Candidate questionnaire — Arnold Jones

Question 1: Mayor Rocky Anderson has said the city needs to increase it's police force by 90 officers by 2010. In order to do that he will need the City Council to allocate the funding needed for these new officers. Adding that many more officers will be wildly expensive for the city and may require tax increases. As a council member will you support adding so many more officers to the force? Would you support tax increases for more police officers?

Answer: I would support adding as many officers that are needed. If this number of officers can be justified by solid data. It also has to make financial sense to the city as well. We would have to know that the money is not taking away from other very needed programs like health care issues, educational funding or cutting programs that would keep our communities from moving forward on both an economic and demographic level. I would definitely support raising taxes and if presented properly I am sure the communities would support it.

Question 2: Downtown remains a concern for many residents. Do you feel the city is doing the right things to help revitalize downtown? What would you do as a council member to help downtown?

Answer: The business area of Downtown Salt Lake City needs to be addressed and ways need to be found to bring businesses back to the downtown area. Whether it be via rental/lease rebates for new business owners or tax breaks. We need to find incentives for new businesses and current businesses to remain and not leave salt lake city.

Question 3: One of the biggest issues in District 1 is the neighborhood conflicts that arise between Spanish-speaking immigrants and long-time locals. Do you think the city is doing enough to help solve this problem. As a council person how would you help solve this issue.

Answer: no, there needs to be more block parties, more neighborhood involvement amongst neighbors to help reduce this problem. We need to work on building a program of activities were families can come together and meet each other and begin to build community relations.