ing tonight and our online audience forviewing. The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose a political partyor a candidate for office. The League has a long-standing history in ourcommunity of providing unbiased candidate and issue information that iswidely used by Minnesota voters regardless of their political beliefs.Sponsorship of this forum is a public service providing you with anopportunity to hear the candidates discuss important issues face to face.The votes expressed here tonight are those of the candidates and not those ofthe League of Women Voters. Sponsorship of this forum is not an endorsement bythe League of Any Candidate. Please note that when you go to the polls, you willalso have the opportunity to vote for a candidate for council at large seat A.Only one person filed for the seat, however, so we have not scheduled thecandidate form for it. Please be aware that Minnetonka uses rank choice votingin municipal elections. On your ballot, you will be able to rank thesecandidates in order of your preference. There is never enough time to cover allthe issues. If you feel your question was not asked tonight, please contactthe candidate directly after the forum. And now I'd like to introduce ourmoderator, Deb Brinkman, a certified moderator from the St. Louis Park Leagueof Women Voters. Take it away, Deb. Good evening, everyone. We'll start thecandidate forum with opening statements. Each candidate will be given one minutefor their opening statement and one minute for their closing statement.Opening statements will be in alphabetical order. Candidates will haveone minute to respond to each question. Please note, our timekeeper will have a15-second sign and then and then she will hold up a stop sign and that willbe your indication that your one minute time is up.Three candidates are running for the position of council member at large seatB. All candidates were invited here tonight. Present are David BeforeWilburn. Craig Aliotti is unable to attend but has provided an opening and aclosing statement which I'll read at the appropriate times.We believe that most if not all the questions uh that we'll go through havebeen submitted by the audience. We also had questions that were submitted byemail to the League of Women Voters um Minnitonka, Eden Prairie, andHopkins. Questions that are unclear, hostile, or of a personal nature willnot be asked. Those that fall into the same general category will be umconsolidated so that we can cover as many topics as possible. All questionsbecome the property of the League of Women Voters, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie,and Hopkins. So let's begin with opening statements. Um because of the alphabetical order, Iwill read the uh statement by candidate Alcotti. Thank you to the League of Women Votersfor hosting this event. 60 seconds is not much. When I entered this race, afriend asked my daughter, "What is he angry about?" This made me laugh. I'mnot angry, but I do believe we have to do better. Now is not the time forfences and conflict. Now is the time to work together. We can protect ourwonderful city and make it better for everyone by truly listening to eachother to learn more, not listening, but not listening to plan our rebuttal.I believe that there has to be a strong and compelling reasons before thegovernment before the government acts to negatively impact people's quality oflife issues. We can do this without abandoning our ideals. Respect eachother and work together. The differences we make now will service us all well.The time for change is long overdue, but not out of reach. My website gives youan idea of my goals I hope but it is a work in progress. Be blessed and be ablessing. Now we will proceed with candidate bear.Good evening everybody. I'm happy to be here. I was uh interested in thisposition. I've been a election judge for quite a few years and I like to beinvolved with the city. I found the city uh personnel very easy to work with andfun to work with. I'm a former professor at the University of Minnesota for 37years and I have a lot of leadership experience uh all over the board and uhthat's on my resume which is outside the door. Uh I think uh I should say acouple other things. I am data driven. I'm one of those kindof people understands data and lecturing. I've written a lot of grants.So, I've worked with a lot of governments along the way and I'vetaught critical thinking classes to people at the university. Very difficultto teach. People don't like to think critically, but I've worked at it veryhard. Thank you. >> Thank you, candidate Bore. CandidateWilburn. >> Thank you to the League of Women Votersfor holding this forum. Um, hello everyone. I am Dr. Kimberly Wilburn andI am your Minnotonka City Council representative. Over the past fouryears, we have accomplished a lot. We've increased the training and support ofour police and firefighters so that they are better equipped to do their jobs.Our home buyer assistance programs are helping new home buyers become ourneighbors. And our sustainability efforts include the addition of