ShawneeDispatch.com

Shawnee's mayoral candidates faced each other one last time before Tuesday's election Friday morning at the Shawnee Rotary Club's meeting.

Incumbent Jeff Meyers and his challenger, Dan Pflumm, Ward I Shawnee City Council member, answered several questions posed by club members at the club's regular meeting at the HomeTown Buffet. It was perhaps the last time they will speak before the public together until Election Day April 1.

Meyers said he would continue to be honest and trustworthy, do his best and treat others as he would like to be treated if re-elected as mayor. He said he does what he does because he cares about people.

"I'm going to pledge that I will continue working to fulfill my duties and responsibilities as mayor," Meyers said.

Pflumm said he was running to try to keep the tax burden lower for residents and do more about economic development in the city.

"We as a city need to be doing everything we can to help our businesses out, whether they're large ones or small one," he said. "And I think we can do a lot more in that area."

The following are the questions posed to the two candidates, followed by their paraphrased responses:

1. Do you have time to be mayor? How much time do you think it should require, and how much time do you plan to put into it?

Pflumm: "Do I have time? I'll make time," he said. He said he works hard at his job, but he's always taken time out to coach his kids in sports. "I made time for those events, and I'll make time for city events." He said to be mayor, some of the time it would take a lot of time, and some times not as much. "I'll do exactly what it requires," he said. "Probably the biggest thing is to get the economic engine moving forward."

Meyers: He said he stands by his attendance record. He said he doesn't miss things, and he attends meetings for several groups. He said it's hard to add up, but the time necessary for mayoral duties can be anywhere from 20 to 40 hours a week. "I think if you think that the time the mayor spends is busy sometimes but not all the time - it is busy all the time," Meyers said. "It takes a lot of time every single day: And over time, it doesn't become less, the expectations become greater and greater. But I love the job, I love to be busy."

2. What do you see as the key points to continue the working relationships the city and business community have developed over the years?

Meyers: He said it is important to be accessible to people, and he is all about teamwork. "I don't believe you as a person can do everything on your own," he said, adding the city needs to build consensus among Council members, businesses, residents and important community members. "Get them involved, help them be part of some of the decisions being made in what's going to help move this community forward," he said. "I think we've done an excellent job of that, and I will continue to do that."

Pflumm: He said he thinks the city's relationship with businesses now is very good, but if the city was doing a great job, it would benefit businesses here. "I think we've done a good job, but I also think we can always do a better job," he said. "Businesses and residents would benefit by our economy going in a better direction."

3. Name the economic development or initiative you're most proud of supporting or not supporting in last four years.

Pflumm: He said all of them. He said he always has been pushing for incentives to bring in new businesses and redevelopment. He suggested a TIF be used for the Westbrooke Village shopping center to redevelop it. He said he didn't think he's ever been against an economic development and has voted for every business coming in. "I think I could support just about any initiative as long as it's fair to our businesses and to our citizens."

Meyers: He said he is proud of being involved in working in a collaborative manner with the chamber on the city's recent leadership summits. "I think that's been something that's been very important in building that teamwork, that relationship, that understanding of what our community needs to continue moving forward." He said one good thing that came out of the summits was the current branding campaign. "I don't think it's going to be the golden wand, but I think it's something that is allowing us to focus on our community to see if there's some way that we can go out there to do a better job of selling ourselves as a community and being a place that people want to come." He said he tries to gauge how people feel about the community daily and loves to hear that people love Shawnee as a place to raise their family. He noted BusinessWeek's unsolicited rating of Shawnee as one of the top 25 suburbs in the country two years ago, and the city also was recognized as a top 20 All-America city last year. "We want to have that positive attitude, we want to create that community, that people say, 'This is an inviting community, this is somewhere that we want to be.' And I think we do that."

4. Shawnee has 325 acres of developed park land, and over 240 acres of owned but undeveloped park land. Is that number high, low or just right? How do you propose to pay for the development of undeveloped parks and the maintenance of developed parks?

