“Can you put these last two chairs in? And I think that's all we're gonna have space for.”
Darren Willett is meeting room manager for the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Central Branch. He’s helping add more chairs because the room is getting full.
This is one of the few times all four candidates will be together in one place.
Republicans Cheryl Musgrave and Natalie Rascher and Democrat Stephanie Terry and Libertarian Michael Dougherty sit facing the audience of about 100 visitors to the Browning Event Room.
The League of Women Voters of Southwestern Indiana holds this forum every primary cycle, and Vicki Small is their president.
“This gives people an opportunity to ask questions, see the candidates interact with them understand how they may operate their job as mayor," she said. "So we just feel like it's very important for us to provide a forum.”
That’s Tracy McEuen of the League of Women voters is moderating the event.
“We'll go ahead and start with the first question and start with Natalie for the answer. And again, you will have two minutes to give your answer to each question," she said.
"So the first question is, what are the most important challenges or most important challenge facing Evansville? And how do you propose to address them or it?”
Their answers are two minutes long, and the full transcript is below. The following lines are just some opening thoughts from the candidates.
Said Rascher, “… it's not just, you know, it's not just drugs. It's not just petty crime, it's really looking at safety of our community as a whole …”
“I believe the crime and the safety of our citizens is the biggest issue facing the citizens of Evansville,” Dougherty said.
“… there's no question that crime is the number one issue in Evansville. And I'm just going to bring a couple of statistics to bear on this subject,” said Musgrave.
In this case Terry had a different take. “I think our greatest challenges are, as I've said previously, is ensuring equitable opportunities for children and families, attracting and retaining our talent, and addressing the root causes of crime," she said.
The 11 questions covered funding for climate change initiatives, the relationship between city hall and the school district, improving affordable housing and many others.
Open disagreements in style arose on a couple subjects — the first was the idea of consolidating government entities in Vanderburgh County and it was between Musgrave and Rascher.
“It's dead on arrival with me," Musgrave said. "The last time this was voted on the in the first years of the current administration's term, we did have an election, we had a referendum, and it was defeated by 67-percent.”
“Well, I'll just go ahead out there and say that nothing will be dead on arrival,” Rascher said. “If it comes to my desk, that's insensitive of the people that have worked toward bringing something forward.”
The other topic was gun violence. Libertarian Michael Dougherty didn’t want to blame guns per sé.
“Gun violence is is is running rampant. But violence is going to happen, whether it's a gun or not. People utilize other types of weapons, knives, anything they can get their hand on.”
Stephanie Terry had an impassioned response.
“I think we could all agree, and I would almost bet 100-percent of everybody in this room would agree with me and saying that we're sick and tired of seeing people die at the hands of a gun. Would you agree? Nobody can dispute that.”
After more than an hour candidates gave their final comments. Vicki Small said she really appreciates the attendance.
“I was just really excited that we had so many people attend, you know, in the middle of a day for a primary election and we had well over 100 people,” she said. “It was wonderful to see.”
Attendees such as Melissa Vandever learned a lot. She said it helped her differentiate between the four candidates. “I came away feeling different about what their thoughts, their personalities, the way they engaged with it, potentially will engage with the community,” she said. “I had admiration for every single one of them in some ways, and I feel well prepared. I'm glad I attended.”
Her husband, former mayor Mike Vandever says he was impressed with all four candidates.
“I think Evansville will benefit no matter who wins,” he said.
FULL EVENT TRANSCRIPTION
League of Women Voters introduction
Thank you for coming. This is the mayoral candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, which is a nonpartisan group. And let's see, just to give you a little bit of a heads up about how we are going to proceed, each candidate will have a minute to self-introduce. When we ask questions, we'll go from left to right, and then alternate.
So the next question would start with the second person and so on the post, the candidates will have two minutes to respond to a question and then move on to the next person. We have timekeeper up in front. Let's see the first group of questions are the questions that have been written by the League of Women Voters. We welcome questions from the audience. And we already have some … . At the end, each candidate will have two minutes to make closing remarks. And we ask that you hold any applause until the end of the forum that helps us get through in a very timely manner. Again, thank you all for coming.
But starting on this end, Cheryl Musgrave, Natalie Rascher, Michael Dougherty, and Stephanie Terry, our moderator today is Tracy McEuen who is a member of the League of Women Voters. Our timer is Pam Walker, who is also a member of the League of Women Voters.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
All right, so we will, can everybody hear me? Okay. We'll go ahead and get started. And I've been told we're going to start at this end with Ms. Musgrave. I did want to mention that this session is being recorded, and then it will be posted later on the league's website. It may be posted in other places online as well. I'll just remind everybody to please hold your comments and applause until the end. And then also, there have been several questions already submitted by the audience. But if you do think of one, the back table has some index cards on it. And they will get them up here. Not sure we'll have time for all of them. But we'll do our best to squeeze in as many as we can before we start wrapping up. All right. So I will go ahead with as Meg mentioned, we will have each candidate be able to give a one-minute introduction. And the candidates can either you know stand or sit as they answer and or speak so Cheryl, you can go ahead if you don't mind me calling you by your first name.
Cheryl Musgrave
Hello, I'm Cheryl Musgrave Vanderburgh. County Commissioner. You have given me the opportunity to serve you as an elected official six times. And together we have made some truly transformational changes, improving Evansville, without changing the city that we love so much. We all know that Evansville is a great place to live and raise a family. Bob and I have raised two children here, sending them to the public schools and using the incredible resources of the library right here in this building. I became involved in local government after seeing specific ways to contribute to our community. These ranged from ending major corruption in property tax administration, to building incredible roads that have caused a boom in our local economic development. The next step is to give back and make a good city into a great city. serving you as Mayor of Evansville, I ask for your vote.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Okay, and Natalie.
Natalie Rascher
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us here today. I know that many of you have jobs and responsibilities that you are putting to the side to come here and learn more about all of the candidates that are running for mayor. So I'm an Evansville native born and bred, went to Central High School later on, went off to Purdue University, and then IU where I received my master's degree. Now I knew though from an early age that I still wanted to call Evansville home. So after I finished all of my education, I came back here, I started my career and my family. I'm very proud of the work that I've done, both in the private sector, in nonprofits and on several different governmental boards that I've been appointed to. So I've really just kind of reached across the aisle, I've had the opportunity to work with individuals and a myriad of situations. And I think that I would be the best candidate for the Republican ticket this year. Thank you.
Michael Dougherty
Hello, my name is Michael Dougherty. I'm born and raised in Evansville, I attended North High School. And I also left to go to college, went to Purdue University, got my degree in electrical engineering, I stayed in that area as well, because I attended Purdue to get my Masters in Business Administration. So I got my MBA from there, and also went on to get my engineering degree to where I can be a licensed professional engineer in the state of Indiana. I feel that my background in small business as a small business owner for 14 years will allow me to bring some leadership and outside perspective to Evansville. And when I retired in 2020, I moved back down here to be with my family and friends, where I was born and raised and feel that I can make a change and really want to focus on crime. That is what has been increasing in this Evansville area and a place that I like to call home. So while I don't have a primary coming up in May I ask for your vote in November. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, and Stephanie.
Stephanie Terry
Good afternoon, everyone. This crowd is awesome. Thank you so much for this opportunity to the League of Women Voters. I suppose my home, it's I graduated from Bosse and went off to college, but then returned and received my Master's in Health Service Administration. from the University of Evansville, I have a unique background combined in nonprofit government and health service work. Currently, I'm the executive director of the Children's Museum of Evansville, where I've been for the last 12 years.
I've also served you well on the Vanderburgh County Council for the last 12 years. I'm running for mayor because I care about the progress of the city. But more importantly, I care about the prosperity of his people. And that's all of you. I want to build upon the progress that's been made. But also make Evansville a place that works for everyone. I don't come into this race with any hidden agendas. I simply want to do what's best for the people of this community. Some of our challenges are ensuring equal opportunities for children and families, attracting and retaining our talent, and addressing the root causes of crime, poverty, mental health, drugs, lack of housing, and improving the quality of life for people, we must put politics aside because there's no room for it, and work together to implement innovative solutions that will make all of us thrive. Thank you. I look forward to the questions that will come here shortly.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Okay, thank you all for those introductions. And we'll go ahead and start with the first question and start with Natalie for the answer. And again, you will have two minutes to give your answer to each question. So the first question is, what are the most important challenges or most important challenge facing Evansville? And how do you propose to address them or it?
