Part 2: Here are four of the seven candidates running for mayor of Pocatello

EDITOR’S NOTE: EastIdahoNews.com will be publishing the responses to candidate questionnaires every day through the municipal election on Nov. 4. Read them all here.

POCATELLO — Seven candidates are running for mayor of Pocatello this year.

The seven candidates are incumbent Mayor Brian Blad, Steve Brown, Greg Cates, Mark Dahlquist, Nate Kessel, Alana Leonhardy and Carta Sierra “Idaho Law/Idaho Lorax.”

To learn more about the candidate’s platform, EastIdahoNews.com sent the same eight questions to each candidate. Their responses, listed below, were required to be 250 words or less, and were only edited for minor punctuation, grammar and length.

Because there are so many candidates running for this position, EastIdahoNews.com has decided to split their election questionnaire responses into two stories, with three candidates in the first article and four in the second. This story will include the answers to our questions Blad, Brown, Kessel and Sierra.

RELATED | Part 1: Here are three of the seven candidates running for Mayor of Pocatello

Elections are on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

QUESTIONS:

Tell us about yourself — include information about your family, career, education, volunteer work and any prior experience in public office.

Blad: I have been married to my wife for 35 years. We have four children five grandchildren. Before getting into politics I was a small business owner. I had businesses in Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, and Logan Utah. I also traveled around the North America, training other small business owners how to be energy, efficient and more successful in their business. I served on a national nonprofit Board of Directors for 18 years years serving as the chair for six years and as the vice chair of the organization for two years before that. I also served throughout the community with different youth groups. I volunteered my time in Fort Hall delivering Christmas gifts at Christmas time and helping with their Easter egg hunt for over 15 years.

Brown: My career has centered on service, problem-solving, and building coalitions that actually get results for people.

From 2002–2014 I served as Regional Director for members of congress in Southeastern Idaho, helping veterans secure earned benefits, seniors resolve Social Security and Medicare roadblocks, and local governments navigate federal agencies. I owned consulting company for over 25 years, giving me a front-row seat to the pressures families and employers face. Most recently I led a district office for the U.S. Small Business Administration, partnering with lenders and community groups to expand access to capital, training, and disaster help. We also oversaw the government contraction program for Alaska Native Corporations. I’ve served our community in elected office on the Pocatello City Council and as a Bannock County Commissioner. In both roles I focused on fiscal responsibility, transparency, and regional cooperation, because taxpayers deserve value for every dollar. I’ve managed teams, balancing budgets, and working through tough issues in the open. Along the way I’ve volunteered through my church and community efforts, mentored entrepreneurs, and supported veterans’ recognition.

I’m running for mayor to put that experience to work restoring trust, improving core services, and growing good jobs through a collaborative, regional, common-sense approach. Pocatello deserves a city hall that listens, tells the truth, and delivers results and that’s the standard I’ll bring every day.

Kessel: I moved to Pocatello 25 years ago from Omaha, Nebraska, and I have loved this place ever since. I live here with my parents and sister. Many people know Kim Kessel from SEICU, this is my mother. I find this place perfect as it offers endless activities and some of the best people I have ever encountered. I graduated Highland High School in 2011. My hobbies include everything from boarding our local gem, Pebble Creek, down to scuba diving the deep. I love cars, trucks, motorcycles, and also I’m huge into camping, fishing, and hunting. I have coached baseball in little league for the city for a few years and I really enjoy being a part of the team to make our city the best in Idaho. I would love to make Pocatello even better,

-Nate Kessel Pocatello Mayor 2025.

Sierra: A gifted, multi-disciplined scientist, active Environmentalist, writer, publisher, journalist, videographer, paralegal, Nuclear Health Physicist, and cancer pathways expert.

In addition, a consultant and advisor in a multitude of environmental projects. including the Cause and destruction of marine reefs by Bleaching! Marine Turtle protection, Cetacean mammal protection, the Great Atlantic Soylent Green sargassum project, solution to the invasive Caribbean Lion Fish Project, solution provider to the “Poisoning of America” to the proven cancer-causing Radioactive Fertilizer production of cancer -causing foods globally.

