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GINI Initiative
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Candidate Questionnaire

The Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion (GINI) initiative was created by the City of Gainesville and community organizations to address the barriers and challenges preventing Gainesville from becoming a more welcoming and inclusive community for its foreign-born neighbors. The following Questionnaires were based on discussions GINI has had with the immigrant community and Steering Committee members.

All candidates listed were sent GINI Questionnaires for the 2022 Primary and again for the 2022 General Election. Those who responded to the first questionnaire and passed to the next round received a “Follow-up” to their initial responses. These follow-ups appear after the initial question as an expansion or addition to their original answer.

Click on the Position you want information about and then click the Candidate's names to see their responses to the questionnaire.

Elected / General Election Candidates / Defeated in Primary          REP = Republican / DEM = Democrat / NOP = No Party Preference

Ed Bielarskie

Candidate Page
Financial Report

Declined to answer

Harvey Ward

Candidate Page
Financial Report

Understanding that immigrants make up over 10% of our city’s population and nearly 25% of its total population growth, what policies do you see as necessary to ensure immigrants are safe and civically engaged?

While not complete, certainly the language access programs that we have already begun at the City of Gainesville are an important first effort. Making documents and signage not only available but standard in more than just English is an ongoing effort, but we must move past that to be certain we provide a welcoming experience for as many city contact points as possible.

I am in regular discussion with our city’s charter office of Equity and Inclusion director to get updates on the hiring of a staff director to lead our immigrant services. When this position is hired I will continue to ask for regular updates from that person, and would expect leadership recommendations from them.

Given that immigrants paid over $22 million in state and local taxes, how do you believe we should recognize the contribution by this integral community?

The City of Gainesville should work to more actively engage immigrant groups by not only making participation in advisory boards and other opportunities possible, but by reaching out to ensure that they are represented in the greater mix of applicants for such opportunities.

The city commission works hard to attract and appoint a diverse and representative group of neighbors for each of our more than two dozen advisory boards, and we would apply the same effort and principles to an immigrant advisory board.

With over 10,000 Limited English Proficient immigrants in our community and another 10,000 with a hearing disability, how would you help ensure everyone has equitable access to city services such as housing and utilities?

As we make efforts to seek and improve accessibility, those efforts must be consistently re-evaluated for effectiveness, and we should seek input from the constituent groups we seek to serve.

Immigrants made up close to 10% of essential workers in both health care and food services at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. How would you help ensure that outreach efforts regarding public health and resources by the City reach immigrant communities?

Traditionally these sorts of services were the purview of the state or the county, but we learned during the adjustments to the pandemic that the city also has a role. We know that without effective outreach to the entire community - including groups that have often been left in the shadows - public health cannot be effectively protected. As we have developed the Community Resource Paramedicine program to deliver medical services such as covid testing and vaccination, we have learned that it will be more effective with a team of certified interpreters within the service (as we already have at GPD).

Again, the first priority is attracting and hiring an excellent director of immigrant services. Once hired, it will be paramount to be certain that person is supported with the resources they need. I prefer to listen to recommendations from that staff professional as well as from a potential advisory board rather than offering random ideas, as I am by no means a subject matter expert.

Are you familiar with the Human Rights Coalition’s Community ID? How would you help to normalize the acceptance of this identification across County services?

Perhaps the best way to help normalize the Community ID is to become directly involved. My family and I sought out Community IDs several years ago and continue to use them. The city of Gainesville has consistently pushed for all departments of the city to recognize the Community ID, but we can directly advocate for Alachua County and the school system to do the same.

My family and I have community IDs from the HRC, and I will continue to urge my commission colleagues and staff to obtain and use those IDs as well. I will also urge city departments to be familiar with the program and to recommend its use to other entities in our community.

Both the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Commission recently voted to create an immigrant liaison position to help facilitate communication with and connect the immigrant community to municipal government. How will you support this position at the city-level and what do you hope to see achieved by this role?

At the city I will continue to support funding for the immigrant liaison position. We are unlikely to achieve the results described above without it being someone’s job to keep the programs moving forward. At some point I hope these programs will become second-nature for our organization, but we are a long way from that point. Even then we will continue to have a need for a coordinating position.

I will support funding for these programs as an ongoing part of the city’s general fund budget.

I will continue to be an advocate for all our neighbors. As I’ve recently told several media outlets, no matter who you are, who you love or where you’ve come to Gainesville from, I’m glad you are here and consider it my responsibility to make a place for you.

David Arreola

Understanding that immigrants make up over 10% of our city’s population and nearly 25% of its total population growth, what policies do you see as necessary to ensure immigrants are safe and civically engaged?

We must ensure all of our immigrant neighbor’s needs are considered in public policy formation. Language inclusion and access to all city of Gainesville services is extremely important. I also want Gainesville to fund immigrant community engagement so we may have direct lines of communication with our foreign born neighbors. As mayor I want the city to pursue an office of immigration to assist families moving to Gainesville with setting up their everyday needs (i.e. where they can buy groceries, set up financial banking, etc.).

Given that immigrants paid over $22 million in state and local taxes, how do you believe we should recognize the contribution by this integral community?

We must continue to celebrate our immigrant communities with events, recognitions, and proclamations. We must also engage more with our immigrant business community so that we can help their business grow. We want the $22 Million tax base contribution to increase which is why it is so important to fund the GINI language access program because it will allow more immigrant neighbors to access economic opportunity.

With over 10,000 Limited English Proficient immigrants in our community and another 10,000 with a hearing disability, how would you help ensure everyone has equitable access to city services such as housing and utilities?

GINI is creating the foundation of a powerful immigrant coalition to raise needs to the local governments so we can address them. I intend to fully fund in perpetuity language access programs including people with hearing disabilities. As a policy we will focus on city services such as housing and utilities access. Nobody should struggle to have adequate housing or utility services because of a language barrier.

