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City Council Candidate: Cordero E. Reid, Ward 2

Lebanon Local asked each City Council candidate running on the November ballot the same questions and received response via email or phone call.

Years in Lebanon:  2.5

Education: BA Psychology, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Professional Background/Work Experience: Mental Health, currently Linn County Mental Health employee as a Exceptional Needs Care Coordinator

Political Experience/Affiliations: Nonpartisan; Elected Student Senator, Associated Students of University of Alaska Fairbanks 2013-2017; Appointed Legislative Advocate, Associated Students of University of Alaska Fairbanks 2016-2017; Elected Representative of the Coalition of Student Leaders 2016-2017; Committees served: Executive Council, Club Council, Public Relations Board, various ad hoc committees

Other Community Involvement: Big Brothers and Big Sisters

Family: Nieces and brother’s family lives in Corvallis.

 

 

Why do you want to serve on the City Council?

I am running for office because I believe that Lebanon deserves leadership that truly listens to its residents and works to address their concerns. Having lived in Lebanon for the past several years, I have seen our town’s ebbs and flows, and one recurring theme I hear from talking with people is a deep dissatisfaction with how things are being run. Many of us feel that there is too much focus on building new apartments and too little emphasis on fostering a strong sense of community. We have wonderful events like the Strawberry Festival, the Civil War reenactment, and various holiday celebrations, but I believe we can do so much more. I am passionate about increasing our parks and recreational spaces, expanding green areas, and promoting more community activities that bring us together.

I am aware that the position I am running for is contested, and it’s the only one. This tells me that political involvement in our town could be much stronger. I would love to see every seat and the mayoral position contested because that kind of competition is healthy for our community. When people are unwilling to step up and support our town, it allows one-track thinking to dominate, and that is not how progress is made. I am not a career politician, nor am I close-minded. I am simply a resident with ideas on how we can improve Lebanon, and I am eager to serve our community in a meaningful way. Additionally, if elected I will seek to donate my monthly stipend to local charities/nonprofits.

 

Please describe your view of the proper role of government and how your philosophy of government would impact how you carry out your responsibilities in leading the city.

The proper role of government for me is to serve the community the best way possible while fostering growth and being a good steward of dollars, grants, and revenue. My philosophy has always been person centered. I look at how the environment can support or hinder an individual and what we can do to remove barriers for them if possible. To extend this to being a leader in the community, I like to walk alongside people I serve rather than behind or in front of, empowering them to achieve.

 

What are the three most important issues/challenges you believe Lebanon should address in the next four years? How would you address these?

  1. The budget shortfall and addressing the cost of doing business within the city.
  2. Public safety, there seems to be a lot of expectation on the police to keep the peace, which is absolutely one of their domains, but also, they can improve community partnerships and build out more community involvement.
  3. Parks and recreation, one of my biggest dreams would be an interconnected contiguous park system where all people of Lebanon can enjoy nature and feel safe going from one end to the other. I would work closely with the parks committee.

 

What goals do you hope to achieve while serving on the council?

Building more community partnerships and working on parks projects to improve the livability and safety of Lebananites.

 

The city is facing some financial challenges right now as the budget foresees a multimillion dollar deficit in the coming years. What do you believe would be the best course for fixing this problem?

The budget is already passed as I know it for 2025 so we will have to go along with it, but I would put it to the budgetary committee to be proactive instead of reactive to the current projections. It is also difficult to deal with a growing city where there has not been much planning for that growth. I will explain more in the next question my thoughts on alleviating the pressure.

 

A lot of city government revolves around funding – budgets and taxation. In general, how do you view the city’s performance in these areas? If you would change it, how would you do so?

Poor. However, the revenue streams are constrained with a lot of the revenue coming from charges from services and property taxes. There are other avenues to explore, but it seems the surest way to increase city funding is through progressive taxes based on the value of property and the use of utilities. Though our population is mostly middle to senior aged, this can pose a bit of a problem. What happens when your service bill becomes unbearably expensive, and your source of income doesn’t increase year over year? This might encourage you to downsize or move, which in turn would be revenue loss for the city. I know that many community members do not like the idea of paying more, let alone being taxed. However, I think another way to bring in revenue is to try a 1-2% tax on goods and services offered in the city of Lebanon could bring in more revenue and lessen the burden on the people who live here.

 

The city, like many others, faces challenges related to homelessness. What policies do you propose to address this issue, keeping in mind both compassion for those in need and the interests of residents and businesses?

Listening sessions, if we don’t have the funds to address this, then we need to pull our community together to plan and hear what our houseless neighbors need and what our citizens need to be safe. Being housed is a human right, no amount of blame pushed on to people addresses the very frightening and unsafe reality of being without shelter or access to privacy.  We should work to acknowledge that money is not the only tool we have. We have a community and I would work towards bringing that community piece together.

 

Why should voters consider electing you? How would you make a difference on the City Council?

I think voters should consider being more vocal about what they want, sure I would like to be elected; however, I think there are a lot of voices that are not heard and there are few that are in position to help. I would look to change that by refocusing to increase involvement in government as a council member.