Natalie Rascher
Sure, I think that a lot of individuals, you know, not just here in this room, but really our whole community, we have a concern about public safety. And it's not just, you know, it's not just drugs. It's not just petty crime, it's really looking at the safety of our community as a whole. We have to make sure that we are investing and our police department that we're investing for our firefighters, our dispatchers, that's also national dispatcher week if y'all didn't know, but there are many, many people that work together seamlessly to ensure that our community is safe. You know, those are the ones that we think of whenever we talk about public safety. But we also have to remember that, you know, mental health is a big piece of this, we need to ensure that we're working with our health systems, getting the resources to the individuals that need them the most.
So I believe with my administration, my commitment to bringing people together and bringing them to the table to discuss and have these conversations and ensuring that all of these resources are being tapped. That's how we will make our community safer, and we will be able to continue to thrive and increase funding for training. increased sensitivity training is something that I brought up four years ago, whenever I ran for City Council, you know, all of these things are at the forefront of my administration's priorities. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Michael.
Michael Dougherty
As I said before, and I agree with Natalie, I believe the crime and the safety of our citizens is the biggest issue facing the citizens of Evansville. As a background in technology, I feel that we're going to see an increase in technology playing a part in fighting crime, whether it's artificial intelligence, utilizing robots to go into areas where we want to protect our officers. But we have to have funding in that and make sure that we can apply that equitably into our administration and have it for the officers.
Mental health is a huge, huge issue. And having social workers, having additional training for people to, for our officers to deal with those types of situations is huge. And the fact that most of the calls that they're having, they're the first responders, the firefighters are sometimes the first responders in some situations, and identifying what's going on with that person, whether it's just a med change, whether they're having a bad day, something set them off. Those are the challenges that are facing our first responders and our officers that we have.
So with the drugs flowing in, as we have these corridors, I 69 comes in, we're going to have a lot more traffic. I was living in Lafayette near Chicago for many years. And I saw that come down I-65 and I worked alongside with a lot of the county commissioners and things in Tippecanoe County, to see how they combated crime and and how they worked with the state police to make sure that they were seeing how the drugs and everything were flowing down I-65 and I believe once that 69 corridor, 64 going over St. Louis, Louisville, we need to make sure that we're staffed properly, and we identify those issues.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you and Stephanie. Sure.
Stephanie Terry
I think our greatest challenges are, as I've said previously, ensuring equitable opportunities for children and families, attracting and retaining our talent, and addressing the root causes of crime. That's poverty, mental health, drugs, lack of housing and improving the quality of life for the people in this community. I will address these issues by working in partnership with targeted stakeholders to build upon the work that has already started to develop a more vibrant, diverse and sustainable economy that does several things that uplifts working families that invest in protects every neighborhood in our community, and that creates economic opportunities that's higher paying jobs. That's workforce development and training that's improved access to food and quality education. I believe in our, Evansville’s potential, I believe in its people and our collective capacity to make our city stronger.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. And Cheryl,
Cheryl Musgrave
There's no question that crime is the number one issue in Evansville. And I'm just going to bring a couple of statistics to bear on this subject. We have seen a virtual defunding of the police here in Evansville. Over the past 10 years, we have 22 fewer officers on the streets, driving and checking on our community every single day. We used to have 129 beat officers. And that has been reduced to 107. That has had tremendous effect on our community. And I'm going to use one statistic to talk about it. The murders in our community have exploded. They have tripled in the past five years compared to the previous five years. So what do those numbers look like?
The first five years we had, I believe it was 34. Now in the past five years, we've had 100. That is a huge explosion. I've noticed it in my own neighborhood. I live in the inner city and within 1000 feet of my home, in the past two years, there have been three murders. Just last week, someone shot off their gun, not a block from my home, putting 25 rounds into a building near my home. I can no longer bring the grandchildren over to play on the sidewalks or in my yard. It's just not safe.
So how do we fix this? We clearly need to bring those officers back and they need to be paid more. The Vanderburgh county commission and myself, we raise the pay of the sheriff's deputies from among the lowest in the state to among the highest over a three year timeframe. I would say that city council, this is the most important issue they have on their desk, raise the pay of officers so that we can recruit and retain more and I'm out of time.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Okay, the next question is a little bit lengthy so bear with me. And we will start with Michael on the answers. Under the inflation No Reduction Act of 2022. Millions of dollars will be sent to the states beginning this year to be distributed for projects that will address climate change mitigation and adaptation. Millions more will be available for direct distribution to communities like Evansville in the form of credits and grants. In order for Evansville to take advantage of this grant money, the city must first apply for the grants. If you are elected, what will you do to see that a particular person or department is tasked with seeking out and applying for these grants and credits?
Michael Dougherty
Thank you, the first thing you want to do is identify the strengths of your administration. So hiring qualified people and adding them into your administration is going to be crucial. So finding out specialties, whether it's grant writing, whether it's utilizing the resources that you have the staff in those departments, we need to identify the areas that need the facilitation, if they're earmarked are there.
Certain grants will have certain speculations where they're required to be used for roadwork or bridges. So we'll want to identify how we can utilize those funds. One of the things that comes down from federal dollars that come into from grants a lot of times are earmarked for infrastructure. One of the biggest problems we have in Evansville is we like to build things, but we don't maintain them. We can see that with our parks, we want to build, build, build. And that happens a lot when you get grants, people want to put the dollar in, build a facility, but they don't have money later on to maintain those structures.
Robert stadium, Mesker Amphitheatre, those types of areas. So I would definitely have a strong team around me that specializes in these types of areas; our administration would identify the areas where we would use those dollars, and we would be fiscally responsible and not just wasting this because we're getting that money. That's one of the biggest problems with government officials is ‘gimme, gimme, gimme, I want the money, and then we'll spend it.’ We don't always have to spend every dollar of our tax money. We want to use it fiscally responsible. And that's what my administration would do.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Stephanie.
Stephanie Terry
Sure, as a nonprofit professional, I know all too well how to manage grants, number one, how to get them, maintain them and seek more. But I think under my administration, we will assess number one, the capacity to apply for funding, utilizing the city's experienced staff, and perhaps partnering with some community partners and consultants. I think also we need to explore the option of hiring a full time grant writer so that the city can work number one, do some research and know what's out there and available, but then to work, again, in partnership with departments as well as community agencies to garner these dollars, and so that we can continue to grow and move forward.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Cheryl?
Cheryl Musgrave
Obtaining grants is something that I do now. And in fact, we just issued a press release at the county commission level, talking about the $700,000, about, grant that we received just yesterday from the state to repave roads in Vanderburgh County. But when it comes to these blockbuster federal grants, they are extremely detailed. And sometimes they're written for specific geographic areas. Think Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco — in the Midwest, the big, big cities, like St. Louis, Indianapolis.
So our challenge here at this level is finding out which of those actually pertain to us and determining the eligibility. And then there's no one grant writer who can approach that grant, because it'll come in the form of things that are pertinent to the highway department or the city streets, department, things that are pertinent to the law enforcement.
And so they are already well prepared within those departments to write the grants. But you have to see then what else is there and go and get letters of support. I can tell you that I did get one grant when I first started out as commissioner, that was back when the US Congress was still doing grants to congressmen and I managed to get a $5 million grant then and that started or kicked off the beginning of the end of the construction of University Parkway. So there are grants out there. You do have to be an expert in it. I heard somebody say that we need to you work with consultants work with the employees work with everyone. It's a very hard road to go down. And so I will be looking for literally all the help I can get.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you and Natalie,
Natalie Rascher
Right. So currently, I'm the president of the Junior League of Evansville. And one of the things that I'm very proud of is a recent project where we received a $100,000 grant to start our mobile food market that helps serve Evansville and impoverished areas and providing meals. So grant writing is one thing that I can tell you through nonprofit work I've had experience doing.
I also took a specialty class in grad school that was just based on grant writing, and can tell you it is a very, very technical process. And you need to make sure that you have the right people leading the way whenever you're applying for those grants. We do have a grant manager and the controller's office that I believe we could leverage whenever we are seeking out specific grants, no matter the industry.
