(upbeat music) - Welcome to a special edition of "At Issue".

I'm H. Wayne Wilson.

Thank you so much as always for joining us on the program.

The Mayor of the City of Peoria after four terms is retiring, at least retiring from leadership position in the City of Peoria.

Jim Ardis is stepping aside after 16 years as mayor which opens up a race for mayor with five candidates on the ballot.

In the primary, those five candidates are on this special edition of "At Issue".

They will appear in the program in the same order that they are on the ballot.

They are asked the same five questions with a closing comment from each of them.

So we will be back in just a moment with the first of those five candidates.

The first candidate on the ballot for the mayor of Peoria is Andy Diaz.

Andy, thank you so much for joining us on "At Issue".

- Thank you for having me, H. - I want to start with the budget problem that the City of Peoria faces, as you well know the city had to cut some budgetary items because of COVID and other issues.

And we already know that the public thinks that we are taxed too high.

We have too many fees.

We have a combined sewer overflow project to pay for and we have ever increasing pension costs.

If you're elected mayor, can you share with us what you might focus on in order to keep a balanced budget in light of all these issues?

- That's a big question and it's gonna be a lot of money to cover all of those expenses.

I first always say that we need to utilize our elected officials both at the state and the federal level at a better way.

And that means having a more than just our legislative breakfast where we bring our want list and talk about the issues once a year, but actually bringing them in front of the council, whether it be LaHood and Bustos or Jehan Gordon Booth, and Dave Kaylor to see what money is available to us as a city to follow through on initiatives that the next administration even has as priorities in their Climate 21 projects.

So that would cover your sustainability issues, your CSO, green infrastructure, things like that.

And then it's a long-term view of our economy.

We have housing prices that have gone down year over year where the real estate market in the region may be strong but in the City of Peoria people have lost value year over year.

They're not able to sell their homes.

And that impacts us directly on the budget because it impacts what we're getting from the taxing bodies.

So we need to work on making our neighborhood safer having more amenities and being smarter about public works and infrastructure, and making sure that the police and fire coverage is adequate.

And what is expected of us from the citizens of Peoria.

- You mentioned a couple of issues that I want to bring to the forefront, police and fire but let's talk about police first, while the council and the mayor do not hire directly the Police Chief, the city manager does, we have an incoming Police Chief.

What will you, if elected mayor do to work with that Police Chief and the Police Department to assure that we have safe neighborhoods despite the fact that we have budgetary constraints?

- So people tend to forget that we are a policy board and we need as a council to come up with some policies and some procedures that we want to see followed from our Police Department or from any department for that matter.

So when it comes to working with the next Police Chief it will be as a council, making sure that we set priorities as a policy for community policing, for neighborhood engagement and for being a part of the community when possible.

And a lot of that is things that we have let go as we have lost staff.

And so I talk about things like urban advocates people that are from the community that are doing Male Mentor Monday and all of this, and engaging them to reach out to the youth at risk that are causing some of our crime issues and making sure that as people are entering back into society, that we're engaging them and addressing them.

But as a policy, we need to focus on that community engagement part.

And it's more than just having a neighborhood resident officer, it's actually going in and being very intentful on how we work with all parts of our city, but especially where we see the biggest amounts of crime on the North End, the South End, the East Bluff, making sure that the police have a relationship with those that are active and engaged in the community and identifying where we have problems and tackling that head on instead of waiting for larger crimes to occur.

- And let's turn to fire, and I'll add public works into this conversation.

The Fire Department had to close one firehouse at the request of the City Council.

When we talk about capital budget public works is hit pretty hard every time we have to cut the budget.

What if elected mayor will you be focusing on in order to make sure that we maintain good fire service in this city, and that public works doesn't fall behind in providing maintaining roads, et cetera?

- Well, public works does have its own item on the taxing role so that we are dedicating a certain amount of revenue into public works to make sure that we address the streets and roads as well as we can with the amount of money that's available.

And I've said this to the Firefighters Union when we had our discussions, if we aren't honest with the people of Peoria about what our coverage is going to be and understanding what the expectations are of the population of Peoria in terms of addressing coverage then we're never gonna find a way to tax or to set our spending levels correctly.

And so one of the firefighters has told me that the national fire safety board says that it should be four minute response time in order to most effectively have a good fire system.

