Valley Morning Star 2007 Candidate Questionaire: Kenneth Joseph Benton

Candidate’s name: Kenneth Joseph Benton

Position sought: Mayor

Age: 54

How long have you lived in Harlingen? Most of my life

Occupation:

Community, Economic and Real Estate development consultant. Our emphasis is finance and planning.

Education:

Bachelor degree, University of Texas, Austin

Business Administration - Finance

Experience in government:

No elective experience. Have served on comprehensive planning committees in Harlingen and Austin.

Social/community service:

Westside Community Center

Shape Community Center (Houston)

Volunteered to be a part of the mid ‘90’s Comprehensive Plan

Development

Member of land use planning committee for city of Austin Comprehensive

Chaired Sector Planning Committee

1. What is the most important issue facing the city of Harlingen and how would you deal with it?

The biggest problem Harlingen faces is a city council that appears to answer only to the “old money interests” and pays absolutely no mind to the interests of the majority of the people. Moreover, their decisions are beyond obtuse; they actually hurt the city, its image and finances.

Its unattractive physical appearance is yet another major obstacle to attracting upscale retail or consumers who can afford to shop there.

This is made worse by its reputation for being controlled by a few people that are anti-growth and therefore anti-business. That makes it undesirable to go into business there.

One of the main goals of my candidacy is to implement a plan to clean up our city. I will work to implement a downtown revitalization plan as described in my written platform. Likewise we need to focus on community clean up and revitalization by targeting high profile areas such as North Commerce, Wilson Road and the entire expressway frontage for condemnation, relocation and redevelopment. Why do we have a can recycling business located downtown? Land use planning anyone?

This is all a part of my 4B Economic Development Plan.

2. If elected, what is the most significant action you would take to improve the quality of life for Harlingen residents?

My community revitalization program will create many jobs and opportunities in the construction and related fields as we work to upgrade and redevelop in and around our downtown area and along the freeway frontage.

I will also re-organize our community development housing programs so that they work to help provide safe, decent and affordable housing in appropriately developed neighborhoods. I will make sure we have leadership that understands community revitalization, is properly educated and trained, and most importantly, understands how this fits into the Comprehensive Plan. I will use my experience and expertise in this field to help bring in millions of public and private investment to accomplish the goals of making our city culturally and aesthetically pleasing.

I will work to move the trash transfer station away from the Arroyo (by development of the waste to energy facility), and to clean it up for fishing and boating. Likewise I will work to bring in an upscale hotel with convention center to support tourism, business travel.

Finally, I will work with the downtown improvement folks to make this a great place to visit, shop, recreate and provide meaningful outlets there for all of the community, young and old.

3. Economic development

A. Should the city of Harlingen provide incentives to attract businesses? If so, what should those incentives be?

As a part of the effort to relocate businesses that are located inappropriately and or that are housed in substandard structures, we will need to provide some incentives beyond “payment of the appraised value” in order to induce cooperation. This is an area where my expertise and ability to communicate with all segments of the city’s good people will be invaluable.

Space limits my ability to outline the various community and economic development tools we can call on to accomplish this but many cities have accomplished these objectives and Harlingen can too, if we can remove the political obstacles that will certainly be put in place by those wishing to hold the city back from reaching its destiny.

B. Economic Development Corporation ballot proposition Harlingen is authorized to use a portion of sales tax revenues to attract businesses and create job opportunities under Section 4A of the Development Corporation Act. Revenues can be used for some commercial business development, industrial and manufacturing facilities, recycling facilities, distribution centers, warehouses and related uses. However, another section of the law, Section 4B, would allow the city to use sales taxes for projects that contribute to quality of life, including parks and sports facilities, tourism and entertainment facilities and affordable housing to promote new or expanded business enterprises.

Should Harlingen voters approve more diverse use of sales tax revenue by adopting the 4B designation for economic development? Why or why not?

Yes. The 4B is flexible and, according to the state controller’s office, can do anything a 4A can do, so in case we have a chance to attract a Microsoft or a GM or some other company that promises to pay well and provide benefits such as health insurance, we can still offer incentives to them.

The 4B is the proper economic development tool needed to implement the Harlingen revitalization plan. The real key will be getting staff and a board that understand the mission.

C. What has prevented more major retail stores and restaurants from locating in Harlingen and what should be done to change this?

Our demographics, especially the limited incomes and limited percent of college graduates are poor indictors for market location and site selectors. My plan is to attack this problem with a two-part plan:

A. Grow our population by attraction of upscale retirees

1. Work to develop an incentive package to attract one or more developers of upscale retirement and continuous care communities.

2. Develop a partnership with airlines, airport, developers, travel agencies and local hotels to sponsor “junkets” to Harlingen so that we can bring in many to see our city, with the hopes that some will purchase their retirement home here.

