Editor’s Note: This article is not an endorsement, and the timing is not intentional. The Collegio reached out to candidates and area party leaders on both sides of the political spectrum for the City Commission race. Jackson Bertoncino and Isaiah Harris were interviewed in the June 27 issue of the Collegio; available Republican candidates along with speech highlights were featured in a photo spread of the July 11 issue of the Collegio.
Stu Hite, former Pittsburg city mayor, current city of Pittsburg Commissioner, and current Pittsburg State University police chief, is running for reelection to the City Commission on Nov. 4. Hite is motivated by service to the community and is proud of the economic development during his time on the commission while acknowledging the need for improvements in housing and childcare. Hite received recent criticism from some of his fellow fiscally conservative Republicans when he voted to pass a budget proposal that would increase taxes, but he maintains that he voted his conscience as no alternative plans were raised.
Hite said his motivations to run for reelection have not changed from his motivations four years ago. He wants to serve the community, represent the population of Pittsburg, and be a “good fiscal steward,” closing with challenging others to serve the community as well.
“I ran four years ago with the idea that I just wanted to serve the community in another way,” Hite said. “I’m trying to be a voice for the majority and best represent the almost 21,000 people in Pittsburg. Also wanting to do my part to be a good fiscal steward of taxpayer dollars, having worked for the taxpayers my entire career for 30 years at the sheriff’s office, we answer to our constituents. We all love this community, why aren’t we all wanting to run?”
When asked what made Hite different from the other candidates, Hite said that all of the candidates care about Pittsburg, they just differ on why and how.
“I think all six people that are running care for our community,” Hite said. “I think our ‘why’ might be different. We may have different opinions on how we get to what’s best for our community, but I think most of us are doing it out of the goodness of our hearts and not for personal gain. I believe we can all disagree, but we shouldn’t be disagreeable.”
In a recent Sept. 8, City Commission meeting, the commission voted on a budget proposal that would cause an increase in taxes to cover the budget. As a Republican running for reelection on the commission, Hite received some criticism for his decision to approve the budget. Hite said the budget was known ahead of time and was not excessive.
“We (the commissioners) find out about the asks that each department head is going to ask for on what we call a ‘working day’ and we had that in an evening back in May,” Hite said. “We do that every year. That’s when we’re first told by each department head, ‘this is on our horizon,’ and we (the commissioners) can go around the room and debate that. It’s not like our department heads are asking for the moon, they’re asking for things that Pittsburg needs.”
Hite said that commission knew an increase would be needed in order to approve the budget, but no one on the commission suggested any cuts or alternatives. It should be noted, however, that some changes were made to the budget the day of the vote, causing line-item numbers to be incorrect despite the overall numbers remaining the same.
“So that’s May, and we voted in September,” Hite said. “That’s five months that we as commissioners, all five of us, had to start constructing an alternative to doing what is being asked of us. Then sometime in June we were presented with a proposed budget from the city, so roughly three months we’ve had the actual proposed budget. Not once did anybody on the commission, myself included, not once did anybody come up with any kind of alternative to that budget or raise any questions in public or otherwise to my knowledge. There was no discussion on what we should cut or reduce. So that not being done, you get to September to the budget meeting and I’m not sure what anyone’s decision would have been with no alternative other than to approve it. So had I given it a thought? Absolutely. Did I come up with any viable solutions on not approving the proposed budget? No, I didn’t, and I didn’t hear any from anybody else.”
When asked about accomplishments during his time in office, Hite redirected the accomplishments as belonging to the commission as a whole. The commission was able to bring in $95 million in economic development to help grow the city with an investment of $3 million.
“We as a commission, approved $95 million in new economic development in the City of Pittsburg,” Hite said. “Companies that would come (to Pittsburg) make requests though the Economic Development Advisory Committee to get up to 10% of the cost of their project reimbursed though a revolving loan fund that can only be done to reinvest in economic development. We invested $3 million of that $95 million, that’s a pretty darn good return on your investment. All those investments are creating jobs, more customers, businesses, and bringing in more people to our town. That helps offset the costs of streets, law enforcement, fire, public works, water, sewer, things like that.”
The city has also added a trash service, which while viewed as “unfair competition” by some in the community, has grown to service 3,287 stops.
“We started a trash service from scratch last year,” Hite said. “It only took about six months from conception to implementing it. We started with two brand new trucks and just added a third this summer. We have grown in a very short time to 3,287 stops. Mostly private households (3,012), but businesses, too (275). We aren’t trying to take over the trash business, just answering the complaints of citizens. We’re simply another carrier or option.
Two main areas that Hite views as needing improvement are housing supply and childcare. Hite says that the city is making “great strides” in both areas, but there is still work to be done.
“I think everybody agrees that there’s a housing shortage in Pittsburg, and we’ve made great strides in increasing incentives for new builders to come in,” Hite said. “We have torn down properties that were deemed unsafe and in the last four years we’ve found 124, I believe, new permits. Out with the old in with the new. Childcare was another major thing, and we have made great strides. The Washington School Project is getting ready to come online any time; over 200 kids are going to be able to go to preschool or daycare there. So that’s a huge step in the right direction. There’s still work to be done, and we need to identify more ways to appeal to other folks to start a daycare and provide childcare for working parents.”
One of the largest projects the city is currently working on is replacing outdated water infrastructure that Hite characterized as “failing” and “maybe past the end of its life.”
“Our water and sewer lines are, some of them, 100 years old and more, and we’ve done a good job of being proactive in replacing them, but that doesn’t come at a small cost,” Hite said. “I think we haven’t talked a lot about the new wastewater treatment plant that’s being constructed. That is going to be monumental not just for our children but for our grandchildren. That should take us 50 years into the future. The current one is outdated, it’s substandard by many federal regulation standards. It passes, but we know that it’s not going to pass by future standards. One of the things that we did that got overlooked, the city staff said, ‘we were going to raise the sewer rates on people’s water bills,’ by, I think it was 13%, this year. But prior to the budget hearing night, they made the decision, ‘we’re going to cut that back to more like a 3% increase,’ and some of that is going to be paid for from reserves that are in the city so some of that is offset. Not passing that along directly in the form of an increase was sort of overlooked in that whole tax discussion.”