Candidate Q&A: Cliff Hayes

What makes you the best candidate for City Council?

It has been documented that my background in technology and innovation in government has saved our citizens millions of tax dollars. However, I need four more years to make a lasting contribution to the city that I love, where I grew up, and am proud to call home.

What should be the city's top priority now, and how can it be achieved?

With a growing number of unfunded mandates from federal and state authorities and a host of unlimited demands for service delivery with limited resources, it behooves us to maximize our ability to leverage existing resources to strengthen service efficiencies and deliverables to our citizens. Being able to fund capital projects at low interest allows us to maximize public value.

What do you think will be the city's most pressing issue in 10 years, and how can the city prepare for it?

The most pressing issue facing the city and area is transportation. The cost of concrete, asphalt and steel tend to follow crude oil. More delays just mean higher cost. For example, if we begin taking care of the transportation needs today at the Midtown tunnel, we will save over $350 million. That’s the cost estimate for replacing the I-64 High Rise Bridge. We don’t want to still be talking about funding the same six or seven area projects 10 years from now.

How do you respond to complaints that city leaders put developers’ interests ahead of residents’ needs?

I disagree. A recent example was the idea of developing an ethanol plant in an urban area. I support the idea of creating alternative fuels, but the citizens of Brentwood, Loxley Gardens, Camelot and Deep Creek expressed their concerns. I listened to our citizens and made the motion for denial. The council voted to deny the application.

Cite one vote by a majority of City Council that you disagreed with in the past year and why.

In June of 2007, the council voted to fund a $16 million bike path. We were ill-informed that either we include the bike path in our plan to replace the Dominion Boulevard bridge or we forfeit our chance to have the bridge replaced. The next day, I had the City Clerk place the item back on our agenda for the next council meeting. We ultimately voted to remove the $16 million bike path.

Should the city and state raise more money to pay for transportation projects? If yes, how?

We need an adequate, sustainable, dedicated source of revenue to supportour transportation network. As Chesapeake’s represen-tative on the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Planning District Com-mission, I welcome the opportunity to meet with our state officials to help solve our transportation crisis.