Mel Huber:

What inspires me to serve? We have a treasure of a town. Lets try to not mess it up too much. Over the years Blacksburg has been well managed and well regulated. In more recent years the number of citizen complaints seems to have risen. This bears looking into. If I am elected to Town Council I plan to open a small office downtown where Blacksburg people can meet with me and tell me about their concerns. I want to give them a voice. Procedure at Town Council meetings allows for only three minutes for a member of the public to make a presentation to Council. The presentation by town staff people to Council has no limit and is normally accompanied by power point presentation. There is a perception that this is an unfair system. This system should be reexamined. An old classic liberal friend in New York City whom I have known since 1938 has wellarticulated my concerns about over-taxing and over-regulating. It is fine to tax and regulate the heck out of big business corporations, big banking, big hospital and pharmaceutical corporations, big unions, and yes, big education. But lighten burdensome regulations on small business entrepreneurs and lighten their tax loads. Do not hinder the non-executive worker by overtaxing and over regulating. The small business will then be more able to provide jobs and that is where most of the jobs will be. And those businesses and those jobs are the only real pathways to economic recovery. With respect to the topics presented my comments are these: I am hard of hearing. My handicap has been partly overcome by an amplifying device which now no longer serves adequately. I will be obtaining hearing aids but they will not be ready for me until after the September 14 forum. Therefore I did not prepare to participate. About one week ago I was asked to address the eight areas in writing and submit my thinking on the issues in written form for presentation at the forum. Earlier, when I was first asked to participate, I accepted conditionally and expected that there would be six questions. Now, with subparts and sub subparts, there are thirty five to forty questions. The other candidates are likely familiar with all of these issues and will have reached some conclusions and will have some ready answers. Two of the candidates now serve on Council, one has served in the past (but was defeated in his most recent run for re-election) and one has run for a seat (and been defeated) in the election before this one. Therefore all of them should have had some exposure to these issues over time and could have reached conclusions. I, on the other hand, have not had adequate time for gathering information and formulating thoughts on the matters presented. Certainly there would be no way I could address the 35 or 40 or so points raised.

I have been attending and will continue to attend Town Council meetings and work sessions and expect to be prepared to address all matters that are on Town Council agenda or that I or others will bring to the table at the next Council term. What I can do now is to say how I would approach any problem that would be within the purview of Town Council. A. Study the staff information presented by the Town Manager and the departments that he manages, as well as any legal commentary by the Town Attorney and input by the towns financial people. B. communities in matter. C. matter. D. Do a cost-benefit analysis to try to ascertain what the costs would be and who would bear the cost burdens; and what benefits would accrue and to whom; and what would be the detriments and who would be subjected to them? The greatest good for the greatest number is sometimes more apparent than real. It has been said that to make an omelet you have a break a few eggs. And that is okay as long as you are not an egg. E. Give individual citizens and business and real estate owners (even if they dont live within the town) and opportunity to speak with me about the issue. Again, I would be planning to hold regular business hours for this. There are very many very smart people in and around the community and it would not surprise me to be presented with an insight or aspect or information that neither the staff nor I nor members of the Council had considered. F. I would bring all that I have gathered to the Council for discussion with my colleagues on Council to get their reactions, their own thinking and their further ideas. This give and take would help me to finalize my position. I would encourage due deliberation but discourage undue deliberation. G. On any matter I would leave my own personal prejudices and predispositions at the door of the Council chamber. H. I would vote based on the outcome I reach through the above process. Do independent inquiry with respect to the way other similarly situated Virginia, in other states and other countries are handling or have handled the what do or did they do? why? is it working? - why or why not?

Do independent research with respect to any published academic papers on the

Good luck with the forum.

Mel Huber