On Tuesday, March 7, the Northeast News, the Citizens’ Association and the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce hosted candidates for Kansas City’s Fourth District at large and in district candidates ahead of the April 4 election.

In attendance were at-large candidates Grace Cabrera, Crispin Rea, Justin Short and John DiCapo. In district candidates Crissy Dastrup and incumbent Eric Bunch were also there.

In-district candidate Henry Rizzo was absent. He recorded an introduction, which was played at the beginning of the forum.

The primary election is on April 4. Today is the last day to register to vote. Check your status at kceb.org.

The candidates were asked questions submitted by the audience and from the host organizations. Although not all of them were asked due to time constraints, candidates will have an opportunity to answer them.

• Will you prepare a neighborhood initiative asking for solutions to the issues and then will
  you involve planning and strategy groups, calling on those who submitted solutions to
  be members (of said group) instead of calling on people based on their name
  recognition and political and social status? (i/e will you utilize the active “subject matter
  experts” versus the established neighborhood organizations.)
• Homeless is a problem that includes crime, mental health. Would you work with
  churches, non-profits and neighborhood associations to solve even if it means thinking
  outside the box?
• How can you help adults/parents to start or continue their education to be able to support themselves and/or help their children stay in school?
• How are you all going to address crime in Kansas City? Are you going to bring back NOVA?
• Are you going to wait until after the election to select a new Fire Chief? I believe the next Fire Chief should be trained, and or have experience in fire based emergency medical services because the fire services are all medical calls. I feel that the Fire Department should have more personnel trained at the paramedic level. Hire more firefighters as well.
• To Eric Bunch: You have been unreachable currently as a city councilman. (not returning calls, emails) how will this change if you are re-elected?
• To everyone else, how accessible will you be to the residents? If we email, will you respond or follow up?
• Do you favor ranked choice voting for KC Council elections?
• If elected, what is your philosophy you will use to govern with? Can you give us an example of how you’ve used this philosophy in the past?
• I agree, free buses are important and much appreciated, but with free buses come folks riding for reasons other than to get from point A or point B. How will you make the buses safe to ride without reinstating the $1.50 charge?
• If elected, will you commit to coming to our neighborhood meetings/events at least once a year?
• It’s been widely reported that roughly 90% of short term rentals in Kansas City are illegal. Will you, tonight, commit to take tangible action to eliminate, to the extent possible, illegal businesses in the city, including STR’s? (YES of NO) If YES, what would you take to preserve neighborhoods?
• What causes crime?

Candidates filled out questionnaires, which are available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gPwA2WC8Yw_V_87IC6i2lZ_EgWW79uM-?usp=sharing.