Presently, working with western Sovereign Tribal Nations for the Cease and Desist of the Production, Use, and Distribution of Radioactive Fertilizers in the USA — (Florida Idaho, Morocco, and Jordan). Hence, my full support for Universal Health Care, and the more than 72 trillion possible cancers originating from ingestion of these foods and food products —Poisoning of America. Education: 17+ institutions of Higher education

Because of the sensitivity and strategic interest, of my expertise I gave been and am a Protected person.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

Sierra: Saving millions of children and citizens, around the globe. Primarily from the scourge of trillion of possible cancers created by a greedy, mostly uncontrolled military Industrial Complex, and their puppet politicians poisoning not only America, but throughout the world.

As a reminder: it. It is indeed heinous to kill children, but it is much mire heinous to kill you own. This is your dilemma: Stop the Poisoning of America, or face the fact that you complacency is an act of not only denial, but felony misprision to the criminal acts of Criminal Child Abuse, Criminal Child Neglect, Criminal Child Endangerment amongst others.

I have provided a gift to your future through your children. For those that know me have heard me often repeat this Statement of Reality: I am not here to save you. I have come to help you save yourselves and your future. For I am a person of helping my planet and the life it shares. I have long time been know and coined the phrase: Planet Patriot. For that is what I am.

Blad: my proudest personal accomplishments without a doubt is being a father to for incredible kids and a husband to a beautiful wife.

There are a couple of things I am very proud of as the mayor of Pocatello. When I took office, the City Of pocatello was in financial ruin. We had no reserve accounts we were borrowing money to make payroll four months out of the year. When I realize that we set up reserve accounts for every fund we have. We knew I have three months reserve for every fund. I accomplished all of this by using my expertise in budgeting. I was able to use existing dollars instead of asking for more taxes. A couple other big accomplishments would be creating connection east and west in our community with the south Valley connector on the south end of town and Northgate on the north end of town. I am also very proud to say we have added two waterslides at our Aquatic center, five Pickleball courts, skate park, a number of new play ground equipment. As well as. Working with the housing, coalition, mental health coalition, pulling the community together to help and homelessness. We now have warming shelters and cooling shelters. I am excited about starting Idaho’s only honor flight for our veterans. This is only a few of the things I am very proud of.

Brown: My proudest accomplishment is turning public service into real outcomes for people.

As a Regional Director for members of Congress, I spent years fixing problems one case at a time: helping veterans secure long-delayed VA benefits or replacement medals; cutting through Medicare and Social Security snarls for seniors; and helping local governments navigate federal agencies so projects could move forward. Nothing compares to watching a veteran receive the medals he earned, or a widow finally get the benefits she was entitled to, that’s why I do this work.
In elected office, as a Pocatello City Council member and Bannock County Commissioner, I’m proudest of pushing for fiscal discipline and transparency, even when it meant hard conversations.

On a personal level, I’m most proud of 34 years of marriage to my wife, Julie, raising our family, and trying to live our values every day.
Titles come and go but what lasts is trust. Earning that trust, by listening, telling the truth, owning mistakes and delivering results, is the accomplishment I value most and the standard I’ll bring as mayor.

Kessel: Stepping up and running for Mayor regardless of what people think. If you want change, be the change you want to see. I want to work for you. My proudest accomplishment would be working for you as mayor and fixing the damage our leadership has done to our city and preventing further damage from these other candidates, who without a doubt, are only in it to be Mayor, not work for you.

Why are you seeking political office within your community? Briefly explain your political platform.

Kessel: I watched our leadership give themselves multiple raises, silence the community, and ignore all questions at the same time. I have watched our local schools struggle to rebuild. I have watched our students go without required supplies due to “shortages”. I have grown tired of watching this nonsense and I plan to make a change if elected. I decided that if you want there to be change, be the change you want to see. I’m running as a Republican Candidate. The biggest difference between other candidates and myself, I recognize reality. My brand of leadership is the bold truth. It wont always make you happy, it wont always be what you want to hear, but I will always tell the worst truth over the best lie. I will take responsibility and always be transparent unlike current leadership . No more backroom deals. Locals need to know what’s happening before it happens and I aim to do just that. Another top reason I’m running is because if I cant buy a house, neither can other locals. These absurd property taxes and other various tax hikes must be put to a stop. Locals, myself included, have had to nearly move out of Pocatello due to skyrocketing rent and housing prices. This issue cannot be put on the backburner any longer. Current leadership just thinks tax hikes will pay for everything. With me in office, that way of thinking is history.

Sierra: To save the children. Their innocence is independent of your life choices, as is the planet that so often is pillaged by the 7 Sins of our slowly evolving species.

We will do our part to save Life, all life, independent of political outcomes. For I am like no other candidate, I am always the Green & Free & Constitutional Independent candidate. It is up to you to choose life, and not the death of all we have cherished.

