Cape Girardeau Candidate Profiles

Mayor

Candidate: Jay Knudtson

Spouse: Cindy

Occupation: Executive vice president with First Missouri State Bank

Education: Four years college, University of Minnesota

City government experience: Former treasurer and executive board member Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, former chairman of the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Board, four years mayor.

Memberships: Cape Girardeau Noon Lions Club, SEMO Harley Owners Group, youth baseball coach, Southeast Hospital Foundation Board, Elks Club, trustee for Southeast Missouri Hospital, LaCroix United Methodist Church, Homeland Security Council for state of Missouri.

Statement: One thing I'll admit is how overwhelming this job can be in the first few months. It was especially daunting for me because I wasn't on the city council previously. So my early months were really months of getting to understand what goes on in city hall, being able to understand the way things work and being able to get my arms around various budgetary issues. I'll never forget when I ran for mayor -- I must have given 250 speeches where I said we're going to run city hall like a business. Certainly not an original idea for a candidate to say that, but that's what I thought city hall needed -- to be run with some business acumen -- but it didn't take long to realize that you couldn't run it like a business because there are things and expectations that the citizens have that don't allow you to totally run a city the way you'd run a company. So it was a revelation to me that it takes more than just to introduce good business practices to run a city; you've got to find a balance between fiscal responsibility and quality of life.

I'm extremely proud of what we've achieved to ensure the safety of the citizens. When I came into office we had some serious issues and serious budgetary constraints in the police and fire departments. There was no way we were going to budget our way out of those problems without the passage of a fire tax. So to this day, that probably represents one of the more monumental days of my tenure, because it passed with over 80 percent of the vote. Not only because it allowed us to equip the men and women that protect our city, but because it passed with over 80 percent of the vote.

It clearly has taken four years to get the foundation in place. We have spent a significant amount of time putting out the fires that are burning the hottest. Now with those fires at least under control, we now have the opportunity to leverage our expertise as a council and as a city staff and implement a more visionary approach to my role as mayor. The next four years, we'll draw upon a vision in the way of strategic planning and lay out consistent and orderly growth for our city and those things are so so important, as we are faced with unprecedented growth as a city.

Hopefully in four years we've worked very very hard. I take this job seriously and I hope we're making a difference, I know people say that and politicians say that all the time, but at the end of the day that's what we're trying to do. We're really trying to make a difference.

Candidate: Walter White

Occupation: Investor and owner of Ole Country Store since 2003

Education: Hayti High School, Cape Business College (metro business college), Cape Career and Technology Center, certificates of proficiency in electronics, mechanics, stock.

Memberships: South Side Optimist Club and the Gospel Tabernacle in Hayti, Mo.

City government experience: none

Statement: They want to change part of the charter, but I don't think we need to change the charter, because the charter has been working for us since 1981. If you start changing the charter now, then sooner or later they'll change it so the mayor can run more than two times. If you do that, then the mayor's position can become a dictatorship, and the city council will become a dictatorship. So like I said before, vote for me because we're four years behind time. We should have a Nissan plant in town right now. If four years ago voters had voted me into office, there is a 99.9 percent chance we'd have a Nissan plant right here, right now. If I got in office four years ago I wouldn't have given myself a "B" grade, I would let the citizens grade me and I would go out in the community once per year and let the citizens grade me. I believe then I would get an "A" every time because of the jobs I brought to Cape Girardeau.

Ward One

Candidate: John Voss

Spouse: Janice

Children: Three sons: Justin, Jordan, Jackson

Occupation: Employee of Procter & Gamble

Education: Cape Central High School graduated 1981, University of Missouri-Rolla, B.S. Engineering Management, 1985.

Memberships: St. Paul Lutheran Church, school board member, Habitat for Humanity, past president Boy Scouts of America, currently an adult volunteer.

City government experience: none

Statement: Having grown up in Ward 1, I am excited and humbled to have the opportunity to serve my neighbors and the citizens of our community. Cape Girardeau is the nucleus of the region and we must continue to attract retail and industrial businesses so the whole area grows and prospers. We must further develop our relationships with surrounding communities and provide the infrastructure to encourage and support this growth. Continuing the capital improvement transportation projects using the transportation sales tax is important to maintain our existing roads while reaching out to new areas of the community. Voters wisely passed the much needed fire sales tax measure to provide upgrades to our law enforcement and firefighters' pay and equipment.

I believe the best is yet to come for the city of Cape Girardeau. The new comprehensive plan under development will be an important blueprint for the future growth of the area. As a member of the city council, I pledge to promote our area's growth while ensuring that we are responsible stewards of your tax money.

Ward Two

Candidate: Charlie Herbst

Spouse: Sydney

Children: 5

Occupation: Sales account manager

Education: Southeast Missouri State University, B.S. in business administration

Memberships: Chairman of Big Brothers and Big Sisters local strategic growth council, board member Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, Boy Scouts , Noon Optimist Club.

City government experience: Cape Girardeau police officer from 1989-1999, served on the reserve force prior to and after.

Statement: Looking forward to the next term because we've got a real good team and when you get seven people together from all the different wards, you get different dynamics, so that's always fun. Big achievements have been the transportation and public safety funds, the billboard ordinance, and also just the strong economic development that we've had. I also think the council has done a good job of just encouraging Mr. Leslie to be as innovative as he can be. So for the next four years we'd like to continue the economic development and really look again at our comprehensive plan, that's something that Marcia Ritter has really grabbed the bull by the horns on and I think it's good that it be a living document like our strategic plan. For instance we've got a lot of property around the river campus. There is a lot of property where we could look at planned development in that area. Now people are going to say, "Isn't that the government controlling property?" well kind of sort of, but we've got a lot of different zoning restrictions down there that need to be worked out.

Ward Six

Candidate: Marcia Ritter

Children: Robin Hackett, Emilie Claridy, Stephen Southard, Benjamin Ritter, Daniel Southard

Occupation: Retired nurse

Education: Central High, basic nursing school at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, master's from Central Michigan University.

City government experience: Four years city council

Memberships: Board of American Red Cross, Zonta International, Cape area family resource center, Vision 2020.

Statement: One of the most important things was the passing of the fire safety tax. It has allowed us to purchase the equipment needed by fire and police officers, it has allowed us to build a new fire station, to re-do the compensation and make sure that we as a city are competitive with other cities in order to retain the quality staff that we have. Doing this has also released funds so we can take care of compensation for the rest of the city employees. Now for the things we need to build on the next four years: One is to do a revision of our comprehensive planning. Because with the growth we are seeing now I think it is important that we are on the brink of having in the community review what it takes to make the city go forward in right ways. Also we will be looking at transportation which we might be closer to being able to provide if the county -- as it is ready to do -- takes over the cab company. Also disaster preparedness is an important thing for us to always be planning for and evaluating.

Candidate Richard Hengst was unavailable for comment.