And I think people need to understand what then it financially takes to have that four minute response time.

And if, as a population we can say, we don't want another tax.

We don't want another fee.

We're okay with five minute response time, then that's a decision that we have made as the residents of Peoria in coordination with our Fire Department and our Fire Department needs to be out there and helping to educate the public to make sure that if we do pass this, it's a referendum just to understand if the population wants added taxes, but that they are part of the discussion to actually be in front of this issue and stand alongside the mayor and the City Council to educate the public about what that difference between a four minute and a six minute or an eight minute response time would be.

And it's using them as professionals to make sure that we have the coverage available in the city based off of either the locations we currently have or finding ways to repurpose other buildings or move locations and, and have the right map.

- Let's turn to job creation, Andy, if you were elected mayor where should the city focus?

What sector of business should the city focus on?

And what role does the city have in helping to create more jobs?

- I think that's where sometimes we make the mistake and we've seen it in some of the developments we've done in town when the city does get involved and they put city dollars on the table for developers to come in.

And even with this recent issues with the Hotel Pere Marquette we used city funds that came from our employee public funds.

And that's problematic to me.

I think as a city, we need to address the issues of getting business done in the city.

So if that means that we are not processing the paperwork efficiently we are not addressing the questions, and we're not responding back to developers and business owners.

That's where we need improvement.

The city can't afford to fund private development with the current state of the budget.

So if we can make it more efficient, if we can be sure that every time someone sends a note to economic development or to the city manager, they get a response and it's an accurate response and it's something then they can move forward on in their business plans.

That's what we need to do first and foremost.

Now in a few years, longterm, there are things that we need to make sure that we're addressing how we bring more healthcare professionals into the urban core to live there, or to build up other ancillary businesses, to what we have in town.

- If I say 61605, everyone knows what that means, but poverty is not restricted to that zip code, with that reputation, what can you as mayor do to make sure that we have both financial and social equity in this community?

So I live in 61603, which while it may not have as low of poverty numbers, it too faces some of these issues.

And what I have seen over the last few years is that we don't engage people in 61605 or 61603, or truly throughout our community.

We take too much time to tell poor people or to tell people that are living in these communities what they must be and what they must do to be prosperous instead of understanding what prosperity means to them.

So I have a pretty decent job with Caterpillar.

I manage governmental contracts and I live in the North Valley in a beautiful home where I tell people I can afford a house payment whether I was flipping burgers or working at Caterpillar.

And to me, living in that situation next door to my parents with family is success.

And there are people in this community who want to live in a safe neighborhood, what they have, and we come in and tell them, no, you don't have it right.

We need to do X, Y, and Z.

And it's not equitable.

It's not fair because we're not listening to what they want.

- Very briefly, Andy, in 15 seconds or so.

What differentiates you from the other four candidates for Mayor?

- I've spent over 20 years working in and around government.

I understand how to make something a policy, how to work within governmental contracts and compliance and to bring that mindset into City Hall and making sure that as professionals, we address the issues of the city and are responsive to the citizens of Peoria.

- Andy Diaz, thank you so much for joining us on "At Issue".

- Thank you very much.

Have a good day.

- And we'll be back with another candidate in just a moment.

I'm now joined by Rita Ali.

She is an at-large council member of Peoria City Council running for mayor.

Rita, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having me, H. - The first question, Rita, is regarding the budget for the City of Peoria.

The city had to borrow money, had to cut services in order to balance the budget because of the COVID pandemic.

What are your plans with regard to the budget over the coming years?

Knowing in fact that we already have high taxes, we have many fees, we have a CSO, maybe a $200 million commitment there and increasing pension costs?

- Sure.

I mean the global pandemic of course has added additional challenges to the city budget but I don't believe that taxing our way is the way to address taxing our citizens, who currently pay high taxes, property taxes, is the answer.

I don't believe that continuing to cut basic services is the answer, but I do believe that we have to stabilize our financial situation.

One avenue that I will pursue in terms of helping to address our budget issues is external funds to help to support the work that we currently do.

I think the city has to build greater capacity for bringing in external funds.

And that's one area that I bring extensive experience in.

Over the years in the working in the area of workforce and education I've brought in over $50 million to support those types of programs and initiatives.

And those would be private sector, private funding sources as well as federal and some state.

And I realized the state budget is tight as well.

