All right. Good evening, and welcome to the columbia heights mayoral and city council forums.
I'm betty reuther from the league of women voters of the new brighton area, co-sponsoring
the forum this evening with the league of women voters of anoka, blaine and rapids. This is a new
joint adventure for both our leagues, and we hope you in the audience find the evening
informational and motivating to vote in our important upcoming election. The league of women
voters is a 104 year old organization, nonprofit and nonpartisan. We do not support
or oppose any political party or any candidate, whether they're running in either a partizan or
nonpartisan race. The league does promote citizen voting and participation in our democratic
process at local, state and national levels. Thank you to the city of columbia heights for
the use of this new lovely facility and providing us with cable coverage. Now, I would
like to introduce our moderator for the evening, mr. Wes buchanan, a member of abc league
of women voters. And to the audience, please silence your phones for the benefit of our
live and video audiences. Thank you, betty, and welcome everybody to the members in the
room. And to those of will be watching this over the cable connections and youtube
and any other device that will be having it recorded on. Welcome to our meet the
candidates, a joint league of women voters, new brighton and blaine, anoka. Rapids forum for
candidates who are running for columbia heights city council. The top two vote getters will be
taking office in january 2025. Thank you to the candidates who are present this evening, connie
beskin's, laurel dineen and ali farah, and to the city of columbia heights for making this
event possible. This is a beautiful facility to be working in. Welcome to our audience at
home and to our audience here in attendance. I am wes valknut. I am a member of abc league of
women voters, and I'm a resident of andover. I do not have a vote for this city council position.
the league of women voters does not support or oppose any political parties or candidates
for office. The league does help citizens become informed voters and advocates for important
issues. That's what this forum is about informing voters. If you're interested in the league,
visit our abc webpage at lwv. Abc morgue. Persons of all genders, persons age 16 and
older are invited to join our organization. We will open this evening with two questions which
we sent out to each candidate. I will direct those to introductory questions to the
candidates before moving on to questions that we received from the public and those that we
prepared for this forum. We're going to be rotating the order of answering the questions
first, second, and third just for all of your sake. The very first question, connie begins,
will be the first answerer. Ali farrah will be second, and laurel dineen will be third. And
you can kind of keep rotating as we'll keep moving around with the three of them taking turns
first, second and third. We're going to be finishing tonight after we ask questions with the
closing statements from the candidates, answers to the submitted questions, as well as
the closing statements are limited to one minute, except as noted. And it's possible we may
give an extra few half a minute to a couple of the questions if they're a little more involved
and complicated. All right, candidates, let's get started. Our first introductory question,
which will be going to connie beskin's, is what is your motivation to run for this
office and what experience or knowledge would help you to serve effectively? Thank you.
wes first of all, I want to thank the league of women voters for hosting this forum, and I
thank everyone here in the audience and those at home that are watching for being here,
motivation. Very strong. I would love to continue serving the residents of columbia heights. I
care deeply about columbia heights and I'm very passionate about improving the quality of
life of the of your life, the residents. I have been a strong advocate for our residents and
would continue doing so with your vote, my experience, I've been served. I served on the
planning commission for the first two years, about nine, ten years ago, and for the last seven and a half years, I've been your city council member. And I've also continued to
volunteer in many events with different organizations in our city. I continue to do so today,
and I know this city better than the one I grew up in. I've been here for 25 years now, and it's
a great city, very eclectic mix of people. It's wonderful. And the many experiences I've
learned a lot. Having been on the council now for seven and a half years, it's a it's still a
learning curve. There's so many new things that come up and so many new challenges and that
you're always learning. So, but with the experiences I've had in the past, I feel that I would be
a strong candidate to continue on as your city council member for the next four years, and I
humbly ask for your vote. Thank you. Thank you. Ali farah, again, the opening question is
what is your motivation to run for this office and what experience or knowledge would
help you to serve effectively? Voters and the audience? I I'm running, I'm running because,
columbia heights is my home, this city and this country have given me so much. And I need to
step up and give back. I deeply connected with this community. I am one of the teachers in
columbia heights public schools. I teach in north park right now. My children go to this school,
in columbia heights, public schools, high school, middle school, and elementary. I understand the needs of money of the underrepresented, people who lives in columbia heights.
because I to come to here as an immigrant and I to learn the language and the government
systems, and I enroll a college. I found a job. I know how hard, how hard, how hard and confusing
it can be. Starting from scratch in a new country, life and I bring a unique perspective to
the council table that will help our underrepresented citizens have a voice. I also, I also
speak the language of our money, our. I speak the language of people in our community that no
one, no one else at this table speaks. I can communicate somali a little bit of arabic and
english. So people who lives in this city that currently have no way to communicate with this
council will now have someone they can come to. I am a listener, ali. I'm just going to
let you know your time has expired. Thank you. Our third. Our third person answering the
question is laurel denine. Laurel, what is your motivation to run for this office and what
experience or knowledge would help you to serve effectively? Thank you. And thank you to the
league of women voters for putting this on, for helping our community be informed and engaged voters, and thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of you guys tonight, my
name is laurel dineen. For those of you who don't know me, and the last few years I have been
engaged with our community through volunteering as part of local events such as columbia heights pride and every meal, which is a program that passes out meals to underserved
students in our area, I have also had the privilege to serve as a city planning commissioner,
and during that, I have leveraged my professional experience in government
planning and contracts to advise city council on various issues along with my fellow
commissioners. My background as both an engaged citizen within our community, through my
volunteer efforts, and my background in practical experience and government operations combined with a deep passion for our community and outreach, I'm just committed to
ensuring that all community voices are heard and represented and that we move forward on
important issues facing our city together. Thank you. Laurel. Our second introductory question
will begin with mr. Farah, and that question reads, what goals would you have as a columbia
heights council member? Through community engagement, helping our citizens find the solutions
to the issues that matters to them around the public safety, public safety, affordable
housing, education, parks and any other challenges that they are facing. I will responsive
and will collaborate in my approach so that the people can feel comfortable to come to me
and know they will hear and know that will help connect with them with the right people to solve
their issues. They raise. I truly represented the citizens of this city and be your voice
at the table. Through the inclusion is helping our citizens. We do not currently
have a voice who do not currently have a voice in our city or government, because the
language and the cultural barriers. I founded the resources that opportunities
that they need and bring it to their ideas and strength to the table to make our city
government more representative of all the citizens. Thank you. Thank you. And then miss dineen
again. The second question is, what goals would you have as a columbia heights council member?
