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ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – The November election is just around the corner and candidates are gearing up for voters to head to the polls.
WDBJ7 asked all the candidates the same questions about a ranges of topics from Roanoke’s gun violence and homeless population to economic development. After drawing the various parties from a hat, WDBJ7 shared the Republican candidates’ responses on Tuesday night.
The Independent candidates’ interviews will be shared on Wednesday and the Democratic candidates’ interviews will be shared on Thursday.
Nick Hagen, Maynard Keller and Dalton Baugess are the Republican candidates running for Roanoke City council’s at-large election on November 8.
Please introduce yourself and your campaign platform.
“My name is Nick Hagen. I’m a lifelong Roanoker. I’m an attorney here in town. Basically, I’m trying to make sure that we get crime under control, make sure our schools are some of the best and safest in the Commonwealth, and make sure our taxes get a little bit lower, because right now, we’re being taxed into oblivion. And I’m really tired. You know, I’m a lifelong Roanoker. So I’m really tired of the same old politics as usual that we’ve had for the last 20 years,” Hagen said.
“My name is Maynard Keller, and I’m a certified financial planner. And my platform is very simple. We are to have lower taxes, we need less crime. We need a healthy Roanoke. We need people coming together in different ways. And so that’s a summary,” Keller said.
“My name is Dalton Baugess, and I am running for Roanoke City Council as a Republican and my whole platform is the crime and the crime issues plaguing Roanoke, and the issues that Roanoke has because of crime,” Baugess said.
We’ve heard a lot of long term solutions to curb the increase in violence. What are you proposing for the immediate solution?
“I got into this because of gun violence. A few years back, somebody got shot outside of my building. One of the things that I’ve learned in that time, and my building is catty-corner to City Hall. So it made me very angry when that happened and frustrated in all this. So one of the things that we can do in the short term is we can increase police pay, we can take a look at the benefits that are currently being provided. The issue with the gun violence task force has been that they are focusing on those generational those long term solutions, like, which, you know, will hopefully pay off in five, ten to 20 years. But if there’s not a community there, if there’s not a community for, you know, because of crime on the increase, less people coming here, people leaving from Roanoke City, you know, then all that effort, you know, all that money that we’re spending for that it’s not going to look good,” Hagen said.
“Everyone’s kind of looking for a silver bullet. The crime, the violence. The reality of it is that there’s not a silver bullet. There’s not one thing that we can do to fix everything. I do think the biggest thing we can do right now is to fully fund and fully staff, our police and our fire departments. You know, you look at the streets. We are, depending on the day of the week, we’re down between 50 and 100 officers, police officers. That’s significant. Yeah, out of a field of force of a 240. That’s significant. And I think if we can fill those positions, we will be a much better position to deal with crime and safety issues,” Keller said.
“Roanoke’s unique, you cannot compare Roanoke’s officers to Salem officers, or Roanoke County and base all their pay the same, because their jobs are completely different. I rode with Roanoke City police from 7:30 at night until 2:30 In the morning, and quickly realized that. And, you know, hats off to them for what they do. Because they’re doing it short staffed and by themselves. How would you like to be an officer and the last thing you hear is we don’t have backup? So first and foremost, we got to retain the officers that we have. We need to increase their pay based on not localities near us but like localities with the same crime numbers. Roanoke’s crime numbers are through the roof. For example, rape. There were 64 rape cases in Roanoke. Last year, Richmond had 16. We had more simple assaults in Roanoke than in Richmond. And all this is on Virginia State Police website. So get the officers paid, get them in the correct pay scales. Do different programs, as far as bringing in different agencies, state police, DEA, ATF and U.S. Marshals and create a regional crimes task force to start tackling the crimes. And while we’re doing that, work on a good program, to recruit officers retain officers and have them at the right pay scale for their job. Provide them with the correct equipment they need to do their job with. A lot of them told me they are outgunned by the criminals on the street. They need the proper equipment to do their job with and they don’t have that right now. You know, they need to have support with their city council to support them. And they haven’t had that in the past,” Baugess said.
Citizens have stated they feel generally less safe with the increase in violence. If elected, what are the steps you will take with the community to reduce violent activity?
