These are the questions that were asked of the candidates, these are Nicholas Laughmans answers that were not published in the newspaper Q:What will be your priority if elected and why should people support you for council? A: My priorities as an elected council member would to be create comradery with council. To work with the other members of council to create a budget that is beneficial to the borough and residents without cutting any services. I would like to improve the working relationships with all departments. Listen to and respect the opinions, suggestions, and concerns of the borough residents, business owners, and employees. I am down to earth common sense person. I am not a politician nor will ever profess to be. I have no personal agendas and wish to create a better environment for the community, for people to live, to come and visit, do business, purchase homes. This community needs a council that is willing to listen. Being in the career field that I am, I have developed skills to listen, be compassionate, and accept responsibilities for any and all of my actions. Q:Do you agree with the councils recent decision to have parking meters removed from West Market Street? Why or why not? A: No I do not agree with the hasty decision to remove the parking meters along Market St. You do not alleviate one source of revenue without having another source in-place, which does not mean you threaten to terminate an employee. This decision was made in haste without regard as to how this borough will make up the loss of potential revenue of $28,000, nor did they consider all the businesses that will be affected by the removal of the parking meters. Businesses in the area may lose customers if they cannot find parking as which was addressed by a borough business owner at the council meeting held on Oct 21, 2013 Q:Council meeting have been contentious of late. How will this affect you if elected and how will you deal with criticism from the public? A: I believe the reason why the council meetings have been contentious of late is due to the lack of respect for the resident’s, business owners, and the employees of the borough. When the people of West York Borough speak the current council members sit there and ignore what the people are saying to them. As a public official you must respect and take into account the opinions of the general public. Their voices are just as important as the one that sit at the council table. Q:The council voted to shred documents on contracting police services from another department. Do you think that was a good idea and should the borough look into joining or merging with another police department? A: I feel that they should have never considered accepting bids for outsourcing any department. In the long run this will cost the borough more money and the police coverage would not be 24/7. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. We would not receive the same protection from a surrounding police force as we currently do. As far as shredding the police bid documents, that was a unanimous decision made by the council. Not all council members were aware that a request for bids was advertised so therefor it was beneficial to the community. Q:At 6.5 mils, West York has the second-highest municipal tax rate in York County. What will you do to hold the line or lower taxes A: With the recent actions and decisions of the council it is prudent to control all expenses in the day to day operations. The incoming council is going to be tasked with finding additional avenues of revenue to try to avert a tax increase. Holding the line or decreasing the taxes takes the entire council to come up with ideas and solutions not one person
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 17:23:20 +0000
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