Council Candidates Hold Meet and Greet Event

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A campaign meet and greet event featuring three candidates for Mesquite City Council was held on Thursday, Sept. 29 at the Wolf Creek Golf Course Terrace Restaurant. Candidates included Council members Karen Dutkowksi and Sandra Ramaker; both of whom are running for reelection; and Pattie Gallo who is running to replace incumbent George Gault who is retiring after this term.

About 60 people attended the event, listening to comments by the candidates and having the opportunity to ask questions as well.

Mesquite Mayor Al Litman opened the event and spoke highly of the three candidates being highlighted. “They are all willing to put themselves out into the community and to do what is needed to make Mesquite a much better place,” Litman said.

Sandra Ramaker
Ramaker introduced herself saying that she had lived in the community since 2008, and throughout that time has been involved with city organizations and events.
“I love to volunteer and I still volunteer for several things,” she said.
Ramaker has served on the council for four years now and has been appointed on several local and regional committees.

Firstly, Ramaker talked about her service with the Silver Rider organization, a public transit company operating in Mesquite. She talked about listening to requests from members of the community and implementing them in the Silver Rider operations. These include additional stops, establishing a new route, and installing 19 new bus stop shelters in various parts of the city.

Secondly, Ramaker talked about her service on the Debt Commission. She said that Mesquite does not currently have any bonding requests before this regional entity. But that would likely change soon.
“To even think about bonding, we really need to get our name in there and say what we are interested in,” she said.

Finally, Ramaker discussed her service on the Clark County Library District Board.
Ramaker said that, as a city council member, she takes her role as a representative of the people very seriously.
“As a council member you are not just there to represent people you want to represent, or items that you think are most important,” Ramaker said. “That is not the way it goes. We are here for you. I really try to be your voice, listen to you, meet with you and try to get answers to the tough questions before I ever get up there to vote.”

Karen Dutkowski
Dutkowski explained that she had been appointed by Litman in December of 2020 to fill a vacancy on the council.
She talked about her 32 year career working for city, county and federal government organizations across the west. These included positions in Veterans Administration, municipal EMS departments, and in hospital administration in both California and Utah.

“I am data driven,” Dutkowski said. “I search for the data and I look for solutions. I make decisions only after researching and doing a lot of work with it. I am not afraid of work or making tough decisions after careful consideration of issues.”

Dutkowski said that she had spent her career as a public servant and hoped to be re-elected to continue doing that.
“I believe in integrity, teamwork, transparency, accountability, diversity, research and the protection of our people and our natural resources,” she said.

Pattie Gallo
Gallo has lived in the community for nearly six years now. She said that she has a volunteer spirit and has served as a volunteer at the local animal shelter. She was selected as Mesquite Volunteer of the Year in 2018.
From a large corporate career background, Gallo said she ran a $44 million business with 25 district managers throughout the country.
Gallo said that she was focusing her campaign on four key issues.

The first issue is public safety. “I believe that we really need to have a fully staffed police force as well as fire department,” she said.
Secondly, Gallo said she would focus on securing better access to medical care. “Most of us in the city are seniors,” she said. “So I want to help to get improved care to the community. But I also want to have more options.”

The third point for Gallo is education and the children of the community. She said that she would continue to support and champion the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) education center that Gault has been instrumental in establishing in the community.
“I think (the STEAM center) will be great because it helps expand learning as well as introducing kids to some of the best technology that is out there,” Gallo said.

Gallo added that she would support a tech school being established in Mesquite. This would give options to the local high school graduates who do not choose to go to college.

Finally, Gallo said that it is important for her to have a financially sound city government. She said that her substantial business experience would aid in this pursuit.

Workforce housing queries
After each candidate introduced herself, the floor was open to attendees to ask questions. All of the questions posed at the event were about solutions to the workforce housing quandary in the city.
Gallo said that she felt that housing was a vital issue in developing the city’s workforce. She looked forward to bring more residential projects to the community.
Gallo stressed the importance of location for these workforce housing opportunities. “There are certain locations that I think are better suited for family housing,” she said. “And I think that is important to consider.”

One resident commented about a controversial workforce housing project currently being proposed at the southwest corner of Falcon Ridge Parkway and Hardy Way, at the gateway to Sun City. Many Sun City residents have opposed a higher density residential project being built there.

The resident asked if Ramaker would consider another location for that project. Ramaker responded that she would be willing to look at other spots. But there were a lot of considerations to make in such an endeavor.
“To look at another location, we would have to find a builder who is willing to do that,” Ramaker said. “And it is hard for builders right now with the cost of everything. To get funding is a challenge.”

The resident had also claimed that “low income housing” often brings a higher crime rate. He said that Sun City residents have moved to Mesquite for its peaceful and safe atmosphere.

“I don’t think that just because it is lower income housing that there will be a crime problem,” Ramaker responded. “Many of the people we are targeting here are folks that already have a job here and are commuting from Las Vegas or St. George because there is no place for them here. They have jobs and they are good people.”

Another commenter suggested that developers coming to the city with projects of standard market rate housing should be required to build a certain number of low-cost housing as a condition of their approval.

Dutkowski said that this is a strategy that the city has employed. “We do encourage that through incentives,” she said. “This workforce housing issue is our number one pillar that we are working on; our highest priority objective. So we are going to stay on it until we solve the problem.”