The Journal-World sent a 16-question survey to each candidate running for three at-large seats on the City Commission. Fourteen people filed for those seats. The March 3 primary election will whittle the field of candidates down to six for the April 7 general election. These answers are presented as they were received from the candidates.

Candidate profile: Matthew Herbert

• 32 years old, a Lawrence High civics and government teacher who also is a landlord and owner of a local property maintenance company

Do you believe a new police headquarters facility is needed, and if so, are you open to considering a property tax or sales tax increase to fund the facility? 

I have toured the facilities and have seen where the inadequacies exist. I believe that public safety is a primary role of the commission and therefore want to address these inadequacies, but I also believe we have a fiscally responsible role to make sure we don’t just accept the first proposal presented before us. I believe presenting the issue as a sales tax vote was disingenuous. If we TRULY believe that this is a priority for the city, why can’t we find room in a budget that is more than $170 million? I would look to the existing funding first.

The city in 2014 approved a new registration and licensing program for apartments and other rental units in the city. It is set to begin inspections in July. Do you support the program as approved? 

I believe public safety should be a top priority of the commissioners, but I do have some reservations with regulating homes the same as restaurants, in that once a lease is signed a rental property is someone’s home, not a public space. As such, I have some concerns about the legality, with regards to 4th amendment rights, that the city has in inspecting people’s homes without probable cause. I would not vote to kill the registration program, but would like to see the registration program put more resources into investigating tenant complaints, perhaps by setting up an anonymous complaint hotline.

As part of the Rock Chalk Park sports complex, the city entered into a public-private partnership with Kansas University Endowment and a private development group. As part of that agreement, the city is paying for about $12 million worth of infrastructure that was exempted from the city’s standard bidding process. Do you support public-private partnerships that involve the city paying for work that was not bid? 

I believe transparency is an absolute necessity for representative government to function properly. As a commissioner, one of my first actions would be to look to enact legislation mandating that the city openly bid any public expenditure on any publicly-funded project. The fact that our commission can spend taxpayer money without any paper trail demonstrating that we are getting what we paid for is unacceptable. We should not have had to go back AFTER the fact to perform the audit of RCP. This should have been done openly on the front-end.

In 2014 the city approved tax rebates for projects in East Lawrence, downtown and near the KU campus that were either wholly or largely for apartment development. Do you support providing tax incentives for apartment development? 

Put simply, absolutely not. The purpose of a tax abatement is to lure industry that doesn’t presently exist and that will bring about a large number of jobs. Apartments do not meet either of these two qualifications. Operating in a free market system, there is already ample demand for apartments to be built without the city giving away tax incentives. A classic example of poor leadership in this area was the granting of an 85% tax abatement for the ‘Here at Kansas’ project led by an out-of-state developer that built a large apartment building across from the football stadium.

The city last year opened Lawrence VenturePark, the new business park that was built on the former Farmland Industries fertilizer plant site in eastern Lawrence. Do you support the idea of providing tax abatements and other financial incentives to attract businesses to that park? 

The conditions which the commission should consider when considering the use of tax incentives are two-fold. First, does the project bring about new industry that does NOT presently exist in the community? Secondly, does the project create a very large number of living wage, with benefits jobs for the community? If the answer to either question is “no” tax incentives should not be used. It is important that the industry be one that does not currently exist so that the city commission does not provide a competitive advantage for one business over another existing competitor already established in Lawrence.

In 2015, the city is budgeted to provide about $220,000 to the Lawrence chamber of commerce to lead the community’s economic development efforts. Do you support that arrangement with the chamber? 

I support the chamber’s economic development initiatives so long as their primary focus is on supporting existing business. Too often, in an effort to lure the next ‘greatest’ thing to Lawrence, we forget that 85% of all new jobs are created by businesses that already exist. I want to make sure our commission supports existing business before we expend effort luring competitors. I am proud of the Chamber for their recent re-evaluation of priorities found within the “Community Economic Strategic Plan” which prioritizes assisting existing business over luring new business. I would expect their actions to support their words.

In 2008 voters approved a three-tenths of a percent sales tax to fund city-street maintenance and other infrastructure projects. How would you rate the condition of city streets today? 

There is always room for improvement, and city infrastructure should remain a top priority for the city commission, but since 2008 we have completed major road improvement projects on many of Lawrence’s major roads, including 6th, 23rd, 31st and Kasold Drive leaving the overall condition of Lawrence roads better than they have been in quite some time. Given the road work completed, I think it may be time to shift the priority of infrastructure funding to other aspects of infrastructure such as our outdated, in some cases hundred year old sewer systems, and sidewalks.

In 2014 the city built a new dual-lane roundabout on Wakarusa Drive, and is considering building more in the future. Do you support the use of roundabouts in the city? 

