Four seats up for grabs on Fairfield City Council

The Southeast Iowa Union is featuring the candidates seeking elected office to city councils and school boards in the region. The Union will profile the candidates in various races throughout this week. Today, we focus on the Fairfield City Council. Though three candidates are vying to become Fairfield's next mayor, the city council has no contested races. Each of the four open seats on the council has one person running for it on the ballot. They are: Martha Rasmussen (First Ward); Judy Ham (Third Ward); Tom Twohill (Fifth Ward); and Katy Anderson (At-Large). Of these, Judy Ham returned a questionnaire.

Judy Ham

1) What office are you running for and why?

Fairfield City Council, Ward 3. Building a city our children and children's children want to inherit and take stewardship.

2) Have you ever held this office or any other elected position?

This is my first time to run for a public position.

3) What are three challenges you see facing the community/school district?

Drawing out more local creativity in new businesses to off-set our current city debt-load; and to launch this more diverse economic base into a better position for future growth.

Voicing vision, identity and purpose to diminish despair within the community which exacerbates depression and suicide, overuse of drugs and alcohol.

Boldness to take steps together into the unknown future, patience to evaluate what is working and what is not, and courage to truly let go of what is no longer beneficial to publicly carry or to governmentally finance any further, breaking through the ultra-sensitivity to differences, low ability to set aside emotional conflict to reach for a spirit of excellence by which we create new solutions which would be beneficial to the whole community.

4) What is something the city/county/school district is doing well that you would like to build upon?

Local talent: Local solutions creating new community relationships which are addressing our current and future needs for a new type of ambulance service, community child care.

5) Why should you be elected to this position?

Everything that has transpired in my lifetime has prepared me for this step into the future. 'What we do is, we hold history and we write THE FUTURE. So writers, poets, and songwriters and novelists, a pen is one of those symbolical things that says the message of my life expands beyond my generation. I am going to come into agreement with history as we write the future.” – Ray Hughes