The national budget is tight as well, but that does not stop resources being allocated to community development, to public safety, and other services that we provide within the city.

So one strategy that I will have is to increase our external funding to support our current budget.

And that will definitely help to address some of these issues.

I think that when many years ago when I worked for the City of Peoria, there were over a thousand employees for the city, and we've seen over the years, that decline to where we're somewhere around 600 or less employees within the city.

So we continue to cut staff, we continue to cut services.

We need to make sure that people are getting what they're for in terms of the taxes that they pay.

- Understanding that the City Council does not hire the the incoming Police Chief that is the responsibility of city manager, Patrick Urich.

Nonetheless, how might you work as mayor with the incoming Police Chief to provide increased safety in the City of Peoria?

- Sure.

I've been working with Peoria Police Chiefs off and on since I was 14 years old and I was the first youth many years ago, appointed to the first Peoria Police Community Commission, Commission on Police Community Relations.

So I think it's important to establish a strong working relationship between the mayor, the council and the Police Chief, but also between the community and the Police Chief leadership, as well as the officers I believe in bridging that gap so that we don't encounter some of the problems, the issues that we've come up with that we've faced recently.

And that's one reason why I took a leadership role in bringing forth the new Peoria City County Commission on Racial Justice and Equity that will begin to address some of those issues and hopefully begin to bridge the gap in a more forceful way I would say.

- Much like the Police Department, the Fire Department and public works budgets have been cut over the recent years.

How might you address those shortfalls knowing that we've had a firehouse closed, et cetera, what plans do you have for fire and public works?

- Again, public works involves a lot of capital projects.

I think that we have to seek external funds.

We don't have the money within our current budget to do some of the things that we need to do.

I know the streets are in bed repair.

It's not likely that the citizens are ready for a referendum to pay for roads.

It's not likely that the citizens are prepared or wanting to increase their property taxes.

So I think we have to be creative in terms of addressing budget issues and finding, raising capital and finding sources to bring in external funds to the work that we need to do On the creation of jobs, Rita, the city, what areas, what sectors does the city realistically believe it can compete in in attracting jobs?

And what role does the city itself play in encouraging job growth?

- Well, this is the area that I worked in for over 25 years in the area of job creation economic development, workforce development, you know Peoria has a very strong healthcare industry effect.

it used to be Caterpillar that was our largest employer but today it's the healthcare system.

We have two large institutions between Unity Point and OSF that provide healthcare jobs to our community.

They have many jobs that are unfilled right now because people don't have those credentials or skills in those particular areas.

So we have to prepare our workforce.

We have the people here that we need to prepare to enter those jobs that are available in healthcare and information technology.

Also in advanced manufacturing and CDL truck driving getting people those credentials, having that prepared workforce will also draw additional industries to our area.

Again, we have the people, we need to get them prepared with the skills to take on existing jobs.

And these are same areas that can be expanded.

We can expand industries within the information technology area just like Des Moines, Iowa did in attracting and bringing Facebook there because they had a qualified, skilled workforce.

And then once Facebook arrived other technology companies joined the area, well Peoria is no different.

Once we have the workforce that employers need that industry wants, they will come and we have to we have to be in a position to market what we have and our people are our greatest asset.

- Rita, most Peorian's know when you say 61605, everyone understands what that means, while poverty is not restricted to 61605, it's elsewhere, can you please address the issue of how we can achieve not only financial, but social equity in the coming years?

- Absolutely.

This is another area that I have expertise, I've worked in the area of addressing issues of poverty, of inequity.

I think that we're only stronger when we address our weakest links and of course, 61605 has more challenges than any other zip code, it's the zip code area that I grew up in.

There's a lot of people when I grew up in 61605 on the South Side of Peoria, it was much different neighborhood.

It was more integrated.

There were more, as we were a working class family there was not as much crime in the area.

So I think that we have to be proactive.

And again, that's another reason for the Joint Commission on Racial Justice and Equity, looking at the issues of poverty, under representation, disparities, where those gaps are using data to drive our activities making sure that we're supporting the success of everyone removing barriers so that people can be successful in terms of education, in terms of job opportunities and job training, job preparedness is essential to pull people out of poverty.

- Very briefly, Rita, could you tell us how your campaign and you differentiate from the other candidates?

- Well this is a unique time in Peoria's history.

