Name: Jeff Longbine
Age: 44
Occupation: Dealer Principal, Longbine Auto Plaza
Education: Attended Emporia State University
Personal: Wife, Gwen; children, Lexie, 7; Lauren, 14 and Greg, deceased
Q Why are you running for this office?
A As a life long Emporian, I’m interested and deeply care for what happens in Emporia. I have had a lot of encouragement from community members to run for the commission. I have an interest in leadership and politics. I feel that I can make a difference if elected.
Q If elected, what are your goals?
A My number one objective is to try to make Emporia the best place in Kansas to live, work and raise our families. Other goals that are important are the economic and population growth of Emporia, controlling the budget and maintaining the quality of our services and infrastructure. Then the city’s personnel and compensation polices need reviewed. It will be very important to work with the new city manager until he gets familiar with the community.
Q How will the city commission be better with you as a member?
A As a third generation business owner I have a lot of experience in identifying and creating efficiencies. Goal setting, problem solving, and empowering employees are skill sets that I use almost daily. I have strong financial and budgeting skills. I’m serving my third term on the RDA so I bring extensive experience in economic development. Over the years, I have developed relationships with many local and state political leaders. These relationships can be valuable when dealing with the state on economic development projects. I consider myself a good listener, a problem solver, and a decision maker.
Q What do you think is the biggest issue facing the city commission and how would you resolve it?
A Creating and managing the budget is the biggest issue the commission faces each year. Every budget has revenue and expense sides to it. Simply raising taxes or cutting expenses are not the best answers. We need to raise revenue through increased growth and capital investment within our city. We have to create an environment where growth can occur. The growth needs to come from increased population, industrial and commercial growth, and reinvestment with in our community. Raising taxes will stunt this needed growth.
The present commission has done a good job of managing the expense side of the budget but we need to continue to look for additional efficiencies. The law enforcement consolidation study is a good idea if we can maintain quality service and reduce expense. If we cannot do both then we need to look to other areas. The biggest challenge is to maintain our infrastructure, provide quality services, and reward the exceptional employees.
Q What should the city commission’s priorities be when it plans a budget?
A The first priority, until growth occurs, should be to keep the budget revenue neutral. Providing quality services, maintaining our infrastructure, and rewarding employees need to be top level priorities. Economic development and quality of life issues are important to the future success of the city. The deterioration of parts of the city needs to be studied. Most importantly the budget must be realistic and fiscally sound.
Q Looking to the future, what are three things you’d like to see happen in the city commission?
A 1. Increased capital investment and valuation in the city.
2. Increased collaboration or consolidation with other governmental agency’s to create additional efficiencies.
3. Emporia being the best place in Kansas to live, work, and raise our families.
citizenx (anonymous) says...
I've been trying to keep up on all the issues and keep an impartial mind on the candidates. There are several that Emporia would be lucky to have as commissioners, such as Bob Agler and Phil Dillon, however I'm sorry to say Jeff Longbine is not one of those people. He is a very wealthy and well known man, and while there is nothing wrong with that, you shouldn't vote for someone just because you know their name without any regard to the issues. Emporia has numerous problems, and no, not all of them are caused by illegal immigrants. Mr. Longbine wants to make Emporia a better place, but unlike some of the other candidates, I haven't heard how he is going to do that. Just saying you are going to make something better with out a plan to do so is a worthless promise. I can say the same thing, go home and sit on my couch, and get the same things accomplished. Mr. Longbine says that the way to solve many of Emporia's problems is to increase the size of the city's economy, and the best way to do that is to stay the course much like the current commission. We've lost what seems like a dozen businesses in the last year, do we really need to lose more?
I believe the only reason Mr. Longbine is running for city commission is to insure tax breaks for his busness and that of his friends. I believe that is why the Gazette is hosting his website at emporia.com/longbine . None of the other candidates have websites there, and I believe it is against the law to give one candidate preference in advertising over the others.
March 29, 2007 at 2:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )