Robyn Mulenga is running for Auburn City Council Position No. 5. Her opponent is Ryan Burnett.
Auburn Symphony Orchestra:
“As Auburn continues to grow, what role do you think local arts organizations can play in this ever-changing community?”
For additional discussion on these questions and more you can reach me at
www.facebook.com/Robyn4CityofAuburn Email: Robyn4CityofAuburn@outlook.com
Local arts organizations are important because they help develop a city’s culture by enriching the community and bringing people together. I am in support of art programs such as the drama classes and summer plays offered by the Auburn Parks and Recreations annually at the Auburn Avenue Theater. These plays help breed confidence in kids and are a great way for talented local artists to express their craft. In addition, things like public art helps reinforce civic pride. I enjoy seeing visual art in our surrounding parks and facilities. And I believe the work of the Auburn Arts Commission in beautifying the city is important.
Valley Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 1352:
“With the increase of low income/affordable housing in Auburn, there is a steady increase in the number of EMS calls that the VRFA responds to. How do you propose the VRFA deal with the increase in emergency and non-emergency calls for service to this population?”
The Valley Regional Fire Authority does a great job responding to a lot of calls. In just one week, this past August, they responded to 230 calls. To find strategies to deal with the high volume of calls, I look at the key community partnerships other cities have developed with their regional fire departments to reduce the number of calls. One key strategy others have used is to bring awareness to the public of what constitutes an emergency verses a non-emergency. The VRFA currently sends out a seasonal newsletter in the mail. It would be great if they could sponsor a “Know When to Call 911” campaign through the newsletter. Another solution is to put a greater emphasis on prevention. VRFA offers an annual family friendly event with several learning stations for home safety, basic first aid, emergency preparedness, cooking safety, and home fire escape planning. It would be great if these trainings could reach a wider audience and be offered additional times a year, so more people have an opportunity to learn these valuable tips.
Green River College President, Dr. Suzanne Johnson:
“The Mayor’s Task Force addressing “strong education, strong careers, and strong communities” is focused on building a “leak-proof” K-12 to College to Career pathway for Auburn students. The vision of this task force is “to build a community where all residents can successfully participate in the workforce, achieve economic stability, raise a family, and be a part of the fabric of Algona, Auburn, and Pacific. We will build a regional education to career pipeline that is a community-wide effort uniting education, cities, the business community, community-based organizations, and citizens where 100% of businesses choose to remain in the Cities and 100% of prospective employers choose our cities.” What will you do to build the necessary relationships and structures between city government, business, K-12 and Higher-Ed to support the task force and meet this goal?”
As a school board director and as one of the sponsors of this initiative in my role as a member of the Cities and Schools Forum, the work of this task force is extremely important to me. Working in collaboration with the Auburn School District, Green River College, the mayors, and city council members of Auburn, Algona and Pacific regularly over the past 2 years has been essential to formulate the mission and strategic direction for this initiative before we launched the task force. As an advocate for all things related to student learning, I am encouraged and want to see this task force continue to grow. I am continuing to meet the goal by expanding my network to build the necessary relationships and structures with local government and higher education. Recently I met with several school and government organizations with the same vision of fostering an environment that creates access for students to living wage jobs. Discussions have started on the need of building a steering committee and a regional council here in Washington state that would keep the momentum going on this important topic. If elected, I would like to represent Auburn in these discussions regarding our kids’ futures.
Auburn Area Schools:
“What is your vision for helping connect students in the local workforce?”
My vision for helping students connect with the local workforce is to work with employers to create an online talent pool where it’s easy to connect employers with students seeking employment. The talent pool could offer entry level positions, paid internships, and apprenticeships. I am a big advocate of internships because it helped launch my career into a government job here in Auburn many years ago. These types of opportunities give students an opportunity to grow into a family wage job and give employers access to a capable employee pool. It also keeps our talented students right here in our community. At the Auburn School District, we always encourage young students when they say they want to come back to teach at their school when they grow up or when Auburn students graduate college and come back to the district as first year teachers. I think it shows pride in our community.
Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce:
“What is your stance on a city-imposed B/O taxes and other related business only taxes?”