But I would also like to go through and, you know, essentially do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of all of our employees in the city, and find out what their passion projects could be, you know, they may be a, we'll say, a dispatcher, but they really have a passion for Parks and Recreation, because they have two kids at home. Great, let's make sure that we're including them in these processes and giving people the opportunity to grow in their career in their profession, within the city. This is how we're going to retain people in the civic center.
The cost of turnover is very, very high. We want to make sure that we have qualified individuals that are engaged in the job that they're doing so that we can then go forth and serve our community, apply for the grants, get the funding, we need to be the best city we can. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
All right, thank you. The next question is what are your plans to promote affordable and accessible housing options for renters and homeowners alike, and we'll start with Stephanie.
Stephanie Terry
My plan to promote affordable housing requires a multi-pronged plan to create innovative partnerships that address the barriers to more housing options. I would like to submit really at this time that affordable housing should be declared a right for residents.
Barriers to building affordable housing include challenges to zoning and land use, and land use policies. There's also opportunities though, for us to assist individuals and families that qualify for low interest loan rates, products worked with banking partners, and HUD approved counseling agencies like cape and hope Incorporated. Connecting job seekers to better paying jobs will also drive the need for additional affordable housing, creating more affordable housing will also stabilize families address the racial wealth gap and bring in affordable housing tax revenue.
When you think about it, I think the need ranges depending on you know, affordable housing units to multi-use housing, I think the range is anywhere from 1,500 to 6,000 units. So we have a ginormous responsibility to make sure people that have one of their basic needs met. And that's that shelter. And so I'm committed to investing in this way. I think one of the things that we've already seen happen within city government is $500,000 to the American Rescue Plan funds was allocated for affordable housing. Let's continue to build the Housing Trust Fund so that again, that we can close the gap on affordable housing in our community.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you and Cheryl.
Cheryl Musgrave
This isn't a theoretical discussion. For me, I've been working very hard in this area for at least two decades. So I want to talk about what it takes to get new housing built. And you have to have the right kind of zoning the right kind of Building Commission, the right kind of work in the civic center. And I've been very busy in that area. So much so that the southern Indiana Builders Association endorsed me in this election for mayor. Because of that work. There have been many things that we have done, including things that help build smaller houses, we reduce the minimum square foot area for houses in the unincorporated county, I thought the city would go ahead and do that through city council, but they chose not to do that. So you're still required by government law to build a bigger house in the city than you are in the county. Just recently, in the past couple of weeks of I think about four weeks, the county commission cut the parking minimum requirements in half for the unincorporated county. So we cut the cost of construction.
This is what I want to tell you. When you attack the regulations and the regulations. Each and every one of them comes with a cost. If you cut that, then you make progress toward the ability of the private sector to build houses. One other idea that I have had and shared with many, including those on City Council is that there ought to be tax abatement for housing construction within the city in targeted areas, figure out exactly where you need more housing, then cut the size of the house that you can build and give tax abatement for a number of years. The legislature is also enacting residential housing tiffs. That's a tax increment finance system in the city that will be able to be used. There are many Tools on the table that we can pick up and use. And these are only a few of the ideas that I have. But she told me I'm out of time.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, and Natalie —
Natalie Rascher
Affordable housing and accessibility to housing that is affordable is definitely an issue that we hear a lot about. And over the last four years, I think that we've made great progress, great progress, excuse me, in this area, you know, one of which is we're starting to see the partnerships with nonprofits with private industry and within government. And whenever you have a seat at the table within these three different areas, we start to see problems really become solved.
I am not saying that we have solved this problem yet by any means. After the last census we have about 65-percent of our residents are renters, and not homeowners. So this is something that if we can impact in a positive way, where we have programs that we have lenders and realtors working with individuals to help them find the appropriate financing, that they are eligible for helping them find homes. I feel as though this is where we're going to make a big impact. I'm also very proud of the work that community one has been doing and the Tepe Park area, where they've not only been purchasing what we would consider a blighted home, they're not just knocking it down, they're actually restoring them and renovating them. And not just those homes that they've purchased. They're going out to those neighborhoods, and those individuals as well and providing new roofs fixing, you know, small, small issues as far as fence repair and siding that's fallen off. It's very, very endearing to see.
And it's exciting to see that our community members are coming together to help solve this problem. This is not a problem that government can solve on its own. You know, regulations are, you know, part of the issue. And I understand, you know, I think everyone had mentioned regulations at one point, but we have to remember that we do have regulations in place for a reason. We have to have safe houses that people are moving into. So we can't, you know, go crazy and take away everything. We've got to make sure that we have a measured approach whenever we're looking at affordable housing for our city. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. And Michael,
Michael Dougherty
Indiana has one of the highest percentage occupancy rates of Section eight in the country where I think roughly 98.6 percent. We have to do better. The government is needed to ensure safe, equitable housing for the citizens of Evansville. I worked with Lafayette transitional housing in Lafayette and we worked with them. We received a $2 million grant to move into a new building, the homeless population that we have here in Evansville is growing, we need to make sure that we house all of these individual citizens and give them the right to housing.
As Cheryl mentioned, we definitely need to incentivize builders and areas to, through tax abatements to build these housing houses and make them affordable. If you're a renter, like Natalie mentioned 65 percent of the people in this town are renting, that you see the rent’s going up there, there are no government restrictions on what that can be. That's what the market has determines what the rent’s gonna gonna stay at.
So there does need to be some government interjection there to help the citizens be able to afford rent to be able to afford to live a prosperous life. The HUD restrictions are 50-percent of the median income is considered low, low income 30% of the median income is extremely low. One of the things we don't want to do with Section Eight is put it into a certain geographic area within our city. That is where crime breeds and we have a lot of issues by trying to add control those areas through taxes. So we definitely need to do better as a government entity and my administration would be focused on that to have more affordable housing for our citizens.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Okay, for the next question, I'm going to combine an audience question that's related, to try to cover the topic all at once. So we'll start with Cheryl and the question is, ‘states of Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois are consistently top 20 gun violence deaths per 100,000 citizens in the United States. What if any steps should be taken to curb gun violence in our city and promote public safety?’
Cheryl Musgrave
At the start of this, I told you that crime is the most important issue on Evansville’s agenda and on my own agenda. We need more police officers to combat gun violence here in Evansville. Gun violence is a very difficult crime to solve. If it were easy, somebody would have already done it and we would not be having this conversation.
Guns are protected by the US Constitution and I've taken the oath many times to uphold the Indiana and the US Constitution; so what do we do about gun violence? I think that you have to make sure that the folks who have guns are legally allowed to have them. And that includes taking them out of the hands of folks who are mentally ill. I also feel that the gun shows that we have where you can walk in and buy a gun without a background check that they ought to have background checks at those gun shows. So the those are two specific things.
We have unfortunately, had gun violence affect our community, our major employer, just this week my own grocery store was shot up by another person with mental illness, mental illness and addressing it is at the top of the list of the things you can do to address gun violence. At the Vanderburgh County Jail, we just heard the new presentation to include eight beds for mental illness in the jail. It's a far cry from what we need, but right now we have zero beds. So shortly, within a couple of years, we will at least have mental health facilities in the jail in order to help the folks who are being arrested for some of these gun violence.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Okay, Natalie.
Natalie Rascher
So whenever we're looking at violent crimes, and specifically gun related gun related violence, I do not think that the answer is just to put more cops on the street, we need to make sure that we have established a sense of community that we are engaging with people, and that we are aware of individuals that are calling out and that are seeking help. Mental health has been mentioned again several times; I think, by everyone up here today. And that is one area where across the nation, we are seeing individuals struggle.
You know, we've got a program and the school systems, Youth First, which is a nonprofit that comes in and helps children that are struggling, you know, maybe they've had a new diagnosis of ADHD or you know, some kind of other diagnosis, and they're helping them through those problems. Maybe their parents are getting a divorce, and they are learning how to cope with a split household. You know, these are great resources that we have now. But what happens whenever our children leave the school system, and you know, I don't mean this to offend anyone, but when you're 18 years old, you're not really an adult yet. God love ya, you know, you still have a lot of growing to do. And if you don't have the resources, if you have a mental health problem or going through a mental health crisis, it's very, very understandable how they can maybe purchase a gun, they know where they can get one, especially if they haven't been evaluated, and there's no diagnosis there.
