Voter guide for the Lee’s Summit City Council District 1 election
Challenger
Forte said she misunderstood. She had correctly noted the dealings on financial disclosures at the local and state levels, but she had failed to follow state requirements for bidding out such contracts. Forte admitted fault, accepted responsibility and paid her
"During the last 4 years, I have learned many lessons about myself and good people will either rise or fall when the tough gets going," she said in a statement. "I am stronger than I ever thought I was, and it is my spirit that kept me going. I let some people down by making a mistake and I cannot change that, but I can earn their respect by making good decisions. I will not ever take down another in order to make myself look better."
Mayor
Dye -- who has continued the attacks against Forte's character, including during a public forum earlier this month -- touted his education and job experience in banking and finance along with his civic involvement as reasons that he's the most qualified candidate. He's active with "city government programs, and community groups and clubs, like the
The Journal asked all mayoral and city council candidates the same series of questions then aggregated Forte's and Dye's responses:
1. What do you see as the biggest issues facing Lee's Summit right now and what are the biggest issues you see on the horizon?
FORTE: Finding a solution to give the employees of our city a raise and address the compression issues. I care deeply about all of our employees and value their contribution to all of us. It is apparent that we all want to live in a safe city and we need to address the concerns immediately.
Getting our tax base more equally divided. Residential (property owners are) paying more than their share and we need a plan to get these more balanced without over-taxing either.
DYE: Fair and equitable compensation for all city employees in order to maintain an efficient and effective workforce to deliver high quality city services. A long-term sensible waste management program and improved recycling effort needs to be made. Renewable energy programs need to be initiated. Conducting an effort, first to assist when possible our established business community, to keep it strong and viable, and at the same time attract new commercial and industrial growth. Examine our budget priorities and attempt to use our steadily increasing revenues in a sensible manner. Hopefully, there will be city officials elected who will work well together for common goals for the city.
2a. How would you try to attract more commercial and industrial development to Lee's Summit?
FORTE: My theory on commercial attraction starts at the dais. The behavior that is shown needs to be more professional and much more transparent. What I mean is this: Developers come to the council meetings with their proposals and some members vote no, without even addressing their reason and, to developers, this is confusing.
Nothing wrong with their vote, but what in the world is a developer to do with that information? We need to let them know why, and to not think other developers are not watching our council meetings is just naive.
DYE: Special incentive programs at the right time and with a proven need and with a substantial base of stable investment support will bring new jobs and economic activity and sales tax revenue to the city. But care must be taken on any partnership commitments and risks to be taken by the city.
2b. What types of businesses would you target and why?
FORTE: We need to welcome all types of business to our city. I foresee the airport expansion being a boost to many new types of business. We can attract small manufacturing and small industrial companies as well as health care providers. With three major hospitals in our city, we have potential for many health-related businesses. I would love to see office buildings and with all of the highway improvements, that might be more of a possibility in the future.
DYE: See 2a
2c. Are you comfortable with how the city has used development incentives (such as tax increment financing and community improvement district) and why? If anything, what would you change about the use of such incentives?
FORTE: Our incentive policy along with our Development Center are at the top throughout the region, so, yes, I am pleased with our policy. In a perfect world, it would be awesome not to offer incentives, but this world is very competitive and very expensive to develop. Incentives, as long as the city is not at risk, can be very beneficial to many.
Storm-water challenges can be addressed, infrastructure improvements are in the millions. Although we may not be getting all of the revenue up front, we certainly improve the entire picture. This does not mean, every project is deserving of an incentive, but every project needs to be vetted thru the school district and the city before decisions are made.
DYE: See 2a
3a. Municipal employee compensation is lagging behind. Most agree salaries should be raised, but figuring out how to pay for it has been a challenge. Budget cuts, dipping into the city's reserve fund or raising taxes have been suggested as ways to address the issue. What is your solution, both in the near- and long-term?
FORTE: Communication, communication and more communication! I have been very disappointed by the way this process has been handled. As a sitting council member, I was under the impression that contract negotiations needed to be done by the negotiating team. I understand now that there was complete frustration, and the process became city versus council and council versus employees and lastly council versus council.
I do not think there were any winners in the way this has gone and, to move forward, we must come together and listen to the needs of the employees and honestly have the conversation on how we can get to where we need to be. I am positive we can come together but it has to be honest dialogue.
DYE: My first suggestion would be a review of budget priorities and reconfigure the importance of each budget item to the city's welfare and stability. The payment of debt must be first, the safety of citizens is next and maintaining city services at a high level (being provided by a well-trained, efficient and stable workforce) is next. Infrastructure has to be taken care of and improved as needed, and the schools must remain as an example of high educational achievement.
The rest of the budget items will be placed in their priority of importance with the thought of attempting to establish a growing reserve. Some projects of lesser importance may have to be delayed and, like everything else, the city must live within its means to remain stable. The growing revenue each year for the past five years should make the problem easier to solve.
3b. Does the city have a revenue problem or a spending problem? How would you solve the issue, whether you believe it's revenue or spending, moving forward?
FORTE: I am sure every city has a spending problem and a revenue problem. I am sure we can do some cost containment, but to think we can have departments cut enough money out of their budgets to fund the wage issues completely would lead to, in my opinion, lower standards for our citizens. I do believe we need to think outside the box for solutions and we need to talk about future spending. We need an immediate, intermediate and long-term plan, but it is not in my DNA to spend more money than we have.
DYE: See 3a
4. There is a perception that the city council is dysfunctional, whether it's trying to create an ethics policy or addressing municipal salaries. What's one thing you would change about how the council conducts business in an effort to reduce the impact of personality clashes?
FORTE: I don't think it is a perception, I think it is a reality. The ethics policy was in committee for a very long time, and I am still unsure why it didn't pass the first time. Bad behavior is bad behavior and it should be pretty simple to address it. I have thought through the last part of this question and there are always ways to proceed forward, but it will take someone with a positive outlook to make that happen.
DYE: The first thing is to elect people who respect our laws, fully understand the problems at hand and have the knowledge and experience to deal with difficult financial questions. They need to be leaders who are willing and able to offer good advice and accept the thoughts and suggestions of others to reach a common goal. People that are elected with very limited experience and knowledge and try to control the discussions to advance their own personal interests or business interests have no place in city leadership.
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