Blad: I am seeking this office because it is the office I currently hold. I have proven as the mayor to bring the community together on both sides of the aisle. Though this is a non-partisan position I have worked very hard to keep it non-partisan and give a voice to every citizen in our community. I will never forget when one of the Citizens in Pocatello told me the thing they like most about me as I have been very good at pulling people together to work for one common goal. I can honestly say over the years as being your mayor, I have always considered what is best for Pocatello in any decision-making I have made.

Brown: I’m running for mayor to replace the drama with better outcomes. Pocatello deserves a City Hall that listens, tells the truth, and delivers core services well. Every day, for every neighborhood. My plan is simple and focused on results:

1. Trust & service. Launch a 90-day leadership and employee-trust program, with an Employee Roundtable and “Frontline Fridays” where leaders work alongside crews. Stand up a one-stop help desk and publish on-time, on-budget, and response-time scorecards.

2. Fiscal discipline & transparency. Open the books with a plain-language, searchable budget database, stop using one-time money for ongoing costs and recalibrate services to their core purpose.

3. Affordability and tax relief. Partner with the county assessor to create a “Tax Relief Help Desk” to enroll seniors, disabled residents, and eligible homeowners in qualified programs. Drive efficiencies through shared-service agreements and implement a department return and report process for tighter cost controls.

4. Effective Development. Create the Development Coordinator Program focused on unified economic development, permit processing and public service coordination. Leverage local educational and vocational programs with economic development opportunities to build career pipelines for our kids to stay “home”.

5. Jobs & growth that last. Build a regional partnership with Chubbuck, Bannock County, ISU, the State of Idaho, the Shoshone/Bannock Tribes and industry. Help existing small businesses grow with a focused marketing/visibility program.
Less drama, more delivery.

That’s the standard I’ll bring and the culture I’ll lead.

What are the greatest challenges facing people in your community? What is your plan to meet and overcome those challenges?

Brown: Pocatello’s biggest challenges are affordability, trust in local government, and a sluggish business climate.
Trust & Transparency: We will establish the “Pulse of Pocatello” community real-time survey, train staff with a “Service with Purpose” focus and build a stronger two-way communication system between city hall and residents.

Government Collaboration: Build a shared regional vision for cooperation over competition and explore cooperative agreements for shared services. Form a regional problem-solving team of elected officials and launch the “One Community” initiative to shift the focus to a broader unified vision.
Public Safety: Rebuild respect and trust with a community engagement initiative with input from a newly formed Citizen Advisory Panel. Hold an annual community public safety innovation summit and educate citizens about updated online and in-person crisis resources.
Unified Community Services: We will form the Pocatello Cares Council to coordinate nonprofits and service providers. Under their direction, we will build the Unified Services Matrix which is a map of our community resources to identify overlapping services and eliminate program gaps. With this information, we will create a Resources Navigation Program to connect volunteers with those most in need.

These are a few ways we can lower costs, raise trust, and make Pocatello work for everyone.

Kessel: A major issue I have my eye on is those ever increasing property tax rates and it is one of my top priorities. Not to mention all the other tax hikes our city keeps thinking we want to pay. Lowering taxes while improving spending is a delicate balance that can lead to a stronger economy and better quality of life for citizens. By reducing the tax burden on individuals and businesses, we can stimulate economic growth, encourage investment, and create more job opportunities. At the same time, focusing on efficient and effective spending can ensure that public resources are utilized wisely, benefitting society as a whole. This is a must for positive expansion. We absolutely cannot keep bringing in new business until we have adequate and enough affordable housing. Striking this balance re-quires careful planning and sound fiscal policies to promote prosperity and well-being for everyone. Another great challenge is the relationship with our local school. It has been a rocky road and current leadership does not see the importance of our local schools. That is why if elected, I will donate $10,000 per year, ever year I remain in office, $40,000 over 1 term in office. straight to our local schools. This will be used exclusively for supplies, meals, and any other additional learning materials they may need. Every single child (K-12) deserves to have access to every tool nessarary to maximize their learning potential.

Sierra: Veritas liberabit vos — Truth Shall Set You Free!

