Huckleberries Talks To Joe Kunka

Mayoral candidate Joe Kunka is at Huckleberries HQ, as we speak. So here’s the real-time interview:

• Huckleberries: You’re considered the dark horse in this mayoral race. Are you OK with that?
• Joe Kunka: I’m comfortable being in that position. As we all know, four years ago, I took roughly 40 percent of the vote on a $200 budget. So that tells me that it isn’t all about the money.
• Huckleberries: Was that a pro-Joe vote or an anti-Sandi Bloem vote?
• Kunka : It could be interpreted two ways. I had a lot of people encouraging me, and to stay the course, and not getting involved in the fray. I don’t think everything Sandi did was bad. There seems to be two sides to everything in Coeur d’Alene. There’s one way left and one way right—and they’re both extreme. We want to fit comfortably in the middle.
• Huckleberries: Everyone is saying that the main issues are McEuen Field, urban renewal, employee salaries. Do you agree with that?
• Kunka : Let’s talk about employee salaries first. There’s a big push that people are making too much money. And payroll for city is too large. On a cold January night at 2 o’clock in the morning, and I hear the rumble of the snow plows and bucket loaders cleaning our streets, that gives me a sense of security and a sense that we’re being taken care of. As far as the upper management part of the city government, before anyone challenges what they’re earning, we need to find out what they do for the money. You can’t make a blanket statement like: Let’s go in and cut salaries.
• More below

• . Huckleberries : How about the other two big issues: McEuen Field and urban renewal?
• Kunka : Let’s talk about McEuen Field first. McEuen needed improvements. However, $20 million or $30 million is a bit too much to spend on an unnecessary commodity. But I’m only one voice. This should have been taken to the people and let the city of Coeur d’Alene decide whether or not to do this extravagant of a park. I didn’t participate in the recall because I didn’t feel this is a recallable offense. That should be saved for criminal activity or severe moral issues.
• Huckleberries : How about urban renewal?
• Kunka : It’s a necessary commodity for a city to have, to expand. It appears to work well in other cities, like Post Falls. I think the reason the people of Coeur d’Alene are so up in arms about it is because they don’t understand it. I don’t either completely. We need to bring the urban renewal agency out to the people and explain how things are done and why they do the things they do.
• Huckleberries : Do you have a philosophy that you can summarize in a few words?
• Kunka : Cooperation. Confidence. And trust. We need to instill a feeling of cooperation within City Hall. By doing that we’ll have the confidence to go out and communicate with the people of Coeur d’Alene, and through that we’ll earn, not demand, their trust.
• Huckleberries : What do you bring to the table that Steve Widmyer and Mary Souza don’t?
• Kunka : I’ve grown to understand what it means to have to budget and make as much out of as little as possible. We’ve been in Coeur d’Alene 24 years and it hasn’t always been easy to raise a family here. I have leadership principles from U.S. Marine Corps. I’ve been in some very adverse situations with people of different ethnic groups, backgrounds from different parts of country, and held teams together to come through different scenaries. I’ve been around the world twice. I’ve worked side by side with people in different parts of world. I’ve had to compromise. I’ve had to lead. I have no political aspirations. i don’t come in with personal agenda. I’m not looking to build a legacy for myself. I enter this race with undivided loyalty to the people of Coeur d’Alene. And I am uninfluenced by private interest.

Thoughts?