thank you. Well, the city of heights is growing rapidly. All you have to do is take a drive
down central to see several places that are being redeveloped that will look different in the future, this is an exciting time for our city, but it's also a critical moment
for us, as we move forward, we need to ensure that new development in the city,
development in the city supports both environmental sustainability and socially, and
that they're socially equitable. It's important for the future of our city that new buildings are
designed efficiently and designed with features that allow for stormwater treatment and retention. It also it's also important that buildings themselves are built to be as
carbon neutral as possible by making efforts to reduce energy consumption from nonrenewable
sources and improve efficiency, in addition to environmental sustainability, though, we need
to ensure that development remains equitable for our local residents and businesses, so our
entire community should have the opportunity to thrive and improve their homes and
businesses, and not be pushed out by rising costs that come with development. That's a real
thing that we're going to have to deal with in the future. And, columbia heights is has long
been a really welcoming place for first time homebuyers and our diverse and close knit
community has to remain a priority as we move forward. And I think that's one of the things
I would love to bring forward as a city council member. Thank yo. And second question, going to
connie biscuits, what goals would you have as a columbia heights council member? Oh, so
many you guys. There's so many exciting things going on in the city. First off, the number one
priority for our city is to we are planning and funding, looking for funds and then build
our new public works building. It's a 60 year old building. The rebar is disintegrating, and the
support columns in the first floor. So it has to be replaced. That's a huge project. Second,
we have the redevelopment and I support redevelopment to increase our tax base, to lessen
the burden on our residents. Redevelopment buildings is what brings taxes and not businesses.
as others have often said. It's just it's buildings. The rainbow site right now with the second
concept that they brought before the council, is going to be worth over $200 million. And so
even if we do help them with financing for tif, once that's ended, it will be a huge taxing
tax input into our general fund that will help ease the tax burdens of our citizens. Same
thing with the medtronic site. That's coming up. There's nothing planned there yet, but we've also we've updated the comp plan and we're looking at ideas, and we'll be asking the
community for input. But again, that's another opportunity for our city to increase our tax
base. So we need to be wise about how we develop that land, also a new new thing has come u.
who is mississippi watershed management organization has approached the city about
cleaning up sullivan lake that has never come up in the last 25 years that I've lived here as a,
as a as a resident. And we are currently the council is exploring that. And I would be a
huge advocate and support and push to find ways with this new partner to clean up that lake,
because that lake feeds into the mississippi, it has trash in it, it has high phosphorus levels in
it. And so those are my top three that I would go for. Thank you. Thank you. Now, before we
move on, city staff gave me a little heads up, and I was just as guilty. The four of us with
mike's, we have our little buttons, and they just want us to make sure we press our button
when we're not talking. So we should be seeing only a green one when we're talking and a red
one we don't. And I was messing up that way too, so. Alright. For everybody. We're moving into
the unknown for the candidates. They got those first two questions. Now we start to move into the questions that were submitted by the public to our league of women voter a-b-c
website, we received 20 questions, some of which we were able to combine to use both
questions in this forum. And that includes this next question. And it will be going
first to laurel deneen. What issue would you consider a top priority if you were elected.
what would you like to see the columbia heights council take up first after the new council gets
organized at the beginning of 2025? Thank you for that question. That's a great
question. It's multifaceted. So I'll try to address as many parts of that as I can, so one
of the most urgent challenges, I think, that columbia heights today is really facing is the
balance between sustainable energy planning, infrastructure improvements and responsible
development. So when we're looking ahead to projects like the reconstruction of central avenue or 40th, as well as overall city growth that we're experiencing here, it's crucial
that we prioritize environmental sustainability and ensure that development benefits our entire
community. Energy planning is essential when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint.
new developments need to incorporate renewable energy and efficiency measures, infrastructure projects like central and 40th, need to address both functionality and
environmental impact. And so ultimately, all this growth needs to ensure that columbia
heights remains affordable and accessible to our current residents. And I think what I
would like to see really addressed first is something that's already in the works that I'm super excited about, and many of you have probably been to meetings that were discussing
central and 40th, and I really encourage, sorry. Okay. I was just really encourage you guys
to, to visit those meetings where you can see what plans are on the docket for those. Thank
you. Laura, we'll turn to connie beskin's. It was a long question again. I'll repeat. What issue
would you consider a top priority if you were elected? What would you like to see the
columbia heights council take up first after the new council gets organized at the beginning of
2025? Sorry. Turn on the green button, as far as top priority, my issues, there are so many
like I listed before public works building, redevelopment, sullivan lake. We got some major
projects coming up. However, what I would really like to start out with our first year is
a goal setting session with the council and the staff. We did that two years ago, and because
we're a team, I have my ideas, but we work together as a team, so I'd really like to have that
set up. So then we together focus on the issues that we all feel is important and work
forward from there, but I'd still support the public works building. Really push hard for
sullivan, and I will push hard for those during the goal setting session. But again, it's
a teamwork between us and the staff to set our goals, for the future work that we'll be doing.
thank you, connie. And we turn the same question to ali. Farah again. What issue would you
consider a top priority if you were elected? What would you like to see the columbia heights
council take up first after the new council gets organized at the beginning of 2025? Thank
you, my top priority is the community engagement, public safety, affordable housing. And
when it comes to community engagement, I would like to bring a community together,
police and families. And there are issues when I was door knocking, I noticed that. So I
would like to bring the first thing I'm going to do. I'm going to bring the community together.
and the police that once comes to, affordable housing. I would like to see more, apartments in
our community. Also, the when it comes to education, I would like to work with, the, the school
board and the, the I would like to I would like to invest the quality of education for all
students. And I would like to as a teacher, as soon as I teach at columbia heights public schools,
I support also the school boards to provide the quality education for all students. Thank you.
I did that with your button. Thank you, thank you, my goof this time. All right, once
again, this is going to. Connie. Connie, the question that was sent in to us reads. There is a
noticeable lack of proactive code enforcement throughout the city. What are your thoughts
about the perception the city has become lax on proactively enforcing code violations? This
is a big topic right now. I drive around the city a lot and there's lots of things I find,
code enforcement. Yes has been difficult to enforce because we had no teeth recently. The
council, I believe, just passed the first hearing, we worked on this for a while because staff
has been sending letters and letters and letters to people, and what often happens is then
once they don't comply, it goes to the courts. And the courts don't want these cases anymore.
and they've asked us to find a different alternative. So we've looked at what other cities do.
so now with this new code enforcement, it will have teeth, it will have hefty fines, first
hit, second hit, third hit and then it goes. Then they can lose their license. They can lose
their cup if they have. Like for instance, an auto business has to have a conditional use permi.
if they don't comply and fix whatever they need to fix, they could jeopardize using that. So
we are in the process of tightening that up and making sure people follow the rules. So
yes, it's a very important situation. And I'm so happy that it's been worked on. And I will
keep pushing for that and enforcing once they get back on for a third term. Thank you.
