League of Women Voters of Ohio
Hamilton County, OH November 4, 2003 Election
	David Pepper Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Cincinnati

The questions were prepared by the LWV Cincinnati Area and asked of all candidates for this office.

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

1. How would you implement your top priority?

First and foremost, we will accomplish these goals by empowering our citizens to take back dangerous, blighted neighborhoods. This is why I have established the Safe and Clean Neighborhood Fund, which provides grants for community-initiated improvement projects. The Fund is particularly useful because it empowers citizens to implement individually tailored improvements for their neighborhood. So far, neighborhoods have received grants for projects such as hiring more police, installing streetlights, and enforcing Drug Free School zones.

2. Numerous important issues including transportation, land use planning, housing and economic development for the Greater Hamilton County regions are being deliberated by OKI's Land Use Commission and Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission and Planning Partnership COMPASS; how engaged should local government be in these planning activities? If elected, how would you participate in these planning activities?

Cincinnati is at a critical point in terms of city planning, particularly in spurring economic development. As an elected official, I believe it is very important to be proactively planning for Cincinnati's future, as well as working with officials in other municipalities to promote comprehensive regional planning. As a proponent of citizen participation I also actively support programs such as COMPASS because they give citizens an opportunity to take part in the planning process.

3. Ohio Department of Natural Resources in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Recycling Coalition conducted a state-specific study and found recycling businesses in Ohio generated $650.6 million dollars in state government revenue. If elected how would you promote recycling and support recycling programs currently in place in your community to reduce solid waste generation?

Keeping Cincinnati clean and environmentally conscious is very important to me both as a Councilman and as a private citizen. Many voters may not be aware that our recycling program was recently almost cut from the city's budget. Fortunately, we were able to prevent this from happening, and, as Chairman of the Neighborhoods Committee, I am working hard to ensure that the program is preserved in the next budget cycle.