(tropical music) - [Narrator] Coming to you from Rochester, Minnesota, R-Town.

- Now that we've officially entered 2021, we are rapidly approaching tax season, I know, I know, it stresses me out too, but today I have an awesome guest, Dave Oath, a volunteer, with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistant Program, here to tell us all about finding assistance with tax filing, welcome, Dave.

- Good afternoon, Annie.

- You are the man of the hour, we're so grateful that you're here, so first and foremost, tell us about the Volunteer Tax Assistance Program, and how you became a volunteer.

- Yeah, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, is a program sponsored by the IRS, that provides free tax assistance to lower, and moderate income families, who otherwise might struggle with this area, that they might not be good at using self-preparation software, and they might not have the financial resources to hire a paid preparer, so that's what we're there for.

- And how did you become a volunteer?

- You know, I retired about three and a half years ago, from, I made a living doing taxes for other people, so, I was a practicing CPA, with an accounting firm, did taxes for about 40 years, and always enjoyed helping people, enjoyed understanding the law, and this was a way for me to continue to use my resources, and help some people, you know, without charging them anything.

- Yeah well you actually enjoy this, huh (laughs)?

- Yeah, you can call me a tax nerd so... - Yeah, that's great, and people need it, because, I mean, I've done my own taxes too, and it gets very confusing, the coding, understanding, you know, all of that, why do you think this program is needed in Rochester?

- Yeah, the VITA program involves about 70 volunteers, so there's around 70 to 80 other people, who enjoy working with taxes, and helping other people, but why it's needed in Rochester, and then we also have sites in Dodge Center, Stewartville, and in Lanesboro, Minnesota, as well as, we go out to about 12 or 14 senior center sites, but again, it's mainly people struggle in this area, you know, like there's a natural hesitation about, "Oh the taxes, "I'm gonna goof it up, "the IRS is gonna come after me."

Et cetera, and we're there to sorta, you know, clear the fog about taxes, and in a pretty easy process, help people file the return, do it accurately, but also make sure that they're claiming the credits, that the federal law, in the Minnesota law, would provide for people.

- All good stuff, and I'm amazed at the scale of where you all are offering this help, can we get into the qualifications for free tax filing, who qualifies for that, and what's that process?

- Yes, we are focused on people with incomes of less than $69,000, and that amount is based upon, that's where some credits for lower or moderate income people run out, and it's also the the level where the IRS provides some free software to people who are able to do it on their own, so we selected that income threshold to help, and also as, you know, we have about 70 volunteers, but we're really resource constrained in terms of volunteers, so if we set it higher, we would it be turning people away, so we might be helping someone with a much higher level of income, and the person we don't help, is the person with the lower income, so that income level sorta helps us make sure we help people in those income levels with what they need.

- Yeah, that sounds like a really good, balanced approach.

How do people reach out to start the process of filing their taxes with this program?

- Yeah, we have a great partnership with a number of organizations, Salvation Army, 125 Live, and also with United Way, and the United Way has helped us use their referral number, you've probably heard of the two, one, one, number?

- Absolutely.

- You actually call two, one, one, say, "I need to have an appointment for my taxes."

And they'll help you get set up, it's worth noting, none of our sites are walk-in, you have to have an appointment for that, and then also it's worth noting this year, with the COVID situation, we're doing all of our appointments on sort of a drop-off, and remote interaction base, they drop off their data, and then we'll call the taxpayer, and go over the problems.

Before, you'd sit across the desk from, you know, one of our 70 volunteers, but we're doing it differently now from a safety standpoint.

- It's very cool to see your group adapting, and to the needs of our community, you're appreciated Dave, and all your volunteers, thank you so much.

- All right, thank you.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] R-Town is brought to you in part, by the following amazing people, and organizations.

- [Announcer] The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota.

- [Narrator] And the members of KSMQ Public Television, Thank you.

- Be sure to stick around, we have much more coming your way on R-Town.

Alison Zelms, tells us about her plans for the city, and we officially introduce our new correspondent, Amarachi Orakwue, but up first, we meet Rawhi Said, as he describes how his family fled their home in Bosnia, with two bags, and the clothes on their backs, in this week's R-Culture segment.

(piano music) - My name is Rawhi Said, I was born in the nineties, at the time, it was called Yugoslavia, a lot of change was happening in Europe at that time, the fall of the Soviet Union, the fall of Yugoslavia, just a lot of change for democracy, and independence.

Being Muslim in Europe is not easy, because, really, being any religion aside from a Christian religion in Europe was never easy, and you look at examples from the Second World War, and the Holocaust that happened there, well, what happened in Bosnia, was the largest genocide in Europe, since the Second World War, and that's because of religion.

