Josiah Ingalls

AUSTIN (CLASS/KXAN) - The candidates in the Austin Mayoral Race 2009 were each asked to provide written answers to seven questions on issues, ideas and philosophies.
The following questions were submitted to each of the major candidates by the LBJ School of Public Affairs' C.L.A.S.S. (Citizens for Local and State Service) program.

1) What do you see as the three most critical issues for Austinites in the next five years and what would you do as mayor to address them?

I feel that the three most critical issues for Austinites are affordable housing, environmental issues, and job creation.

As Mayor I would work to have the City own, operate, and maintain its own low income housing and slowly move away from Section 8.

I would work to mandate recycling for the entire City, which will include mandating that all trash companies offer recycling bins to all their customers and also mandating that all persons or companies that rent or lease out property must offer recycling to their tenants.

I would promote job creation by bringing in City wide recycling as well as moving our City towards renewable energy sources. Also by helping our small businesses grow and succeed and be able to successfully compete with large corporations.

2) The City of Austin's population has doubled over the past 20 years. How will you as Mayor manage Austin's future growth while maintaining Austin's unique community?

I would work to offer stronger Grandfather clauses within our zoning laws to prevent land owners and residential property from being displaced with new development; as well as doing away with the noise ordinance for downtown to ensure that we maintain our entertainment district and live music venues downtown instead of pushing those venues out into the suburbs.

3) On a national level, there is a discussion about the need to greatly improve infrastructure. What do you see as Austin’s greatest infrastructure improvement needs, and what will you do to ensure that these problems are addressed and our infrastructure is maintained?

I think the biggest infrastructure needs that we are facing are that we need to have an upper deck and a lower deck for I-35 from one end of the City to the other within the next 20 or 30 years. We also need to do away with toll roads to allow all citizens to have access to all of our roads.

4) What will you do during your time as Mayor to expand Austin's consumption of renewable energy and promote green jobs and technology?

As I have already mentioned I want to bring recycling to all citizens and all businesses as well as all local government entities, as well as encouraging all businesses and residential property owners to have solar and wind technology for their property in order to do away with our percentage of use from nuclear and coal energy.

5) Given the current economic crisis, socio-economic disparities in our community are likely to grow. What should be done to ensure that Austin is livable, affordable and accessible for all its citizens?

We need to own, operate and maintain our own low income housing; slowly do away with Section 8; and stop giving money to Capital Metro since it is a multi-million dollar corporation that does not have the best interest of the people in mind. Instead we should be investing money into a secondary public transportation company because competition of business equals better service for the citizens.

6) How do you think the City should engage post-secondary students in local issues?

The City should have several internship positions within local branches of government where students can get first hand experience on how our government works, which also gives post-secondary students the opportunity to get involved as well as giving them work experience which will help them obtain jobs in the future.

7) Would you rather be liked or respected? Why?

I would have to say that I would rather be liked because if I am liked that means I have good character and if I have good character then I will be respected.