Tumm, McKenzie seek election to Nevada City Council

Two candidates, Sonya Tumm and James McKenzie are vying for election to a seat on the Nevada City Council in Tuesday's election. Both candidates were given identical question relating to their positions and thoughts on campaign-related issues. Their responses follow.

Sonya K. Tumm

The city's 1/2-cent transportation sales tax expires in 2011. Should the city council ask the voters to renew it and why or why not?

First, before I could make a decision on that, it would need to be reviewed. I would like to see what the tax was to be used for. There are areas that need to be addressed; we have many streets that need work, street signs that are missing and some that need to be replaced, I would like to see our address placed on the curb for easy of visibility or make a standard requirement on the size of our house numbers. So before I could vote on this those are some things I would like to look at.

If you are elected to the city council, what are your goals for the next three years?

My goals are very simple, and that is to be involved in our community. In the next three years, my hope is to see our town flourish. The city council will have to take each year as it comes and make the improvements that need to be made.

What is your vision for Nevada in 10 years?

Ten years from now, that is a tough question, I would like to see Nevada be a community where people want to live, to do this we need to bring more business and job opportunities to our community. Education needs to be promoted, we have great schools in our community and that is an area families look at.

Is there anything else you would like to address?

I would like to add I hope our community gets out and votes on April the 6th. Hope to see you all at the polls.

James McKenzie

The city's 1/2-cent transportation sales tax expires in 2011. Should the city council ask the voters to renew it and why or why not?

Absolutely. This is the fairest way to maintain the city's streets and sidewalks. This provides funds to repair potholes, improve local streets, provide safe routes to school; expand public transportation services with increased senior and disabled accessibility; improve pedestrian and bike paths; mitigate runoff and water pollution from road construction and so on. I was fortunate to have served on the council when former member Ben Mendenhall and the late Wayne Neil proposed this as a funding source and solution. Prior to that there wasn't really a separate funding source to handle this ongoing project.

If you are elected to the city council, what are your goals for the next three years?

I would like to see a Code Enforcement board/committee made up of citizen's, realtors, and landlords not hinged upon their economic status but rather their willingness to contribute to the entire community and work with the City Manager for the greater good instead of their own personal gains; these are often the people who have first contact with new families and businesses wanting to live in our community. It is very important to maintain a clean and safe city.

Another goal was to have hired a city manager who would call Nevada home; I am pleased to see that goal has been met and now it is up to the city council to work side by side with him to make Nevada strong and healthy again and bring the Pride back into our community.

I would like to see economic development and tourism become stronger and re-establish the ties they once had within the state; to make sure Nevada is included at the top of the list for major businesses that want to relocate or start up in Nevada.

I would like to make sure we are doing all we can to help our small business within Nevada; small businesses are the backbone of any community, if they die out so does the community. They employ anywhere from two to 10 employees. Some feel if you lose one small business it's only a couple of people out of work but when you lose 10 or more, that is 20-100 people out of work and so on. If we are able to make this an inviting place to have a small business who employ two to 10 people it helps to grow our economy.

What is your vision for Nevada in 10 years?

I want to find a way to guarantee Nevada's preservation and prosperity. It is a rolling vision as we cannot always predict what happens tomorrow. What we can do now is to fix the problems we have now and put into place measures that preserve necessities like public safety and an educated and skilled work force; things that attract businesses and families to a town. I would like to see our own children want to come back after college and bring their education back to Nevada. One of the most common sayings amongst our high school seniors is "I can't wait to leave Nevada" and when asked why they simply state because "there is nothing here for us." We need to work on finding a way to prevent this; make it possible for them to bring their ideas and skills back to Nevada instead of other larger towns. One of the major roadblocks Nevada has faced in being selected as a location for larger business the lack of an educated work base; these are not my words but the words of the companies that pass us up. Nevada needs to be a place our children want to come back to where they can work and raise a family. This is a never ending cycle; small goals need to be met in order to be able to obtain long term results.

Is there anything else you would like to address?

I enjoy being a part of community service. I have seen the positive results when a community pulls together and having lived here all my life and raising my family here I want to make sure Nevada succeeds so my children will want to come back and raise their families here, too.

I have not spent my adult years serving on boards and commissions as a hobby, nor have I spent the last 25 years helping others in time of need and considered it just a job, this town is my life and I will always work hard on any project that proves to be of benefit to the town and its citizens. It is easy for us to sit back and blame others for our problems and while they may be responsible for the poor state of things if we never do anything to help fix those problems then we are the ones to blame.

The city council's role is to be representatives of the citizens and not of themselves; to work within the guidelines of our city charter, to support its city manager and give him or her the tools they need to the job.