League of Women Voters Candidate Forum set for March 30, 2023.

The Mexico- Audrain County League of Women Voters will host a Candidate Forum for City Council and School Board Candidates Thursday, March 30 at the Mexico YMCA beginning at 6:30 p.m. The Forum will be held in the pickleball court area. 

The League of Women Voters of Mexico-Audrain County is a nonpartisan political organization and cannot endorse or oppose any candidate for office. However, a basic purpose of the League is to promote informed voting. The League makes every effort to assist candidates in presenting their opinion(s) to the voters. 

Each candidate was contacted by the League and asked two questions pertaining to the election. Their responses to these questions as well as their answers to questions submitted by the audience attending the Forum will make up the program. The Forum is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend.

Candidates were asked two questions, with a 200-word answer limit for each.

Question 1:  What are your qualifications for a position on the Mexico City Council?

Question 2: Identify two issues you would like to see addressed by the Mexico City Council during the upcoming term. How would you recommend these issues be addressed?

Erik Richardson

1. My background has given me the ability to see and hear from different perspectives and then help people find points of agreement to collaborate. I grew up in the city but am from a farm family. I have been the MBA in corporate finance, and I have been a teacher from K5 to college. I worked in fundraising for the arts and my wife and I run a small business.

Being able to look at problems and opportunities through so many different lenses was helpful during my years on the Milwaukee Board of Zoning Appeals where I worked closely with city planners, business owners, residents and elected officials to find solutions while balancing the needs of groups with different goals and interests. My diverse background has also been helpful in my writing and research about the struggles facing small-towns and the building blocks for creating a rural renaissance - including an invited presentation to the Midwest Rural Economic Development Conference last month.

As diverse as those roles have been, there is also a common thread. That is a talent for working with numbers to translate goals (like those in question two) into clear steps and increase our chances of achieving them.

2. Mexico has untapped talent that could turn us into a role model for other small towns. To bring that out, there are two things City Council has to do.

The first: communicate better. That means not just listening to those who speak up, but ot those who often go unheard. It means not just sharing information but helping people understand the context and impact. And it also means increasing transparency and accountability so community members can see that the council is turning their ideas and concerns into forward progress.

The second: revise the comprehensive plan. We have this massive document that is 10 years old and, as far as people I've talked to can tell, has been collecting dust for the last seven or eight years. We should leverage resources and experienced leadership from university and government programs (missing in the old plan), meet with Midwest communitites that have successfully sparked recent growth, and use their insights to generate a smaller plan that works and gets used.

Then tie those goals together with quarterly progress updates on specific, measurable parts of that revised plan. That is how we engage more people and tap into the talen they have to offer.