The Serbs wanted to keep a greater Serbia, once they realized that the Yugoslavia was falling apart, and they wanted to take control of Bosnia.

The war started against ethnic and religious lines, and my mom said, "Well, why don't we go to the middle East, "to Jordan where you have family?"

My dad's said, "Absolute not, "the war will end, "I don't want my son to be born a refugee, "like I was born a refugee."

But one day he came home, and he said, "We have to leave."

Because we had Serbians, paramilitary soldiers knocking on our doors, we had 24 hours to leave, and if we didn't, we would pay, I mean, it was understood, if you didn't, then you would pay the ultimate price.

Leaving there as a Bosniak, you can imagine the fear that you have, so, my father, my mother, my sister, and I, we packed up two bags, and the clothes on our back, and we left, no money, no nothing, you know, you left your life behind, your had to.

We were on a train ride to Slovenia, and at the border between Croatia, and Slovenia, the border guards get on the train, check everybody's passport, and say to my father, "Sir, you can proceed."

Because my father had a Trinidadian passport, we had Bosnian passports, and my dad looked at them, and said, "I can't leave my family behind, "this is my family, "so if they can't go, "I'm not going."

And so, just like that, we were kicked off the train, and stranded in Croatia.

We were then put into a refugee camp, and my dad, as a practicing physician, had always wanted the opportunity to visit the United States, and he saw the opportunity that said, "You know what?

"If we are fortunate enough, "if we are able enough to go to the US "that's where we will go."

We moved to Rochester, we were helped by Catholic charities, sisters of Assisi Heights, a lot of NGOs, nonprofits, the IMAA, a lot of people came to our help, when we first came to the US, and especially Rochester, specifically.

We've never really forgotten where we've come from, we've never really forgotten what has happened to us, but what we've realized is if it wasn't for this country, for this adopted country, we wouldn't be where we are today, and I think that's the beauty of this country, because it was founded on immigrants, and we all come from somewhere, and maybe not a first-generation, but you might be a couple of generations removed, but if you look far back enough, you'll see, we all came from somewhere, we all tried to escape from something, and I think that's the beauty of this country, and I think that's something that my father saw, and instilled in all of us, very early on by not wanting to go anywhere else, but the United States.

- [Narrator] For more information about this story, and other R-town features, connect with us on Facebook, twitter, at KSMQ #R-Town, or ksmq.org/rtown.

(tropical music) - Hello, I'm Danielle Teal, your moderator for R-Town, the show about Rochester, with a brand new segment called, R-Spotlight, for KSMQ Public Television.

We'd like to thank one 125 Live for hosting, and, okay, I'm really excited about this, because we have a very special guest today, Amarachi Orakwue, is our new correspondent, and intern here, right at KSMQ Public Television, welcome Amarachi.

- Hello, thank you for having me on here, I'm excited.

- Finally, we have you on the main segment of the show, because we wanted to interview you, introduce you to the listeners, and audience, and share a little bit about your background, so if you could just dive right in to telling us about yourself, and how you ended up here at KCMQ.

- Well, first and first, I'm an immigrant from Nigeria, and I've been here for 10 years, and currently actually got admitted to the University of Minnesota Medical School, which I'll be starting in the fall, so I'm excited, and I'm excited to spend my time before that, on KSMQ, and it's been fun so far.

- It has been fun, you've done a walkabout segment with me, where you learned kind of how to do those, you've been at these shows, learning how the background with Annie, our amazing producer, on how the shows are run in the background, and then how the interviews are done, and conducted with me, and it's been a blessing having you join, what are your passions, what are your passions Amarachi?

- I really enjoy spending time with the people, I mean, in my culture, we're very social, you know, growing up, I spent time with my cousins, my friends, and I just love hearing people's stories, so one of them is having fun with my friends, and I also enjoying reading a very good book, non-fiction, kinda like a little escape away from like our daily lives, so, I enjoy it thoroughly.

- I could definitely relate on that for sure.

What do you hope to learn, and gain from your experience here at KSMQ?

- I hope to become a more wholesome person, in terms of improving my public speaking skills, really able to engage with people, because I'll carry it on into my medical field practice, like when I interact with patients, I wanna be able to ask the right questions, to help my patients going, and learn new information about them, which will help me in determining solutions, that'll better help their lives.

- Well, you've already been an asset here at KSMQ, I'm honored, and humbled to work with you on Amarachi, and we look forward to the journey together.

- Likewise, likewise.