While there are certainly some locations where roundabouts have made sense, I believe the city’s fascination with building them has led us to put them anywhere and everywhere we possibly can. As such, I do not support the broad expansion of roundabouts throughout the community. Roundabouts are an incredibly costly alternative to a 4-way stop and can present great difficulties to our fire and medical responders in navigating their narrow passageways. In crafting a budget, roundabouts should be treated as a luxury we pursue only if extra money exists. These are not a high priority.

Based on current city capital improvement plans, the city is scheduled to spend about $3 million in 2015 and 2016 on a project to rebuild a portion of Ninth Street as part of an effort to make the area into an “arts corridor.” As currently proposed, do you support the project? 

I do support the 9th street corridor project though I want to make sure that the concerns of neighbors are addressed and not suppressed. In addition to the ‘arts’ element of the project which builds upon the unique character of the area, the project provides long needed infrastructure improvements such as proper roads, sidewalks and lighting to an area that has been widely ignored for decades. What I’d like to focus the city money on is infrastructure such as sidewalks, lighting and streets.  Getting the arts community and tourism would be simply a benefit to such investments.

The city has been asked to approve financial incentives designed to spur the installation of additional gigabit, super-fast broadband service in Lawrence. Do you support the idea of providing a financial incentive to private companies interested in providing enhanced broadband services to the community? 

While the development of gigabit broadband internet service is without question an initiative I support in Lawrence, I do NOT support the city offering loan guarantees to a private business or private individual for the development of such a program, particularly when private investors who are seeking no public incentives exist. While it appears broadband service will ultimately have to be regulated as a utility we must be careful in crafting our city’s fiber policy in such a way that we do not deter private internet companies and investors from being attracted to Lawrence.

What is the biggest issue facing Lawrence neighborhoods? 

Many of our neighborhoods face an issue of equity in the area of service availability. As a city commissioner, your role is to ensure that public safety and access to infrastructure are available to all parts of Lawrence, and as such we must look to see if we are providing adequate police and fire protection to all parts of Lawrence. I believe upon closer inspection we will find that fire services to North Lawrence may be inadequate. In addition, access to grocery in the Northeastern portion of Lawrence seems to be a pressing concern for many of our neighbors.

Given the other needs of the city, what is the likelihood that you would support additional funding for trails, bike lanes and other pedestrian-oriented projects in the community? 

Developing a pedestrian-friendly community is a great way to make a good city a great community. However, the costs associated with such projects can often times be prohibitively expensive. I would therefore recommend tying pedestrian-oriented improvement projects into existing infrastructure redevelopment work, as was done with the re-paving of 9th street recently. By doing it this way, we are able to improve upon the pedestrian-friendly nature of city without having to pay to tear up and redo perfectly good existing infrastructure.

Given the other needs of the city, what is the likelihood that you would support the idea of city assistance for a new conference center in the community? (Full disclosure: Members of The World Company, which owns the Journal-World and LJWorld.com have put forward a proposal for a downtown project that includes a conference center.) 

I am open to the idea of a city supported conference center, but do not believe this should be a top budget priority. There could be economic benefits to the city participating in the development of a conference center. However, in that some of our past city involved projects, such as the Riverfront Plaza, have turned out to be utter failures, I would want to take a long look at the proposal before I would lend my support to it. Without seeing specifics, this is not a project that I would blindly lend my support to.

In 2014 there were six homicides in Lawrence, the highest number in at least a decade. Is there anything the Lawrence City Commission can do to improve public safety in the community? 

As our community grows, the growth of crime is statistically predictable. As a city commission we cannot control the actions of individuals, but can make sure that our response to such crime is efficient and effective. This can be done by making sure we provide our police department with adequate resources, training and staffing. In addition, as the state has dumped the issue into the laps of cities, it will be important for Lawrence to properly address mental health issues within our community. We can either treat the problem or we can continue to pay to incarcerate those in need.

A proposal has been made by a development group to create a major new retail area just south of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Iowa Street interchange? Are you supportive of rezoning property for major new retail developments in the community?  

I am in support of the Southpoint development and have grown frustrated by the way this project was allowed to stall out by our commission. The group of investors looking to develop this area were seeking no tax incentives or public subsidies but rather were simply looking for approval to break ground on a project that would create jobs and economic development in the community. This is the exact type of economic development we need, given the growing demand that completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway will create.

What’s your vision for the type of community Lawrence will become in the next decade? 

Under my leadership, I envision Lawrence re-establishing priorities. We will shift the focus from short-term impulsive decisions that create large amounts of immediate debt to an approach of more long-term, fiscally responsible planning. I imagine a Lawrence where our economic playing field is leveled by our decision to allow the free market to work instead of allowing our commissioners to pick and choose winners and losers as they do now through the granting of public incentives to private companies and developers. I imagine a place where the focus is less on building a city and more on building a community.

More election coverage

• Catch up on City Commission candidate profiles, chats, questionnaire responses and more before the April 7 election.