Mayoral Candidates Discuss City Services

The third question in InstantnewsBellaire’s Q&A series with Bellaire City Council candidates deals with improvements to city services.

We asked candidates:

What area of city service do you believe needs most improvement and what steps would you initiate to make those improvements?

Here are the answers from the two mayoral candidates. Scroll to the bottom for information on the procedures of this Q&A.

Cindy Siegel

Outside of always striving to ensure that we have the most qualified and trained employees for the job (particularly in the public safety sector), I think the City service that can be improved is in the area of communications.   In this age of texting, emails, Facebook, Twitter, and other communication innovations, we forget sometimes it is the “personal touch” that makes the difference.

The City is no different.  In listening to some inaccuracies stated as “fact” by a few candidates in recent weeks, it is obvious that the City needs to do a better job in communicating what the City is doing and has done.   The basis for great customer service is communication between our employees, Council, our Boards and Commissions, and most importantly, our citizens.  This means ensuring that the City government (including City Council) listens to our citizens, communicates clearly what is going on in your government, and quickly addresses citizens’ concerns and complaints in a professional and responsive manner.

Council should work with the City Manager to first ensure that all employees understand that responding to citizens’ concerns promptly is a priority and that it needs to be clearly communicated to the citizen how the concern is being addressed.  Additionally, although improvements have been made in recent years, the City should continue to look for ways to better use such tools as Facebook, Twitter, and other communication innovations to reach out and communicate with our citizens in a clearer manner.

Robert Riquelmy

Something is amiss in Bellaire. The mayor has spent one hundred million dollars in her first 3 terms, but it takes council action to get the toilets at Evergreen Pool fixed.

100 million dollars, and there are very serious questions about the Police Department.

100 million dollars, but the Fire Department could not put out a fire in an attic before the house was a total loss.

When I am mayor, we will begin again with the basics:

First, the Police Department will be the best, period! From patrolman to city manager the word will go out, and the resources will follow.

Next, the Fire Department,

And then, Public Works.

Outstanding Quality – that is what we have paid for, and what we will have!

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In this series, candidates receive questions twice per week and have 24 hours to respond with an answer that is less than 300 words long. The answers publish with no editing. Do you have a question for candidates about Bellaire issues? Please email it to agrant [at] instantnewsbellaire [dot] com.