thank you, ali, for the same question to you. There is a noticeable lack of proactive
code enforcement throughout the city. What are your thoughts about the perception the city
has become lax on proactively enforcing code violations? Well thank you. I don't know a lot
about code violations, so I would like to find it out. More information about this. And, I'm
a big believer that if the person did not follow the rules, then they have to have. They
have to be the they have to they have to have a consequence for that. So I'm going to leave with
that. That question. Thank you, laurel dineen, same question to you. There's a noticeable lack
of proactive code enforcement throughout the city. What are your thoughts about the
perception the city has become lax on proactively enforcing code violations? Sure. Thank
you. That's a really good question. I know that that's been on a lot of people's minds
lately, I will say, as a person who works in contracts and looks at language all day, these
policy changes that connie mentioned earlier are really what's going to allow us to take
a more proactive approach to that. So I'm very much looking forward to taking a look at more
of those changes, seeing how effective they are in the future and if we need to tighten
anything up anywhere, I think it's really easy to do things that are against code on your
personal property without even realizing that you're doing it. So having the ability to go out
there and give you a warning and then, you know, there will be consequences, you know,
everybody hates to have to pay a fine, but it's part of keeping our city beautiful and strong.
so I think that the code, the policy change within the city is going to help a lot to address
that. But I look forward to taking it further, look at it and seeing how it goes. Thank
you, timers and candidates on the next one, I'm going to give up to 90s if you need it. This
question is actually a combination of two that were of a similar vein, and you might
need the extra time, potentially, it goes to ali farah. First, what will you do
to make our city and our city government more inclusive and additionally, what steps will
you take to ensure city information is accessible to all residents, regardless of
language or physical barriers they may face? Thank you. Inclusive and equity. I believe
that, and I would like to I would like to see more about, engaged community engagement. I
would like to talk to the police, making a connection with public safety, talking with our
people. There are concerns. I would like to know that, concern is and resolve the issues that
they may have. They may raise, because every challenge or every problem has a solution that. I
would like to talk to the families, when I, I noticed that when I was talking, knocking on
doors, the last time I. Noticed that, there are there were some issues about the people were
talking about. So I would like to get a solution for that also as well. So I would like to
leave it there. Thank you. Thank you. Laurel deneen I'm going to again repeat this one. 90s if
you need it. What will you do to make our city and our city government more inclusive and
additionally, what steps will you take to ensure city information is accessible to all
residents regardless of language or physical barriers? They may face? Sure, well, one of the
things I would love to do is it's very niche. I'm part of the pride planning board here in
columbia heights, and what I would like to do is to start to see, maybe city booths happen at
our community events to make sure that people are aware of what's going on in the
community, how they can get involved with government, whether it's through a commission or whether it's through, city government, we want to make sure that people
know of those opportunities and that no matter who you are or what your background is, we want
you and we want your voice heard. And also we do have a city newsletter. I'd love more
people to know about it. It comes in several languages, and I think that, our mayor has actually done a lot of work to make sure that that's inclusive as possible and to get it into
several different languages so that people can have access to information about what's going on in their community, in their own native language. So I think a lot of it is about education.
it's about getting out there as part of the city and making sure that the community knows that
your city government is not someplace that sits on hi. It's someplace that's accessible and
wants to hear your voice. So that's what I would strive to do. Thank you. And then connie
biscuits, the same question to you again, a combined two questions. What will you do to
make our city and our city government more inclusive? And additionally, what steps will
you take to ensure city information is accessible to all residents regardless of language
or physical barriers? They may face, thank you for that question. Accessibility and
inclusiveness, our police department has done a wonderful job in hiring people from all
different backgrounds, women, and they've done a great job. And they're getting they're
working really well with the schools and meeting the students there. And that's kind of how
they're pulling in the new candidates with kids that graduate. We also through our mayor and also our communications department, have provided the website in multiple
languages, the mayor pushed to make sure that we have no gender bias in our policies and our
ordinances, and we're still working on it because we still find things that kind of they're
biased, so they need to change, let's see. I also, as far as accessibility, the
communications department, our event planner, does a wonderful job in providing multiple events
throughout the city that are welcoming to everybody. Our police department has coffee with a cop that tonight they're having I'm going to mispronounce this, but I believe it's conifa
with a cop over at golden nuts, which is a phenomenal restauran. They go to many different parts of our city to talk to people. And then the third thing are it improvement. Our team. Eight
years ago, I could not even do my email at midnight. Midnight. It was shut down. We have hired
an I.t director and they have did a five year plan. And there's multiple things that
they're doing to make sure communication gets out to our restaurants using lots of different models and mediums. Thank you, thank you. This next question is kind of in sort of
the same vein, but a little different take on things. Goes first to laurel dineen. How will
you be accessible to citizens who have city concerns? Will you press that button? That would
probably be the first step is to make sure you can hear me. It's a great question because
everybody wants to know how they can make a difference. And the great thing is, you can have
conversations of one thing about me is you can check out my website, laurel heights.com. I
have an email on there. I check every day. I will get back to you. I have a phone number. You
can call me. You can leave a message if I'm at work and I will call you back, but that's
one way that I look to make sure that I have different ways for people to contact me. No matter
what their working hours are, no matter what their abilities are, that they can email me. They
can. They can send me a phone call, they can leave me a message. But my goal is to be as
open, as transparent as possible. And then additionally, I attend a lot of community
events. I help plan a lot of community events. So I'm always out there. And I encourage you,
if you see me to come and say hi to me and ask me any questions you have, and then also, if
elected, I would love to hold office hours where people could drop in and discuss the things
that are important to them, and I could bring that forward as part of city council. Thank you
very much. Thank you, connie. Biscuits to you. How will you be accessible to citizens who have city concerns right now? People can call me, they can email me. I attend many events as, laurel
dineen does, but I attend lots of events. I'm accessible throughout the day most of the
time, and I will get back to you as soon as I can, as soon as possible. Usually within that
day I get back to people with some type of response, and part of my part is the role of a city
council member. Is your liaison between the city residents and the staff. So my job is to hear
your concerns and then to bring it to the appropriate staff, who hopefully can solve the issue.
it's no guarantee that we can always fix everything, but at least your voice has been heard.
