Jefferson City Council Fifth Ward candidates: Mackenzie Job
ABC 17 News is interviewing candidates for key races in the April election.
The interviews will air on ABC 17 News leading up to the April 2 election and will be posted online as they air.
ABC 17 News: Why are you running and what are your qualifications?
Mackenzie Job: So the cornerstone of my campaign is improving quality of life for everyone living in Jefferson City. I am a younger adult, I chose to return here after college, I plan to stay here, I own a business here, having the business has had me interact with the city quite a bit. And I want to make sure that that's easier for other people to establish their businesses here.
As someone who wants to stay here, I want to see the best for our community and make sure that we're doing all that we can to make other people want to stay in Jefferson City as well to continue to grow our population in our town.
ABC 17 News: Does the city's parks commission need more city council oversight?
Job: I do not feel that they do. Because the Parks Commission is comprised of volunteers who are passionate about recreation of all different types. And by allowing the Parks Commission to allocate all of the parks funds, we make sure that the money dedicated to parks is focused on Parks and is not allocated elsewhere based on the priorities of whoever is on the council at that time. So we have wonderful parks, such as the one we're sitting at now, because the Parks Commission allocated money to improve this park.
ABC 17 News: How can Jefferson City best address its affordable housing shortage?
Job: I have spoken with the Homebuilders Association about this issue, and why we aren't seeing a whole lot of new developments at prices that the average person in Jefferson City can attain. And one of the issues that they run into is a lack of land available. So what the city can do, in my opinion, is help scout locations and work with developers to say, hey, what can we do to work together to build various types of housing, so rental homes at all price points in working with the developers to set them up for success to build in Jefferson City.
ABC 17 News: Should the city bring back yard waste dropoff?
Job: So the city has elected to bring it back, it will be an unmanned site. So after the service was discontinued, the public voiced their opinion, and the council found a solution that is an unmanned site, it will be at the city drop-off site off of Ellis Boulevard, where it was.
So for now, we will have the service. It's supposed to be up and running by April 1. But I would like to see the service continue to improve to be the best service that we can offer for our citizens.
ABC 17 News: Does the council have a transparency problem?
Job: So a lot of the people that I have spoken to feel that the council is doing a lot of things behind closed doors right now and that the public has not been involved enough in local decision-making, such as the most recent example of the yard waste site where had the public been involved beforehand, we probably could have found a solution.
So if elected, I would make it my point to involve more people in the conversation and to make sure that meetings that can be open to the public are open to the public.
