PEORIA, Ill. – The candidates for Peoria mayor are making their final push to win the hearts and minds of voters before the April 1st consolidated election.
On Wednesday afternoon, incumbent mayor Rita Ali and her challenger, councilman John Kelly, debated for around 45 minutes to Kiwanis Peoria members.
In her opening statement, Ali says the city made a lot of progress in the past four years with infrastructure improvements, home repairs, grants for businesses, and a new five year strategic plan for the city. She criticized Kelly for voting against it, claiming it was because the plan supported DEI initiatives.
Kelly’s opening remarks asked attendees “is the status quo working for you?” He says public policy is hoping people in the city back, and touched upon his three campaign pillars. Those include change, prosperity, and public safety. He says those include cutting spending, and buying up the downtown parking garages for free parking.
The debate touched on numerous issues within the River City. The city’s homeless problem was one of the topics, asked in the wake of the city council approving providing LULA Peoria with $205,000 in grant funding to house the homeless population in motels.
Ali says the city needs to continue working with organizations helping the homeless.
“There are so many stakeholders that are involved in this business, and they know this industry,” Ali said. “They have relationships with these people, and they have trusting relationships. So we need to count on their relationships with these individuals.”
Kelly countered by saying that sheltering the city’s homeless population is not enough. He pushed for support for establishing detox centers, recovery housing, and mental health support to address underlying issues with homelessness.
When the candidates were asked about what Peoria needs to address as its greatest need, Kelly says the city needs to do things that are not done in other cities.
“I did mention getting rid of building permit fees, I did mention free parking downtown, no central city in the country does that,” Kelly said.
Ali referred back to the city’s five-year strategic plan created last year, and monitor the goals and progress of its six priorities, such as downtown development and infrastructure.
Ali’s closing arguments centered around not interrupting the progress made in the past four years, citing relationships she has built across Peoria and the country as crucial to address needs and goals. Those include funding for projects, establishing passenger rail in Peoria, and attracting developers for new housing.
Kelly says he would not be in favor of passenger rail, instead being in favor of having Peoria become part of a proposed Chicago-to-Kansas City freeway. He says that would bring people to the city, and potentially make Peoria a hub for distribution centers. Kelly then pledged to “change” how business is done at City Hall, lower crime rates, and create jobs for Peoria.
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