3. This will push up demand for allied health care workers.

B. Work with groups like the Harlingen Foundation for Valley Sports and the Youth Soccer groups to bring in more Olympic ladder and other competitions to Harlingen. For this we need venues. Sports tourism development and promotion is a vital part of our long-term community revitalization plan. I will work to improve on the bad plan the current council has passed and put in its place one that makes fiscal and economic sense.

4. Collective bargaining ballot proposition

Should Harlingen voters approve the adoption of the state law applicable to firefighters and police officers that allows for the establishment of collective bargaining? Why or why not?

The issue of collective bargaining is one the voters must decide. The job of the mayor and commission is to assure the voters are given unbiased facts in order to make the decision. I will personally involve myself to see how we can develop other incentives to attract and keep quality employees; one idea that I am looking at is Employer Assisted Housing. This is basically a down payment assistance plan to help recruit police and fire personnel. The idea is that they would be given up to say $20,000 to purchase a home.

My concern is again the lack of leadership from this council as there has been virtually no public vetting of the pros and cons of this issue so the voters have little information upon which to base their decision.

5. Utility rates

What, if anything, should be done to reduce the impact on Harlingen residents of increased water and sewer rates?

I would like to appoint a committee of local people to evaluate whether or not to amend the city charter to provide for moving the HWWS in house under the city manager. It is done this way in most communities north of San Antonio.

In addition, I would look at the cost of serving newly annexed areas and consider impact fees rather than asking the city’s rate payers to pay for those in newly developed areas in the city’s outskirts.

Lastly, we need to look at developing a land use plan that prevents sprawl and encourages developing or redeveloping areas within the central city.

This will allow us to provide services more cost effectively and conserve farmland for that purpose.

6. Impact fees

Many cities require developers to pay fees to offset the public costs of servicing their developments and the impact of the developments on the community. These fees often are used for water and sewer line extensions, other utilities, streets, streetlights, etc. Some cities have a formula that takes into account the impact on police and fire services, schools and the overall quality of life in the neighborhood. Developers often pass on the fees to purchasers, which can increase the price of a home and, some say, decrease the profitability of a project.

Harlingen has impact fees for water and sewer. Should Harlingen expand the use of impact fees? Why or why not?

Yes, It is not fair to allow developers to socialize the costs of their developments while privatizing the profits. Economists call this “externalities” where in the total cost of a private effort is not reflected in the price and some of the cost is borne by the general public. In the case where the development provides some social benefit such as affordable housing, for instance, one can perhaps justify waving fees as the benefits to the city would outweigh the cost.

In the case of new rural or suburban subdivisions that will bring in families who add demand for new schools, add traffic to already overburdened streets and roads, and add other costs not covered by their property taxes, the developers should pay impact fees.

7. Eminent domain

Harlingen voters last year rejected a City Charter amendment that included expanded use of eminent domain. Under the City Charter, the city can invoke the right of eminent domain for limited public purposes. The proposal would have allowed the city to invoke eminent domain for any public purpose allowable under law. What limits should the city have on its use of eminent domain?

The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads “... nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

The question then is: do economic development, community revitalization and fire and safety concerns constitute “public use”? Harlingen clearly has areas where we need to find ways to clean up, relocate, and provide for the greater community good and revitalization. The areas of decay are so widespread, that more than one professional consultant has written that Harlingen should “focus on PLACE, i.e. clean up, fix up and re-develop.”

My plan is that we should pursue these ends without the “big stick” of eminent domain in order to achieve ends like downtown revitalization, for instance. That is how the voters decided in a local referendum and we must respect their decision.

My hope is that everyone will “ask not what the city can do for them, but rather, what they can do to help revitalize the city”. As for those who don’t care enough about the city to help make the needed changes, well, at least we will all know who they are.

8. Some say that Harlingen is caught in the grip of political factions.

Do you agree?

No, there are no factions. There are only the “old money interests” hell bent on serving their own interests, and the rest of us, wanting to help make Harlingen great and to see our city grow and prosper.

God’s Will be done.

9. What do you consider your most significant accomplishment?

Starting and running two businesses. Most importantly, I used the profits from these businesses to develop my knowledge and expertise in the rail, transportation and Intermodal services industry, which will someday create hundreds of good paying jobs and create social and economic benefit to Harlingen and the Valley.

10. What person in history do you most admire and why?

Gandhi. Like Jesus and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, he changed the world into which he was born by fighting, peacefully and with great dignity, for what was morally right. Against incredible evil, vested interests of the ruling classes, and the then most powerful nation on earth, he moved mountains, non-violently.

11. What is the last book you read?

The Faith, The history of Christianity

Writings of Thomas Jefferson