Responses from Alderman Hejna

Responses copied from two pdf documents Alderman Hejna sent over to me a few hours back.

1. I graduated from Columbia High School in 1983. Attended Belleville Area College.

2. I grew up in Columbia. I have family that goes back many generations. After living in a couple of other communities for short periods of time, there was never any doubt that I would always want to call Columbia home. My husband Jeffrey was transferred to Cleveland, OH for his job in 2002 and we were there for one year before moving back.

3. Yes, I feel it makes me a better candidate because I am aware of community issues that have happened in the past... I think it’s a talking point because this is a very tight-knit community where neighbors have always watched out for each other and we are proud of our heritage. No, I don’t think their opinion is less worthy. I believe new ideas and opinions are very important for a community to grow and I will attest to this as my husband grew up in St. Louis and wanted to live here.

4. I have been a stay at home mom. I just recently started a home based business which still gives me great freedom to attend to my duties at Alderman.

5. Before I chose to stay home with my daughter I was employed as an office manager at Lutheran Church of the Living Christ & Quick Dough Inc. My prior employment, as well my home based business, gives me a financial background which includes accounts payable/receivable, billing, payroll, as well as working with all levels of employees. I was the former Finance Chairman and I am currently the Refuse/Recycle Chairman.

6. Growing up here I watched my parents be very active in the community. Currently, I stay very involved volunteering for the organizations that I support and talking with everyone I can about the issues that face them and their families.

7. I have never missed a City Council meeting since being elected into office in 2007.

8. I do support commercial growth in Columbia. As an Alderman we must make smart policy decisions and provide reasonable economic incentives to bring business here, but not provide multi-million dollar tax rebates in TIF districts for multi-billion dollar big box stores.

9. At this time I do not think it is economically feasible for development to occur in the floodplain without the levees being repaired. It could be a good place as long as our city reaps some benefit from whatever develops there. I would like to see a business park, office campus complex along with some retail. We are Columbia and we need to develop our own signature stamp, not copy other communities of just larger and larger strip malls.

10. I absolutely support Alderman Stumpf’s idea of an economic development committee. Right now the City Council is ill informed of what is taking place with economic development. It’s always a big secret, and information is not as forthcoming as it should be. A committee would be a great liaison to the council and would help open up ideas for everyone to discuss and debate for all of our benefit. Our city government needs more transparency, the
Alderman need to be allowed to be more involved and help this community grow in a positive direction.

11. Some of the incentives that can be used are waiving fees for sewer and water tap-ons, allowing building material variances, sales tax rebates after a certain amount of sales is reached. I do not support TIF districts. Columbia is not blighted, and our current TIF district has committed over $3.9M in property tax rebates. It is simply not fair to the rest of our residents and businesses to require them to pay ever increasing taxes, while a few receive these excessive tax rebates. Public tax dollars should be used for the public benefit, not private profit.

12. No, I do not support and have been consistently opposed to the annual 4.99% tax levy that gets approved every year. No tax should ever be automatic and unfortunately that is the way our City Council has always handled it in the past.

13. No, the city vehicle tax should not be reinstated. It is a regressive tax that is only charged to people who own or are purchasing their cars; it does not include lease vehicles. It is also very inefficient as the revenue that is generated isn’t very great compared to the costs associated with collecting the tax.

14. Right now we have a budget projected to spend more in expenses that projected revenue. I do not believe we have monies to consider rolling over for the various departments.

15. Yes, I do support the merger; however the City should reduce its taxes by the amount that would be collected by the newly formed fire district because the City will no longer be providing these services.

16. I voted against it in the past and unfortunately it did pass. I will not support this in the future.

17. Yes, as our City continues to grow we have to expand our parks and trails with a park land set aside ordinance as well as develop a comprehensive street plan.

18. No, I thoroughly enjoyed answering all of your questions and appreciate your attention to detail.

For Incumbent Candidates

1. Championed for a balanced budget. Despite the objections of the Mayor and senior Alderman, we were able to cut spending and achieve an effectively balanced budget in the 2008-2009 fiscal year after the prior City Council had burned up most of the City’s reserves when it budgeted $864,000 more in General Fund expenses than revenue received.

2. With a heart filled with a desire to serve the city that I care so very much about, I will work to help this city recognize its true potential.

3. I have the exact same concerns as everyone else about government spending and having a balanced budget. I also believe that Columbia’s growth has slowed because of the economy in general, but I wouldn’t say our growth has been stagnant. We have several new businesses on Main Street and we are improving everyday.

4. No, you have a genuine interest in your local government.

5. I have no regrets. I know that I stepped on a few toes over Columbia Crossing, but I could not support such a totally one-sided development agreement in favor of the developer - one that provided for excessive property tax, sales tax, and utility tax rebates to the developer for the next 25 years! An agreement that was so poorly made it was not even legally valid! I will not allow special interests, no matter how powerful, to stop me from doing what is right for the majority of our citizens.