the issue has been addressed, and it's staff that usually does the jobs of fixing things. I
can't plow a driveway, I can't plow an alley. So the staff does that. So I'm I try to be as very
accessible and I miss door knocking right now. I had a serious injury a couple of years
ago that I can't door knock now, but I miss talking to people and being out there because there's
so many things I could promote for our city out there. And so I apologize for that. But again,
thank you. Thank you. And allie farrar. How will you be accessible to citizens who have
city concerns? Yes, the people are community. They can call me, they can email me. They I have a
website right now, they are ww for city of columbia heights. Dot com. I provided my fliers
and I thought I was door knocking. I provided more than 5000, about 6000 fliers that my
information is there. My email, my email, my websites, my contact information. People can
contact me. And if you visit my website, you will see right away on the counter right there,
you're going to see my phone. I believe it's my phone. My email. So that's how people will
contact me. Thank you. And moving on, this question will go to connie beskin's first, how
would you improve services to youth and seniors in columbia heights? Number one, for youth
and adults not maybe seniors soccer fields. I've been trying to push for soccer fields for
the last eight years. We've been waiting for the master plan and also money to do that, we're
hoping in the next year or two that I would strongly promote is revamping our park and rec
program, so that we meet more needs in the high school kids. The teenagers are the ones that
need more activities. We do well with the young folks, with the little ones, but we need some
really strong programing for our youth and then the seniors. I've been attending a lot of the
senior events. They just hired a wonderful, senior director, and she used to be a travel agent,
and she does a phenomenal job right now for our seniors for activities and outings and
programs. So anything that can help her do her job, even better, I would support thank
you, ali farrar. Same question to you. How would you improve services to youth and seniors in
columbia heights? Well, one thing I would like to do more programs for after school,
activities, we already have a lot of activity at the schools and in our schools. So our first
that I would support that. I will support that, for board of education's and to do more of
that when it comes to seniors, I, I know we don't have more spaces in our columbia heights.
I would like to build more houses for seniors and help me with that way as well. Thank yo,
laurel deneen, same question to you. How would you improve services to youth and seniors in
columbia heights, well, as a huge minnesota united fan, I'm really on board with the new
soccer field, we have a plethora of baseball diamonds here. And while I love baseball as well,
there are definitely, diversity of sports that we need within our programs as far as parks and
rec. And I'd love to work on expanding those. I also want to put in a plug for our youth
commission, it's a really exciting program that high school youth can enter into to
serve on all of our commissions in the city, and they can get a lot of experience about city
government, about how their city around them works. It's really nebulous when you're a kid, you don't think about how things get done and you get to learn so much. And I've really seen some
kids really flourish and just have a great time. So I'd really like to put that out there as
some ideas. If you guys have high school kids at home, for seniors, I want to make sure
that we are providing, some information on what grants they could get to, like, have more programing in their, places that they're living or just in general. I know that connie
knows a lot about our senior programing. I know a little bit less, but I would love to see
that get more expanded as well. Thank you. We're going to switch gears a little bit to, economic
questions. And the first one of those, I believe goes to ali farah. What will you do to help
small businesses and promote commercial development in columbia heights? Well, thank
you. I the way I see our, our city is that I believe that we need more commercials. We need
more commercials. We see our our property taxes. We need more, commercials. That's why. And
then we can reduce the our property taxes that we and I don't see we have more
commercial, we don't have businesses in here. I have seen people coming to me and saying
that we would like to open a business in our city. So I would like to get more, commercial
buildings in our city. Thank you. Mr. Farah. And we turn to laurel deneen with the same
question. What will you do to help small businesses and promote commercial development
in columbia heights? That's a great question. Again, we have so many good ones today. I would
say that one of the big things about small business is that we a need to help them. We have
programs and just letting them know about programs like the facade improvement program for small businesses. And we also can promote and try to get more funding for programs that help
with infrastructure within a small business. If you are a small restaurant who needs a new
hood or who needs a new oven, or who needs to have some money to make sure that you can make city
code and make sure that you are a healthy place to be, then that's something that we should
promote also for big development that we have a lot of here. I think a lot of I think we have a
lot of attention right now on some spots within the city, just making sure that people who come
here are coming here for the right reasons. They're coming to provide a variety of housing.
they're coming here to provide, businesses that will really serve our community. So just
making sure that you're working in partnership and letting them know how to how the city expects
business to be done is a great part of what the city council does. Thank you, miss deneen.
and we turn to connie baskins with the same question. What will you do to help small
businesses and promote commercial development in columbia heights? First off,
when I first came on the council, one of the ideas that I had was when I asked the city
managers, can we have a facade grant program for small businesses to clean up the look
along central avenue? And I was only asking for five grand at the time, thinking it was, you
know, a big idea might cost money. The staff came back huge. They put in 50,000 to help our
businesses fix up their doors, their windows, their signage, paint the front. So that went
really well. We've done well over a dozen businesses at this point, so I'm very proud of
that. In addition to that, the businesses have access to security cameras that the police
department is in charge of to put into their buildings to help the front and the back of their
buildings be more secure. I would love it if we could get the county, if we could put
pressure on the county to do more with their small business programs, to go door to door to
meet with our businesses, oftentimes small business owners are very busy. They can't go to the county. They can't get to the library. We need some resources to go to them, find
out what they need for computers, financing, all that type of stuff. The second thing
that I just spoke with recently, it was an idea I had where we have a welcoming package for the
city, for the new businesses that come into our city. Thank you. And we'll have to enter
their visions. But we're coming to another economic question and maybe you can continue in that
one, the next question will begin actually with laurel deneen, everything in life is
expensive. Can you share your philosophy on taxation and spending? Sure, well, I can talk
specifically about property tax. I know that that's the biggest thing that's on everybody's mind
at all times. What is our property tax going to do? This year, I think it's important to
remember that our taxes contribute to a lot of local funding for initiatives like
safety parks, libraries, public works. However, I really understand as a homeowner the
frustration associated with increasing taxes, the unfortunate reality is that the
met council subsidy is going down by 11% this year because our home values are rising. We
are becoming more popular. And, that leaves a bigger burden on us as taxpayers. I'm thrilled
about the opportunity to join a city council and a mayor, though, who really are proactive in seeking external funding for large projects such as the new city works, public works
building, and who are trying their best to make sure that we're partnering with major
infrastructure projects. So that those costs don't automatically reflect in your taxes each year.
and I would really love to be part of a council that's looking for and lobbying for increased
funding from alternate sources, other than just the tax base. Thank you, laura. And we turn to
connie baskin. Same question, everything in life is expensive. Yes. Can you share your
philosophy on taxation and spending? Yes. It's very expensive. Our public works
building initially was planned to be a $15 million project. And because after after covid, after
a few years, it's now $25 million project plus. And that's in today's money. It's not when
we start building it. Unfortunately, our city only has 5% commercial property, so
therefore the taxes fall, the bulk of taxes fall on our residents, and it's very hard
making decisions about what we need and what we can afford as a council member, I support large
buildings that way. A lot of people that's unpopular, but those large buildings, $200
million redevelopment is going to bring in a ton of tax money to help our residents, deal with
taxes and hopefully lower them in the time, the other thing is, sometimes we have to put things
on hold. We can afford to do the public works building right now, but park and recs and the
mershon hall desperately needed 90 year old building that's going to be a few years down the
road now, because we can't ask the taxpayers to pay for another anywhere from 10 to 50 million for the parks. And what they decide to do with the rec building. So, it's very tough to
decide what to do. Thank you. And same question to mr. Ali farah that is, everything in
life is expensive. Can you share your philosophy on taxation and spending? Yes, I, I would like
to reduce the property property tax and to do that we need to get more commercial businesses
in our city, more business. That's what we need. So we can take off the burden of the our
property taxes. So that is where I would like to see. And that's where I'm coming from. Thank yo.
