Ed. Note: Below is the transcript of the interview with Devon Reese. She is running for the council seat representing the Northwest District.
Marc Jacobs: Today we are talking with the council candidates for the Northwest district of Hutchinson. Right now, we are speaking with Devin Reese. Good morning. Good morning. How are you fine? And tell me a little bit about Devon Reese. Tell me who she is, where she's from.
Devon Reese: Well, I was born and raised here. I was only not here for 10 years, so that's 56 years, minus 10. I have two kids who went to school here. I have two grandkids here. My mom is here still, and I'm just a person who wants to make Hutch better.
Marc Jacobs: So let's just dive right into it. How should Hutchinson balance attracting new industries like renewable energy, energy or advanced manufacturing, while also trying to support locally owned businesses and create downtown revitalization.
Devon Reese: Well, I think that our biggest problem is obviously our taxes. We should make it easier for people and more affordable for people to live here, for businesses to be here, we need to help out our downtown businesses that are already here. They have a huge potential. We need to grant them grace, grant them patience, to make their businesses grow from the beginning, and support them. We can support them with downtown events, with local events such as, I mean, Oklahoma and Missouri have no tax weekends. We could do something like that to help them. That also helps with the taxes. I mean, when you're sending kids to school, you got all kinds of expenses. We can cut the taxes for a weekend so that they can get those supplies and help them, everyone out.
Marc Jacobs: All right, so this kind of goes along with that. We talk about housing and neighborhoods. What specific steps would you like to take to address Hutchinson's housing shortage, particularly the affordable and workforce housing, and how should the city partner with developers and nonprofits to accomplish that,
Devon Reese: We need to streamline Fast Track permits for zoning and the new developments where the city owns land. It would be nice if they could go ahead and develop it how they wanted to develop it and then let the builders all build. If it's more than one builder, it's going to come up fast. Come up faster for a city neighborhood, for housing, if it's for city development, have all the infrastructure done already, and then the businesses will be able to fast track a little bit more. That goes for even like housing now that want to do construction at their house, we need to fast track and help those permits go faster. Dot our i's and cross our t's the first time so we don't have to do it a second time.
Marc Jacobs: Okay, this is probably another important, a very important issue. You know, we've talked about economic development, we've talked about housing in neighborhoods, infrastructure and public safety. Safety is the next thing to think about as the city faces aging infrastructure and limited budgets. How do you prior? How would you suggest we prioritize spending on roads, water system, public safety and other core services?
Devon Reese: Well, obviously our water system is got to be our first and foremost thought in our minds. We have not maintained that for years, so we need to, unfortunately, pay more so that we can get that, so we have better water. And right now, we have great parks. Yes, we have to maintain that. We have to maintain our roads. We have to upgrade the systems that we have now, but maintenance all along the way is key. If we would be made would have maintained our water supply system and infrastructure. We may not be in the place that we are now.
Marc Jacobs: We've talked about economic development, we've talked about housing and neighborhoods, we've talked about infrastructure and public safety. Next step is quality of life and community engagement. What role should the city of Hutchinson play in supporting parks and arts and community events, and how can Hutchinson make these amenities more accessible to all residents.
Devon Reese: First way that we can make it accessible is to make them known. Use our businesses to help promote them. Work with local businesses to help bring in the different kinds of events that will help their business as well. So. Yeah, we need to maintain our parks that we have. We need to simplify the permit process for everyone, not just a few. We need to bring in a variety of events that engage all people, such as outdoor concerts during the summertime, Christmas Village at Christmas Halloween Town. I mean, I love Halloween. Who doesn't flower festivals during the spring, we have an art gallery that I really didn't know a lot about until just recently, bring in a local artist, like a tree Carver, metal artist, glass blower, people who can show off their talents at our gallery, and it just be a festival of sorts.
Marc Jacobs: This one can be a tricky issue, and I don't think it's a tricky issue. It's pretty straight up front and foremost, there's physical responsibility and transparency. If you are elected, how would you ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and what and residents have a clear understanding of how the decisions are made at City Council and at City Hall?
Devon Reese: First, I think that we definitely need to be transparent, and a way to do that is for people to get involved. There's lots of committees that they can get involved in. And when a person is involved in the city and in groups, they know more. We need to have our budget on our agenda every month. It needs to be talked about the people of Hutchinson, they are checks and balances, and if they know they're going to keep us on track. I also think that if that our city council meetings are on the first and third Tuesday of every month, at 5:30 so that doesn't make it so everyone can go to it. So, if we had a town hall meeting once a quarter even, to go over a budget, go over things like our water infrastructure, people will be more aware of why things are happening and why money is being spent. Okay.
Marc Jacobs: Final topic is, it is basically a look ahead, a look and look into the future. In 10 years, what do you think, or what do you hope the city will look like, and what key initiatives or policy changes would you like to enact now to champion to make that goal a reality?
Devon Reese: Well, I have two grandkids. They're part of the reason why I'm running for city council is their future here. In 10 years, they'll be teenagers and deciding what and where they want to be and what they want to be. I want them to stay invested in their hometown, which is here in hutch, and be proud in 10 years, we should have more housing, more manufacturing and more attractions, having businesses, people, having businesses, and people who are invested in their hometown, teaching now, teaching those in our future how to invest in the hometown is going to be prosperous for all of us. The one thing that is leading me in everything I do is that I use common sense to evaluate the situation and problems and solve them.
Marc Jacobs: All right, we have a few minutes left in this in this interview. Is there anything that you want to bring up that you have not brought up, or you want to make any adjustments to what you had said earlier? Now's the time to do it. So, the microphone is yours.
Devon Reese: So, whenever we're talking about housing and neighborhoods, a lot of our downtown businesses are owned by people who don't live here anymore. I think that one thing that we need to do is get a hold of them, find out what their what they want to do with that building, what their ideas are. Help them get that. And we can use businesses like interfaith housing to help update decapitated homes. We can help it with maybe even the JUCO students who are in the constructions learning the constructions trade. Maybe they can help us with those businesses and revitalize them and make them useful. We need to use all of our assets here in town, and we have lots of them. They're just not tapped into another thing that I think we really need to remember is part of the city council's job is public safety, economic growth and quality of life. We have all that potential here. We just need, and we do use a lot of it. I'm not saying we don't, but we need to make sure that we are capitalizing on everybody's talents, just like we do in your businesses, you capitalize on talents, and you help the weak become strong. We're only as strong as our weakest link, and that is. Very important. I think that we need to remember that unfortunately, we have to raise rates on some things but make sure that it's meaningful and not wasteful. Spending money on things like parks are important. I'm not saying they're not important, but another park is not always something we need to focus on right now. Right now, I'm going to say again, it is our water system and our water infrastructure that is important. It's going to help our growth. Another thing that's going to help our growth is again, lowering our taxes and our property taxes. We cannot be taxing people out of their house and homes in any way.
Marc Jacobs: All right, you made great points about everything. Is there anything else that you would want to you want to add to inform voters what where you stand on what you and what you want to do moving forward.
Devon Reese: I want everyone to know that I'm here for everyone. I have never been in office before. This is the first time I'm running for office, and I if I am elected, or I should say when I'm elected, I want your help and in order for any city to grow and to prosper, everyone has to be involved. Everyone has to help. It's not one person, it's everybody. I hope that everyone will go out and vote on November 4. Open elections have started right now.
Marc Jacobs: We have been talking with Devon Reese, she is a candidate for the Northwest district of the Hutchinson City Council. Thank you for your time this morning.
Devon Reese: Have a have a great day. Thank you for having me.