solarpanels to three of our public facilities.We've also expanded health and f fitness options for all Minnotonkans with theaddition of the marsh and improvements to our parks with Glenn Lake skateboardpark next in line for an upgrade. So come and talk to me if you're interestedin that. Minnotonka has been my home for the past27 years and it's been a wonderful place for my husband and me to raise childrenand now enjoy the many ser many services Minnotonka has to offer as we get um aswe excuse me the many services Minnotonka has to offer as we mature. Ihave been honored to serve as your council member and I appreciate and havebeen impressed with the knowledge and ideas that many of you have shared withme as we've worked through the opportunities and issues that have comeup in the past few years. I look forward to the opportunity to continue to serveMinnetonka and ask for your vote on November.>> Thank you, Candidate Wilburn. Candidate Wilburn, we will start with you withthis first question. What do you think are two or three mostpressing issues facing Mitaka? I think our most pressing issue is goingto be um economic uncertainty with uh just uncertainty about what's going onfederally, what's going what the economy is going to be. It's going to uh be achallenge for us to plan and budget um andmake sure that we continue to provide quality services for our residents. Uhother issues are ongoing issues. There's a housing crisis in Minnesota. There's ahousing crisis in the in the metro area. There's a housing crisis in inMinnetonka. Um those would be and then um the environment is always a concernfor me. So I would I would list those as the three major issues that we'refacing. >> Thank you, Candidate Wilbur. CandidateBeor. >> Well, I think I'm picking I'm thinking along the same lines. Uhhaving studied this and talked to quite a number of people in the city. I thinkthe economy is very important one that's uh boiling up across the United Statesand we're certainly going to be affected by it here in Minnetonka.And as part of that, I think uh if I have time, I'll talk about a littlesurvey I did when I was knocking. And uh one of the things on people's minds islowering property taxes. A lot of thought has to go into that. UhI'm particularly as a biologist uh for many many years I'm particularlyconcerned about the environment and I have done a lot of ecological workaround the world in some of the most destitute places you can believeand uh in very rich places too with rich people like in Saudi Arabia and thenhousing is a problem also. Thank you very much, Candidate Beor. Andwe'll start with you with this next question. You both touched on the budgetas being one of the top issues. And so we'll focus our next question on thebudget. With the cuts and uncertainty around federal spending, what would youdo as a council member to help manage potential impact to Mitaka's budget? Andif you were going to make any cuts, where would you um target those budgetcuts? candidate beport.>> Thank you. >> Yeah, that's an interesting question. Ilooked over the budget today and uh having worked at the university, whichis a very complex institution, very much like the city here in Minnetonka. If Ihad to make budget cuts, I would first look at just like we did at theuniversity, you look at personnel. That's a hard one to look at, but uhthat's often the largest part of the budget. That's $126 million in thebudget. and uh might be a place to cut might be uh some places where revenuecan be increased. I'm not sure exactly where those would be, but uh maybe uhfees of various kinds can uh take the place of uh some loss of services. Andthen another thing I might imagine, I'm a grant writer. Let's write some grantsto the state and see if we can supplement the budget here from statemoney. >> Thank you. Candidate Wilburn.>> Well, I would um go back to our our residents and uh do some surveys andfind out what services are what services that they feel theycan do without um if we actually if we absolutely have to make cuts. umour our staff is really good at actually doing, you know, looking for grants,looking for revenue, looking for for all all these other things. So, um I don'tthink it would it would fall on me as a council member to to make thosedecisions on my own, but I certainly would want to get input from theresidents as to to the budget and are there things that are considered um lesscritical. >> Thank you, Candidate Wilburn. We'llstart with you with this next question. You both talked a little bit about theenvironment being uh important to you. So, this question has a little bit of aan environment vibe to it. What issues do you see with increasing number ofunderage riders of ebikes who speed or ride on sidewalks and ignore the rulesof the road? What do you advocate the city do to address this problem? So,ebikes is our topic. Candidate Wilburn, please. Um it it certainly is a problemand the problem is more with with with underage umwriters. I think the the main thing we have to do is more education moreeducation for parents. Um you you're supposed to be 15 years old or older toride an ebike. So if you're under 15, you shouldn't be on an ebike. And I Idon't know how many parents are aware of that. So, um, and just education onsafety and, um, because we can't we don't have enough police personnel to, um,enforce enforce take care of the problem through enforcement.