Morning Edition; Christina Williams

It's morning edition on K-R-P-S. We are less than two weeks away from municipal elections taking place across Missouri. Locally, Joplin City Council election was scheduled to take place on June 7th. But because of the pandemic, the election was shifted to Tuesday, June 2nd. This morning, we hear from Christina Williams, who is one of four candidates running to fill two general four-year seats on the Joplin City Council. Like all candidates, I first ask Christina to introduce herself to voters. Hi, I'm Christina Williams, Joplin resident running for city council. I work in architecture and I have a lovely family, mom of three. We love living in Joplin. And why are you running for city council? Well, you know, people have asked me to run because of my background in leadership and different advocacy initiatives that I've been a part of in Joplin over the years. It was something I kind of thought that maybe I do in 10 years when I'm 50 or when my kids are a little bit older and less demanding. But my husband and I talked about it and with all of the momentum that Joplin has right now in the trajectory that we are on,

I seem like, you know, why not, why not do it now and set that good example for our kids, a leadership and serving our community. So I'm really excited about doing it. So you've thought about running in the past, but maybe in the future, but right now? I've been asked in the past and didn't think it was the right time, but I think that now is the right time. With five seats open on the council, the need for really qualified candidates was even greater. If elected, what are some of the core things or issues that you hope to get accomplished, pushed ahead? Some good. I'm an advocate for quality of life initiatives in our city. I think that everyone deserves a good quality of life and there are many ways to achieve that. Another economic benefit of having a good quality of life is it attracts other businesses to bring their employees here and it makes it easier for them to get employees to come here. Our employment rate is very low and we are trying to get more businesses to come in.

They're going to have to bring a lot of employees with them to come live in our city, which is great. That brings a more revenue for our city to use on quality of life amenities. So it's kind of a full circle thing. I'm also an advocate for trails and connectivity and making our community less reliant on vehicles, increasing our population density in neighborhoods so that people are more connected and can walk to amenities like grocery stores and shopping and things. You brought quality of life up in Joplin. Could you name something specific? Well, quality of life can be entertainment opportunities, quality parks, recreation opportunities for the outdoors, maintaining those trail systems, things like that. We sit here doing this interview. We're right around the corner from the proposed home of the Harry Cornell Arts and Entertainment Complex. Yes. Yes. I am pleased to be a part of that project with the Working for Cornered Bear Architects.

It's right outside of a back door, which is amazing to be a part of the design of that space and seeing it grow from the ground up and serve our community. Very amazing opportunity for our citizens. And actually just down Main Street here, here in the next year we'll have Missouri Southern Downtown Joplin campus, a new courthouse being built soon, the Cornell Complex. And you see a bright future for Joplin. I definitely see a bright future. Things are moving and the pace of those things happening seems to be accelerating. So I'm really excited to see where we're going to go from there. What are some of the changes that you'd like to see inside of Joplin's city government, if any? Just last week or a couple of weeks ago now, a city hired a new city manager? Yeah. What a great opportunity to kind of start with a clean slate or fresh eyes, really. And I'm really curious to meet and interact with Nick and work towards common goals and see how we see as a council person what we can bring to him.

To get him a successful start, that's going to make a huge difference in our city government, making sure he gets a good solid foundation in his first months in the job. Getting to meet everyone, all the employees, people that he serves, that's kind of one of my goals is to make sure he would get a good start. Right, because in the past that job as Joplin city manager, it's really transferred among a few different people. Yeah, seeing different leadership styles. Very much so, it always seems when, for instance, when they Joplin will post a story about a city manager, the posts on the Facebook, the comments are really intense. That person seems like they have a magnifying glass on top of them. And it looks like the city government, this time, chose somebody that was from the area, understands what Joplin is like. And like you said, but it has fresh eyes.

So I love that. So the person, you know, the city that he experienced as a, as his growing up years is not the same. And he came back and so he definitely has fresh eyes. Say that I'm a Joplin voter. Give me your best pitch. Why should I vote for you? I think people can vote for me because I'm going to listen. I, I'm a problem solver by nature. I love a challenge. So I look forward to being able to listen to the citizens and what they'd like to see Joplin's future become. And take kind of a 30,000-foot view of that, put it all together, and strategize about ways we can achieve those goals together. That was Christina Williams, one of four candidates running to fill two of the four-year general seats on the Joplin City Council. To learn more about her campaign, visit her Facebook page at Christina Williams for Joplin. You can also hear this interview again, along with the rest of the candidates running for Joplin City Council this year at our news blog, krpsnews.com.