“We need to work with communities, we need to make sure that, you know, we have enough police and law enforcement officers that are able to go out into communities and do community policing, like we haven’t had in the past. But the problem is, is that, again, we’re looking at, you know, that deficit and so the current police force is not able to provide that anymore. So we need to do that. We go into communities, we need to basically talk with people because ultimately, if, without the community’s buy in in all this, it’s not going to work,” Hagen said.
“To fully fund the police and to do that, we need to change their compensation structure. Right now, starting salary for a Roanoke City police officer is about $42,000. And as of compared to that to other localities, we’re at the bottom of the list. That’s not how you attract qualified people. I’m proposing a starting salary of $55,000 and changing our pension plan from the city pension plan for public safety to the Virginia Retirement System, the VRS, which is what surrounding localities have, so we can attract and retain experienced police officers and firefighters. And so if we can have the proper staffing, that will go a long way to reducing crime. I’ve talked to a lot of people who don’t feel safe downtown, especially when it’s dark outside. I understand that. And the fear is real. And so improving the public safety will have a lot of very important side effects,” Keller said.
“There’s different things we could do right off the bat. We have a shortfall of officers. So we need to embrace different means of gunshot detection equipment. You place that in troubled zones, like downtown. They know what zones are having the shootings. By placing this equipment, if a gunshot goes off, it notifies the police department immediately and the police can get on scene quicker while they’re still evidence. Maybe while they’re still suspects and witnesses, you know, to get a good solid case. That would be one main but, you know, ultimately, we need to go back to you know, community police and getting officers out of the car getting them able to walk the neighborhoods but when you’re short. In 2018, there were 309 officers and the department. Last reporting at the end of 2021 it was down to 240. I’ve heard numbers anywhere from 60 officers to 100 plus officers that run up to short. So first foremost, we’ve got to hire officers, we got to get them on the streets, get them back out in the neighborhoods and allow them to do their jobs. We also they need their own offices and each zone or the city. So they don’t have to come back downtown, to use the restroom to grab a bite to eat, you know, they need a safe zone to where they can decompress, whether it’s 10 minutes, just to take a break. Because that was one of the things that I noticed that, while you’re in that police car, you’re on guard, you’re on edge, you can’t relax, you have to have your back against something at all times. And, you know, that is a hard way to work a shift,” Baugess said.
What is the role of Roanoke’s city government to address the ongoing issue of homelessness?
“Roanoke city can do a number of things. We can talk about how to provide services. Mental health is predominantly a big issue in the homeless, homeless population. About 70% of homeless deal with either mental health issues or addiction issues, that sort of thing. And, you know, what we can do is ensure that they’re able to get the treatment that they need in a quicker basis. We can also go, I’ve heard reports I’ve heard from many of the homeless where they have said that they were in Charlottesville or Blacksburg or Arlington, and they got sent here, because we have the shelters. We’re a product of our own success here. We need to go to those cities and basically say, listen, we need to be able to focus on the problem here. We can’t keep taking your homeless, you can’t keep sending your homeless down here for us to deal with,” Hagen said.
“Homelessness, again, is not a simple yes or no kind of answer. It’s a very complex issue. I think the role of city government is to have proper ordinances in place and then second to enforce those ordinances. Recently, a city council passed a a prohibition of camping on sidewalks. And I agree with that ordinance. It’s not proper for people to be on sidewalks and sleep there and do other things there. It’s just not proper. It’s also against city ordinance to be soliciting and panhandling in a city median, there’s an ordinance against that. The question is, where’s the enforcement for that? Proactively, people need help. And we need to get to the root of the issues. What are the underlying issues? What are the underlying problems? What are the addictions, in many cases that are that people have? And what can we do to address this? So the issue is not so much as providing homes. It’s finding those issues that have led to homelessness and dealing with those issues first, and then we can work from there. And I think organizations such as the Rescue Mission, the RAM house, have great resources for dealing with homeless,” Keller said.