this will be our final question. And of course, closing statements will follow, the
final question will start with connie biscuits, and that is columbia heights has changed a
lot in recent years. Where do you see heights in ten years, and how would you help to
achieve that vision? I see a wonderful city in ten years. We're doing reconstruction on
central avenue, one to increase the safety because there's a 500 accidents in the last ten years,
serious accidents on that street. But the other is to bring it to city, to life, to allow people to feel safe walking down the streets, walking their dogs, walking to
the theater. I see active new residents or new restaurants and businesses coming in and seeing
our downtown just full of life, where people feel comfortable walking down and feel safe.
that's what I see. I don't see a lot of, you know, we'll have a few big buildings, but I also
want to keep our small town feel. I want to still feel, see people well connected, like they
are today. We've had over a 60% turnover in population in the last ten years. And the people,
the new people are still connecting with each other. We still have that feel. So that's what I see. Thank you, lee fara, columbia heights has changed a lot in recent years. Where do
you see heights in ten years, and how would you help to achieve that vision? Well,
that's fantastic question and thank you. We are a diversity community and we speak 39
languages in our city. So where I see and I think that in ten years from now, our future, I
would like to see more businesses coming to our community. I would like to see
more apartments. We need to build because more and more and more, people are coming to our
community and we need to get the resources that are a lot. I, as an immigrant, I came to this
country without knowing a lot of language. So now this year and last year and this year, we see
more and more immigrants coming to our community, our our city. And I would like to get more
resources for them. And that is how our city will be. Prosper thank you. And laurel, janine,
columbia heights has changed a lot in recent years. Where do you see heights in ten years and
how would you help to achieve that vision? Well, it's certainly an exciting time. We
have a lot of new projects going on. I think the redesign of the university is going to have a
big impact. When you look out here, you can see this is the thoroughfare from downtown to
the highway, and we want to make sure that that's not what columbia heights is. We want to
make sure this is a place where people want to spend time, where people want to have families,
where people want to walk down the street to dairy queen and then stop at the movie theater. You know, we want to make sure that our diverse we have 39. Is that what you said? 39
languages. Languages in this city. That's amazing. I want to have cultural touchstones that really bring out the beauty of this close knit, amazingly diverse community, and I can't
wait to see that happen. I think with this development and with our focus on small businesses,
we can absolutely do that. And as part of city council, I want to be part of bringing policy
forward that will really put our city front and center, as well as our diverse community. Thank
you. Well, if you all look close, you can probably get that beautiful sunset right in my
glasses here. All right, we're going to do the closing statements. I'll leave. Ferrara.
you get to get us started with your closing statement. Okay. Thank you. So my name is ali
para. I well, I my name is ali. Thank you all for coming to this meeting tonight. My name is ali.
farah I was knocking on doors for probably the last three months. Last three months, last
three months. And people. And I'm probably I'm going to knock doors until the end of the day,
this election, I will work for you. You have very, very hard. I will try my best to serve for
you. I work for you. So I'm asking your votes and that is my closing statement. Thank you.
will you go with your statement now, laurel deneen thank you very much. I want to thank the
league of women voters again for having us. This is such a great experience to just be here and
answer questions with all my fellow candidates and with everybody here. My name is
laurel deneen again. Laurel for heights. Com is my website. You can learn more about the
platforms that I would like to bring forward as your city council member, at that time, also plug there is a pride celebration this weekend at quarter park and I'd love to see
you all there. I'd love to have conversations with all of you and have that opportunity to get
to meet all of you, I hope that you've learned a little bit about me tonight and that what
you saw, you liked. And I hope that I can have your vote in november. But, I just wanted to
say that I appreciate that you all took your time out to either be here, watch this, not
everybody loves listening to city council politicians talk about this stuff, but it's
really important, so I appreciate you all being here. Thank you. And finally, connie beskin's, your closing statement, please, I want to thank everyone that came here
tonight to attend the forum and for the league of cities again for putting this on, I love the
city. I love serving the residents of this city. It's been a great challenge and
privilege to have done it in the last seven and a half years. And I would like to continue again
for the next four. So I would love to have your vote, I know I would be a strong advocate. I am
always available. I try my hardest to help with issues that come up with residents, and I
also enjoy working with the challenges of redevelopment. Can we save sullivan lake? Can we
build a proper building, down it or the rainbow site to make it one so that it's brings in a ton
of tax money, but also that people would learn to love? There's all different ways and
site creations and designs that they're putting in there. I think people will be very pleased with, again, if you want to get ahold of me, the best is to go to my website, connie
beskin's .com, and it's connected to my facebook page. My instagram page has my phone number on there, my email, if you have any questions or challenges for me or questions,
please contact me. I would love to talk to you. Thank you. Well, thank you to our candidates.
this evening for sharing their views with the public through your participation in this meet
the candidates forum. Thank you to those of you that are in attendance here tonight at the
columbia heights city council chambers. We appreciate your participation as well. And thank
you to the new brighton league and the abc league volunteers who helped to make this evening
a success as betty ruther noted, to those of us that were here in person at the beginning, the
league of women voters has supported informed voting for over 100 years. In the year
2024. We have many options for how we vote. Please exercise your right to vote for more
election information, visit the minnesota secretary of state's website at men votes.org, or go
to the league of women voters minnesota website vote411. Than, everybody here we go. Welcome to
meet the candidates, a joint league of women voters. New brighton and anoka. Blaine.
rapids forum for candidates running for mayor of columbia heights. Thank you to the
candidates who are present this evening. Montréal bond and amala marquez. Semilla amada amada I
will. I got to practice that one. And thank you to the city of columbia heights for making
this event possible. Welcome to our audience. Both those who are here in attendance and to those
who are at home. I'm wes falconet, member of the abc league of women voters, and I'm
a resident of andover. I do not have a vote for these mayoral candidates. We will open with
two questions. We sent each candidate. I will direct those to 92nd introductory questions
to the candidates. Before we move on to questions we received from the public and those we
prepared for this forum, we will be rotating the order of who answers first on each of the
sets of questions. Following the questions, each candidate will give their closing statements.
answers to the submitted questions are limited to one minute unless I note otherwise.
well candidates, let's get started. We determined beforehand that on the first
question, montreal bond will go first. Amada amar, did I get it better? Amada. Much better. Yes.
much better. Amada will go first on the second question and then so forth. All right. Here's our
first introductory question. What is your motivation to run for this office and what
experience or knowledge would help you to serve effectively in montreal? You begin. All right.