>> Thank you very much, Candidate Wilbur. Candidate Bear,>> that's an interesting question. >> Can you turn your mic around? I spoke toa few people. >> I spoke to a few people around myneighborhood and I have a little survey like I said I might get to and that wason the list of uh of uh having problems with ebikes and I think that is aproblem because I've almost always run over one or two here along the way whenI'm cruising around the neighborhood. We can't use the police for that obviously.Uh they got better things to do than ticket kids. But I think educationtalking to parents and putting a lot of stuff in the Minnotonka memo about howto handle this problem because it is a problem.>> Thank you. And we will start with you with this next question beso uh again you both touched on housing as one of the key issues. So we'll focuson housing with this next question. What measures would you support to increaseaffordable housing in Minnitonka? Can it be spor? We'll start with you. That's a naughty question, isn't it? Uhand uh I don't know particularly how to address that except that you know itdepends on revenues again if the uh one person made a statement to me thatsaid what if you want your child to live in Minnetonka because you live inMinnotonka. Well, it's not affordable anymore because the city is saturated.So, for housing, maybe there are grant maybe again uh people should bug thestate and see if we can get revenue from them to help people put down paymentsdown on houses. I don't know if Minnotonka could do that. It' probablybe a program that might uh be beyond our reach. Uh and then uh save uh savehouses in this area that are uh uh getting kind of decrepit on. Maybe thestate could help uh recondition those and uhmake that housing affordable. >> Thank you. Candidate Beport. CandidateWilburn. >> So Minnetonka already has severalprograms that I support. Uh we have some home buyer assistance programs that helpfirsttime home buyers. We have um an affordable housing uh policy where uhaffordable units are included in multif family housing when uh if the if thecity is giving any any financial uh aid to the developer. Um there so there areseveral programs that are already in place and um we are looking at rewritingour zoning code. So there is a potential to uh simplify our zoning code and ummake it easier to have density where it uh where it makes sense and a greatertype of housing stock. The city also has purchased some homes with the uh goal ofum preserving naturally occurringaffordable housing. So the the the houses will be be sold to developers touh to remain affordable. >> Thank you candidate Wilburn. CandidateBear. Oh thank you. Okay, Canada Beastware,we'll start with you with this next question.Um, talking about services, um, what is your opinion about municipal garbagepickup? Should the city contract with a single carrier? >> Well, that's an interesting questionthat I've never pondered. Uh, I pay uh private uh operators to haul away mygarbage and I'm extremely happy with it. Uh, if the cost can be cut in half byby contract the city contracting garbage removal, that would make probablyeverybody happy. >> Thank you, Candidate Wilurn.>> I I have pondered that, but um didn't didn't expect to hear about it tonight.Um, so I would say that, um, it's certainly something to consider.Um, there there tends to be the argument between people want to have a choiceversus having a a city contract. Um if one wecould uh uh negotiate a contract that would allowfor a lower price for everyone. And two, the the second benefit would bedecreasing the amount of garbage trucks. Um which is a complaint that I hear whenI'm out knocking doors is the number of different trucks going up and down thestreet and the pollution and the noise and and all of that. Um, so it'scertainly something I would would consider if uh residentsindicated that that was something they were interested in.>> Thank you, Candidate Wilburn. And we'll start with you with his next question.What can the council do to reduce commercial property vacancy and increasethe commercial property tax base? That is a tough one. And it's a it's ait's a problem that many cities are facing right now. UmI'd say the um the city has a relationship withthe Wisetta Chamber of Commerce. Um I think just um we we do business surveys.We check in with with our businesses to see how they're doing and and and whatchanges can be made. So I think just staying in contact with the businesseswe have here and seeing and being in conversation with them about what can wedo to make the city or you know the the properties that we have more attractive.