For too long people old and new have lived here in Eastern Idaho with the heavy burden of denial and helplessness. Fact: We are the Most Radioactive City on the World where citizens and children live, play, work, attend schools, and universities as they try to follow people who hide, deny, lie, and destroy so many lives. Without real clean-up, we can never escape the true forever chemicals which will plague our community for thousands of years. Just pick any of the 7 deadly 7 Sins: pride, greed, envy, sloth, wrath, and even gluttony as one gulps down the Radioactive Foods as the foremost pathway of delivery of the decades proven calcium-following cancer-causing uranium materials throughout your body. Bon Appetit.

INEL are the good safety protocol using people.

Blad: As I visited with a number of people throughout our community, there seems to be too common challenges that continue to rise to the top. One is Housing The second is the cost of childcare. As I look at both of these, it seems to me the thing we need to do is put more money in people‘s hands. So I have focused on childcare knowing there is very little I can do about the cost of housing. With that in mind, how can we help with childcare. What I have done is put together small committee to focus on childcare. We have come up with a pilot program. That is a Tri-share model. The intent with this is to work with child care providers. With 1/3 being paid by the public sector, 1/3 being paid by the employee and 1/3 being paid by the employer. This pilot program will definitely help young families having more money to pay for housing. For parents, it gives them the ability to access high-quality childcare. For the private sector, it helps with recruitment and retention of good employees with a cost savings on any expense to retrain new employees. For the public, there is a direct impact on both economic stability and workforce development. We have far too many people making a difficult choice of leaving the workforce to compensate for the lack of resources for childcare.

How will you best represent the views of your constituents – even those with differing political views? How will you communicate directly with constituents?

Blad: I think I have to represent all views of the citizens of Pocatello over the last 16 years. I have brought community members together where we have been able to find common ground to move forward together. I have an open door policy where any community member can come in and visit with me. The difficult thing with an open door policy is I have meetings and often times my schedule is booked out 3 to 4 months ahead. I have spent countless hours talking face-to-face with people in the grocery stores while at dinner with my family, returning phone calls, and emails. The line of communication has been wide opened and will continue to be wide open. I recognize and have been very available to any citizen throughout our community. I will continue to do so. I am at every community event that I am invited to. I have and will continue to go meet with different groups of people that have differing views or would like me as their mayor to come and visit with them directly. I will continue to always be available.

Brown: I’ll represent everyone by leading with listening, facts, and respect. My rule is simple: disagree without being disagreeable. Decisions will be made in public with clear reasons tied to data and the city’s goals.

Community engagement:
• Monthly town halls in each area of the city, plus quarterly regional forums with elected officials from Chubbuck and Bannock County.
• Office Hours at libraries and schools so people don’t have to come to city hall to be heard.
• A Resident Advisory Council that reflects diverse views (neighborhoods, small business, labor, ISU/SD25, youth, seniors, veterans, and tribal partners), rotating membership, and published recommendations.
• A quarterly community survey with results and responses posted reporting what we heard, what we’re doing.
City Hall Feedback:
• A plain-language weekly update (email, Facebook, Instagram, website) on decisions, projects, and upcoming meetings.
• On-time, on-budget, and response-time scorecards so you can see if we’re delivering.
• A public “decision memo” after major votes explaining options considered, costs, and input received.
Pocatello deserves a mayor who listens first, communicates clearly, and acts fairly… especially when we disagree.

Kessel: Although I run as republican, I like select ideas from every party regardless of political affiliation. I would run as a Pocatelloan but that was not one of the choices. At the local level, party affiliation means nothing to me. I do not like the labels as this forces people to assume you operate a certain way. I disagree with labels. I will communicate by having open town hall meetings. Your views are my guide to running this city how you want it to be ran. Current leadership forces you sign up before meetings to speak, I strongly disagree with the current way things are ran. You may have questions during the meeteing and they refuse to hear you. If elected, any local may ask questions when they feel prompted, no more hiding behind sign up sheets. Open town hall meetings give all locals the chance to be heard, not just when they sign up.

Sierra: This is relatively simple: Most people want to live. They want their children to live!

The children are their future!

They need safe, healthy, educational and non-nuclear contaminated environments of their hones and schools. They need to feel secure, not have to be the child that reports the processed uranium materials on their school to the teachers.

As a publisher, we have always published the Untold Stories. It’s a sad state of affairs when so many people and corporations feel they must maintain misinformation and disinformation to propagate propaganda for selfish profit and at the cost of our children.

What parts of the city budget could use more funding? Where are places in the budget where cuts could be made?

Sierra: Uranium Materials Clean-up!