When a new mayor is going to be elected, amidst multiple crisis, a global pandemic, a recession and civil unrest.

This situation requires experience and proven leadership.

It requires, I think, a person that understands pain, a person who can manage crisis, I've been trained in crisis management.

I think it requires a person who can bridge people together, bridge communities.

This is the work that I've been engaged in for many years in our community.

I think that this is, every problem in my opinion is an opportunity.

So the problems that we have I think we have to work together.

My strategy is bringing people together to build the plan, to build the goals and objectives, build the vision for Peoria.

We have worked, I think too often in silos, we haven't engaged the brain trust of our community.

We have a lot of really smart people in our community that can help us.

And that will volunteer.

That don't even have to be paid to help Peoria to move forward.

We have scientists, we have grant writers we have strategic planners.

We have engineers.

We have people that want to be involved in building Peoria and I call it lend us your best.

- Rita, thank you so much for your time.

We are out of time.

We have to make way for our next guest.

So thank you to Rita Ali.

We'll be back in a moment with Jim Montelongo.

I'm joined now by Jim Montelongo.

Jim is currently on the City Council and thank you for joining us on "At Issue".

- Thank you for having me here.

- Let's talk about the budget first, as you well know the city's had to borrow some money has to cut some programs in order to balance the budget, primarily because of the COVID crisis.

We have what many people are calling high taxes, many fees.

We have a CSO project that we have to pay for, and increasing pension costs.

If you're elected mayor what are you going to do to make sure that we have a balanced budget that can still address the needs of the city over the coming years?

- Sure.

And I think you nailed them all there, what our biggest issues or problems are that we have.

In addition to that, we have population I think early census tells us we've lost about 10,000 in population and we need those people to help pay the bills, help us pay the bills for our city services.

How do we go about balancing the budget?

I think, and you mentioned it, the high taxes and fees, and we can no longer continue to tax and feed the people and or our businesses.

There's only one way out of this and that's to grow population and grow jobs in our community.

- How might you go about growing those jobs?

- Sure.

When I started looking into this deeper what I would like to do and when I'm gonna propose to do is that we work with our small and medium-sized businesses to help each one of those grow and expand their customer base and work and grow in their markets as well.

If they're adding employees, that's helping grow population and it's helping grow revenues for the city.

Now this whole process is called economic gardening, did a lot of research into it.

Cities like Rochester, New York, have implemented something like this.

They have seen thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in new revenues to their city.

So that's one of the things that I'm proposing that we do.

In addition to it we need to be working with our medical community.

I did meet with them.

One of the execs here recently, they have hundreds of jobs that are unfilled at this time.

I think from the city side, we need to be working more closely with them to looking to finding out what can we do to help them in filling those positions or growing more jobs, their supply chain and their businesses that support them are very important too.

We have two major hospitals here that are a regional draw.

We need to continue to work with them to grow these jobs.

And that's really the only way that we're going to get out of the mess that we're in.

It's gonna be through job growth, - While the mayor does not hire a Police Chief, nor does the council, you do work with the Police Chief.

What can you assure us of with regard to your working relationship if elected mayor with the incoming Police Chief in terms of assuring safety in this community?

- Sure.

I think for the new Police Chief coming in I think it's gonna be really important that, and certainly the City Council gets a chance to have a voice on that.

But I think it's also gonna be important that our community has a chance to have a voice in that too.

And I think as well as the Police Department I think it'd be important to get some feedback on what they're looking for in a Police Chief and let them have some feedback that way too.

I know that would certainly help with getting all this feedback in.

It would certainly help getting somebody that we believe in to be our Police Chief.

And it would overall help I think with our community relations and as well inside the Police Department.

- Let's extend that conversation to the Fire Department and to public works.

- [Jim] Sure.

- You're well aware of the fact that the city has closed the firehouse.

When we come to Capitol improvements, quite often public works is the first one hit in terms of cuts.

What if elected mayor might you suggest in order to maintain fire safety and to make sure that public works has sufficient funds to build roads, et cetera?

- Sure.

Well, over the past what we've done is we've gathered data from our roads to let us know which are the best roads which are the worst roads.

So I think it's gonna be very careful prioritization which projects that we attack first.