Unfortunately, the individual in Louisville did not have a diagnosed mental health issue. So having that background check, does nothing he legally obtained a weapon? We have to come back to a community level we have to engage with people, we have to feel comfortable in saying ‘Are you okay, is there something I can do for you as your neighbor, if we can do that as a community and the mayor's office and my administration can help bring people together?’ Whether it be again through nonprofit work, partnerships with our health systems to ensure that we have the resources necessary? I see ‘stop,’ I'm sorry. Okay, I will stop.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Okay, thank you, Michael.
Michael Dougherty
Gun violence is is is running rampant. But violence is going to happen, whether it's a gun or not. People utilize other types of weapons, knives, anything they can get their hand on. So we see this in the news all the time with politicians blaming the gun, we have, as Natalie mentioned, a mental health issue. If somebody wants to do damage, they're going to do it with any means necessary.
Whether they obtained that gun illegally … there's so many guns on the street, that they're going to get their hands on. We have to do a better job at the law enforcement level at getting in there. And there's got to be responsibility of the parents to make sure they lock up their weapons to where their children can't get their hands on those weapons. One of the things Cheryl said is they don't do background checks at gun shows. I've been an FFL dealer for 23 years. Yes, they do do gun backgrounds on any and every gun purchased from an FFL.
So the thing that they deem ‘straw purchase’ that they utilize to scare citizens about guns at gun shows doesn't happen. I went through extraneous ATF and FBI background checks, all of those were put in place. If I violate any of those standards that are put in place by our ATF, I will be committing a felony and I will go to prison. So the gun violence definitely is coming in. In the large urban areas are law enforcement needs to be supported. Again, utilizing technology and AI did not put our officers on the front line of going in. If there's an active shooter, if they have a weapon, we need to do a better job of utilizing those types of tactics to de escalate the situation and keep our officers safe. Stephanie,
Stephanie Terry
Gun violence is a national issue. And this problem is very complex. And I think we could all agree, and I would almost bet 100-percent of everybody in this room would agree with me saying that we're sick and tired of seeing people die at the hands of a gun. Would you agree? Nobody can dispute that. And so it's going to take many different strategies to address the problem.
My team, I think, some initial things, number one, we want to leverage every resource possible to invest in our local police department, that's ensuring best quality training, equipment, and pay. I think we also want to maintain and increase our policing strategies, I think it's important that officers live within the city that they serve. And so continuing to be visible in the community and making those relationships again, so that we can work in partnership with local law enforcement to address the problems on the street. I think we also need to continue to embrace technology.
But more importantly, you know, again, I come from a nonprofit space. And so we've got to also support community based programs and wraparound services, that from a broad spectrum of areas, whether that's mental health, drug treatment, housing, job training, and mentoring, I was just recently reading an article, you know, that really spoke to how some other communities use their American rescue dollars. They invested in youth employment programs, they invested in conflict mediation initiatives, they invested in improving the built environment, city beautification and revitalizing parks, that's the level of investment that we need to make, we need to transform the community so that people feel hope in the places that they live, and take pride in it, and not want to hate and kill one another because of some frivolous, you know, conflict that that we may face on the street.
And so I just have to go back to the fact to say, you know, I personally want to see my son go off to college and not have run in fear that he's going to be shot by a gun. So at some point, as a community, we have to step up and take charge and ownership of our community in a way that we've never had before. And that's all of us working together to address this issue.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. The next question, we will begin with Natalie. The question is the July 2022 Census data estimates 19.9-percent of the population in Evansville lives below the poverty rate versus 12.2-percent for the state of Indiana. As mayor, what would your plans be to reduce our poverty rate?
Natalie Rascher
Thank you. You know, this is a hard one, right? Because this I think starts to touch on Republican values, Democrat values, but whenever it comes down to it, it's not about politics, right? We have to start looking at our people, and what we can do to help our community. So years ago, we were doing work again through the Junior League. And we were looking at individuals within within the city and how we could help alleviate poverty. But there's so many different things that you have to tackle. So food insecurity is one of the things that the league has done, we've started talking about affordable housing, what we can do there, we have to also start looking at talent retention and economic growth and development, making sure that we have a pipeline from high school, to either going to a trade school, going into college, or maybe it straight into a career, we need to ensure that we have these pipelines within our community with our local businesses.
There are so many businesses out there right now that can't find enough help. So we've got to make sure though, that they are able to pay a good wage so people aren't having to work, you know, two or three jobs in order to make ends meet. This is one of the foundations of my policies. Whenever you go to my website and you look at my playbook, whenever I talk about economic growth and development and talent retention, you know, truly education is going to be at the piece of that — a big piece of that. And then also making sure that we are keeping all of our employers accountable. We can't have businesses here that are just paying minimum wage.
We need to make sure that they are offering good salaries and that we are toolling up all of our all of our citizens, not just our kids that are in you know this school systems, but what resources are available to all of you that sit here in this room, at any age at any socio economic status, we need to make sure that we are thoughtful in our approach, and we use strategy and data behind this.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Michael,
Michael Dougherty
This is an issue county wide, statewide that we're going to be facing, we have to find ways to not just supply jobs to our citizens, not low-paying jobs that are a minimum wage, we have to get good qualified jobs, by attracting those businesses that can come into this area and offer a wage that's above our poverty line. You look at how many people have children, ‘oh, you know, I'm gonna go out and get a job for $19 an hour,’ then they have to pay child care expenses on top of that which are astronomical. So we have to make it affordable for our citizens.
As a mayor, I would look at possibly TIFs (Tax Increment Financing) to attract businesses to come in and utilize the how many empty warehouses do we have that can be utilized for businesses coming in the I 69 corridor, I believe will be a huge impact on us to be able to go straight south and traveling and carrying cargo and manufacturing equipment to where we can hopefully build up that sector in our city bring higher paying jobs here.
As a mayor, I would identify locations to where we could possibly spearhead a co-working location to where people can start businesses, and they don't have to go out and pay $789 a month on rent for a small 200 square foot house. They have a co-working studio that they go in, they have internet, they have working, they have conference rooms, and they have a little best that's shared among other business owners. I've seen that work in Lafayette, I've seen that work in Indianapolis. So those are the types of things growing small business, to allow people that can't get a job or when a half aspirations being a business owner can utilize that and have have ways to enter the market.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Stephanie.
Stephanie Terry
I stated this earlier that, you know, one of the greatest challenges is poverty. But we know that as a community, if we want to thrive, the people have to thrive. So that means families have to have quality education, job opportunities, food, shelter, and health care. Specifically as mayor, I'm going to, number one, advocate for quality education and support services. I've had the question already. Well, you ran for mayor, why do you care about education? Well, if we're going to thrive, we need to be sure that we have a strong educational system that our kids are prepared for the workforce ahead.
I also, you know, that's gonna include adult education and workforce training, too. That's why I'm really excited. I don't know if many of you have heard about the Promise Neighborhood grant that we just received $30 million is going to be invested in matched as well in our community. So that's double the grant that we're going to receive. But this level of investment in our community is really going to help us break the cycle of generational poverty in specific neighborhoods that have been neglected.
It also will encourage economic growth in our neighborhoods where there's been disinvestment, whether that's from park improvements, blight, removal, and invest in a neighborhood commercial corridors. I want to continue, as I said earlier, to grow the Housing Trust Fund, but then also reducing crime is also a part a piece of reducing the poverty rate in our community.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Cheryl.
Cheryl Musgrave
I grew up in a low income household, and I still live in a low income area. In fact, you know, you stated that the poverty rate for Evansville is 19.9-percent. I live next to the literally next to the area that Stephanie was just talking about. And the rate of poverty, there is 39-percent. So I grew up in this low income family and what brought me out of it, what brought me out of it was great public education. I got a great education. And I had the debt to go with it. But I also had Pell grants. So I know what it takes to get out of there.
You have to be educated and then you have to get a good job. But my family was poor, but my dad always worked because he was in the military. And you had a steady paycheck, small though it was, you could plan. Education combined with steady work in Evansville will lift families out of poverty. But I did every job that I could find growing up, whether it was babysitting full time in the summer, I even once went knocking on somebody's door because I thought their fence looked like it needed to be painted. And I offered to paint the fence and the guy hired me so I did do that too.