Pocatello and many other eastern Idaho communities, both large and small, have squandered the many $billions that were available for clean up. I have been known as the $50 Million candidate for US Senate and Congress. But alas, the voters continued to vote for those that commit willful manslaughter.
We’ve done our part, the voters have yet to show their willingness to promote life.

Life always is first! Then maybe we can discuss liberty, and then the pursuit of Happiness.

Want to save money? Then stop the denial, stop lying with propaganda that this Pocatello-Cubbuck valley is a great place to live. It could of been, but you best know where your house lies, and what it is built upon.

Blad: I think every part of the budget could use more funding. We have continued over the past years to ask people to do more with less. We have cap the operations budgets flat for as long as we could. The reality is the cost of everything has gone up so we have increased the operation budgets by a few percentage points. We continue to look for places where we could make budget cuts, and I honestly am not certain where we could find money to do so. The cost of insurance has increased dramatically and that is where most of any increases we ask for goes to pay insurance cost

Brown: City budgets should reflect first things first. In Pocatello, the majority of property-tax revenue funds police and fire operations. Public safety is essential, large, across-the-board cuts there would harm response times and neighborhoods. We must find efficiencies but we can’t cut our way to prosperity. The long-term answer is a planned, strategic development plan that broadens the tax base so each household pays less of the load.

Where we should invest:
• Public safety staffing & training and a co-responder model to reduce repeat calls.
• Prioritize preventive maintenance
• Permitting & customer service to make investing in Pocatello fast and predictable.
• IT reliability and infrastructure.
Where to reprioritize:
• Needs assessment and an audit of all external services. Keep what drives outcomes and sunset the rest.
• Explore duplication reduction with shared-service agreements with Chubbuck and Bannock County.
• Right-size vacancies and move dollars to frontline roles.
• Stop one-time money and savings usage for ongoing costs.

In short, we need to protect core services, spend where it saves, cut what doesn’t work and grow a broader tax base through smart infill, corridor reinvestment, and business expansion so we lower the burden over time.

Kessel: I think just about every part of the city needs more budget. I will stamp out all these self raises and that will gives us more funding for what is important, such as non-profit organizations. I have requested paperwork and my inquiries have gone unanswered. We need to clean up the reckless spending and focus on a more self sufficient local government. I think with more access to documents and much more transparency, we can work together to focus on getting the spending under control. I have watched the city blow through millions in 1 night on airport equipment. With some common sense and planning, we should be able to get Pocatello back on track. Blad is running us face first into the ground. Imagine how many other things money is dumped in and wasted on, of course, the expense reports are not viewable and itemized reports are a pipedream. Not with a real leader. I will gladly show you every damn thing money is spent on if you want to know. You pay for it, you need to know…. Change is long overdue. He is decimating our city now with his carelessness and a council that questions nothing. Let’s remind the city who pays the bills. I hear you, I see you, I’m with you. I give you my word, I will absolutely obliterate this extremely poor spending spree the city is on.

What parts of Pocatello are in the best position for future development? What kind of development would you want to see come to those areas and what would you do to encourage or facilitate it?

Kessel: I would absolutely love to see Pocatello expand, North, South, East, and West. But before we jump to expansion and bringing in business, we have to get our housing situation under control. This is a major problem that never gets addressed. The city loves to brag and take credit for businesses they bring in, but they keep their mouth shut when that business closes. It is a repeating cycle. We cannot continue to plan on all this future development until we have adequate and enough affordable housing to do so. If we build a roof without a good foundation, our house will collapse, as many businesses have that Blad loves to brag about. Until we have enough adequate housing, we need to stop bringing in businesses just to fail them. After that is under control and positive expansion can take place, we can work on getting more business to come to our town. Until we do that, we need to stop encouraging expansion because we are writing checks our city can’t cash.

Sierra: ..Before or after the Uranium cleanup and accountability of the deafly materials?

Are we to drink the water? Hmmm.. a million tons of process uranium materials above and leaching into the Portneuf Aquifer.

Those safe places were taken and developed many years ago by many university people professors and those that did not want to live with and in uranium. Just take a look at the government maps we published and keep publishing.

How about Scout Mountain area? Mount Tom, Inkum, Lava, or Atomic City- that is a safe community and always was! It would much easier to say where not to develop.