>> Thank you candidate Wilburn candidate Bore. I'm going to a business meeting of a lotof business people here next week and uh I'm going to have to kick that kind ofquestion around with them too to uh see what they have to say. Uh I'm verybusiness friendly. We need businesses. I'm a consumer. If there's no businesseshere, I can't consume. So looking at what's happening here, I think the bigthing to do is uh I said before I'm data driven. Get as much information asyou can from all the business people and see what kind of solutions they have forthis particular kind of a problem. >> Thank you candidate Bear.We'll switch topics and then we'll talk about immigration.So, what should the city's role be in assisting ICE immigration and customsenforcement or involvement in other federal initiatives related toimmigration? >> Canada Beastore.immigration. That's uh I read uh I read three newspapers every morning and boy,it's full of nothing but ice in immigration, isn't it? At this point intime, uhit seems to be now a federal problem more than a local problem.Uh, and I'm not sure states should welcome the federalgovernment into their operations. So, for example, to have ICE agents here, Ithink would be terrible. We got to let the law of the land uh play out uh interms of immigration. Immigrants are good. I know a lot ofthem and met many people around the world who are immigrants and uh thiscountry can use them. >> Thank you. Candidate Beast, candidateWilbur. >> Um so I don't believe the local policeshould have any role in assisting ICE or uh federal uh immigration programs. Umour the Henipin County police chiefs of which our Minnetonka police chief is thehead uh released a statement uh stating that they do not work with ICE. They donot cooperate with ICE. I fully support that. Um the aside from the federalgovernment having no jurisdiction over ICE, the um the police do not want towork with ICE. Uh part of policing is being able to have community trust andif the community is afraid of you then they are not going to report crimes andso having the police work as ICE agents or work in cooperation with ICE is justnot a good idea. >> Thank you very much. All right, our nextquestion we'll switch topics and we'll talk a little bit about safety. Howwould you assure school safety for our Hopkins Mitaka students in light of theenunciation shooting? And we will start with candidate Wilburn. >> Um so the the shooting was horrific andum it I'm sure many people are are still very shaken up by it. Um,it's sad that we live in reality where children do active shooter drills. Um, Ithink I uh join with some of my fellow council uhmembers in applauding the mayor for participating in the press conferencewhere uh the mayor Fry um they called for a ban on assault weapons and uhlarge magazines. I think that's a start. We need towe need to push for gun control. We need to push for better better mental healthser services. Um again, I don't it's it's not a thingthat there's not one simple solution, but Ithink we need to start with what we can do, and that is to get rid of assaultrifles. >> Thank you, candidate Wilburn. CandidateBear. Interesting question. I think uh thesekinds of things have happened with regularity across the United States. Uhone thing I'm behind as you've heard me say I was a professor for a long time.I'm behind education 100%. I don't know if there are any simplesolutions, but I would recommend a safety officer of some sort in everysingle school uh to be there, be armed, not be conspicuous, but be armed and beready for any of those kinds of uh events might that might occur. UhI don't think uh people will give up their assault weapons here in the UnitedStates. Uh that's the feeling I get even though it would be nice to havelegislation like that. Uh we'll have to see if it does develop. But I thinkthat's all I have to say. Thank you very much. I believe we have time forNope. I think um we've got time for one morequestion. Um and so[Applause] the the question will go back to housingone more time. Do you support the excuse me and we will start with um candidateBeastbor. Do you support the proposal to restrict homeless encampments inMinnotonka and or what more if anything should the city be doing to combathomelessness? >> Boy, another interesting uh topic that'sin the news all of the time. Uh no, Minnetonka should not supporthomelessness. It should do everything possibleprobably to supply uh support mental and uh health for people like that and findhousing for them if they can. uh we probably would not like most of thecitizens would not like to have a homeless encampment here.I suspect and uh I think uh whatever support the city can give tohomeless people they should try to do it. We'll have to look at that budgetvery carefully. >> Thank you candidate Beor CandidateWilburn. Um so if you go back and listen to thestudy session and u what was discussed all of the council members were veryadamant that in in any response to homelessness that we lead withcompassion. Um and the city a few years ago formed a partnership with his houseto to provide services for for the unhoused. Um they help people transitionto homelessness as well as providing other services. and um to date I believe102 individuals have been have been helped through his