Joshua Lee Rodgers, candidate for Robinson, IL Mayor

Any meeting that has something to do that directly affects the public that isn't of a personal/sensitive/private issue should be made available to all people. While the current law states this (in standard "law speak"), Joshua Rodgers plans on having every person contacted via all local news outlets, by e-mail, and by letter*. The following list contains changes that he would like to pass:

• Every meeting recorded and provided either live online (streaming through the county's site), or available for download in mp3 format after the meeting concludes
• Possibility of live (streaming) video feed or downloadable video from every meeting
• Radio station, TV news or other "live media" reporting to the people so anyone can "attend" the meeting from home
• When live feeds are done, have phones ready for people to call in to make comments
• Telephone call-ins, and e-mail during any town meeting for people wishing to voice their concerns/opinions about items
• Agenda's published online with estimated times for each item, so people wanting to call/e-mail will know when they'll have to call
• Public opinion polls for anything the town discusses, where anyone (registered to vote or not) is able to voice their opinion - and all results will be visible online, and referenced during meetings

To protect the identity of people, or just to keep those not wanting to be seen or heard, seats outside the view of cameras will be provided and appointed individuals will be used to read written down questions turned in (so people's voices won't be heard).

Joshua Rodgers has the hope to get so many people attending the meetings that at least once every three months, the community center itself may have to be "rented" by the city to have enough seats for everyone. He hopes to get everyone in Robinson involved in the workings of the city. To help get people to come in he believes that different services should be provided on site (ex: "daycare" and transportation) so people who want to attend will be able to do so.

Joshua Rodgers even plans on getting all the governing bodies from the other towns, villages, etc in the county to feel welcome to attend any of the public meetings - and will ask if he and the governing body of Robinson be welcome to attend their meetings as well. He knows that while the decisions of the City of Robinson applies to Robinson, making sure that other towns are aware of what you're doing can be just as important. Sometimes it's just a sharing of ideas, a fresh viewpoint from those who have already faced a problem, and other times it's just so one town/city/village doesn't step on the toes of another when it can be avoided**

* - by letter in the event the meeting is "life altering" or "personally affects" in a way that the actions of the person in question will have to be altered if the ordinance passes; to save money paper mailings will only be done if required otherwise.

** - for example: if Oblong were to have a yearly picnic at the park with live entertainment, Robinson shouldn't schedule a picnic at the park at the same time and day if another weekend could work just as well; towns should work to provide more options for the residents, not cause them to choose.

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Joshua Rodgers has the goal of getting every person in the community involved in the community. What this means is he's planning on getting at least half the population of the community to a town meeting every year. He's hoping that at least once every three months one of the meetings will require using one or more of the community center rental spaces, he does mainly

At the start he's planning on getting everyone to "meet your representatives" where you can see what they do, how it's done, and just get an overall impression of how things work. After that, he's hoping some people will pop in whenever something perks their interest or something directly involves them or someone they know.

He's also planning on making everything that's done on a public event to be recorded and available for download (as a mp3, potentially video), and potentially have live-streaming events so you can "attend" meetings from your home! He's even hoping to be able to provide some "day care" likes of things during meetings for anyone with children that may need someone to watch their kids (at little to no cost).

The overall plan is to do whatever can be done to get people excited about the city and what's going on, and for the people's voices to be heard. It's the responsibility of the elected officials to do what the people want -- and they can't do that if the people don't tell them. So he's hoping to make it as easy as possible for people to get involved. While people frequently say they "don't care" or "don't want to get involved", it's almost as if the people "don't want to get blacklisted" or just don't want others to know what they think. He's wanting to make it so comments and opionions can be voiced anonymously.

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Joshua Rodgers plans on trying to get everyone person in the town registered to vote that's of legal age to vote, and capable of voting. He's not going to say "you must vote!" even though he prefers if people do, no matter who they vote for, but he wants to see everyone at least register.

The only way you can truely voice your opinion is by voting, or being registered and not voting. If you're not registered and don't vote, people don't know if you didn't vote because you didn't like them, or you just figured your vote didn't matter, or what the reason was! But if you're registered and don't vote, that sends a deeper meaning: you cared enough to register, but didn't like the choices so much you didn't vote. While some politicians might ignore that, Joshua Rodgers actually views a registered voter that didn't vote as a sign that they hated all the options across the board; or that maybe they didn't realize they were registered.