What the children are faced with today is an abundance of riches, how I would have loved to have the internet as a child and to be able to read virtually anything that was ever written. We have to connect our children with those resources. Like Stephanie, I am over the moon about the $30 million grant that transforms into a $60 million investment into the community. I can hardly wait to help support that group and help support Erep, our economic development organization to attract and retain the talent that we will grow right here based on the investment that that trust will make in our community.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Okay, the next question is for Michael, to begin. In 2021, Evansville adopted a climate action plan. What will you do to see that a particular department is designated with the responsibility to implement the plan and seek grants.
Michael Dougherty
So that actually ties to that earlier question with a grant writer; you want to make sure that you have somebody on staff that continually goes after those types of grants, with the ever changing issues that we have on our climate change, we want to identify those adding green space, I'm a huge green space advocate.
And going in and making sure that we can use any and all renewable energy that is afforded to us CenterPoint invests in a lot of solar fields up US-41 throughout the state. There are currently a lot of tax abatements that property owners business owners can take place in when it comes to solar energy. And identifying and building a strong team to continue that to make sure it doesn't just get dropped off to the side. And managing and leading a team to ensure that those goals keep moving forward would be exactly what I'm doing in my administration.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Stephanie
Stephanie Terry
I think number first of all, is making sure that we have the staff — they'll have the department fully staffed and and I think I'm really pleased with the fact that the city has developed a Climate Action Plan. While I've not read it in great detail, these are the things that are very important to me. In strictly economic development, we want to improve air quality and reduce waste. But in particular, you know, for me things that I am interested in is creative roadway designs; I'm interested in increasing access to the parks and green spaces, and then recycling education.
And then also increasing affordable access to fresh foods. There is some work we've heard all about it. You know, there's Feed Evansville, I mean, the tremendous growth of that program and how that might expand. And the fact that even after the pandemic, there's still a need for it. And so continuing to look at how we can continue to grow that program I think will be important. I think there is always more that we can do. But I'm really confident that our community is prioritizing the need to address climate change.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Cheryl.
Cheryl Musgrave
I looked through the Evansville Climate Change plan, and it's a fluffy aspirational document that puts all the goals to be fulfilled sometime in ‘2030 2040 2050.’ And it has such nonsense in there as encouraging families to put solar panels on their roof. That is hugely expensive to do that, and well beyond the means of the folks who in my neighborhood, where all told you have a 39-percent poverty rate. Folks in Evansville can't afford their utility bills, right? This very minute, whether we're talking about water, or electricity.
So I think that we need to toss that plan and come up with real actionable steps that we can take. And I thought of one — I had to ride the bus when I was younger and without a car. I don't think I got a car until I was in my mid 20s. And then it was so old that it broke down all the time.
So why not work toward making Mets free, free for everyone to ride? One of the most nonsensical things that's in that climate change plan was to encourage residents of Evansville to walk if their chore that they were going to attend to was three miles or less away. So the climate action plan that we have, we need to start over.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Natalie.
Natalie Rascher
Well, I think there can always be improvements to any plan. And anything that we put forth through city government should be thought of as a living, breathing document. It's not that it's dead set in stone, there's always room for improvement. We in the next three to four weeks, it's my understanding, we'll actually be hiring someone and for the city that will be taking a hold of this climate action plan and figuring out ways that we can put it to use to have a full time staff dedicated to it, I think speaks very highly of our intent to move forward.
I think that it speaks highly of our community knowing that we do have to address these issues. We need to make sure that we have clean air, clean drinking water and that Evansville is a place where people want to stay and they don't want to leave.
There's a lot of opportunity out there. And one thing I'd actually just heard, it was either this morning or yesterday morning, and I think it was on NPR. But they were talking about the EPA coming in with more restrictions and more regulations on emissions for motor vehicles. And so of course, the kind of that natural solution that people always jump to is going to electric vehicles. One, they're very expensive. And the production rate just isn't there yet. But also, we have to think then about the infrastructure about having the charging stations, and then also making sure that we have qualified individuals that can work on those charging stations, you have to have electricians to do that work. I don't know how familiar everyone is with how long it takes to get an electrician to come out to their house.
But there's usually a waiting list and there's some time there. So to have these big projects in place, we have to make sure that we have the infrastructure there first. They are important, they are necessary, we need to start going down this road. But we again have to be very measured and very thoughtful on how we're going to do it. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Alright, the next question, we'll start with Stephanie. In years past, the question of city county government consolidation has been soundly defeated by the electorate. What do you think about the consolidation question?
Stephanie Terry
Well, I think excellence in local and regional growth can only occur when we work together. Government can cause sedation is not a new topic for us, as you just said, and voters would have to approve this change. By referendum vote, I think we can all agree that there are some pros and cons that must be taken into consideration. It's vitally important in any government structure, that we make sure that all voters have equal representation, and opportunity. So if this matter comes back up, I will take a look at it and consider, you know, moving in that direction.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Cheryl
Cheryl Musgrave
It's dead on arrival with me. The last time this was voted on the in the first years of the current administration's term, we did have an election, we had a referendum, and it was defeated by 67-percent. They spent well over a year on this and only two precincts out of the entire city, county, city and county, all of them I think, 467 precincts only two precincts wanted this to happen.
It was a huge waste of time and money. We have so many pressing problems on our desk right now. And we have the most consolidated government in the state outside of Marion County, we have numerous joint departments that fulfill a lot of the consolidation. So I think that that is just fine, we just need to leave that right where it is, turn our focus to crime, and start talking about how we're going to solve the soaring crime that we have here in Evansville, so that we stopped the exodus of people from the City of Evansville.
You might not know that we have about as many people now in Evansville, we have around 117,000 As we did in 1960. Our community even though they have annexed regions, people are leaving Evansville, because of the crime because of the lack of opportunity. It's no secret that most of the new facilities, the manufacturing places, the new places of employment are not built inside city limits. We need to turn that around through the incentives I was talking about before with housing to have the same incentives and more government work in the area of bringing those facilities smaller, hopefully, because we don't need Toyota here in town, a smaller ones so that there's employment for people in the areas where they live, and then they can take the bus for free to get there too.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Natalie.
Natalie Rascher
Yes. Well, I'll just go ahead out there and say that nothing will be dead on arrival. If it comes to my desk, that's insensitive of the people that have worked toward bringing something forward. You know, they may think it's a good idea. Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn't. We, as a good leader, you need to make sure that your ears are open and your mouth is closed. There are times that you have to really think about what's being proposed. Now, when it comes to this specific issue. I'm not necessarily a fan of it, we would have to go through and rewrite so much Municipal Code, and we would really have to decide if it makes sense. But that doesn't mean I'm just going to slam the door on it. I think that we need to make sure that we let all of our citizens have a voice and voice that concern.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Michael.
Michael Dougherty
As a libertarian, my view is always government is always bloated, that we always are overstaffed and never look at ways to save money. Once we receive tax dollars, the citizens never get them back so I would definitely have my eyes open for opportunities. I wouldn't sit here and say without seeing the plan, but I would want to see the opportunity to possibly consolidate and save taxpayers money, any and every chance I got, even if it's in just city, city, county, any other joint efforts that we have, that's one of the advantages I have. As an outsider coming in. I'm not a career politician. I'm a small business owner, I'm a hard working person, and I've been there and I've paid my taxes to the government. And the government never spins them wisely. And just like when they get a budget, they don't ever want to they don't ever want to go below it because they have a use it or lose it mentality, so that my fresh eyes coming in, as not a career politician will will benefit that and I will look at any and every opportunity to save tax dollars.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Okay, for the next question, we will start with Cheryl. And the question is, what is Evansville? Its greatest asset? And how would you develop it?
Cheryl Musgrave
Our greatest asset of people who live here, and the people that we can attract to come and live here, people make everything work, everything. I want to have more jobs here, you've already heard me talk about how education is the greatest pathway out of poverty, I want to make sure that we have the best education here possible. That does mean working with our public and private schools, and within the new grants for the Promise Zone to make better education possible.