first, I would like to thank the league of women voters for hosting this forum, giving us
this platform. I would also like to thank the audience and the viewers at home for attending as
well, I just feel that, our city is on a precipice of being steered in the wrong direction.
if we examine what earned us to be the recipients of the all american city award in 2016, I
believe that we are charting off of that path. The certainty of hard working single family,
single households or fixed income residents such as veterans and retired people not
being able to afford their homes due to the disproportionate increases in our property taxes.
being a registered nurse for almost ten years has served as a vehicle for me to be better
positioned to lead and on a bigger platform. Being a nurse and practicing as a nurse has
given me the unique skill set to be a transformative leader. I have a tenacious spirit and I've
mastered the art of advocacy for all people, regardless of your political affiliation, your
race, your sexual orientation, your social status, or your religious background. In
addition, I've served on various boards of the minnesota nurses association, I served on the
governmental affairs board. I've also served on the dei board for the minnesota nurses
association. I've also volunteered for organizations such as the national alliance of
mental illness and the camp bluebird, which is an adult cancer survivor camp. These are
what motivates me to run. Thank you. Thank you. And amada, the question to you also, what is
your motivation to run for this office and what experience or knowledge would help you to
serve effectively? Thank you my name is amada marcus simola and I'm currently the mayor of
columbia heights running for reelection. It has been an honor serving. It's been a privilege
to be the mayor of this amazing, vibrant city. I want to say these forums are so important,
and I thank the league of women voters. Wes. Julie, out there and, the city of columbia
heights for hosting tonight. And also thanks to all of you for making time coming in here
tonight and for viewers watching this at home or on a recording, my motivation to run for office
stems from a deep commitment to making columbia heights a more inclusive, equitable, and
thriving community. As someone who has actively engaged in the city through various roles
organizing events, volunteering, working with neighborhood groups, I understand our residents unique needs and aspirations. I'm motivated to make sure every voice is heard
and represented. My previous work experience with the columbia heights school district
and the city has given me valuable insights into how both entities serve our residents. My
hands on experience and commitment to community engagement, along with my
knowledge of government operations, allow me to advocate effectively for positive,
lasting change. I believe in truth, integrity, and authenticity, and in leading our
community by building relationships. Partnerships with other elected officials at the county, state and federal levels, as well as with our faith and business communities
and with everyone else who lives, works, visits, or worships in our city. Thank you.
our second introductory question is what goals would you have as mayor of columbia heights? And
we begin with miss marquez. Similar. Thank you. As mayor of columbia heights, I aim to
continue working with mndot and the county and the city to enhance our public safety on our
streets, central and university avenue by collaborating with all these organizations, we aim to
implement traffic calming measures, improve pedestrian and cyclist safety, and reduce
accidents. Additionally, I will continue to meet regularly with the city manager and police and
fire chiefs maintaining our constant clear communication, ensuring public safety
strategies reflect the needs and concerns of all residents. Securing funding for essential
infrastructure improvements is another priority. I work closely with state and federal office
officials to find funding to replace our public works building. I continue to advocate
for local government aid funds to help keep our property taxes low and to maintain and improve
our current infrastructure, making sure that it meets the growing needs of our community.
this includes long overdue investments in aging infrastructure such as streets,
alleys and sewer systems, and I will continue to engage residents in decision making
processes by maintaining open dialog through neighborhood groups. Cultural organizations,
community events, and digital platforms. My goal is to make sure all voices are heard,
making city government transparent, accountable, and connected to the people that it
serves. Through these efforts, I'm committed to building a more sustainable, inclusive and
thriving columbia heights. Thank you. And mr. Bond, what goals would you have as mayor of
columbia heights? Having the right goals for the city? Press the green button. I have a
myriad of goals for our city, some of the primary goals would be to be more fiscally
responsible to come up with more creative solutions and ideas to help diversify our city's income
portfolio so that we can reduce our high reliance on the property taxes, on the property
taxes. Another goal of mine would be to, simply just to reconstitute an environment that
led us on the path to being nationally recognized and receiving the all american city
award in 2016. During this time, we were nationally recognized for our civility, creativity,
and collaborative efforts with the school districts in partnership with the columbia
heights police department for the betterment of our children's education and their futures.
another goal of mine would be to just cultivate an environment that chooses, unity over
division by not allowing the gatekeeping and monopolization of any political affiliation to
be able to intercede with me from always choosing people over the politics. So thank you.
thank you. And we're going to move on now to the questions that were submitted by the
public to the league of women voter abc website. We received 24 mayoral questions that we
sorted through and a few of which we combined for this forum, including this next
question. So candidates and timekeepers will give seconds if they need it for this one,
because it is a combined question, this goes back to montreal bond. What do you each
think are the top issues for the mayor to address, and how would you plan to tackle those issues,
and what issue would you consider to be your top priority if you were elected? May you
repeat the question. I will. What do you each think are the top issues for the mayor to
address, and how would you plan to tackle those issues? And then what issue would you consider
your top priority if you were elected? Alright, so I think one of the top issues for our city
at the moment, again, is everyone's talking about the disproportionate increases in
our tax city, property tax, property tax. Excuse me, I can't speak. Our property taxes right
now, our property taxes are 14.2% this last fiscal year. And so finding again finding as I
mentioned before, finding creative solution ways to diversify our income portfolio
so we can reduce that heavy reliance on our property taxes. On our property taxes that would
involve with fostering relationships and collaborating with nonprofit organizations.
you know, to bring in more, different revenue for our community. Thank you. And I will
repeat it for miss marquez, similar. What do each of you think are the top issues for the
mayor to address, and how would you plan to tackle those issues? And then what issue do you
consider to be your top priority? If you were elected? Thank you. First goals, I would
say, is working with our newly elected council members who come in in january and setting our
goals for what we as a community want. So my first goal is continuing to listen to the
community and what they want to see, because that is my role as the mayor, and then also working
with our staff, and then working with other local governments, we call it co-governing. So our
county and state and federal, talking about making sure that we try to relieve some of that
tax burden on our community. We do that through local government aid. We do that through grants.
