quality services can continue to be provided by consolidation and realignment of task and positions, especially through attrition. UCW: What is your vision for the city's Parks and Recreation? Parks and Recreation is something we need to work at improving if we are going to attract new thriving businesses and their families to the city. UCW: In your opinion, what qualifies you to make hard decisions for the people of Fayetteville? I am willing to listen to the people of Fayetteville and ultimately respond to the issues in the way the citizens have chosen. I will be their voice on the city council. a reduction in burdensome local government red-tape and high taxes. Compete for opportunities to get other people's money in the form of state and federal grants and other revenue sources to meet specific short-term community needs such as some of the initiatives currently underway by the Fayetteville Police Department. UCW: What is your vision for the city's Parks and Recreation? The Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation Department currently manages about 98 facilities. One only need look throughout the city, state and nation to see good recreation opportunities that are provided by civilian-only or civilian-government partnerships. I do not support the Fayetteville government using tax revenues to build profit-generating enterprises competing with our local taxed commercial activities. The city's zeal to get into business was demonstrated when they refused to discuss a civilian-government profit sharing partnership with an entrepreneur who offered to risk his resources and build a multi-purpose facility like the one in the failed bond proposal in exchange for a parcel of city property. The city should embrace civilian opportunities for new recreational activities rather than trying to go it alone by expanding city government and increasing our property taxes. I believe that Fayetteville may be paying a disproportionally large share of the total cost of the operation of the Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation Department and that the joint commission should reexamine the partners cost shares. Presentations I made to the council on the highly flawed 2012 Parks & Recreation Project Bond proposal are posted on my Facebook page. UCW: In your opinion, what qualifies you to make decisions for the people of Fayetteville? Following a successful Army career, I worked with other dedicated American military and civilian professionals to ensure our soldiers were provided the warfighting capabilities they required to ensure their worldwide mission success. I respect every view on an issue and pledge to bring a new spirit of cooperation to the Fayetteville City Council. I have several decades of experience making tough decisions, and I am ready to approach our community problems and challenges and respond to your daily concerns. I would be honored to become your next District 1 City Councilman. Reinoehl continued from Page 6 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM UCW: What can realistically be done to decrease the crime rate in our community? The more that we can have a concerned and involved community the more the crime rate will decrease, in my opinion. Part of the issue is that we have major portions of the community where neighbors do not know their neighbors other than to nod or wave hello in passing on the way to or from work. Community Watch programs are a good place to start, but what are the actual percentages of people from the neighborhood that participate in them? This is true of so many organizations. You may have 50 or 100 members but only a handful of them are actually actively participating with the organization. UCW: The Fayetteville City Council has teamed with the Chamber of Commerce on Economic Development – how can more businesses be attracted to the city and what economic development initiatives would you endorse? Tax breaks on a limited basis should be offered to businesses but they should be tied to specific objectives to include the number of jobs and/or the amount of salary or even revenue that they generate in a relatively short amount of time. I like that Parks and Recreation offers opportunities for the community to be involved in many things like sports and music events, as well as various festivals. What may need to be looked at is the cost of putting on these various events and what the overall cost to the community actually is. This may mean looking at the possibility of raising the facility usage fees for each event. UCW: In your opinion, what qualifies you to make hard decisions for the people of Fayetteville? My primary qualification, at least in my opinion, is that I do not have a personal agenda for my time in office, if elected. I look at my job being to look at the situation from not just one perspective, but from a multitude of perspectives so that I can make the best judgement for the people of District 5 whom I would represent and also the City of Fayetteville in general. My first question for any plan submitted will always be "Why is this a good plan?" not "Who is this plan from?" so I know whether to vote yes or no because of where it originated. We have too much partisan politics already at the state and federal levels. We do not need it here in Fayetteville. UCW: With diminishing federal funding, how can Fayetteville continue to provide quality services and where/ how can alternate funding be raised? With diminished funding comes opportunities to explore how to make the departments more efficient at what they do. Whether that means looking at privatization or other options would depend on the service. UCW: What is your vision for the city's Parks and Recreation? OCT. 30 - NOV. 5, 2013 UCW 23