house through ourthrough the partnership with Minnetonka. Um so the the theproposal is um that we once we've we've made contact with an unhousedindividual, we offer them services. We try uh we try to find them housing. Andit's only after that process has been started that they are required to leaveum to leave the the encampment and ideally they would be leaving to to goto a housing situation. >> Thank you candidate Alcotti.All right. Now it's time for closing statements.Again we will um we will proceed in a rotating order. So candidate will burnwill go first. I will read the closing statement from candidate Alcotti andthen candidate Beastbor will go third. So candidate will burn your closingstatement please. All right. Um that was the longest and shortest um time period.So thank you again to the League of Women Voters for hosting this and toeveryone in the audience who stuck it out at uh 8 o'clock on a Tuesday. UmI I I we had a very robust discussion. Um some excellent questions. Um andyou've given me some things to think about. It was a wonderful chance to diginto our collective vision for Minnotonka and I look forward tocontinuing conversations as we move forward. Um and I appreciate everyone'swillingness to share their concerns and ask these questions. As mentioned, as Imentioned earlier, our economy is going through a bit of uncertaintyand it's not disastrous as long as we pay attention and continue to be agilein our planning to make the most of our opportunities and minimize our risk umso that we will be okay. It has been a privilege to serve as your city councilmember. I am ready to face the challenges of the next four years as weall come together to make it work. I have learned much from your experiencesand expertise and professional insights and it's given me access to so muchtalent and knowledge here in Minnetonka. Evidence that when we come together tosolve a problem, nothing can stop us. So, I'm asking you to vote for me, Dr.Kimberly Wilburn, as your continuing city council member. You can vote asearly as September 19th and be sure to get there by election day on November4th. >> Thank you, Candidate Wilburn. Okay, nowI will read the statement from candidate Alsotti.Thank you to the League of Women Voters for hosting this event. I'm verydisappointed that I could not be here tonight. We're taking our oldestdaughter to start her university studies in Paris. We have lived in Minnotonkafor 13 years. In the last 10 years and more, I have been an RN at HCMC inclinics and then as a home hospice nurse now as an inpatient care coordinator. Ihave learned that listening to a patients wants, needs, and dreams iscritical to helping them make their best choices.Explaining the real choices before people is my job. I will focus on publicspaces and support innovative health services with fiscal responsibility.Minnesota is a center of excellence in health sciences and outdoor wreck andeducation. I will work to bring more partnerships and innovation to the city,not higher taxes. Let me put my master's in public health, years in the hospitaland hospice and my university teaching experience to work for Minnetonka.Please visit my website to tell me what you want and ask me for details. Now, candidate beorn [Applause]is a wonderful city to live in. I've been here for 40 years,maybe even a little bit longer. Uh I don't quite remember.Excuse me. Well, I think uh the council needs some changes. Councilsget kind of hidebound. They're, you know, they're committees with the samepeople on it for a long period of time, and sometimes we need some change. Votefor me, and you'll see some change. I'm a fiscal conservative.I'm an environmentalist uh by training and long uh periods of time in differentcountries uh where uh I worked uh in the environment and helping people and I'mparticularly interested also in personal safety around the cities. I close withthis. I have my resume outside the door. Pick up my resume. You'll be surprisedby reading it. It's very long and very complicated, but a typical academic resuh resume. There's a general statement out there also that has my website onit. So, I have a website and I'm still pulling together materialsfor my campaign. I thank the League of Women Voters.>> Thank you very much. I'd like to remind everyone again thatthe views expressed in this forum are those of the candidates and not those ofthe League of Women Voters. Sponsorship of this forum is not anendorsement of any candidate by the League of Women Voters. And now back toSharon for our closing. We'd like to thank you all for coming.Uh our league is Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, and Hopkins. And we'd like tothank our online audience as well. We especially would like to thank ourcandidates for being part of the democratic process by running for officeand be willing to serve our community. The League researches issues importantto our members and to the health of our communities. If you're interested infinding out more about what we do, you can visit our website at www.lwvme.org. And again, thank you for coming tonight. [Applause]