One of the great things about the new Promise Zone is that it's going to wrap around the whole family. And in my neighborhood that's extremely necessary. So they're not just looking at the child, they're going to be looking at the family, what services do they need? How can we deliver that service to that family in their time of need, so that the child stays in school so that the child is given job opportunities when they're ready to leave home? So the greatest single asset that we have in Evansville is our people. We have people who largely get along. Somebody asked at a previous forum, ‘did we have a lot of political strife here?’ I don't think so. I think in the city, county government now we all work very hard to get along together, and to support the projects and programs that we have going forward. So we are all largely of one mind, we definitely want our children to succeed. And I believe that we come together around that point, helping our children succeed. And I want to make that happen.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Natalie.
Natalie Rascher
Thank you. This question has been asked before a couple of different times in different forums, and I always appreciate it because I come from an HR background, and in the business world and private sector, any business owner out there will be able to tell you they know that their number one asset is their employees, their workers, their people. And that is one thing that I hold true, you know, inside and out.
We have such talent here that we need to focus on how we retain all of the amazing people that we have here in our city. And we have and then how do we leverage those talents and skills, making sure that we have the right kind of industries that we're looking forward, at innovation, and what do we need to do?
We've had very strong manufacturing in our area, we've had strong growth and health services, we've had strong growth and believe it or not, accounting services hear of out of all places, it's great. We have so much to give. This is what we need to present to individuals that are looking at investing in our community. We have the people, we have the manpower to get the job done. And we come together as a community. We have so many little pockets in different neighborhoods that have great culture. I was just down in Hayne’s Corner for the wiffle ball games the other night, where I sponsored the games and to see you know, 150 people come together and just enjoy playing wiffle ball. It was all adults too. You know, it was a great way to kind of you know, put a bow on what Evansville is. It's people coming together for the good of their community, to thrive, to make connections to network and to move forward. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Michael.
Michael Dougherty
The answer is always people. That's the simple answer. I've come back even when I lived in Lafayette to the West Side Nut Club, The Fall Festival, seeing that many people get along beside each other in a large setting is just amazing. The second portion of the second most greatest asset we have in Evansville is our location. We're right on the banks of the Ohio River. We have interstate travel coming into our back door, I-69 getting ready to Come up, you know, 41 can go up to 64 across, we need to utilize that asset to attract people.
Evansville is not a destination city, we see a mass exodus of people leaving this area. Once they grow up, they move away. We need to make Evansville a place where people want to come and live and work and stay. And I think a lot of that has to do with our park system, quality of life, and those are the types of taskforce that I would work with as as your mayor, to to develop and retain or people that get a great education with our avsc here, and then move away to go to college, stay here at U of E, at USI, get a great education and raise your family here. That's the goal of building Evansville and making them so greater. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Stephanie.
Stephanie Terry
I think many would say that Evansville is best asset is the river. But it's also the most underutilized. Building a comprehensive plan for development, which is underway and activating the riverfront would be a great start. I think we can also leverage public and private partnerships as part of this development. But it's one thing that we've all agreed on today on this, this panel here is that the people is our greatest asset. A mayor needs to be able to bring the community together and activate the talents of our residents that possess, you know, to improve our city.
We also need to foster a climate where all citizens truly believe that they are stakeholders and who can impact the shape of our community. I will do this by maintaining and establishing coalitions like the Commission on homelessness, and the mayor's substance abuse Task Force. I've somee ideas for some new ones, like the coalition of faith leaders, or bringing back the education roundtable that was in effect during the Weinzapfel administration. We can't get this job done alone. As mayor, it's gonna take all of us to get the job done and to continue to move our city forward.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Okay, the next question, we'll start with Natalie. And I'm combining two of the audience questions into one. So what type of relationship will you have with the EVSC? And how can Evansville's next mayor lead in strengthening our public schools?
Natalie Rascher
Yeah, well, I would definitely hope to have a close relationship with them. You know, we're talking about creating pipelines and partnerships for you know, business or, you know, laborers, you know, all of these things that we kind of think of after high school, but we have to have a strong partnership before that as well in order to create those pipelines. And then also, the mayor's office has several different appointments that they make, that can impact education and resources that are provided to the EVSC. So I want to ensure that whenever I'm making those appointments, that we're putting the right people in the right places that are passionate about our students and their growth and their opportunity here within Evansville.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Michael.
Michael Dougherty
Yeah, the the mayor's office should have a very good working relationship with EVSC. Everybody understands that teachers are extremely underpaid. I've got a lot of friends that are in education, they put up their personal money to fund the classroom. They do all these special projects, a lot of times funded out of their pocket, the mayor's office does not have or, as I'm aware of doesn't attend the school board meetings.
There needs to be a good support system and communication back and forth between them. Because the consolidation of the county and city that there's a disparagement there between the mayor's office. So having an open communication channel, the appointments into those positions are critical, and finding ways to work together for increasing our education, whether it be trade school, education, finding ways that the path isn't always to secondary education, getting a college degree, there are a huge amount of work that needs to be done in the trades.
And we see that sector really dropping out with qualified candidates that come out of high school ready to go on taking a four year apprenticeship through electrical trade, the HVAC plumbers union, those types of situations need to be educated a lot sooner, and I think the mayor's office can help facilitate that. In Lafayette, they built a training school that is like an intermediary where high school in when I went to high school in North we had a vocational area, that kind of separate in the schools work together. I think that could work well with the mayor's office, spearheading that and working with other leaders in the county to bring that education and facilitate that communication between all departments.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Stephanie.
Stephanie Terry
I think I mean, number one is being an advocate for education. And as I've just mentioned, you know, one of the things that I love to you know, see done is for us to bring back the education roundtable. I know right now through the talent EVV work there is already an education workstream that really again is bringing all the stakeholders together? And so how do we evolve that and work in partnership with those groups, again, to ensure that we are having meaningful conversations about how do we move the needle on challenges that our children are faced with, and making sure that they're there have access to high quality education, and equitable access to quality education in our community.
And so being sure that we're investing in some, again, some of those areas that have been disinvested for years in our center city, as well, as you know, all parts of the community, there are schools, again, that need additional support, both in the public and private arena. And I think you know, more than more than anything, we also there's an opportunity to for continued partnerships. This Promise Zone neighborhood grant really is, again, it's a great example of — you've got government, you've got business, you've got, you know, school corporation, you got everyone at the table, investing in one common goal. And so is that is that that level of work that we have to replicate, to ensure again, our kids on the right path?
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Cheryl.
Cheryl Musgrave
The number one reason why people choose to live in one community or another is the quality of education in the public schools that serve that area. One of the main reasons why Warrick County attracts so many residents with children and especially residents with good jobs with children is because of the excellent quality of Warrick County Schools. Indeed, all you have to do, almost in its entirety, is leave the City of Evansville limits to find a better school. The schools within the innermost city have recently been graded — I know because I read the grades in the newspaper — and they were again hovering in the ‘C’ and below area.
This is the key thing that needs to change in order to attract new and young families to the City of Evansville. So as mayor, that is the number one thing right behind making it safe to live here that we need to do, the quality of the schools needs to be increased. So how do you do that?
A lot of folks that I've talked to out there on the campaign trail don't recognize that the school board and elected body is actually the entity that controls the selection of superintendents and does all of the school work. I've been surprised by how many people thought that maybe Evansville was like Chicago, or New York, where the mayor has a great direct influence on schools. So in Evansville, and in Indiana, it's indirect, you have to reach across to a separately elected board and attempt to influence them about how things are being done. We've mentioned the Promise Grant several times here today. That gives me renewed hope that we will be able to turn around the situation in my neighborhood, which absolutely cratered when Culver school was closed for I don't know, what's that 3040 years ago. It has a direct impact on my neighborhood, and it has almost not recovered to this day.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Okay, thank you. And the next question, we'll start with Michael. And the question is, I think all the candidates are talking about fixing the city parks, what exactly do you have in mind for fixing the parks.
Michael Dougherty
The first and foremost thing is having a budget there that you can utilize to repair and maintain those — I mentioned earlier that growth is great. But if you can't maintain it over a long period of time, it does no good and aren't their parks go to disrepair like they are now. The Mesker amphitheater there are definitely getting some some light shined on it. Though the Wesselman Woods area, we've been promised Roberts Park for a few years now.
