Jefferson City Council Fourth Ward: Chris Lueckel
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?
Chris Leuckel: My 23-year military service. I retired back in 2006, I'm a service-oriented person, and that's kind of what I'm called to do, is to serve others.
ABC 17 News: Does the city's parks commission need more council oversight?
Leuckel: No, not in my opinion. The charter was voted on that way by the citizens. And I'm certainly supportive of the charter in the way that it's written. And believe that the Parks Department should remain as is. And there's plenty of oversight. We present our budgets annually and as well as our plan annually to the city council. And it's been approved every year.
ABC 17 News: How can Jefferson City best address its affordable housing shortage?
Leuckel: So affordable housing, since the tornado several years ago, we lost several apartments and homes for folks. And we've never really rebuilt those. And we certainly need to be able to do that and be able to offer incentives. And the ability to reach out to contractors to give them reason to build and locations to build that best serve our community. So yeah, it's certainly a need.
ABC 17 News: Should the city council bring back yard waste dropoff?
Leuckel: So yard waste is a huge thing for our community. We've got a lot of trees that have been around a long, long time and a lot of communities that are built within those trees that have limbs, yard waste, leaves grass, and to not have a program to help keep our city streets clean, our stormwater system clear of debris, I think we have to have an adequate and more than adequate yard waste program and system to promote and give our citizens a chance, a place to put their yard waste.
ABC 17 News: Does the council have a transparency problem?
Leuckel: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's, the city council should be of the people, for the people. And I think we have to be sure to be welcoming to the public to our meetings to give them ... an opportunity to publicly speak relative to topics that are important to them. As it relates to agenda items that are coming up on the council. we certainly need our citizens to be engaged. We want them to be engaged and inviting and thanking them for their participation and their involvement for sure.