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People who wish to ride a bicycle or other road-worthy vehicle (a vehicle that's otherwise safe and legal to ride on the roads), should be allowed to be used by people to go shopping and be provided a safe location for parking. This means that every store should allow people some safe place to park their bicycles either inside or outside. The method this can be accomplished will be up to the individual business, so it could be done at no cost to them (let the bicycle park by the entrance), or at whatever cost they want (have a bicycle rack secured outside, or just a steel pipe attached to a building or ground.

The goal is to provide all residents the option of not driving if they don't want to when they're getting a few things from the store. This could be to save some money in gas, making so people don't have to own a car if they don't want, to just making more options for people. While the focus here is on bicycles, the possibility of letting other vehicles on the roads is open for debate.

Along the similar lines, Joshua Rodgers (spending a lot of time walking himself), also believes that sidewalks should be maintained and available throughout the town for safety, and just providing another easy mode of transportation for people. Sidewalks should exist on both sides of all roads, be flat, smooth (no "potholes"), and not require hiking boots. Sidewalks should allow someone to jog or walk on them, wear heels, travel in a wheelchair, or even be navigated blind without fear of tripping. Likewise, all transitions from sidewalk to road should be graded so there's no drop offs. Basically, people should be able to use the sidewalks and know they could get from point A to point B by sidewalk without having to leave it.

As the State of Illinois does have rules and regulations for all bicycles that are on the road, it should be noted that bicyclists would be expected to follow all the rules on the road, and they may be ticketed if not following the rules. Joshua Rodgers also believes that if bicycles (or other modes of alternative transportation) become popular, there should be dedicated lanes on busy roads for just bicycles to help keep bicyclists safe, while keeping the flow of traffic moving at a safe pace.

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Joshua Rodgers has two main plans in the works to drastically increase the tourism of the area (it's a county-based effort), that in itself won't cost hardly anything. At this time during the early stages of the election, he's keeping these plans under wraps -- but here are some general ideas of what these plans will do:

• Increase tourism by thousands of extra people each year, potentially bringing in people from a 9 county area
• Bring in $10,000+ every year with little effort (who gets the money would depend on how it's setup)
• Increase demand for some existing business services, and create the startup of new (more jobs + money for residents)
• Provide activities for our local residents, and use the talents of people that are already here yet isn't being tapped

And he's sorry he can't provide details right now -- he really wants to he assures you! But given how these ideas could make Robinson a town that's loved and known by many people, and actually have people make reservations for our restaurants and events, we're sure you can understand that he doesn't want to give his opponents a heads up to implement any of them before the election (these are the main running points of his campaign! As it gets closer to the election, they will be explained. And no matter what happenes during the election, the entire plans will be given to the town so they can implement them.

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Joshua Rodgers has the plan to bring in more jobs into the area. He says "area" as he means "Crawford County" -- which is a good thing for Robinson residents as well as Robinson is in Crawford county. A business coming to Crawford county can bring jobs for people in all towns, the same as a company coming within the city limits of Robinson itself. He isn't saying he will bring in jobs, but he will try to bring in jobs. In the current economy, and just general state of things with many businesses laying off 25-75% of their workforce, a person can't guarentee anything.

The type of jobs he's planning on trying to bring into the area involve technology based jobs, ones that involve office work, computers, and otherwise more skilled (over min. wage) types of jobs that involve working in air conditioning behind a desk -- and not ones involving haz-mat suits, dangerous working conditions, hazard pay, or assembly line jobs. He has nothing against people working in those jobs (he's done assembly line and jobs requiring special dress codes before), he's just hoping to bring in jobs that are "clean air" (no pollution) and "safe" working environments. It's jobs like these, the "positions of the future" so to speak, that will keep our town competitive in the world, and even provide positions that our children, and people from other towns would want to have -- which could increase our population, and make our community more attractive to even more businesses.

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As some of you know, and others might just now be noticing, there are some positions that are appointed by the mayor. So you're probably wondering what positions these are, and who Joshua Rodgers would appoint. His stance on this at this time is quite simple: he believes in having people take care of the city, listen to the people, and actually care about their job.

Sound like a "politician's non-answering answer"? That's the way he keeps it for now as he believes in seeking input from the town as to what they think needs done, if they're happy with how some things are done, etc before making any decisions in this matter. The people's opinions of what they'd like to see/etc will be the grounds for any appointments he will make.