Blad: There are a couple areas in Pocatello that are very well positioned for future development. One is in the Northgate area. We have seen significant development in housing in the Northgate area. We will continue to see more housing developed in that area. There are some areas we continue to work with businesses, both large and small to locate in the Northgate area. The airport is another area that is ready to develop. We are working and will continue working with a developer to help develop our airport. We are continuing to build airplane hangers. Continuing to work with large and small businesses to locate at our airport. We have just received the feasibility plan to create the.CAEST project that was announced earlier in the year. Currently the airport has a $180 million impact in our community. We will continue to develop and work on all the projects at the airport. There is also development happening on the south fifth corridor. We will continue to work with to see more development on the south end of town as well.

Brown: Pocatello’s Comprehensive Plan and ongoing initiatives identify several regions well-positioned for future growth.
Promising areas include the northern expansion zones near recreational facilities, ideal for residential growth. The areas surrounding the regional airport are suited for commercial and industrial opportunities with strong transportation logistics.

To support this, we should appoint a development coordinator to work with regional economic groups, the Chamber of Commerce, business associations, and Idaho State University to unify strategies and mission alignment. This position would also be the go-to help desk to streamline permitting. We need to identify public/private partnerships affordable and sustainable builds, collaborate on infrastructure improvements with utilities, and hold community forums to incorporate resident input. This approach will drive balanced growth while maintaining Pocatello’s charm and livability.

The death of 17-year-old Victor Perez created a great deal of shock and emotion in Pocatello. Would you have handled the city’s response to this incident any differently? Based on this incident, do changes need to be made at the Pocatello Police Department?

Brown: The tragic death of Victor Perez has deeply affected our community, and my heart goes out to his family, loved ones as well as the officers involved. I believe in fostering trust between residents and law enforcement, and this incident underscores the need for reflection and review.

I would have prioritized greater transparency from the outset. City leaders needed to address the public immediately; waiting to communicate created a vacuum of information that generated gossip and speculation, which became perceived as grounded facts, when in fact there was much more information in this complicated and layered event. Delays can erode public confidence, especially in cases involving vulnerable individuals.

We must ensure trainings are current in de-escalation techniques, crisis intervention for mental health and disabilities, and non-lethal alternatives. Additionally, Pocatello should partner with communities across Idaho to press the Legislature and the Department of Health & Welfare for a stronger mental-health and disability engagement.

Kessel: The city was very slow to comment and let people know what was going on, this should of been taken care of the next day, the city waited and this caused a lot of trouble. I believe the state has done a complete investigation into the police officers actions. That may serve as justice in the state, but I do not believe locals are satisfied with the justice. The Perez family is taking up a case and I, personally, hope they get the justice they are after and deserve. I have watched the tapes, I have seen how multiple departments respond to these sort of situations, I’m not impressed with the police work on this one. I have looked into way to avoid this ever happening again. An Idea I have and I plan to implement is a registry with the PPD. A registry where we can input all the information about special needs and disabled individuals and their addresses. names, ect. This way, when 911 is called, the police will have all the information about the induvial and can respond with the appropriate response team. I also plan to implement more training, particularly more training is identifying mental health issues and how to respond to these calls.

Sierra: But of course it ought to have been handled differently, and this is from a person that has been illegally banned from all of Pocatello city public properties, including the Pocatello regional airport! —that happens when the tarmac is made with processed uranium materials. Abducted by the UPRR. The attempt of life endangerment by the Pocatello SWAT Team when the Mayor improperly pushed the panic button. The panic button was removed. Let us not forget the waste of taxpayers money trying to prosecute Mr. Idaho Law. Be it known, Idaho Lorax, Idaho Law won all those cases.

Other than the above abuse of power by the mayor, in the past there have been a more responsible selection and screening of new officers. It seems that training and screening has been lost, especially in light of the occupiers and abusers of public office in these sad days.

We need ‘Peace Officers’ not police officers, especially when bullies gravitate to such positions.

Blad: This situation was a tragedy in our community. One thing I wished I would’ve done was have a press conference Sunday morning. When we did get in front of the camera Monday afternoon. It was recommended that the chief of police was the only one in front of the camera. I also should have been in front of the camera hindsight is always 2020. That is one thing I wished I would’ve done so the Community heard from me that we were continuing to work on the situation.
Our police department his hands down the best trained Department I know of. We will continue to provide the best training available for our officers. They continue to have thousands of hours of training annually. We are working on a database to help us know of any special circumstances in any home. The concern I have is the information we have is only as good as what people will give us. I would recommend if there are any special circumstances the police need to know before responding to an address. Please let us report that. Please remember that more information will always help our officers in any response.

I for one hope and pray that no community will ever have to go through this kind of tragedy.