Three Alliance City Council Candidates vying for election took time to respond to a questionnaire issued by the Alliance Times-Herald. One of these candidates will be seated on the Alliance City Council following the primary election on May 14, 2024. The following are their answers to the questionnaire. (Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by their last name. All candidates were invited to provide a photo of themselves as well.):
Tacy Liptack
1: What, in your view, is Alliance’s greatest strength and how do you hope to build upon it?
Alliance greatest strength is small town values and a strong sense of community. I support these values and I would build on this premise by listening to the citizens and working to address their concerns.
2: If elected to City Council, what are three goals you hope to accomplish?
I would work to restore better communication, mutual cooperation and respect between the City of Alliance and Box Butte County officials.
I support reducing the number of days that fireworks can be discharged in the City of Alliance.
I would strive for fiscal responsibility and accountability to you, the citizen, on the use of taxpayer dollars.
3: What changes would you like to see within the City of Alliance within the next five years?
Need to stabilize all city department head positions, work with department employees and citizens to help the city become fully staffed.
I encourage and support City Council Members Meeting with city department heads to gauge their concerns with regard to staffing shortages, budget shortfalls and capital improvement plans.
Increase accountability regarding the lack of code enforcement in the community. Abandoned and blighted commercial and residential properties have been stagnant eyesores for decades. Together we need to make all city entrance/main roadways more appealing.
4: From your perspective, what is the greatest issue/challenge facing Alliance today, and how do you plan to address it?
A crisis in leadership resulting in staff shortages and employee turnover in multiple city departments. The most severe staff shortages have occurred in the law enforcement department and the result is a huge decline in public safety. The department is no longer pro-active policing it is reactive. Together work to solve this by providing support to the police chief and command staff by increasing efforts to recruit adequate levels of manpower.
5: What are your qualifications/background that you would draw on to better serve the citizens?
I was born and raised in Alliance and after high school graduation I attended business school in Omaha, NE.
I was employed for 21 years as the Executive Secretary for the Alliance Police Department and I retired from Public Service in December 2021. I am familiar with all aspects of city government procedures. I have extensive knowledge of law enforcement practices and procedures. During my years of service with the police department I was responsible for grant writing and asset management, budgets, payroll, and capital improvements. I maintained master database records to ensure accuracy and managed all internal affairs correspondence. I served as the Recording Secretary for the Police Citizen Advisory Board and the E911 Board.
In 2006, I assumed additional duties of E911 Coordinator. I managed annual grant funding requests and annual audit statistical reports. I was the Project Manager for numerous large scale projects including: E911 upgrades, Text to 911 Services, Zuercher hardware/software law enforcement upgrades.
I received the following training and/or certificates: Grant Writing, Telecommunications Dispatcher, EMD/AED, NCIC and NLETS. I received the Employee of the Year Award, APD—Outstanding Service of the Year Excellence Award, City of Alliance—20 year Service Pin and Law Enforcement Distinguished Service Award.
I would appreciate the opportunity to serve the citizens of Alliance as your City Council representative.
Brett Martin
1: What, in your view, is Alliance’s greatest strength and how do you hope to build upon it?
1. Alliance’s greatest strength is definitely its people. I grew up in Arizona, but ever since I married a midwesterner (my wife of 22 years is from Nebraska) I’ve been consistently impressed with the cordiality, intelligence, and self possessed nature of most other midwesterners. Long ago I decided that they are some of the most helpful, productive, and down to earth people around. Alliance is brimming with ambitious, hard working, good people. And that is a recipe for achieving anything we decide we can do.
2: If elected to City Council, what are three goals you hope to accomplish?
