League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area Education Fund
Hamilton County, OH November 5, 2013 Election
	Pamela Kamm Answers Questions Candidate for Member Council at Large; City of Wyoming

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What are your qualifications for office?

I have been a member of Wyoming City Council since 2007, and have been an active volunteer in our community for more than two decades. During my time in Wyoming, I have had the opportunity to serve in numerous volunteer roles in our schools, civic organizations and in my church, working with many people of diverse backgrounds. These efforts have exposed me to many aspects of the Wyoming community and enable me to have a better understanding of what the citizens of Wyoming demand of their city government.

2. What services do you believe should be considered basic and essential for the City?

The citizens of Wyoming demand and deserve more than basic services. Keeping our citizens safe by providing excellent police, EMS and fire protection is not only essential but a top priority. Maintaining our roads in a manner that enables our residents and emergency services reliable access is critical. Clean water, snow removal, leaf collection, mulch deliveries, care of our tree canopy, solid waste/recycling programs and well maintained parks and recreational facilities are all services that our citizens have come to expect and I will work to continue to provide.

3. How would you balance the City Budget?

Our city financial policy dictates we must have a balanced budget, and also requires the city to have a minimum year-end operating fund balance. As a member of the Finance Committee, I have worked with our administration to meet these requirements. During the past few years we have witnessed a dramatic decrease in income due to lower income and property tax receipts, less revenue from the Local Government Fund and loss of estate taxes. As a small bedroom community, we do not have a sizeable business tax base to help offset that loss of funding. To maintain our excellent public safety and city services, we continue to reduce operating costs in a variety of ways such as personnel attrition, reduced expenditures on purchases, deferring large capital improvement projects and sharing services with our schools.

4. Citizen engagement is important to the health of local government. In what ways do you support citizen engagement?

City council makes the governmental decisions for the city, but with much input from our citizens. Wyoming residents are extremely engaged and play an integral role in Wyoming city government. City council created many Boards and Commissions in order to seek the knowledge and expertise of our citizens. These Commissions consist of members of the community-at-large along with a city staff liaison and a council member. I serve on several city committees where our citizens play a vital role in providing guidance and advice. I truly value this input, and am pleased to actively participate in the interview process that selects citizens to serve on numerous of the city's committees and commissions.

---

Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Word limits may apply. See individual questions for specific word limits. Direct references to opponents are not permitted. Please edit your work before submitting. We are unable to provide spell-check at this time.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Candidate Page || Feedback to Candidate || This Contest
SmartVoter Home (Ballot Lookup) || About Smart Voter

---

Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 9, 2013 08:11
Smart Voter <http://www.smartvoter.org/>
Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund   http://www.lwvc.org
The League of Women Voters neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office or political parties.