I know we took a pretty big hit this last year because of COVID and we're gonna be somewhat in that same position this year, but going forward, I think what the people want, they definitely want good roads to drive on and they don't want potholes.

So we need to be able to address that and using that data that I've mentioned to prioritize how we get our projects done.

You mentioned about the Fire Department- - The Fire Department, and you've you've closed one firehouse, what can you do as mayor to improve or at least maintain fire response?

- Sure.

So I think as far as answering that question with the Fire Department and the overall budget, once again, we went off the list from what our Fire Chief told us on we have a budget, and he made recommendations on which firehouses that we could possibly close.

It's gonna make it tough for them to do their job.

And we did, we closed one of, I think three or four that he had given us.

So it's gonna be something very careful that we have to work with our council members and our community to put together this priority list, so to speak.

But it's us working together.

'Cause it's gonna be a tough budget just like you mentioned.

And it's gonna be us working together to be doing our basic city services, and being able to do it in a very efficient way.

- You mentioned jobs earlier and I wanted to have you expand on that, in that is there a particular sector of business that you will focus on as mayor to try to build jobs in Peoria?

- Yeah, so the research that I was doing here really focused on small and medium sized businesses, but that small and medium sized business inside probably the medical industry are those ones that we should be, if there's one industry if that's your question?

- What sector or sectors are you going to focus on?

- Yeah, so the medical industry would be our top one.

I think another opportunity is to looking at creating some kind of consortium of businesses together.

We know that federal government buys products and services upwards of a half a trillion dollars, as a business owner, I was invited to join one consortium in Texas.

And I got a chance to do some research on that, a consortium like that does really well for their community winning millions of dollars a year in contracts.

I think we could do this the very same thing here in Peoria.

When I say 61605, no surprise.

You know what that means.

While 61605 has been the poster child zip code, poverty extends beyond that.

As mayor, what programs might you promote in order to make sure that we have financial and social equity in this community?

- Sure.

One of the things that I've done very successfully over this last 10 years is having monthly meetings with the public.

I think I've had more meetings than any other council person has.

And the purpose of those meetings are to listen, listen to your community and what they're telling you, what their problems are.

And it gives a chance from in my case fourth district, different neighborhoods coming together and hearing each other's problems.

And a lot of times they have a solution for it.

I also have city staff there who can quickly respond to some of the needs, and I want to do the very same thing in all districts, as mayor, be there to listen and understand what the problems are, be there with other City Council members, be there with city staff and be able to respond quickly to what their needs are or put together a plan.

We do have, I think some very good policy in place as far as hiring goes, as far as contracting out business goes.

But I think also the job of the mayor is to help connect people, be a connector between whether it's jobs and people or internships or training, et cetera.

Sometimes people don't know how to get to those opportunities.

And that's part of the job of being mayor.

- And finally, Jim, there are five people running for mayor.

What differentiates you from the other four candidates?

- Sure.

Well, I would say I have 30 years of business experience.

I have a Bachelor's in Engineering a Masters in Business Administration.

I have 12 years of serving on the Peoria City Council, which is almost two times as much experience as all of my opponents combined.

So I think that's my biggest differentiator between me and them.

- Jim Montelongo, thank you so much for joining us on "At Issue".

- Thank you.

- And we'll be back in a moment with another candidate.

I'm joined now by Sid Ruckriegel.

Sid is currently an at-large council member for the City of Peoria.

Thank you for being with us on "At Issue".

Thank you for having me.

- First, you're well aware being on the council that the council had to make some very difficult decisions in balancing the budget, which meant cutting some budgets.

We know that people already think that we have high taxes, we have many fees.

We have a combined sewer overflow project that we have to pay for, and we have increasing pension costs.

So if elected mayor how are you going to address the budgetary needs of the city in the coming years?

- That's one of the things I think I actually can bring to the mayor's office is real life experience on being able to help with that budget and being able to set a plan and a forecast as we go into the future.

It's what I've done in my personal life.

I've bought businesses.

I've run businesses that have had to work within budgets.

What we're looking at is just on the pension alone is almost three quarter of a billion dollars over the next 20 years, we've got to bring back economic development, economic increase to be able to really be able to change the projectory of the community that we're in.

Kind of work within our means on those expenses as well as we go forward and be able to really right-size and right amenity the city government and the services that we do.

We can do that by having the proper staffing levels and being able to really keep conscious what the public is asking for as we address those needs.