I am so proud of our city. The last I don't know, 4 or 5 years we have applied for more grants.
we have received a grant for safer streets for all. Safety is so important and we have
actually the first time been on the state bonding tour to get funds for our, public works building, because we do not. We know that our city, residents can't afford that bill. So we
need to be working with our state and federal electeds to make sure that we have those
larger dollars coming into our city to pay for that public works building, no matter if we
don't like it or not. We need a new public works building. This is how we take care of our city,
take care of our infrastructure, our streets, our sewers, sewers may not be that exciting to talk
about, but if there's a problem, we will all be talking about it. So safety and making sure that
we are working together is how we're going to get those funds. Thank you. Sometimes when we put
our questions together, we get echoes of things that have been answered. And so I just made a
correction and I'm throwing in a fun question to give you both a chance to just breathe a little
bit here. And this goes back to you, amanda, what do you like most about living in columbia
heights? Oh, it is such a connected community, and I've lived in a few places in
minnesota, and this is the place that's been the most welcoming immediately, and I've heard that
from many people, too, as they've moved here, I look out on our audience and I see
residents who have been here a lifetime, residents. I see people who have moved in here very recently, and everyone says how connected they feel. One of my favorite, favorite shows
growing up was sesame street, and I always thought, I want to live in sesame street, where
there's diversity, as a latina, I'm from, my dad's from mexico. I grew up in a place that didn't
have a lot of people who looked like me, and I looked at sesame street and mr. Rogers and
thought, wow, there are places where people all look different and have different cultures, but they all want to learn about each other and get along and empower and excite each other
about their cultures. And I just feel like columbia heights is like our own sesame street. It's
a beautiful, beautiful place. Thank you. Montreal. Same question to you. What do you
like most about living in columbia heights? So me and my wife purchased our first home
here in columbia heights a little under two years ago. And the sense of neighbor and
cohesiveness and the vibrancy that this city exuded, gave us the and made it a no brainer for
us to live here, I like the school systems here in columbia heights. We have children that
attend the school systems here in columbia heights. I love the ambiance of the city. It's just
a great place to live and raise your children. Those are the things. Well, thank you, thank
you, so back to kind of the tougher questions now, this next one was a combined question
again, I think we can do it with seconds, but don't push too hard. If they run a few seconds
over on this one, this goes first to montreal bond. What will you do to make our city and
our city government more inclusive? And additionally, what steps will you take to
ensure city information is accessible to all residents, regardless of language or
physical barriers they may face? First, to make our city more inclusive, I would implore, a
method that I refer to as the reverse door policy. And so this method is, is, explained that in
verses us sitting in our four walls comfortably, city hall, the government officials,
employees, we go out into the public and include them in decision making processes. I
also will look into open data practices that we have here in our in our city and be able to
revamp or enhance those processes. Also, we'll look into getting the feedback of our
community and promoting feedback so that we can better understand the community needs and make
them feel inclusive. Thank you. Thank you and miss marquez. Similar same extended question
to you here. What will you do to make our city and our city government more inclusive? And
additionally, what steps will you take to ensure city information is accessible to all
residents, regardless of language or physical barriers they may face? Thank you. First,
I'll address the physical barriers. I would like to say that our newer, city buildings
are way more accessible, we have handicap accessible bathrooms that are that are beautiful in
our library. And here at city hall, we also have a gender neutral, bathroom as well here
at city hall, and then here at the new city hall, we also have handicapped parking so that
people can be super close to the door when they come in to access our city window for paying their
bills, asking about permits, etc, we also having instituted the code red system, which is a
text messaging system that I suggest anybody sign up for, it's able for the to the
community or the city can get information out to the community quickly for either emergencies
or local neighborhood events. We also have our website in multiple languages now. Many
things. Thanks to our communications team that has bloomed in their positions at
our city, and our website is available in multiple languages. We have a really thriving social
media presence now through our police, fire public safety library as well, our library is
becoming more accessible and in getting their own website very soon. And that will also with
the power of google, be able to be translated as well. So I think we're really making great
strides to get that information out there in many ways. Thank you. Switching gears a bit on
questions. And amada, this one goes to you first. What's your position on high density housing
for columbia heights high density housing is a must have for first ring suburbs,
especially if you think about a single family home in one piece of property only. So much tax
dollars are coming from that. It's just not an efficient way for us to continue doing this.
with the way communities were built originally, were never meant to be sustainable. The cost of taking a green space, an old farm field and putting in sewers, blacktop, curb, sidewalk
and building a home is way cheaper than maintaining that for 100 years. And these things
were not built in a way to continue with the upkeep of sewer systems that are over 100
years old. So I just think it's really important that we make sure we are looking at ways to
combat those costs and high density housing is a way to do that. It brings in funds. And if
you think about the cost of building one home, if you could put a duplex or a triplex in
that same space, you can have more families living there. That is more tax dollars. But also
people need to be close to these resources that we have in this city. Thank you. Montreal, same
question to you. What is your position on high density housing for columbia heights? Well,
there are some negatives as well as positive, consequences on high density housing. I believe
that there is such an urgency to, there's such a propaganda that says that, hey, we're
growing at a fast pace here, if you look at the us census bureau, we were 18,000 people in
2010. And according to the census bureau, in 2020, we are roughly around 20,000, 21,000
for population. So that is a 3%. Roughly about approximately a 3% increase in the population. So
that is not a fast growing population rate. So I think we need to step back. And I believe
in housing security. I also believe in the negative effects of overcrowding and all the
ramifications that come with that. So I believe we need to step back, reevaluate where we want our city to go and, and, and let the people weigh in on those, items there. Thank you,
thank you, thank you. Our next submitted question, and we'll begin with montreal for this
one, is what will you do? Or perhaps what should you do to secure funding for the city
public works building renovation project so that the remaining cost is not solely on taxpayers
back? Thank you. Good question. So what will I do? What can I do right now I am I don't have much
power. I'm not in office. So things some ideas and concepts that I have to help reduce that
burden. To help subsidize that. Project would be again, as I mentioned before, finding ways
that we can diversify our income portfolio for the city so that we can have those extra funds to
be able to do projects. Also, I will prioritize in budget and plan properly so that we can
have the money to as well to fund those projects. Thank you. Thank you. And same question to
amara, which is what will you do? Or perhaps what should you do to secure funding for the
city public works building renovation project so that the remaining cost is not solely on
taxpayers back? One of the things I have already mentioned is that we as a city have been
on the state bonding tour. This is a way that our communities around the state do receive
funding that they cannot solely raise by their own taxpayers, I am so thankful for senator
kunesh for coming to us as a council and city and suggesting that we hire our own city
lobbyist so that we can have an extra voice at the capitol and letting us know about grant
programs and different ways to present our city on these bonding tours. And we actually
have a tour scheduled in the next six weeks for our representatives to attend our
public works building and visit our public works building and literally see that it is
crumbling away, we talked about accessibility earlier, and I want to mention that that
building is absolutely not accessible at all. If anyone wants to stop by our public
works building and see that it is part of an older way of our city, and it's not something
that's accessible. So I want to let everyone know why it's so important that we have to find a
way to fund that building. Thank you, miss marquez. Let me come right back to you. With what
aspects of public safety are working well in columbia heights, and what areas need
improvement? Yes. What is working well? So part of our charter, the mayor is working
hand in hand in charge with the police department, and we just hire our new police chief and
appointed him, and he's doing a great job. Chief markham, one of the things that's going great is
we are a very, very, diverse police department. We are the most diverse police department,
I would say for its size in the state, we have promoted, our first woman captain in anoka
county. We have our first somali, sergeant in anoka county. And we're the reason
that is so important is because that helps our police department connect with our community. Our
police department is doing a great job of recruiting through our community, through the high
school, and through word of mouth. And so we are really serving our residents. We also
have added two social workers to our police department, and they work hand in hand with our fire
department as well. So our public safety team is so strong working together. Thank you. And
we give the same question to mister bond. And that is what aspects of public safety are
working well in columbia heights and what areas need improvement. So some of the aspects that I've
noticed that are working well with the columbia heights public safety is the police are very,
great at engaging community engagement, youth engagement initiatives. I've noticed around
the city, like cone with a cop to confer with a cop that's going on this evening. Those
efforts are working very well. And keeping the youth distracted and engaged and fostering that,
good relationships between the police and the citizens. Some things I think we can work on is
adding, finding more creative ways to bring in a more diverse, demographic. Population to join
in on these efforts, as I noted, it's a certain demographic of people or community residents
that are attending these things. So I want to find more creative ways that we can include
everyone to, be a part of it. Thank you, thank you. Well, you mentioned youth just a moment
ago. This is our next to last question, do you think the city council should have a strong
relationship with the school district? Why or why not? The first question to me that. Oh.