I would like to see more revenue come in for the City of Auburn through B/O tax on warehouses only. Specifically, for low wage jobs like forklift operators and others. Many of these warehouses have a small number of employees and are mostly owned by large corporations on the east coast. I don’t want to penalize our small business owners. They have been exempted from the B/O tax and should remain exempt.
Auburn Spiritual Leaders:
“What does it mean to promote the life and dignity of every human person?”
I believe we can promote life and dignity of people through kindness and showing compassion. And one we can do that is through giving to charitable organizations that are making a difference in the lives of others. Right now, I am leading a large annual giving campaign at my organization and I was reminded that some people are only one paycheck away from being homeless. Poverty does not exist in silence. People need to be heard. I want to be a voice for all our community.
Auburn Spiritual Leaders:
“Do you evaluate the treatment of the poor and vulnerable as the benchmark of how successful the city is?”
Yes, I do believe the treatment of the poor and vulnerable is a benchmark for how successful a city is. We need to help those that are hungry and/or in need of shelter. We have approximately 250 homeless people in Auburn and I am excited about the new facility Auburn is building to provide housing for them. I believe that a city is successful when they help their poor and vulnerable. And I want to continue to make Auburn a city that’s willing to lend a helping hand to those that need it.
Auburn High School Key Club:
“How can we support and empower homeless youth out of homelessness and what do you see the role of students/youth is in accomplishing this goal?”
We can support and empower homeless youth out of homelessness by offering them a continuum of care that is available through programs like NEXUS. It’s essential to help them stay in school, and assist with food, clothing and other needed services. The role that students can play in helping accomplishing this goal is two part. One, is to bring awareness of the issue of youth homelessness. There are a couple of established organizations where youth leaders in our community can talk to their peers and ask them to get engaged, such as the Auburn Youth Council and the Auburn City Jr. Council. The Auburn School Board is also starting a youth advisory council soon. Second, students can do community service projects. For example, in 2017 Auburn High School students took on a state grant project to build a tiny house for the homeless through their Career and Technical Education program. Engaging in these kinds of projects brings awareness about the issue but also helps students build and show compassion to their peers in need.
Auburn Food Bank:
“How will you support Auburn’s social safety net programs as a city council member?”
The City of Auburn already has several safety net programs available for residents that I will continue to support if elected. For one, the city subsidies utility bills for low income seniors. In addition, low income seniors living in their own homes, may apply to have their homes repaired for things like furnaces, hot water heaters, roof leaks and stairs/ramps. This keeps costs low, so seniors are able to stay in their own homes. Half of this funding comes from a Community Development and Block Grant, so as city council member, I would want to keep applying for this grant every year.
In addition, the city helps fund community service programs operated by charitable and faith-based organizations in our community. Some of those organizations are the Auburn Food Bank, Ray of Hope Shelter, Phoenix Rising Day Shelter, Pregnancy Aid, YMCA, YWCA battered women’s shelter, NEXUS and others. An organization that helps with domestic violence stated that for every 1 family they help, 57 families are turned away in South King County because the need is so great, and the resources are so few. So, I would like to see how we can help provide more support for these programs in an effort to help more families.
Auburn Food Bank:
“The city of Auburn provides 1% of its general fund dollars to human services programs. What is your position on the city’s use of that money?”
Fifty percent of the funding I talked about in the previous question regarding social safety net programs (approximately $500,000) is from the Federal Government’s Community Development and Block Grant program (CDBG). The City of Auburn has to match the funding every year. A large portion of that 1% of the general fund goes to meet the matching funds requirement to receive federal CDBG funding. Although, it would be ideal to increase the amount we have to help people to 1.5%, we need to first weigh which program best uses existing funds and find additional funding through other federal grants.
Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce:
“Define “Partnership” and give us an example of a partnership you think exemplifies your definition?”
When I think of partnership, I think of social value investing which are cross-sector collaborations between the private sector, public sector and non-profits. Social value investing brings entities together as partners working towards a common good. An example of a partnership here in Auburn is building and servicing the new housing facility for the homeless. My vision is for business owners, the city and non-profits to partner together as resources to provide the funding and needed services such as mental health treatment and other services to help end homelessness in our city.
Check out other candidate responses to these questions here. Other election questionnaires can be found in our Vote 2019 section.