The Aug. 5 edition incorrectly stated that Lynnwood City Council candidate Bob Young did not respond to questions from the Enterprise. His answers can be read below and at http://tinyurl.com/n2exnf. The Enterprise regrets the error.
Bob Young
Age: 55
Marital/family status: Married with two adult daughters
Education: Small Business EDCC
Occupation: Repair station manager
What can you do to improve communications with city government?
Communications must begin with the Mayor, the city staff and Council. We need to assure the Mayor will be open to genuine discussion and not treat the Council and staff as he has the past four years. The Mayor must be able to delegate the day-to-day operation of the city to its department heads and work harder to allow them to be creative to streamline each department to maximize efficiency. The financial viability of the city depends on each department to reduce expenditures to get the most value out of our limited resources.
How should the city handle its financial problems?
We need to build a strong economy by limiting the size and scope of city government and prioritize spending to benefit our residents. During the last four years the city staff has added new departments and their cost vs. benefits to our citizens need to be studied. We need to generate new revenue streams to minimize the financial impact on our citizens. The current Council will attempt to immediately remedy our $9 million financial shortfalls by tax increases, reducing services by our police and court. We need to procure funding for the immediate services our planned expansion will consume.
How should the city deal with annexation issues?
I’m for annexation and do not believe the Council has done enough to advise the potential new Lynnwood citizens of all aspects and impacts of the planned annexation. We need protection of our property rights and I support property tax relief for our fixed-income citizens. Currently our Council has given the green light to increasing property taxes beyond the 1-percent limit (2006).
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