Jefferson City Council First Ward: Jack Deeken
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
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?
Jack Deeken: I think he has to be in good standing with your taxes, be a resident of your ward for a certain amount of time and I'm not really sure what. I know I met them all. I've lived in the ward for 30-something years, lived here all my life, checked all the boxes. We have to have three people sponsor you and go through the Ethics Commission and then Department of Revenue, make sure you don't have any back taxes that are owed to the city.
ABC 17 News: Does the parks commission need more city council oversight?
Deeken: Nice if we did have some elected representation on the park board, maybe one person, because right now it is an autonomous entity and they have a pretty good tax base. And so there's really no oversight that from the public's point of view, the only thing they can do is hopefully have the mayor and the council elect or put people on the park board that are good stewards of the money.
ABC 17 News: How can Jefferson City best address its affordable housing shortage?
Deeken: Bring down interest rates, bring down material rates and bring down labor rates and also give us some land to develop. We've been very short-sighted on annexation. We've been all voluntarily annexing places and we've allowed a little, some areas come in kind of encroach closer and closer that we could have annexed. It's been a laissez-faire for a long time. We're pretty laid back about people's rights.
ABC 17 News: Should the city bring back yard waste dropoff?
Deeken: We do have a yard waste drop off. It'll be free of charge on your honor, no supervision and start on the first of April.
ABC 17 News: Does the city council have a transparency problem?
Deeken: Only if people aren't looking. Our meetings are televised. They're streamed and they're open meetings. Nothing is, nothing is hidden. We do go into closed session at times or discuss stuff. That was one of those probably if we stayed there a little longer a little long. We should probably only advise but that's, we learn. Nobody got hurt.