2. My main three goals would be thus:
a. I’ll do all I can with my peers on the council to ensure the council is sensitive to the community’s needs and requests. I think nothing is less energizing to a community than the perception of tone deaf or self interested leadership.
b. I will pursue business and infrastructure goals for the community that will seek to invest in the human capital that we have here. With the diaspora of people leaving more crowded, less well run cities, Alliance could be on the cusp of courting those who are looking for a better destination to raise their families and enjoy their freedoms. Alliance is quaint and quiet, which is what many are beginning to look for, and with the right articulation and strategy, we could leverage that state to attract business interests and provide the impetus for more infrastructure and community investment.
c.In that same vein, I would seek new ways to tell Alliance’s story, both to its residents and to the communities outside of Alliance. When I studied for my library science degree at Indiana University, I learned to better appreciate the power of a well told story. I think stories hold the key to unlocking people’s potential, inspiring improvement, and changing critical perspectives for the better. Alliance has much to tell, and I would like to help tell it.
3: What changes would you like to see within the City of Alliance within the next five years?
3. I’d like to see a greater variety of businesses represented in Alliance, which would provide more variety and living convenience for its residents. I would also like to see more overall investment in our economy and infrastructure, both from internal and external sources
4: From your perspective, what is the greatest issue/challenge facing Alliance today, and how do you plan to address it?
4. From my perspective, the greatest challenge facing Alliance right now is a lack of overarching community throughout it. There are cliques and subcultures, but very little evidence of a unifying Alliance identity. Just because the populace is diverse, doesn’t mean they can’t be unified. The city’s residents should have plenty of opportunities to interact and get to know each other, possibly around stories. And food. Food is a wonderful unifier!
5: What are your qualifications/background that you would draw on to better serve the citizens?
5. My first qualification is a desire to serve the people of Alliance, to truly pursue their benefit and overall prosperity. But I’m also educated, both in academia and in real life skills. I have both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, but also 22 years of military service, a current CDL, and I’m a train conductor as well. I’ve been to a dozen countries, speak two foreign languages, and have worked hard my entire life. My background lends a larger perspective that helps me see beyond what we as a community are today to what we could become in the future.
Russell Saito
1: What, in your view, is Alliance’s greatest strength and how do you hope to build upon it?
• Community family connections and a generally safe environment
• Having more community events that are more family centered. Family Fun Night was a fun time which was cancelled last year.
2: If elected to City Council, what are three goals you hope to accomplish?
• The need for affordable housing
• We need to attract more business that meet the needs of our community
• We need more activities for our youth. The bowling alley closes during the summer. It would be nice to have an Octoball court at our city park. It would be inexpensive to build which could be done with volunteers and donations so it wouldn’t cost the City to construct, a Miniature Golf Course would be great! If we communicate this need to the community to get ideas, I’m sure we can get a great response of ideas that we have never thought about before.
• I would like to improve the appearance (aesthetically) of our town. Community members can show more pride in taking care of their own lawns better and businesses can make their store fronts more attractive. We need to eliminate trash that lies around with no one stopping to pick them up. If everyone does their part, we can accomplish this. The more people who take care of their own properties, it will encourage others to keep up!
3: What changes would you like to see within the City of Alliance within the next five years?
• Encourage showing more pride in our (the city’s) appearance (asthetics)
• Better care of our streets and sidewalk including snow removal. Citizens have to walk through a pile of snow to approach businesses and when it starts to melt, their feet get wet and cold, and turns into ice. Many have slipped and fallen and gotten injured by poor snow removal.
• Cut wasteful spending. We need to a better job with how tax payer’s dollars are being spent
• Hold civil servant accountable to the community they serve by ensuring transparency, allowing citizens to express their concerns and have a willingness to reconsider decisions that were made without the input of the community when concerns are expressed.
4: From your perspective, what is the greatest issue/challenge facing Alliance today, and how do you plan to address it?
• There is an alarming amount of Drug and Alcohol, Child Abuse and domestic violence. We need to brainstorm to address this problem.
• Again, providing clean entertainment and encouraging positive moral values will help diminish these problems.
5: What are your qualifications/background that you would draw on to better serve the citizens?
• I’ve been on many boards, successfully ran my operated a floral business in Hawaii with no capital to start it.
• Opened and operated a state park in Hawaii for four years with no Capital.
• Served as President and currently Vice-President for the Alliance Christian Ministerial Association.
• Chairman of Alliance Young Life.
• Helping with the need of our community.
• Volunteer with RSVP