Immigrants made up close to 10% of essential workers in both health care and food services at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. How would you help ensure that outreach efforts regarding public health and resources by the City reach immigrant communities?

In 2020 I participated in a bilingual english camp; spanish vaccine information panel with community leaders and Dr. Michael Lauzardo. I understand how important public health messaging is particularly for the immigrant community. I would continue to work collaboratively with the Alachua County Health Dept, UF Health, and the Alachua County Health Care Safety Net collaborative, to ensure we are reaching out immigrant communities with access to health care resources in Gainesville.

Are you familiar with the Human Rights Coalition’s Community ID? How would you help to normalize the acceptance of this identification across County services?

Yes, in 2017 I was the first commissioner to bring this idea after the HRC and Madres Sin Fronteras brought the idea to my office. I have been a champion of the Community ID program from the beginning and will always be. I have my own ID and as mayor I will continue to normalize asking other local governments and businesses to utilize and accept this form of ID.

Both the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Commission recently voted to create an immigrant liaison position to help facilitate communication with and connect the immigrant community to municipal government. How will you support this position at the city-level and what do you hope to see achieved by this role?

I will ask my staff to provide me with regular updates so that I can empower this liaison in their work. I would ask my management to set up a liaison role that spends lots of time in the community, sharing resources information, and bringing back resource requests from the immigrant community. I also want this liaison to help grow awareness and acceptance of the Community ID program. Eventually this position will fit into a future office of immigrantion where they will have additional staff to handle resource requests and community engagement with our immigrant neighbors.

Ansaun J. Fisher

Declined to answer

Gary Gordon

Understanding that immigrants make up over 10% of our city’s population and nearly 25% of its total population growth, what policies do you see as necessary to ensure immigrants are safe and civically engaged?

Our public safety efforts need to address the public safety needs of all citizens without discrimination. Fighting discrimination is still a challenge and will require making sure city employees are properly trained to ensure everyone is treated equally. If elected I intend to pursue restoring the citizen advisory committee system that used to exist when I previously served, and that system creates an opportunity for a variety of people to serve the city; certainly immigrants along with everyone else will be invited.

Given that immigrants paid over $22 million in state and local taxes, how do you believe we should recognize the contribution by this integral community?

I’m not sure what you’re looking for here.

With over 10,000 Limited English Proficient immigrants in our community and another 10,000 with a hearing disability, how would you help ensure everyone has equitable access to city services such as housing and utilities?

People will have to be hired, to the extent they aren’t already, to speak various languages; some pamphlets etc. might have to be published in more than just English. The UF may be of some assistance depending on what programs they have. Regarding hearing disability, the city has the responsibility to supply hearing assistance devices (I think they already do this); but I don’t think there is a current function of sign language or closed captioning and that will have to be investigated, especially for public meetings.

Immigrants made up close to 10% of essential workers in both health care and food services at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. How would you help ensure that outreach efforts regarding public health and resources by the City reach immigrant communities?

In my experience, reaching the population at large or any segment of the population is and always has been a challenge that this city and other cities rarely meet. How do you communicate with everyone? Mail? Email? TV and radio advertising? Twitter? Facebook? Notices in utility bills? It’s not just a challenge in terms of reaching immigrant communities, it’s an overall challenge. I’d appreciate any ideas you have.

Are you familiar with the Human Rights Coalition’s Community ID? How would you help to normalize the acceptance of this identification across County services?

The City doesn’t run the County, so the best the City can do is to request the County to recognize this id. This question is better directed to the County government.

Both the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Commission recently voted to create an immigrant liaison position to help facilitate communication with and connect the immigrant community to municipal government. How will you support this position at the city-level and what do you hope to see achieved by this role?

Ideally better communication will be achieved with this.

Gabriel Hillel

Understanding that immigrants make up over 10% of our city’s population and nearly 25% of its total population growth, what policies do you see as necessary to ensure immigrants are safe and civically engaged?

I am a first generation gringo child of Jewish parents who fled Christian Europe. I have no idea why anyone but the Alachua County Democratic Executive Committee (ACDEC) and their loyal members think I or the City has any obligation to keep immigrants “civically engaged.” I would support a policy of making sure that whatever services are provided to those like me who are severely hard of hearing or deaf are provided to immigrants for whom English is a language barrier.

Given that immigrants paid over $22 million in state and local taxes, how do you believe we should recognize the contribution by this integral community?

They should be given the same recognition other taxpayers get.

With over 10,000 Limited English Proficient immigrants in our community and another 10,000 with a hearing disability, how would you help ensure everyone has equitable access to city services such as housing and utilities?

Like court reporters, translators should be provided on call at public expense.

Immigrants made up close to 10% of essential workers in both health care and food services at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. How would you help ensure that outreach efforts regarding public health and resources by the City reach immigrant communities?

Except for the noted language barrier, the treatment should be no different. We should be as conscious of that impediment as we are with those in the black community whose members may require code switching to be fully understood.

Are you familiar with the Human Rights Coalition’s Community ID? How would you help to normalize the acceptance of this identification across County services?

Draft a policy and circulate a memo to all relevant staff.

Both the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Commission recently voted to create an immigrant liaison position to help facilitate communication with and connect the immigrant community to municipal government. How will you support this position at the city-level and what do you hope to see achieved by this role?

This last question says it all. I would ask the incumbents Harvey Ward and David Arreola what exactly they did to respond. The record of the incumbents and what they did is more important by far than the answers you want from all of us equally. Is it true, Ethan, that Harvey needs strings to manipulate you, or is it done in the style of the Muppets?

Adam Rosenthal

Declined to answer

Donald E. Shepard Sr.

Declined to answer

July Thomas

Declined to answer