Meyers: He said he is proud of the city's parks, and he thinks the city gets a lot of bang for its buck. He said the city hears from residents about importance of parks through its needs assessment surveys. "We have limitations on our budget, but I think we've done an excellent job with budget we have." He said holding on to undeveloped park land is important because land prices aren't going down. But the city will have to wait and see if it can bring in new revenue or make other decisions through the community on how to develop that land in future, he said.

Pflumm: Compared to other Johnson County cities, Shawnee has a good amount of parks and does a good job, he said, plus Shawnee has other county-owned park amenities. To pay for parks, he said the city has to have growth and a thriving economy. "We can finish out the parks we have by inflating our revenue into the city instead of raising taxes." Pflumm said the tax revenue increases every year from houses' assessed valuations going up, and that should take care of inflation needs. "Our economy has to grow and sales tax has to increase every year, and we as a city have to drive that."

5. Please rate yourself on how good you are at building consensus with the City Council. Pflumm, how would you plan to build consensus you will need to be an effective mayor? Meyers, do you feel you have been affective at building consensus?

Pflumm: Those on the City Council have different opinions, he said. "I've had a low tax, economic, you know, agenda, and I don't believe everybody has the exact same agenda as I do. I believe that I'm there for the citizens that elected me, and if I'm elected to represent the residents of the entire city, I will have to maintain a consensus and drive the people to expand our economy." He said as a business owner, he has people work for him, and they are a pretty good engine.

Meyers: He said he is a consensus builder, and he thinks he's had great success at that. But he turned the subject to taxes in the city, since they kept getting brought up. He said over 14 years, property taxes on a $250,000 home have gone up $114. "If you do the math on that, your property taxes have risen about $10, $11, maybe a little bit less than that, per year. Match that with anybody in the Kansas City metropolitan area; I don't think you'll be able to." He said the city has to have fiscal responsibility. He said the city knew there was going to be a day when the mill levy would have to be raised, and it happened two years ago. If the city didn't raise taxes, Meyers said the city would have had to take steps backwards, reducing employees in the city, and most employees are in police and fire protection. The city wouldn't have been able to complete projects in the city, and the city's bond rating likely would have been lowered, raising the costs of future large projects. Over 14 years, the mill levy was decreased 3.6 mills, so the current mill levy is comparable to the city's levy in 1991.

6. If there was one action or inaction that as a mayor or a City Council member you took and that you regret, what would that be?

Meyers: It's easy to look back and say that you're not always perfect and that you make mistakes, he said. But each day, he said, he's trying to do the best he can, and he honestly can't think of something he's done that he regrets. "Not because I haven't made mistakes, but because I'm trying to do the very best that I can for this community." He said it's probably a good thing, if nothing stands out in his head as something he regrets.

Pflumm: He agreed that it's a tough question. "I hope (Meyers) believes in all his decisions; I believe in mine." He said he's gone against the Council's majority vote several times, and he doesn't regret it, because he feels he's done the honest thing and what he believes in.

7. Closing comments.

Meyers: "I think we get attacked a little bit on budget and economic development. I would say that economic development-wise, we have been moving forward, we are in a very positive position." He said the Dillons stores are closing everywhere because of the company's decision to leave the area, and he has met with Westbrooke developers, so the city is not sitting on its hands. It's discussing things it can do to redevelop and initiate businesses coming into the shopping center. He said he thinks the city is moving forward, and is in a good position with land that is ripe for development. As far as the budget, he said Shawnee is very frugal. He said residents are paying $50 a month on a $211,000 home for all the services in the city. He said Shawnee is the only city in the county that does not have a 5 percent franchise fee on utilities, which saves homeowners about $150 on gas bills alone. The city also has almost 200 fewer employees than Lenexa, which is a much smaller city.

Pflumm: "You've gotta look around Johnson County. We've not been competitive with some of our neighbors. You look at their budgets, and they're quite a bit larger than ours. We have the rooftops, we have a lot of advantages over them, and we need to capitalize on those advantages and win." He said as a business man starting his company from scratch, he's done pretty well. He said the city can do just as well and increase development, but it has to really push to do it. He said Wyandotte County has done a good job with the Legends, and Shawnee should get development because it is probably better positioned in the Kansas City area than other cities in the county. He said he thinks he could really help in that arena.