“Homelessness is no longer a Roanoke problem. It’s a regional problem. It stretches to Salem, it stretches into the county. You have the homeless in Salem, getting on Valley Metro buses and riding into Roanoke and panhandling. So we need to work with the missions in place to evaluate what they need, how we can help them. You know, the answer of building them tiny houses or villages is not the answer, because that would just put us into a category of how Seattle is or how San Francisco is and we don’t want to do that. You know, each homeless person has a story and a reason they are there. Whether it’s a mental health issue, whether it’s a substance abuse issue, are just down on their luck, we need to work with systems already in place to address this. And the other localities in need to work with their own homeless population as well, and not making it a taxpayer problem for Roanoke citizens,” Baugess said.
What are your proposed solutions to decreasing the number of people experiencing homelessness?
“I want to work with RAM house, I want to work with the Rescue Mission, I want to make sure that there, as well as other businesses, and nonprofits that are able to provide services like mental health, like addiction treatment, like those sorts of big things that we tend to see in the homeless issue, as well as helping to educate the homeless to basically make sure that they’re self sufficient, and be able to actually try for that American dream,” Hagen said.
“I think a matchmaker with resources is the key. You know, what really disturbs me is seeing homeless veterans. It really breaks my heart when I see that. My son’s a veteran. My grandfather was killed in action during the Normandy invasion. And I see so many veterans who have come back from foreign wars, and they’re broken. Not just their bodies, but they also need help, physically, mentally. They need the support. And we need to be matching up needs and resources. All kinds of programs out here, all kinds of money, all kinds of things. But people often don’t know where to turn. And if we as a city council, we as a community can match those resources and their needs, we will reduce homelessness,” Keller said.
“You’ve got to figure out why they’re homeless, you got to figure out, you know, if they’re down on their luck, if it’s a mental health issue, or substance abuse. We need to work with them to rehabilitate them, to get them back on their feet, so they can contribute back to society, find them affordable housing, and, you know, whatever we can do to help them do what we need to do. You know, but again, there’s some people that that’s the life they’ve chosen, and you’re not going to get them out of that. I’ve seen it for many, many years,” Baugess said.
How do you plan to ensure economic development is equitable and equal across our Roanoke community?
“I love this question. Like I said, I’ve lived in Roanoke my entire life. And you know, I’ve seen the good times bad times. One of the things that I remember distinctly when I was 17, and I’ve always been kind of a nerd, so I listened to WFIR and other like top radio stations. 17 years ago, they were talking when I was 17, they were talking about how Melrose is a food desert. And what that means is basically there’s no place to get fresh produce or anything like that on Melrose. You know, what, still a food desert 17 years later? It’s still Melrose. Why in the world we haven’t been able to develop that and be able to push for new businesses to come in here to actually, you know, bring new businesses to Roanoke that want to work and employ people here, or to help incubate new, you know, entrepreneurs and basically make sure that they can start their small business here in Roanoke. We are an amazing hub for the entirety of the beginning of the southwest region in Virginia. We should be bigger and we should have larger, newer businesses. I mean, in the last 20 years, we’ve seen Advanced Auto leave, we’ve seen Norfolk Southern leave, Deschutes Brewery came and went. This is a major problem for Roanoke that council hasn’t been addressing. And we’ve seen what we’ve gotten for over the last 18 years,” Hagen said.
“Economic development is a very important thing. It’s a lot of talk about economic development. And I think what’s missing in economic development is understanding the role that local government plays. Local government is really not designed to pick winners and losers. Rather, the role of local government is to provide a, I call it a fertile soil, in which businesses can grow. I think of local businesses that started here and became national such as Advanced Auto, I think of Meridiam, the software company downtown has started and Bond Hearth’s spare room of his house and became a multimillion dollar company. And so having that fertile soil, I think is the key to economic development. So businesses can be here, they can grow here. And that same soil will attract outside businesses to come and to stay,” Keller said.
“When’s the last time Roanoke’s had something be excited about when your fourth highest in crime in the state, you’re not going to track development. I have a friend who is a developer. And that is the first thing he looks at is your crime ratio. And Roanoke’s crime is extremely high and you’re not going to track development. However, Roanoke needs to work with developers to bring like grocery stores here. A developer tried rang in a grocery store at 24 Street and Salem Turnpike and he could not get past Roanoke City Planning to do that. And of all areas of the city that needs a grocery store, that is one of them. And you know, the city should have been welcoming them with open arms to bring that grocery store here. But overall, we need to do better job working with the developers to attract different businesses and bringing jobs back to the Valley. We need jobs here,” Baugess said.
