BROOKINGS The three men vying for two open seats on the Brookings City Council took part in a Saturday morning forum where a range of questions from housing and a new public safety building to Friday office hours were heard and answered.
Nick Wendell and Wayne Avery, both incumbents, and newcomer Al Austreim are seeking two open seats on the City Council, with the election set for April 9. Before that, though, was the Brookings Area Chamber of Commerces forum, which attracted two dozen or so attendees and was moderated by Angela Boersma, owner of ID8 Architecture and a former Brookings County commissioner.
Approximately 11 questions were asked of the candidates. Some were technical in nature while others were more to the point. The queries included three that were selected for focus based, well, on multiple dice rolls. Thank you, Yahtzee!
QUESTION: If re-elected, what initiatives would you support or propose that would help to balance affordable housing options for long-term residents as well as students?
WAYNE AVERY: Weve been involved in a number of affordable or workforce housing projects, and when you come right down to it, you find that the cost of a housing project is just set. The only way to reduce the cost is to share those costs with various governmental agencies. Weve been successful in doing that.
Weve been willing to use the TIF financing for projects, weve cooperated and helped people obtain grants through the state funding sources that they have, Avery said. So weve been really fortunate. Were always willing to if theres an adjustment that needs to be made on an ordinance or something that facilitates that, were willing to do that.
AL AUSTREIM: Ive been an advocate for affordable housing for many years through different entities that Im involved with. The biggest thing I feel about affordable housing is, what is affordable, and how does that relate to the people who are searching for the housing?
The biggest thing with government is to make sure that were not doing anything that is standing in the way. We have to have regulations, rules, zoning ordinances and all that stuff but we have to make sure that they make sense so that were not a roadblock causing extra costs to the developers, to the builders, Austreim continued. Its no secret that builders, developers are in it as a business; the purpose of any business is to make money. If they have extra costs, that gets passed down to the consumer, the renter. We need to do our part to make sure that were not creating any roadblocks.
NICK WENDELL: We know that access to workforce and affordable housing is a major issue. Every major employer in the community would say that our housing challenges are impacting their ability to recruit and retain high-quality workers. We have, as Wayne noted, implemented incentives through the TIF program to encourage the development of housing. Weve also provided land, which can be a particular cost in housing.
Weve really tried to be good partners with the development community to encourage the creation of workforce housing, Wendell noted. We have also tried to be thoughtful about how we reinvest in our core neighborhoods, where it could be more affordable to rehabilitate existing houses on existing blocks that are already connected to infrastructure rather than sprawling out into new neighborhoods.
Q: There has been conversation on a new city public safety building. Whats your position on the location, the timing and how the citizens of Brookings are going to end up paying for that?
WENDELL: I think the reality is that we do need a new public safety facility. We have analyzed the lifespan of our existing facility and whether or not it would be more cost-effective to rehabilitate the existing facility or to build a new facility. All indications right now are that it would be more cost-effective to build a new facility.
I think weve also evaluated the current location of the public safety center, and I think there are some pros of it being located in the core of the community close to downtown. I think weve also come to the understanding that, perhaps, that particular property could be more effectively used if the public safety center were located someplace else, Wendell said.
Right now, I lean toward relocating the public safety center to property outside of downtown. Right now, we are kind of squirreling away dollars because the price tag is high for building a new facility. And so we are saving as many dollars now in our long-term capital improvement plan so that we are prepared over the next couple of years to make a considerable investment in a new public safety center.
AVERY: Well, as Nick said, we are in a good position to move forward with that plan to build a new facility. I think were all on board with the idea that thats something that is a priority for the City Council. To determine a site weve looked at several different sites, theres always been some issue that we didnt anticipate when we started out that makes that site not viable.
We also are in a good position that we actually, as Nick says, we have quite a bit of the money designated for that, Avery said. I think most of us feel that we would rather not go into a bond to build that. I think when we can put everything together well be moving forward and getting that done.
AUSTREIM: Anything as a major capital investment would need entire community collaboration. Bring everybody together, make sure that were making the best decision possible, spending the money as wise as we can and also looking at the sustainability of it.
Anytime youre doing a project like that, you have to look at the long-term effects. Finding the site is very important because sometimes its easy to look a little bit down the road and think, Oh, thats not a bad idea, but we have to make sure were looking a long ways down the road both for where it will be located, how it will be funded, where will the funding come to maintain it so that we make sure our tax dollars are being spent as wisely and efficiently as possible.
Q: Right now, city offices are closed on Friday afternoons in favor of providing flexibility to employees. Can you discuss your position on that change and how you balance the needs of employees for flexible time with citizens who need to be able to contact staff?
AVERY: Ive heard discussion about that before it seems to be thats more of a trend, I think, in a lot of businesses. If you go into different places on a Friday afternoon, its going to be a little bit hard to find someone.
I think theres different ways of trying to accommodate our employees. Theres different types of compensation and if it works out that having a Friday afternoon off is a benefit without incurring a lot of cost to the city, its probably worth maintaining that, Avery said. Once everybody knows that Friday afternoons city offices are going to be closed, I guess you just have to make accommodations for that. Its just a benefit that we can offer that I think we should do.
AUSTREIM: I can appreciate the changing times you know, work-life balance. My opinion on that is it should be studied as to the hours that are being worked, but I believe that it should be open 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, even if its not full staff every afternoon.
As a small-business owner, I can tell you that I try all the time, Im going to take Friday afternoon off it doesnt work. People have needs, they have questions they want to be able to get a hold of somebody, Austreim continued. Theres not one single person on the council or anything else that is not considered an employee of the people of Brookings. If you are employed by the people of Brookings, you owe it to them to be available as much as possible.
WENDELL: The city of Brookings as an organization, I think, was confronting what so many businesses and organizations have been confronting over the last several years, which is an employee retention issue. And so we talked to our employees to find out what types of initiatives or changes could be put in place that would increase retention and job satisfaction.
One of the things they indicated was more flexible work hours, and so we piloted an effort to close city offices on Friday afternoon, Wendell said. And what weve heard from employees so far is that its increased satisfaction it gives them more flexibility during the week to go to appointments, catch up with their kids activities and appointments and give, in some cases, our employees some downtime to work in the offices when theres not public traffic coming in and out of the office. So, its increased their productivity to some extent as well.
He continued, I think its an ongoing study; well continue to analyze whether or not the pros are outweighing the cons of closing our offices on Friday afternoon. It came as a direct result of employee feedback and I think its something well continue to analyze.
The candidates heard other questions as well, including ones focused on diversity, planting trees, the city manager form of government, relations between the city and South Dakota State University, and economic development.
For those who missed the forum, it will be rebroadcast on Mediacom channel 9 at 7 p.m. Monday. The forum can also be found on the Brookings Area Chamber of Commerces YouTube channel.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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