Candidates for Board of Aldermen Discuss Priorities

The Grain Valley Partnership hosted a candidate forum Tuesday evening, March 19th at City Hall. Only candidates running in contested wards participated in the forum. Ward 1 candidates Dale Arnold and Tom Cleaver and Ward 2 candidates Chuck Johnston and current Alderman Nancy Totton participated in the forum discussion. Ward 3 Alderman Shea Bass, who is running uncontested in the April election, attended but did not participate in the discussion.

Candidates addressed a number of questions posed by moderators, which began with each candidate sharing why they chose to run for a seat on the Board.

Ward 2 candidate Chuck Johnston previously served on the Board of Aldermen for 10 years and stated he chose to run again due to a desire to serve his community and concerns regarding what he sees as a lack of communication from the city.

Current Ward 2 Alderman Nancy Totton emphasized her open-door policy with constituents and her desire to continue to work to address their needs.

Ward 1 candidate Dale Arnold has also served on the board previously and also noted his desire to give back to the community where he has lived for 32 years.

Ward 1 candidate Tom Cleaver has not previously run for office. Cleaver has lived in Grain Valley for 13 years with his wife and two daughters.

“I am running because I want to give back to the community and want to continue to see the city grow and prosper. I want to focus on bringing business to the city to give opportunities to future families that were given to my family,” Cleaver said.

Each of the candidates discussed an alderman’s role in communicating with and educating constituents on the issues facing the city.

“The best thing you can do is meet an issue/concern head on. You often find out that people who are upset about an issue are misinformed. It is the alderman’s job to get them the right information. It might change their mind or not change their mind, but at least they have the right information. Don’t run from conflict,” Arnold said.

“It is important to get out in the neighborhood and talk to residents and community groups. It is the alderman’s role to consider residents and make informed decisions based on the facts at hand,” Cleaver said.

“I have an open-door policy, and I listen to what residents have to say. Very seldom have we not agreed,” Totton said.

“People don’t know what is going on in the community. The City needs to be more proactive about communicating what is going on. But, many of the citizens aren’t involved in the community, and need to take an interest,” Johnston said.

“I encourage people in my ward to come to Board of Aldermen meetings and find out what is going on,” Totton said.

The discussion moved to planning for the future and managing debt.

“We will be seeing more housing, and the need for more roads. Because of our schools, we will continue to attract families. We’ll need more business to support that growth,” Cleaver said.

“I would like to see more people participating in the community and see citizens shop locally,” Totton said. “I’m also concerned about the prices of rental property. It is becoming more difficult to find affordable rental property in town.”

“I’ll say the same thing I said the first time I ran for office. Work on city debt and bring in business. The more we can do to bring in business, the more relief we will be able to provide for homeowners,” Johnston said.

“I’ve lived here since it was a town of 2,800 people. We like to think of it as a small hometown, but in another 30 years, that word won’t be in our vocabulary any more. We are seeing growth taking off like we saw in the early 2000’s. With that growth, businesses will come,” Arnold said. As the topic turned to managing debt, and how the City has managed its debt load in the past, the candidates agreed that debt is a necessary part of building for future growth.

“Everybody wants top notch (services), but nobody wants to pay for it. Police and fire need to be taken care of first,” Totton said.

“Most of our debt has been for infrastructure. I think overall the city has done a good job in the past 20 years. I think we are handicapped by that debt, but we’re not that far out of line compared to other cities,” Johnston said.

“Those who move in to Grain Valley in the future are going to be a lot better off than we were 30 years ago. Those of us who have been here have been paying for that debt; we have a number of pieces of debt that will be paid off in 8- 10 years that will open up opportunities for us. Hopefully, when those things are put in place, we’ll be able to spread those costs among more people. Debt is something you really have to watch, so we don’t put ourselves in a position like Independence experienced with the Bass Pro development. It’s something you wish you had a crystal ball for, but you don’t,” Arnold said.

“Sometimes as a city you have to take on debt to move forward,” Cleaver said.

Moderators asked candidates to address criticisms regarding the City’s purchase of land, in particular the Sni-A- Bar Farm property, with the intent of building a municipal complex and other facilities for residents.

“I was the dissenting vote against buying property for City Hall. I like City Hall being centered in the middle of the city and we’re seeing commercial going north instead of south. I don’t think it was a wise investment. It was a million dollars that we could put to better use,” Johnston said.

Arnold pointed to the difficulties Blue Springs has faced as they expand their current City Hall, with staff spread out throughout several buildings during construction and the inconvenience caused for staff and residents attempting to conduct business.

“Starting on a fresh piece of land makes it a little easier and makes growth a bit more palatable,” Arnold said.

“Yes, I support it as a future need of the City,” Cleaver said.

“We are living in the past. We don’t have a big enough police station and we don’t have things we need for our safety during court and board meetings,” Totton said. “We need to grow with the people.”

The General Municipal Election will be held April 2, 2019.

Candidates for the Board of Aldermen participated in a Candidate Forum hosted by the Grain Valley Partnership on March 20th at City Hall. From left: Tom Cleaver, candidate for Ward 1; Dale Arnold, candidate for Ward 1; Chuck Johnston, candidate for Ward 2; Nancy Totton, current Ward 2 Alderman running for re-election. election.

Photo credit: Valley News staff