More citizens are struggling financially in this election compared to the last. How can Roanoke’s government support its community members during these periods of high inflation and economic uncertainty?
“One of the things I’ve talked about has been the plastic bag tax. Every time you go to the grocery store, you pay five cents for each plastic bag you use right? Three cents of it goes to the city, two cents of it stays with the stores, which is, in of itself a major issue. But this was a policy that was set by the current members of council. It is a problem, especially in the concept of dealing with high inflation. You know, you have the personal property tax, which went up tremendously, that we could have just basically said we’re not going to, and we’re going to follow Roanoke County’s leadership, and said that we’re not going to do that, we’re not going to increase our property taxes, personal property taxes. Instead, council felt that it was pertinent to give 17% back of that personal property tax to the people. But the problem with doing so is that we basically, if you think of it in raw terms of larger numbers, the county gave back $13 million in tax relief. Roanoke city gave $6 million because we had to have money come in and that sort of thing, which for me is in is a failure of a majority on councils current leadership,” Hagen said.
“High inflation is here to stay for the foreseeable future. We see the Federal Reserve raising rates and doing all these things and trying to put a damper on inflation. For most people, you look at rent, you look at groceries, you look at the price of gasoline, you look at the price of almost everything has gone up. And one of these that city council can do is to provide some relief as far as you’re giving back. Lowering tax rates, giving back some of the car tax increases, which they’re planning to do, providing relief for families. I think that’s a huge step in the right direction. Many families this year saw double digit increases in their car tax and real estate taxes. And how many of us received double digit increases in paychecks? Not many. And so the city can control certain things. They can control tax rates, they can lower tax rates. They can make things fair by doing that. And it also that will help even with rent and provide housing is more affordable, when taxes are lower,” Keller said.
“Personally, you know, my house went up almost over 11% this year. Then our personal property tax on our vehicles, my same vehicle was $300 greater than it was last year. They’ve said that we’re gonna get rebates. But, you know, as of now, I haven’t received a rebate check. But they need to take that in consideration that, you know, citizens are struggling as well. And the city needs to do their part by putting off capital purchases that don’t need to happen so they can, you know, stop raising the taxes at a time when we’re at a 40-year high inflation. They need to remember that you know, they’re working for the citizens and that’s where they’re getting the majority their tax from as from the citizens and they need to remember that. Every tax dollar spent, they need to remember that is a Roanoke citizens’ tax dollar. And that’s why I also believe that the city needs to spend their money within the city to support local business, to help local business grow and jobs grow,” Baugess said.
Anything else you would like to add?
“I have a vision for Roanoke. I’m wanting to make sure that everybody has an equitable chance of the American dream. I want to make sure that, you know, we, everybody has a voice on council. It seems to me that Roanoke City has only been focusing on downtown, Wasena and Grandin for many years, and it’s kind of forgotten the rest of us. So I’m tired of that. I’m hoping to be everybody’s voice on council. You know, regardless if you vote for me or not, I hope you vote for me, but I fully acknowledge that if Roanoke feels that I should serve, I’m hoping to represent everyone,” Hagen said.
“One of the things that I would like to see is the abolishment of what’s called the B-poll tax. And most people I’ve never heard of this. It’s the business professional occupational license tax on all businesses here in the city. And what this is, it’s a tax on gross revenue. I have a chart here that lists all the different kinds of taxes, and it’s not a flat rate. It’s different taxes based on the kind of business you have. And even if a business, if my business, for example, had a loss this year, I would still owe this tax based on the gross revenue. And I think that’s totally unfair. This tax was first enacted after the War of 1812. To pay for the debt of the War of 1812. And somehow when taxes come around, it’s hard to get rid of them. And Virginia has had this for an awful long time. And it’s time we move into the 21st century and abolish this tax,” Keller said.
“Roanoke has a crime problem and we’ve got to deal with it. We’re going down a path that we have got to go down a different path that we cannot continue to have teenagers picking up guns and shooting each other and our society thinking it’s okay. We’ve got to put a stop to the crime that’s going on in Roanoke,” Baugess said.
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