- Let's talk about some of the cuts and in particular, the Police Department, while the mayor doesn't hire the incoming Police Chief it's the city manager's position to do that.

But you as mayor if elected would work closely with the new Police Chief, what can you tell us that will help us understand that safety is paramount in your administration?

- I think that safety is paramount and our neighborhoods really look towards the public services that we provide there to be able to stabilize those.

Myself, I have never been for defunding the Police Department.

As a matter of fact, I would make sure that we are at the appropriate staffing levels to be able to give the right services for our Police Department.

And I would also look at new ways in which we can actually integrate them into the neighborhoods.

We're gonna be doing a lot of community projects over the next couple of years.

And if we can actually start to look at substations where our police officers can actually be in the neighborhoods in various ways, almost like we did a number of 15 to 20 years ago.

I think that that can actually help be able to provide a level of service back to our citizens and be able to work very well with those policing efforts.

The definition of substation from your perspective?

- Well, there's a lot of different ways that we could do that.

One of the things is we could, and we've had several outreach areas.

One right now that we've reopened is in the East Bluff.

And that allows police officers to meet with residents right there within the neighborhood and helps bridge the gap.

I think we could do that in other areas of of the city as well.

- Let's turn our attention to other departments in the city, specifically the Fire Department which has closed the firehouse, and public works, roads, et cetera.

Budget cuts there.

What can you do to make sure that we maintain quality fire service and that public works is taken care of, because historically in tough economic times we cut Capitol projects.

That's public works quite often.

- Correct.

And I think each one of those is a very good question.

First off with the Fire Department, I think we need a long-term strategy to be able to really realign those firehouses on a North to South axis so that we can actually reposition our firehouses and the equipment to be able to give the best level of service in the most efficient amount of time to be able to maximize what we're serving to the city.

And right now we've got a system that was built over a number of years.

And I think if we can come back and set a strategy where it will take a couple of capital dollars but long-term, it can actually save some dollars on the cost side for the city.

It's a long-term strategy for the problem.

On the public works, I think that we need to really re identify those projects first making sure that our capital projects actually have the biggest return of investment for as we grow into economic development.

And we do a lot of projects throughout the city.

I think making sure that we have aligned those priorities to the priorities of how we actually grow our economy at this point, public works has had many decreases over the past couple of years in personnel and that has actually put a strain on the services that they provide.

But with now the CSO agreement having been signed and us being able to look at a lot of those projects I think it gives us the opportunity to be able to really actually make sure that public works is staffed at the proper level.

That way we can add those additional projects with the CSO with the green solution, which Peoria will be doing, and that can be part of that move forward.

- With regard to job creation, and that seems to be at the core of most conversations these days, jobs, because jobs will create money for the city.

In what sector or sectors will the city be able to compete to attract jobs, if that is the goal.

And what role does the city itself, the council, the mayor play in building jobs?

What can the city do to make sure that we have more jobs?

- That's a great question.

And when I went on council six years ago, I made a promise to myself that every year I would meet with 40 businesses and talk to all levels of employees within that company to be able to see what they like about Peoria, what keeps them here, and also what it will be to retain them.

One of the things I found out is there's no one cookie cutter answer for all of those things.

We've got to talk to the businesses, some want Peoria, the City Hall, just to stay out of the way and let them do their job.

Some will need help on being able to fill their positions that they have that are open, some need additional training, some need capital projects that might help with the infrastructure transportation for what they are doing or what they're delivering.

It has to be the ongoing conversation with City Hall to be able to help that piece.

The one thing with economic development is I've actually created jobs.

My life has been built on that.

I've worked in communities throughout Illinois and throughout the Midwest.

And I know why and why not businesses locate, stay or grow in areas.

And I think that those skills coming into City Hall being able to sit down and talk business to business across the table, to be able to talk about the attributes that we have here in our community because we have great assets.

The other thing is I think what we're seeing post-COVID is a new understanding of what a community our size can actually bring to the table and innovation, entrepreneurship, those sort of business investments, or business movements can actually play very well here.

We're seeing a move and questions from people who have lived in large cities because they thought that convenience was there or that they needed to be there, into actually coming to smaller areas because the lifestyle is there, to be able to set up their business, their innovation, their place of work, and with work from home, that becomes a very good option.

