Who will bring Springfield toether?

Kunz, who called himself the only candidate “who actually lives in a minority area,” said the racial divide “is not an everyday conversation with the people I live with. They’re more worried about their streets, their sidewalks, whether the police are going to show up or the fire trucks.” He says the race issues he has seen as alderman have been “blown out of proportion.”

Minority employment Still, Kunz said he would seek to hire more minorities for city jobs by reaching out to younger generations and ending patronage. Many young people don’t see city jobs – particularly police and fire – as a career path, he says, and previous administrations used city government as a way to reward friends, families and political allies with jobs.

“In my administration, I’ll take care of that,” Kunz said. “There won’t be any patronage. Everybody will get an equal chance to get the jobs, and what I’ve seen in 12 years I’ve been an alderman, that has not been the case. Most jobs have been filled way before they were ever posted, and that won’t happen with me. Any qualified minority will have as good a chance [as anyone else] to work for the City of Springfield.”

Coffey and Houston both say the city needs a change of attitude and a constant effort in minority recruitment, but Houston takes it a step further, saying tests for police and fire jobs would be graded as “pass/fail” instead of ranking applicants into groups, and his administration would hire 25 percent minorities for the first two years of his term. At the end of two years, that effort’s progress would be evaluated and changed accordingly, he says. Stocks-Smith says her administration would make it a priority to hire minorities and women, especially to upperlevel management positions.

Jobs and business growth Jobs in general are always in demand, but the economic recession has made them even more valuable. Between the first quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2010 – the latest quarter for which data is available – the Springfield metro area lost more than 5,000 jobs, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Each of the four candidates says he or she will work to foster job and business growth. As with many other issues, Kunz makes no specific promises here, saying only that he’ll do his best.

The other three candidates – Coffey, Houston and Stocks-Smith – say they will examine the city’s business permit process and regulations to determine where there are unnecessary barriers to development. The three candidates each support a Tax Increment Finance district for MacArthur Boulevard, while Coffey and Houston also point out opportunities for enterprise zones and other economic development tools. Kunz does not support a MacArthur TIF.

Houston emphasizes that he will change the  “attitude and environment” of business in Springfield so the city doesn’t add unnecessary costs and delays to a project, while Stocks- Smith says she will form a task force to recommend changes to existing business regulations.

The city’s “developers’ agreement,” which requires developers to pay for infrastructure improvements on previously undeveloped land, has also become a popular target for elimination by Stocks-Smith, Houston and Coffey.

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