By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
There are five people running for the three open positions on the Hays city commission in the Nov. 7 general election.
The candidates are Chris Dinkel, incumbent Sandy Jacobs, John Mayers, incumbent and current mayor Shaun Musil, and Dustin Roths.
The two people with the highest number of votes will be elected to four-year terms. The person with the third highest vote total will serve a two-year term. The mayor is selected by the commission members.
Hays Post has talked to each candidate, asking why they are running and what they consider to be the most important issues facing the city of Hays.
Jacobs, 67, a lifelong Hays resident, is currently filling the unexpired term of Rep. Eber Phelps who was elected to the Kansas legislature.
She’s been married to her husband Dan for 48 years. They have two adult children, living in Colorado Springs and Kansas City, and four grandchildren. Jacobs worked in the community banking industry for 40 years before retiring and is a longtime local volunteer. She is now the executive director of the Heartland Community Foundation.
Jacobs has “looked at a lot of business plans over the years as a banker” and she considers that one of her strengths. “I understand people when they come forward and have requests, whether that has something to do with infrastructure or economic development issues.”
Declining sales taxes are the number one issue facing Hays, according to Jacobs. The city’s general fund is financed solely by city sales tax receipts and Hays is the only city in Kansas to operate that way. Jacobs credits city staff for “outstanding budgeting” over the years yet she remains on the lookout for “better ways to budget”.
Jacobs is growth-oriented and favors incentives for attracting economic development, “but that’s not a broad brush approval of everything that would come before the commission,” she cautioned.
Affordable housing is a concern expressed to Jacobs by residents. She believes the recent Hays housing study by the Fort Hays State University Docking Institute is “not really relevant. If we believe there is a housing problem, we need to do more study.”
“I’m not ready to jump in as a commissioner and say the city needs to do that study,” Jacobs said. “I would like people to come to the table and tell us what they think they need, a round table discussion that might include the university, the medical center, Ellis County, and the business community,” she suggested.
“I’m all about collaboration in everything I do. If you can get all those people around one table and come out shoulder-to-shoulder, I think we can make some things happen whether it be economic development, solving housing issues. There’s all kinds of things that group of people can bring together.”
In her interview Jacobs also talked about the long-term water supply for Hays, a proposal for traffic roundabouts on north Vine Street and the “importance of transparency.”
More information about Jacobs is available on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Sandy-Jacobs-Hays-City-Commission-354164551685996/
Advance voting begins Mon., Oct. 23 in the Ellis County Administrative Center, 718 Main, Hays, through noon Mon., Nov. 6. Polls for the Tue., Nov. 7 general election are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. throughout Ellis County.