- Thank you for tuning into R-Town Spotlight, this is Danielle Teal, your moderator, with KSMQ Public Television, huge thanks to one 125 Live for hosting this segment, you can also catch up with us on Facebook, or Twitter, at KSMQ #RTown.

♪ Just give me a second ♪ - Minnesota is launching a community, COVID-19, vaccine pilot program, partnering with local public health, and school districts, to place nine pilot sites across the state, including one here in Rochester.

There continues to be a very limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines in Minnesota.

These pilot sites will initially serve adults 65 years of age or older, and educators at pre-kindergarten, through grade 12, school staff, and childcare workers.

Minnesotans, 65 years of age or older, can make an appointment to receive the vaccine at one of these pilot sites.

Education, school, and childcare workers, will receive information about signing up for an appointment from their employer.

For more information about the availability of the vaccine, and how to register to receive it, visit the Minnesota COVID response website, at mn.gov/covid-19.

Coming up next, we check in with Wale Elegbede, to reflect on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and why it's still important to celebrate King's legacy, in this week's Walkabout segment.

(tropical music) - Hello, this is Amarachi Orakwue, with R-Town Walkabout, and I'm here with Mr. Wale Elegbede, who is the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, Rochester.

It is a pleasure to have you on here again, how are you?

- I am doing really good, Amarachi, and I am very excited to be here, and I appreciate you guys bringing us back, you know, in terms of, you know, Martin Luther King Day, he's an icon, and he has a great message for all of us that we still need to embody.

- And let's start off with who hosted the Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, and what was it about?

- It's a collaboration between the Rochester branch of the NAACP Diversity Council, and the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, and the whole idea is, really, to celebrate Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and then also to make sure that his messages are not lost, and that we also actually are able to leverage action, so it's a joint collaboration.

- Why is it important to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy?

- Dr. King is one of the, or the key leaders of the civil rights movement, and his message is really why, you know, I mean, personally, I think we need to make a a public holiday, where people actually take off work, and spend time to really reflect on those words, and so he's sort of like the conscience of our country, in terms of treating people fairly, whether that is health equity, whether that's jobs, whether that's civil rights, it's all together.

- This has been R-Town Walkabout, with Amarachi Orakwue, here with Mr. Elegbede.

(tropical music) - With us today, is city newcomer, Alison's Zelms, who was just hired on, as the new Rochester City administrator, Alison, welcome.

- Thank you so much for having me, Danielle.

- We're excited to have you, and hear what is in store for Rochester, I know a lot of people are curious, so first and foremost, you have worked in cities across the Midwest, what has led you to Rochester, how did you end up in Rochester?

- Well, Rochester precedes itself in the world of local government, and in the world of doing big things in local government, and so, for me, I think what's most important, is I get inspired by working in places, for places, and leading places that have big dreams, and big goals, and figuring out how to operationalize that, so, when I saw Rochester coming open, and people in the world of local government knew that it was coming, and I'd saw what was out there, and just felt a connection to it, it seemed like a great opportunity that hopefully doesn't come up again soon, to really kind of take all that I've learned, in the different places that I've worked, and bring that forward to help Rochester, and the community achieve all of its really big dreams.

- Your preliminary work, I'm sure that you've kind of dug into what are some plans, what are some priorities for the city, what is on deck, when it comes to your focus for the year, and after?

- Well, I think what's most exciting for Rochester, is maybe not that I'm coming, but that we have this new city council, with a new council president, a new dynamic on council, and so all of these new people coming together at once, is an excellent opportunity during a unique time in the world, and in Rochester, to be able to take a step, take a breath, and say, "What are our priorities, "and what does that mean to this new council?

"What is the clarity and alignment for what that is?

"What have we succeeded on so far, "and how are we going to continue to move that forward, "and build on what's a great foundation?"

So, for me, what's really important is building relationships, getting to know people, understand what's important in different parts of Rochester, and to different groups in Rochester, so that I can have that really foundational context, of what the work in Rochester really means, because each city is unique, it's kind of like a person, every city that I've worked with has similarities, but very unique ways of achieving goals, and different needs, within different parts of the community.

- Have you seen anything pop up that you know for sure, "Okay, this is what we need to focus on."

Then?

- Well, certainly, there's some challenges with gaps, and I even heard during my interview, and it was in the the posting for the position, and it's in the legislative priorities for the council, so affordability, doing that in a way that's with compassion, the financial stewardship while we're doing that, being able to be more accessible, and relatable to more people across Rochester, underrepresented populations, folks who maybe don't feel as easy of access to government, and trying to be more accessible to folks across Rochester, not just one type of person, but all types of people, so that people feel more connected to their government, and to the city services that they need in order to thrive in their daily life.