So going through our budget working with the city council with a fine tooth comb to see where we can save money, where we can shift some funds over to our parks, and actually putting in the maintenance that is required to keep these parks maintained. The amount of money that's spent in our budget, there's got to be cost savings enough to cover maintenance for all of our parks. And that would be a huge focus of mine as the mayor.
The quality of life is tied right in with the park system. Being able to take your family out and have a safe place to enjoy the weather is very critical for quality of life for our citizens. So finding those ways to save money, moving some budget over to the city parks, even looking at maybe our parks department is overworked. We don't have the resources to do everything we have. So why don't we look at utilizing private contracts to do some of the maintenance. So if we have staff we have about Should, we may not have the money to spread them out and spread them too thin. So we could outsource some of that to private companies to save money to do the maintenance on our parks.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Stephanie
Stephanie Terry
Just as Michael said, I mean, number one, we have to have the resources in order to make the needed improvements that are needed in our local parks. I love being outside. And so this is going to be something that's going to be really important, and I'm excited about it. Because you know, for the last 12 years, I have been in a bit of a creative space where I can design and reimagine play spaces for children.
And so it excites me to think about the opportunity of how we might revisualize our park system. We do have a master plan that is being rolled out and just completed and that will be shared with the community, but we're gonna have to prioritize what that looks like. And so I think it's, you know, connecting with the neighborhood associations and working with other community organizations to come alongside the little country theme park as an example. I mean, look at how the community has come together around Tepe Park in that neighborhood to transform their park and just that small area, how can we replicate that throughout the city? Again, it's all of us working together. And so I'm really excited about the opportunity of what's going to come with revitalizing our parks.
But we're gonna have to prioritize because I do think it's important while we maintain what we have and take care of that, we've got to still add more green space because again, being outside is going to help us overall for our health and well being. And we know that's also a part of what brings people and retains people in our community is that they have a vibrant city and access to outdoor amenities.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Cheryl
Cheryl Musgrave
As County Commissioner, I have successfully managed Burdette Park, which is the county park. And this is another thing that perhaps new people here do not know or even folks who've lived here all their lives. But that Park was kept out of the consolidation of the parks funding back in the 1970s. When that happens, so the the burden is directly managed by the county commissioners. We keep our pool in great shape. We get lifeguards there, we renovate, we build chalets repave the roads, and we are in the process of putting a million dollars worth of new playground equipment, new tennis courts, pickleball courts, and not one single protester showed up to complain.
So we have done a great job in the county, the commissioners and I have working with the county council to make this funding happen. So I have experience already in managing parks. But in the city, you may not know that the parks department is funded by a county-wide tax. So even farmers in the far reaches of our county paid the exact same amount of money to maintain a city park as someone who lives right next to it. So you would think that we would have already, this is like an example of the consolidation that we have in place that other counties do not, you would think that we would have all the resources that we need.
But sadly, our parks have disintegrated over this past administration. What we have is a lack of leadership. The parks director was arrested and hauled off some 18 months ago, and has not been replaced. I've talked with my neighbors who wanted to go have a picnic in the park on Memorial Day, and had to break out their own lawn mower and mow it first before they could go have that picnic. I have a lot more to say about parks. But she's given me the hook over here. So I'm gonna have to stop.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Natalie.
Natalie Rascher
Thank you. So one thing that I don't think a lot of people know about me is whenever I was at grad school at IU, I was part of their parks and recreation program or recreational sports. So this is very near and dear to my heart. And I also do have experience managing recreation and the recreational side of it. I think we really get hyper focused when we talk about parks, and when we talk about parks and recreation, we need to ensure that we are creating opportunities for people to use our parks.
You know, right now we've got Roberts Park, and it's just a field. That's all it is. There's not trails there. There's not picnic tables, there's not even trees that you could go sit under and have a picnic. So we need to think about how we can better visualize what our parks look like, and what kind of activities we can have at them.
Unfortunately, wear and tear on parks happens. You know, I've taken my kids several times to different parks across the city. And there's ones that I know are in better shape than others and then about midway through the season, then you switch and you go to a different part because you know that one's been taken care of. You kind of learn the rotation there. But one thing that I think that we have an opportunity to do as a community is leverage entities like University of Evansville and their Changemakers program. You know, let our young students that are here to take this idea idea of how do we read visualize our park? How do we make it more functional? How do we engage people more with this?
…
But I can tell you that whenever it comes to parks and recreation, you know, it is something that I'm very passionate about getting into the Changemakers program where we can really leverage some of the talent and the resources here. I was about to say, you know, I'm not an engineer. And so I couldn't tell you what the best kind of resin is to use on this playground equipment. But I would love those engineering students at UE to do a project and tell us what kind of equipment we should be putting in those parks. So again, we've got to maintain the parks that we have, we have to make sure that we're looking at those current green spaces that really haven't been developed, so that we can do things there. And then the riverfront also has a great opportunity for more parks and recreational purposes. You know, we've got a river that is underutilized as well. Water sports is a thing. I know, it's cold here a lot of times that we're starting to get that warm weather. And I really, truly do think that we just have a whole host of things that we could bring forward, if the right person is there leading the march. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. Okay. You guys have given so many questions today, and I'm sorry, we're not gonna be able to get to all of them. I'm going to ask one more, and then what I thought I'd do unless someone objects is, before you give your closing statements, I'd mentioned a few of the topics we didn't get to, because you can use your closing statement to either address further, some topic that you feel like you want to talk more about.
You can use it to sum up whatever you want to about today. Or if you really feel like you want to touch on one of the things we haven't touched on, you can use your time to do that as well.
So my question for you is, we've heard a lot about buying new uniforms for the police and focusing resources on roads. But if elected, what resources will you use to improve race relations in Vanderburgh? County? And we're going to start with Stephanie.
Stephanie Terry
That's an interesting question, what resources I will use. I think one of the things and as an African American woman to be in this seat is huge. It's encouraging that we can be in a city that hopefully will accept, that can move past color of skin and identify people that are talented and educated. And, and so you know, one of the things for me, I've got to be, I don't feel obligated, but it's within my heart that we create a space and a place where everyone is included and feels welcomed. And it's because of my life experiences, you know, having been told ‘oh, you won't excell it that, or, ‘you can't do that,’ because you're an African American, you don't know how many questions I've had even just considering this race as African American woman. ‘Are you capable of doing this?’ Well, heck, yeah; I'm educated. I have a degree. I've worked. I've served this community for a number of years. And so whatever I can do in terms of, you know, opening doors, bringing people into the fold, and allowing them a seat at the table to be a part of you know, addressing the complex issues that we deal with in this community. I think that's going to be my commitment moving forward as mayor of the city.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Cheryl.
Cheryl Musgrave
I think we're fortunate that we have really pretty good race relations right now. We have a great African American Museum, which I've been a member of for a long time. In county government, as a county commissioner, I've recruited and have found roles for black members to be appointed to various boards and commissions and worked well with Stephanie Terry, on county council; thank you very much for your help and getting the difficult things that we've done together through particularly the American Rescue Plan Act. And by the way, there's a little bit more to come on that.
So I don't know that we have — we're starting from a rough patch, we're starting from a great place. And we just need to do more to move together. Race relations has something to do with poverty, and opportunity, and housing, education. And it's up to us to make sure that those are in place. I talked to earlier about my plans for making more housing available inside the City of Evansville. I mean it, let's designate the geographic area where we can incentivize developers to come, let's cut the regulation so that you don't have to build the biggest house that the government currently requires. Let's cut the regulation so that you can reduce the cost of housing here in Evansville, let's look at that Mets bus service so that we can either make it free or as close to free as we possibly can. But I already told you that education is the biggest hurdle for anyone here in the City of Evansville. And I will work very hard to bridge that educational gap.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Natalie.
Natalie Rascher
I would have to say I believe that our race relations here in Evansville are much better than most places in the United States. But I think that whenever we start to talk about race here, we tend to just think, black and white. And we have a whole lot more here than just black and white. We have an emerging population of Haitians of Marshalese islands, individuals, we have a very large Latino population for where we are located in the Midwest, we need to start thinking about how as a city, we celebrate all of the different heritage and culture that is here in our city, because that's what brings people together. You know, I love it.
