The League of Women Voters held an issues forum on Tuesday for the seven candidates for the Ward 1 seat on the St. Paul City Council. The seat, previously held by Melvin Carter III, represents Frogtown and Summit-University, as well as parts of surrounding neighborhoods. The election for Carter’s replacement will be held Nov. 5.
The candidates in attendance at the Hubbs Center, 1030 Univ. Ave. W., were Mark Voerding, Dai Thao, Noel Nix, Debbie Montgomery, Kazoua Kong-Thao and Johnny Howard. Paul Holmgren was absent.
The forum will air in its entirety on the St. Paul Neighborhood Network at a yet-to-be-determined date.
The candidates’ online bios are here, complete with platform statements. Matt Hill and the Rev. Devin Miller are no longer in the race.
Here’s a selection of choice moments from the League of Women Voters forum, which is by no means meant to be exhaustive:
LARGEST BUDGET
Asked about the largest budgets they’d ever overseen, former St. Paul School Board Chair Kazoua Kong-Thao said she helped craft the school district budget of $600 million, which is larger than the actual city budget.
Johnny Howard said he oversaw a neighborhood organization with a budget of $350,000. Dai Thao said he oversaw a departmental budget of $1 million in his job, which is in information technology.
Noel Nix, a city council aide, said he’s been focused on the city budget and the grants and allotments given to the city’s 17 neighborhood district councils, and partially as a result of his activism, a resolution safeguarding the district councils from deep changes in funding could soon be coming before the city council.
Mark Voerding, a legislative aide to Ramsey County Commissioner Janice Rettman, said he has carefully reviewed the Ramsey County budget of $550 million, as well as that of the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority, which exceeds $100 million. As a former city council member and state employee, Debbie Montgomery worked on the city budget and helped craft the state of Minnesota’s public safety budget, she said.
FORECLOSURES
Asked about the foreclosure crisis, Noel Nix said the city of St. Paul is working with Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services on a “buy-back” program that allows residents to sell their homes through a short-sale and then buy them back at a more reasonable mortgage interest rate. The effort is still looking for its first participant.
“The foreclosure crisis is why I left the private sector,” said Nix, a former property manager.
Dai Thao said he had personal experience with the foreclosure crisis: “This is really embarrassing, but I myself have been a victim of foreclosure. … It impacted me, it impacted my kids.” His mother-in-law is also struggling to keep her home, he said. He also supports the idea of a housing buy-back program, similar to one implemented in Boston, he said.
Mark Voerding said the St. Paul City Council “could have stepped in and joined any number of lawsuits” aimed at large banks and mortgage lenders that were foreclosing on residents. He wants to see more city programs offering funds to fix steps, roofs and other home improvements. Voerding said he’s tired of vacant homes turning into vacant lots. “When they go into foreclosure, the city steps in and the city tears them down,” he said.
Johnny Howard spoke of the importance of contract-for-deed and land trust programs.
There’s more from each candidate on housing issues here in this Sept. 28 article, except for Debbie Montgomery, who was out of the country receiving an award at the time the article ran.
CRIME
On the subject of crime, Kazoua Kong-Thao said one of the key approaches toward stopping crime was to come down hard on absentee landlords and better engage in the community. “We don’t need more cops on the street,” she said. “We need to know our neighbor.”
She also noted that a more diverse and inclusive police force needs to do more than add a few more officers of color: “We don’t need a token. Before you start (officer) recruitment, you need to … make sure the police department actually gets cultural competency, and moves beyond cultural competency to cultural intelligence.”
Debbie Montgomery, a former St. Paul police sergeant, said “it starts at home. We have to engage our young people with nonprofits that are working along with the police. … Unemployment causes young people to do things that cause crime.”
Montgomery pointed to the success of the St. Paul YWCA, which holds a junior police academy, “so it breaks down barriers that relate to police.” She teaches law enforcement classes at a community college, she said, but she sees few students of color enrolled. She also said local residents should automatically garner 10 extra points on recruitment exams.
Johnny Howard, who said he has sat on boards that have reviewed the hiring of cops and firefighters, said youth need to feel connected to the police officers on the street, instead of seeing them as enforcers. He spoke of adding more police-led youth athletic leagues and sporting events refereed by officers.
Dai Thao, who has been endorsed by the St. Paul firefighters’ union, emphasized the importance of making sure police are hired from the community they serve. “Frogtown has the highest fatality rate,” he said.
Mark Voerding, who has been active in neighborhood district councils and chaired the District 7 council, spoke of his work promoting the St. Paul FORCE unit, which focuses resources on flooding problem areas with cops. “When I first started in this business, you got a job at the police department or fire department because you knew someone in the department. That’s not the rule today.” He said recruits today need to be better educated and more prepared going in if they expect to get hired.
Noel Nix said “community safety takes a multi-pronged approach” and “we need to ensure that we have a culturally competent police force and a diverse police force (and) … opportunities for youth to be engaged.” He emphasized the importance of keeping rec centers open.
He noted that St. Paul Police have held halal cook-outs with the bomb squad at places such as Skyline Towers, which has a large Muslim and East African youth population.
TRAIN NOISE
Asked about how they’d buffer train noise, deal with the lack of bicycle paths along University Avenue, and respond to other fall-out from the new Central Corridor light rail line, the candidates took a sobering view.
Having a light rail line rolling down a dense thoroughfare will be an adjustment. “As someone who has lived in this area for a very long time, it’s going to be very difficult (adjusting),” said Kazoua Kong-Thao, who said she would take a wait-and-see approach with train noise.
Debbie Montgomery expressed concern about the large hearing-impaired community at St. Paul College. She noted, however, that bicyclists will soon benefit from the Charles Avenue bikeway, which has yet to be constructed.
Noel Nix said that if the Met Council can propose tunnels for its Southwest LRT line, “the Met Council can find money if there’s going to be noise from the trains.” As for bikes, he said University Avenue has had a “weird configuration” and the city needs more east-west and north-south routes.
Dai Thao said, “Let’s be honest. The Met Council, they dropped the ball” on parking, lighting, bike paths, and other amenities along the Central Corridor and University Avenue. He said the Hiawatha Light Rail line has averaged one fatality annually, and it’s less densely populated.
Mark Voerding talked about the possibility of dampening bells and whistles to buffer noise. Johnny Howard emphasized the importance of trees and hedges. “We’re going to have to find buffers,” Howard said. Deliveries rerouted off the avenue and into alleys will further complicate noise and traffic issues, Howard said.
The candidates also weighed in on job creation, the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood educational initiative, and other key issues.