- If I say 61605, almost everybody in Peoria knows what that means.

- Yes.

- And while poverty is not restricted to that particular zip code, there is an issue.

There is an image at least, and some reality with regard to when people say 61605.

What role does the mayor play, what role does the City Council play in making sure that we bring both financial and social equity to all in the city?

- Equity among all levels needs to be a priority of the city, income, social.

And that needs to be one of the forefronts that helps us make those decisions, and the best way to be able to bring equity to all citizens in Peoria is to make for sure that we have job opportunities.

The best thing that we can do as we move forward is to make for sure that opportunities are here and available and accessible for all of our citizens.

That means making sure that as we look at neighborhoods that we've got the transportation equity, we've got the ability for training that we need to be able to match up employers to employees.

And we've got to be able to build the foundation for our neighborhoods to return back to work.

- You are one of five candidates running for the mayor of the City of Peoria.

What differentiates you from the other four candidates?

- Thank you.

I think I come with the experience of actually being a problem solver.

I've done it in my business life.

I've done it in my personal life.

I've served on community boards where I have been charged with being able to make a significant difference very quickly, and being able to change the projectory.

I bring that skill and that asset to be able to come to the mayor's office to be able to lead our city.

Doesn't happen by one person.

It comes to be a reality based on the ability to bring everybody together.

And we've got a lot of talented minds a lot of great assets in our community and the person who takes the leadership over the next four years will need to draw on all of that, bring those together so that as we look at the opportunities that we have that we have a solution that is built upon the community itself.

There's a lot of work to be done, but I'm ready to take on that challenge.

And I think that as you look at why Sid Ruckriegel should be mayor of Peoria I think if you go to the experience that I have shown both on council and off that I'm the right guy to be able to do that.

And we say, thank you so much Sid Ruckriegel for running for mayor and thank you for being on "At Issue".

- Thank you very much.

- We'll be back in just a moment with another candidate for the mayor of the City of Peoria.

I'm joined now by Chama St. Louis, and Chama, thank you so much for joining us on "At Issue".

- Thank you for having me.

- Chama, you know that the city had to borrow some money and had to cut some positions in order to balance the budget during the COVID cuts in income.

And I want to know how, if you're elected mayor how you will address the issue, knowing that we already have described taxes being too high.

We have too many fees.

We have the cost of combined sewer overflow coming up.

And I want to know how you're going to address budgetarily the city's problems if you're elected?

Yeah, I think in order to increase our city's budget we have to be willing to think outside of the box for revenue generating ideas.

So I would be looking to sit down with current city staff and talk to them about some of their ideas that they have that can generate more revenue for our city.

We know that we raise a lot of our money through sales tax and property tax.

So we need more people buying homes and we need more people buying things within the city.

So I have a plan within my platform to rejuvenate our economy.

And part of that is removing a lot of the red tape that prevents businesses like startups and scalable businesses from being able to be successful here in Peoria.

So we can have growth in that area but then also providing resonance with a monthly stimulus for our low income residents.

So they're spending more money here in Peoria as well.

That monthly stimulus pilot program is not a program that's funded through public tax dollars.

It is funded through private money and you partner with a nonprofit research organization to really get into the details of how something like that can work in our city.

So Compton just implemented this program to boost their economy as well.

They've raised $2.5 million with the hopes of raising eight million and they are providing a monthly stimulus to 800 of their residents through this program as well.

So they're comparable in size and I would be looking to mimic their program for here.

If the research says that it's feasible.

So yeah, just really coming up with ideas to think outside of the box, to generate more revenue and get more people owning their homes and having that additional income and making it more conducive for businesses to thrive.

- During these tough economic times, Chama, the city's had to either cut some positions or not fill some open positions, that includes the Police Department.

How might you work knowing that the City Council and the mayor do not hire the Police Chief, the city manager does, but the new incoming Police Chief how might you work with that person in order to improve safety in the city?

- I think in order to do that we need to have a sit down and talk about what the vision for my administration would be, what type of Peoria that I am looking to create and how we feel that our folks who are our public servants should work for the people.

And I think once you have a unified vision of the type of community we're trying to create and what the acceptable culture is for our community you can work from there.

So I would be looking forward to sitting down with the new Police Chief, hearing a little bit about what they've done in the past, how they've been to deter crime in a way that is not abusive to the residents, but then also really having a in-depth conversation about how I envision public safety.