I was just at Festival of Nations and to see, you know, so many different individuals from different places around the world, but they call Evansville home. But then to see them bring their culture here and share it with with all of us in this room. It's amazing. And that is what I want to continue. I want to see us celebrate those things. So that whenever we're talking about race relations, we're talking about how we are a beacon for the rest of the state and if not the whole nation, on how we work together as a community and we bring people together. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Michael.
Michael Dougherty
Racism is taught, it's you're not born with those instincts. And I hear everybody saying, well, ‘Evansville is a great place. We haven't had those issues,’ until it happens. That's one of the things that you can't just let it go because ‘Oh, it's fine. We don't have any issues.’ BreonaTaylor, you know, the issue with her, George Floyd. Racism happens all the time, we have to have a good leadership working together with all races to make sure that it doesn't happen. We can't just not talk about it. Because ‘hey, everything's going good. We don't have any issues in Evansville, we're all we're all good, thumbs up.’ We have to be proactive in our approach to combat racism in everything from city police, they have the stigma of ‘oh, there's a police officer.’ Unfortunately, in our city, in our state, in our country, African American young males are policed a lot more than any other race, any other group in the nation. We have to be proactive in that, as the mayor oversees the city police, you have to have that education in place to protect that and have equality in all aspects from the police force to everything else from appointed positions.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you. And thank you all for answering the questions today. Now, as I mentioned, I will just mention the topics that we didn't maybe directly cover today, but please don't feel like you have to address them and definitely not multiple of them. This is your two minutes to wrap up. So it's completely up to you. If you feel strongly enough about one of these that you want to weave it into your closing comments.
Again, as a reminder, the candidates will each get two minutes for closing and they can use that to cover whatever topic they wish. And we will start with Cheryl again.
The topics that we maybe didn't cover as specifically as were submitted, were expanding mental health care facilities mental health facilities, addressing the homeless crisis, addressing roads, especially potholes, controlling the usage of drugs such as fentanyl and heroin in the community, promoting the return of recycling at Wesselman Park, pickleball and minimum wage.
So, like I said, don't feel you have to address any but if there's one you really feel strongly about making a comment about it where you can. You can use some of your time to do that, but that's completely at your discretion. Cheryl, you may go ahead.
Cheryl Musgrave
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Last year after a lot of thought and consultation with my family, I decided to run for mayor. We all knew it was going to be a tough race. But still I decided that I had a duty to run. Evansville is a wonderful city. But it faces a few problems. Crime is up, the population is flat, the parks are falling apart. The streets are in disrepair, and city departments are in crisis. Evansville deserves better. I wasn't born in Evansville, but I got here as soon as I could.
My father was in the US Air Force. And that's why I was born in West Germany. It's why my fondest childhood memories are of Naples, Italy. Our family father followed my father's postings around Europe and America for the whole of my childhood. And these experiences taught me about duty and service. And this sense of public duty has guided my entire career. Making Evansville the best that it can be will take a mayor who can lead and who is ready from day one. As Commissioner. I've worked with my colleagues to bring raises for sheriff's deputies, new and improved roads, trails, a better Burdette Park and universal fiber broadband to the unincorporated county.
I've demonstrated that I can lead and that I deliver what the voters want the most — a better Evansville without changing it. It takes knowing whom to work with, then working together across party and geographic lines, and plenty of patience. Government is full of what my military family called ‘Hurry up, and wait.’ I know being your mayor will be a challenge. But I also think it's my duty. I ask for your vote.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Natalie.
Natalie Rascher
All right. Well, I would love to be able to address all of the topics that were listed out today. I know that I cannot do that in two minutes. But you know, one thing that did kind of strike a chord with me that was mentioned was ‘more mental health facilities.’ And that's where I do want to just kind of impress upon all of you the importance of having the right person in the seat at the right time.
So throughout my career, you know, I've had the opportunity to work in healthcare, to work with utilities to work in higher education, and most recently, financial service industries. My goal is to bring people together to make sure everyone has a clear understanding of expectations, and then typically purchase firms and fold them in. To be successful to do this, I have to be a great communicator, and I have to make sure that I am able to bring people there that need to be there.
In order to get more mental health care facilities here, we need to have the funding to do it. And we need to make sure that we're bringing investors here, and we're showing the med school that we have a need. We have an amazing donor in the Stone family, where they have truly given us the opportunity to have a med school here. There are plans to expand upon that, for mental health for children, that will be an amazing impact for our community, and I look forward to that groundbreaking and to keep building on and continuing those services. But we can't just have a building, we have to have the people there that can staff it as well.
Right now. It's about a year long waitlist for a child to receive services for mental health. That's not acceptable. We have to do more for our community. And again, I impress upon you, we have to have the right person that can bring those people here. Part of my job is in talent acquisition, I get the people and I bring them to my companies. I'm going to get the people. I'm going to find them here in Evansville and make sure they stay here so that we can address all of these concerns and all of the needs that we have. On my website, you'll find a lot of information. I encourage you to do that. I'm getting this stuff. I'm so sorry. But thank you. Thank you all for coming here and investing in your community by learning more about us. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Michael.
Michael Dougherty
I'm very passionate about mental health. I worked for a company that worked with people with disabilities for seven years. I was vice president of that company so I'm very passionate. I have experience. Logansport State Hospital closed down. We received a lot of the clients from that area. So I have direct experience with people with mental health issues. And again, I could spend my whole two minutes on that.
But I've got a few other things I want to talk about. As a conservative, fiscally conservative person, I'm a libertarian. So I don't belong to either party. And I believe that I as mayor, I can bring that bipartisanship and work outside of both areas. I'm not affiliated with one major party, and I'm not going to answer to one party. I've received $60 in donations to my campaign, the funding campaign, the funding donations are gonna come out soon. I don't have all those favors to pay back.
So to me, the PAC Super PACs, everything should not be allowed to donate to campaign contributions. I think at the local level, there shouldn't be an ‘R’ or a ‘D,’ or an ‘L,’ or an Independent. Politics should just be about the citizens. And that's why my website is ‘people over politics dot-vote,’ because I'm going to do what's best for the citizens. And again, I'm not going to just answer to a single party that says, ‘Oh, well, you're on this side of the aisle, you have to vote this way.’ No, I'm going to look for what's in the best interests of each and every citizen. So that's where my stand is, as a small business owner for 14 years, I'm going to look at every way to save taxpayers’ money, I'm going to critique every single budget list item that I can help control. I'm going to work with the City Council. And I'm going to save the citizens of this of this great city as much money as I can. Thank you.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you, Stephanie.
Stephanie Terry
I've served you well, for the last 12 years as a council member. And as a council member, I've supported job creation. I have supported arts and culture and nonprofit organizations. I have supported law enforcement pay increases. I've supported parks development. I've supported broadband, after Cheryl's done some tough work. I've served you well. I've been transparent, I've been accountable, responsive, compassionate leader, and as your mayor, that won't change.
I will address the challenges we face in partnership with others to build upon the work that has started to develop a more vibrant, diverse and sustainable economy that uplifts working families that invest and protects every neighborhood and that creates economic opportunities. I believe in Evansville, its potential, its people and our collective capacity to make our city stronger.
I thank you for this opportunity. Because again, I never thought that I'd be sitting in this chair, as many times as I walked past the Mayor’s wall — the Hall of Fame of the Civic Center on the third floor. I've seen the same thing over and over. And I've looked at that wall and said, ‘When will this ever change.’ I never thought though, that the change would be me, that the time is now for new leadership in the City of Evansville.
And that I will represent this place and ensure that everyone feels that ‘E’ really is for everyone, regardless of where we come from where we live, everyone in this community deserves the same opportunities and quality of life. When you vote for Stephanie Terry, you vote for an experienced, committed hardworking servant leader that works for the prosperity of all people.
So I kindly ask for your vote and support this November. But if you go into the you know, to the polls and you pull a ‘D,’ you can go ahead and take care of that too. On May the second because I'd really appreciate the support because again, it's energizing for the community to come together. It takes some interest in this important race because there's some great work to be done. There's a lot of hard work to be done but we can do it and we can do it together. So thank you again for this opportunity.
LWV - Tracy McEuen
Thank you and thank you all for your time today