So connections, and reaching out, and taking this, you know, unique time in our history, as an opportunity to look at how we want to move forward, and to keep, you know, moving on our foundational principles, but with these strategic priorities, growing in a way that people see success, and feel the impact of it in their lives.

- I'm glad you brought up the financial aspect of it, a city can't run without a budget, so have you been able to dig into the 2021 budget, and have any insight and thoughts around that?

- Sure, I was really glad to see, when I was looking at the position, and checking out Rochester ahead of time, that there was some early action that was taken, even, you know, far back in 2020, while we were all kind of navigating this new pandemic world, and what will it mean, so there was a lot of early action taken by the prior city council, and administration, and that set the stage for, I think, a very balanced budget going into 2021, obviously, it was probably one of the most painful processes that Rochester has undertaken in a while, because it needed to balance that delivery of service, that oftentimes people can't do for themselves, people can't just pave their own road very easily, right?

And make it easy to get to work, or plow the whole thing, all the way to where they're headed, and so, you know, it had to balance being able to provide quality community services, continue to make progress on our capital goals, and make sure that we're maintaining, and a life cycle cost that doesn't end up surprising somebody with millions of dollars, you know, two years, five years, 10 years from now, and trying to take that balanced approach, while still taking a very hard line, on keeping a flat on property tax rate, despite that exciting growth opportunity that the public approved during the last election, with the Parks Referendum, so I found it to be quite a balanced approach, and the key is really going to be continuing to look at that, and monitor, monitor, monitor, scan what's out on the horizon, and really be on top of what does that mean for the next three months, six months, nine months, and into next year for Rochester.

- With the pandemic creating a lot of challenges, you know, jobs lost, or frozen in place, until, you know, places are able to open, there's some, you know, an increase in different aspects in our community, with, you know, income housing, and people being able just to afford to live, cost of living wise, what are your thoughts around Rochester as a whole right now?

Are we going to be okay, basically, and do we have the infrastructure in place, and things in place to support that?

Or is there more, I mean, obviously, work to be done, and what would that be?

- I think there's work to be done before the pandemic, and there's going to be a lot of work to be done after the pandemic, it's just gonna change a little bit, of the speed, maybe some of the entry points, so where that work needs to happen more quickly, how we need to assist people, and find our role, and where's the place where we do, where's the place that we influence, and where is the place that we support, so I know that Rochester has many, wonderful service agencies, that we're so fortunate to have here, over 500, and so how could we bring all of those partners together, not duplicate effort, but really elevate, by trying to optimize all of the things that we have, because affordability, and income struggles are different depending on your age, depending on, you know, your family situation, all of those things have such a big impact, and I think we're just gonna need everybody to come together, to figure out those roles, and be very cognizant, that there may be spaces where Rochester isn't going to be the leader of something, they're going to be a major supporter of something, or a major influencer of something, and I think relationships always, and people's relationships with each other, and how we relate to people, and making sure we put people first, is the key to being successful at that, even though there are probably are going to be times, where it doesn't always feel like a success, that is a challenging issue to address, it's one that we have every opportunity to improve on, and I think a lot of organizations that people who care deeply about it in Rochester, who are ready to come together, and including the city council, on the role we play, and how we can be more successful at that.

- Alison, I appreciate your transparency on that, thank you so much for sharing, and one final note, this is a pivotal moment in Rochester history, we have a female mayor, a female Rochester City Council president, and now a female city administrator all at once, what are your thoughts on that as we close this out?

- Well, I couldn't be more proud to join an organization, and a community that took that step, at a time where that's happening, you know, nationally as well, I hope that people realize that, while there may be three women kind of at the helm here, we're just people, right?

So our jobs, always, are to bring more voices to the table, make sure that people are represented, and part of my role, is to make sure the organization is effectively represented within those, so that we can deliver, and implement the goals of the city council effectively, so I couldn't be happier to be, you know, playing this role, I have every reason to believe that we'll be extremely successful, and I'm very, very excited, to be joining an organization, and a community that saw the value of having that type of leadership, and actually voted on it, and then, I guess I got voted on too, by the-- (laughing) So we all got voted on a little bit, and I think it's just a really exciting time to be able to continue to move forward, and represent people well.

- Well, I lift you up, and the city council, and the staff, and everybody involved in 2021, and how it's going to look in the future, thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for joining us today.

For more wonderful content produced right here in Rochester, please be sure to check us out on Facebook, and Twitter, at #RTown.

Be well, be safe, and we'll see you next time on R-Town, the show about Rochester.

(tropical music)