I have in my platform to reimagine public safety as access to resources and opportunities, not just more policing and arrest and also looking to build a community safety department which is an extra arm of the Police Department or separate from the Police Department that allows for some of those calls to be rewired to specialists and lightens the load on police so that they can do their job more effectively and prevent negative interactions between residents and police.

- Those cuts of course, extended across the city budget including public works, roadways, things of that nature.

And the Fire Department.

In fact, a firehouse has been closed.

How would you address under these current economic times any improvements in the Fire Department or in public works?

- I think the Fire Department could do, could come up with some more ways to generate revenue for the Fire Department.

I think also too, we can repurpose how we're using some of our firefighters.

So like doing things that are more preventative.

So using them to also do housing checks, to make sure that we're having less fires, making sure that everything is up to code in some of our older neighborhoods.

And I think right now, we just don't have the resources to economically empower our departments at this point.

So we really have to figure out how are we working who we have to be more preventative.

And then also, how do we generate more revenue in the meantime.

So what are some other cities doing with their Fire Departments and their public works system to generate that additional income.

- With regard to job growth, what sectors can Peoria compete in to attract more jobs and how might the city go about what role does the city specifically play in helping to grow jobs?

- I think our city needs to really be more focused on growing business capacity here in Peoria before we attract more outside jobs.

I think we have lots of people who have entrepreneurial spirits, lots of people who have businesses who could really scale up their businesses and grow their capacity.

And I think it's the responsibility of local government to support those businesses and put them in a position to where they can be most successful.

In addition to that, I think as we're building our neighborhoods as we're empowering the businesses that we have, as we're working to reduce crime we turn Peoria into a more favorable place to live.

And it makes it a whole lot easier for us to be able to attract businesses here.

So I think in our current condition right now, personally I believe that attracting more businesses here with every all of the black eyes that we have right now is unrealistic.

I think we have to really take a deeper look at what our issues are and what we can do as a city to combat some of that to repair some of the harm that has been created.

And then we can lay the foundation for appealing to other businesses to come here.

Whenever somebody says 61605 we all know what that means.

And poverty is not restricted just to that zip code, it extends beyond, but how might you go about addressing the social and financial inequities in this community if you're elected mayor?

- So I talked about the monthly stimulus pilot program experiment that is really been successful as well in San Francisco.

They just implemented it as well.

So really looking forward to having something like that here in Peoria, I would want to join the mayor's coalition for guaranteed income, which has mayors from all over the country, a part of that coalition and they're implementing that in their city.

So that is one thing, but then also reviewing the budget and making sure that how we're spending money is also being spent in a racially equitable way.

And I don't think that we go into setting our budget with that type of lens and just really seeing like if this is how we look at the budget, how does our spending change?

And so I'm doing that as well, but then also making sure that right now we have a job skills gap.

So making sure that the jobs that we have available we have folks that are being trained for those jobs.

And so we're doing a better job of reaching out to people letting them know what types of jobs we have available here in Peoria and what are their options to be able to obtain those jobs.

So those are just a few of the ideas.

- Briefly, Chama.

What differentiates you from the other four candidates running for the City of Peoria mayor position?

- I am the only candidate that is not status quo.

I'm the only candidate that's challenging the status quo, at least three of the candidates that are running have already been on the council.

And we are unhappy.

A lot of us are unhappy with how the city has been run.

And so I bring a new approach.

I bring bolder ideas.

I think Peoria is in a position right now where we can't take baby steps towards progress.

We need someone who's gonna be willing to take leaps and bounds towards progress and someone who's willing to make decisions as it relates to racial equity, as it relates to economic growth, but also economic fairness.

And I think that is, I know that's me as a candidate.

So the other candidates are offering more of the same of what we've always had.

And if that's the case, they can stay in their seat and continue to offer that.

But we need someone who is a visionary and has a vision for where we should be.

And I think too often we view Peoria as it is, and we don't think ahead as to where we could be and where we should be.

And so my platform does that.

Chama St. Louis, thank you so much for joining us on "At Issue".

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me, always a pleasure.

- And we'll be back next time with another edition of "At Issue".

This time we'll be looking at the opioid crisis overdoses.

We'll have four experts talking about programs that address that issue.

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