Candidate questionnaire — Edward James Aho

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: Our police force is overworked, under-trained and unfortunately, ill prepared for hoards of individuals moving into our city with all to often, little intent to improve their environment, but to take advantage of the many attractions offered them here in and around salt lake city at the expense of the rest of us citizens.Mayor Anderson is right, but instead of blindly increasing the force by 90 officers, a much greater emphasis needs to be placed on quality officer "management", a far less desire by city officials to continually expand the city's population, as well as a much more common sense approach to punishment by its many law breakers. Attitudes of "political correctness" are just fine for communities who care less the outcome of such policies, but in our city, budjet balancing is continually critical. As a council member, I will support necessary police and other service expansion, but will strenuously oppose pork barrel spending and the need for unwanted city population expansion at all levels.

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: we can not afford to allow our inner city to become a slum type area. Such ramshackle and depressed business enterprises as evidenced by other large cities throughout the nation, as breeding grounds for crime and further decay. The city needs to encourage large type business ventures into the downtown areas through tax incentives, etc. note that a popular business would attract shoppers to not only that particular store, but also to its surrounding ventures. Such tax incentives would in the end, pay for themselves through increased overall business activity. Cosmetic storefront approaches are great, but something behind them to attract shoppers into this downtown area, will be needed. Further, an ease of parking needs to be emphasized by our city government. The downtown shuttle probably does not need expansion, but better utilization through rider education and awareness.

Question 3: One of the biggest issues in District 1 is the neighborhood

conflicts that arise between Spanish-speaking immigrants and