I'm sorry. Yes. Back to you, mr. Bond. Yes as I mentioned before, at the time when we won the
all-american city award in 2016, it was primarily because we did have that strong connection
working with the school district and collaborating with them, to ensure that the betterment of
our children's futures and education, I think that is very important to for children to
have a strong educational foundation because they are a generational leaders. They will
have to be equipped and ready to take over, and take over, take over for our, our city. And they
will be the ones dealing with the consequences of the decisions that we make today. So
I think it is very important for that collaboration and to continue to promote that. Thank
you. Thank you. And miss marquez, the same question. Do you think the schools, the city
council should have a strong relationship with the school district? Why or why not? I
absolutely do, and not only do I think we should, we are having right now a very strong relationship with the school district. We recently just met, here at city hall. We regularly
take turns meeting between the community district building and also here at city hall, I think
it's super important, especially we have a youth engagement, police officer that works in our
schools as well. And it helps all of our residents and our businesses. If our two, our two
elected offices, school board and council work well together, I regularly volunteer in the
schools. I was actually just there today at lunchtime. And I'm very, very proud of the fact
that we have youth engaged here. Not only do we have a youth commission, we have a lot of
youth that volunteer at a lot of events that I help coordinate and other events I go to, maybe
a lot of our city events, much like truck and treat, that it's coming up in october. We'll have
many, many youth that will be volunteering there, and I'm so glad that they know they're a
part of this community, but all of that also comes from the stewardship of the school board
and council connection. Thank you. Well, our final question goes right back to armada, and
that is what initiatives do you have to improve the public health of columbia heights, what
initiatives would I like? I work on is that, the way they work is what initiatives do you have to
improve the public health of columbia heights? Thank you, yes. Well, one is safety along
central avenue is a huge part of our public health need, as mentioned earlier, there's been
over 500 accidents on central avenue. And multiple fatalities as well. But every accident,
isn't even reported. So that's just the accidents we know about. We also actually met
with, mndot representatives. Councilmember biggins and I and some community members. We
invited them to meet at dairy queen so that we could have a conversation right there on
central avenue so they could hear how loud it is, because we don't only just want it to be
safe. Absolutely. But we want it to be enjoyable that people can go and visit all of our
restaurants. You know, adams across the street and, across the street. We want to go and
visit those and enjoy our city. And I'm getting off track because I get so excited about
all these things. What could you repeat? Initiatives, health initiatives, we also just we're
wrapped up anyway, so there's no smoking in parks. We got there and. And montreal, we finished
questions by turning the same one to you, which again is what initiatives do you have to
improve the public health of columbia heights. So again, some ideas and concepts that we can
employ to improve our public health. Here. Again, safety is the biggest one here, pedestrian
and public safety here along central highway. Again I understand that there are some
projects in the works. There another public health issue I will help to address is possibly
partnering with, like I said, nonprofit organizations to bring more. I would like to see more
clinics here in our city. I would like to see more pharmacies here in our city to address the needs of our community. And make it more diverse in that way. Thank you.
thank you. Well, montreal bond, we turn, we turn right back to you for your closing statement.
so my disclaimer is I am not a politician. I don't have all the fancy language or words to say
to you today, but I can say I do not present to you today to give you false hope. I do not present
to hear for you today to give you false promises. There is no immediate solutions to any
problems that our city faces, but with effort, prioritization and proper planning, I believe
we can work together to begin to fix those. What I will be sure to do is be a proactive,
solution oriented, detail oriented candidate that will be proactive and non reactive. I
will fight for everyday people like myself to represent this city. I will dedicate and
sacrifice my time and energy to make sure that everyone can have their voices heard and their
ideas valued, regardless of any outcomes. We are powerful in numbers for example, it is a
time in our legislative legislative for the civil rights act was enacted in 1964. This
was considered a landmark legislation because it took the collective and collaborative
efforts of all of republicans and democrats to make this happen. So thank you. Thank you,
mr. Amado marquez. Similar your closing statement, please. Thank you again. I just want to say
that my name is amada marcus. Similar. It literally is an honor and a privilege to have
been the mayor, and I would love to continue doing that with our city working in our council and
working with all of you, I am fully committed to ensuring our community remains vibrant,
inclusive and thriving. My leadership is guided by transparency, equity and
well-being for all of our residents. We have made significant progress in creating a safer, more sustainable and connected city. And yes, there is still more to do as our city
progresses with new development, we will have the opportunity to update those areas to newer
environmental standards, improving water and environmental health for the mississippi river and green spaces. We must look forward and be good stewards for future
generations. I will continue to listen to your concerns, advocate for positive change,
and work hard to create opportunities for everyone. Let's keep building a better future for columbia heights. Well, thank you to both of our candidates this evening for
sharing your views with the public through your participation in this meet the
candidates forum. Thank you to those of you in attendance here at columbia heights city council
chambers chambers for your participation as well. And thank you to the new brighton and abc
league volunteers for helping to make this evening a success. Folks, the league of women
voters does not support or oppose any political parties or candidates for office. The
league does help citizens become informed voters and advocates for important issues. And that's
what this forum has been about tonight, informing the voters. If you are interested in the
league, you could visit the abc web page at lwv abc, rn dot org. Persons of all gender persons
who are ages 16 or older are invited to join our organization. The league of
women voters has supported informed voting for over 100 years and in the year 2024, we
have many options for how we vote. Please exercise your right to vote for more election
information, visit the minnesota secretary of state's website at mn.org or go to the league of
women voters. Minnesota website vote411. Thank you and good evening.