By Brendan Ulmer
Hutchinson Tribune Staff
HUTCHINSON—Retired Hutchinson Police Department officer Darrin Truan and Hutchinson Recreation Commission board member Carlton “Duke” DeVaul are the two fresh faces running for the at-large seat on Hutchinson City Council.
During the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce-hosted City Council candidate forum on Thursday, both candidates spoke in favor of lowering taxes, but with different ideas of how the city should go about doing so.
Truan’s approach centers around focusing on what he believes are the essentials for the city.
“We’ve got to get back to the basics,” Truan said. “Basically, what I would refer to as the three P’s, which is public safety, plumbing, which is dealing with water and sewer, and potholes, which is dealing with the street.”
Truan added that if he gets elected, he will treat the city budget like his own personal budget, taking care of necessities first and seeing if he has a little extra money left over for enjoyment purposes.
DeVaul agreed with the idea that they need to focus on the essentials, but stated that there needs to be a broader program of cuts.
“I’ve thought about this quite a lot, and one thing we need to do is, if we do budget cuts, we need to do it across the board, not just one area, so it’s fair and equitable,” DeVaul said. “We need to really take a hard look at where our money is going and have priorities.”
DeVaul later added that public safety would be exempt from his across-the-board cuts.
Jobs and housing
DeVaul agreed with what a lot of the other candidates had said about what they believe are the biggest issues facing Hutchinson: jobs and housing. He added that infrastructure also needs to get a hard look, as well as the issue of food insecurity.
Truan seconded jobs and housing as the city’s biggest problems. He said he thinks the city puts up too many hurdles for development, and cited the double-sided sidewalk issue in the Plum Creek neighborhood as an example, an issue that ended with the city allowing the developer to put sidewalks on only one side of the street.
“To me, that’s common sense,” Truan said. “If that’s what it’s going to take to get houses, let’s make government simpler, let’s use common sense and do what we have to do to get what we need done here.”
DeVaul emphasized the need to build more affordable housing and to fix up the older structures in the south and center of town, and help people stay in their homes.
“The elderly, they need the help,” DeVaul said. “The young families, trying to struggle, working two or three jobs to stay in their homes.”
Truan believes the city should be somewhat involved in housing development and rehabilitation, but that it should be mainly a private endeavor.
“I just don’t think government needs to be involved in a lot of that,” Truan said. “I think we need to figure out a way to make it simpler, and less restrictions to rehabilitate the houses.”
He added that the city has building codes that need to be followed, but that too often the city gets in the way of development.
“Too many times I’ve heard, ‘Well, you can’t do that, you can’t do that, ’” Truan said. “I want to hear the city say, ‘What can we do to help you to get this house done and make things nicer?’”
Homelessness
DeVaul expressed frustration about homelessness and its tendency to just get batted around, with the added context that it’s not just the City of Hutchinson where it is a problem.
DeVaul said it is important to respect the constitutional rights of the homeless, while still regulating potential criminal activity.
“The last City Council meeting, an issue was brought up that they need to run people out of Avenue A Park, and luckily, the chief of police was there, and he explained to them that First Amendment rights and a few other rights, you just can’t do that,” DeVaul said. “Everybody has equal rights to the park, but we can control drug usage and other unfavorable activities at our parks.”
He also talked about the need for more housing and shelter.
Truan recounted his experience interacting with the homeless population as a police officer.
“It’s been mentioned a couple times about getting them homes and stuff, you’ve got to understand most of them have mental illness or are on drugs,” Truan said. “Multiple times I’ve tried to offer services to these people, and they don’t want it, and I hate to say it, it sounds bad, but they want to be homeless.”
Truan believes that community organizations need to come together and create a task force to combat homelessness.
During his rebuttal, DeVaul disagreed that most homeless people want to be homeless, but agreed with the idea of a task force to fight homelessness.
Mayor Stacy Goss, a candidate for the Northwest District council seat, said such a task force does exist, which was further backed up during incumbent Southwest District City Councilman Greg Fast’s response to the homelessness topic.
Parks and trails
Both Truan and DeVaul agreed that, in order to make cuts to lower taxes, the city may have to take a hard look at parks.
Truan said he likes the city’s parks but does not view them as a necessity.
“I hate saying this, but at some point in time, our parks may have to be put aside so that we can get the necessities done,” Truan said.
Truan added that the Parks Department keeps creating parks without hiring the needed employees for upkeep.
DeVaul echoed much of what Truan had said.
“I agree almost 100% with my opponent’s comments,” DeVaul said. “How many parks do we need?”
DeVaul also feels that there’s a problem with the city’s parks being on the outskirts of town, rather than inside the city.
Balancing needs
Truan reemphasized the importance of focusing on the necessities. He also reiterated his belief in the need for less restrictive government when it comes to development.
DeVaul spoke about how important public safety is, and how it should not be cut. He also spoke about the need to get businesses into Hutchinson and attempt to revitalize downtown.
“I look at downtown, and we still have empty storefronts,” DeVaul said. “I see shops, little boutiques that open up and they come and go really fast.”
Making Hutchinson more attractive
DeVaul talked about how residents can do their part to make the town more attractive by taking care of their yards. He also talked about the need to make downtown Hutchinson more attractive.
He also talked about the availability of fun activities in town, but added that residents need to be able to go look for them.
Truan echoed the sentiment that there are activities to do in town, but added that there needs to be more done to promote them.
Truan also discussed how hopeful he was about getting Memorial Hall turned into a destination venue.
“I was talking to someone the other day. You know, we’re discussing the little Red Shed over there on Old K-61,” Truan said. “They have concerts there, why can’t we do that here?”