MOSES LAKE - City budget cuts, retaining an ambulance service and the Shoreline Master Plan were the top issues discussed Tuesday for Moses Lake City Council candidates Brent Reese and Todd Voth.

About 100 residents were on hand Tuesday night at the Moses Lake Candidate Forum to listen to the views of the two candidates for position 4 on the City Council.

Voth, who currently serves as chair of the Planning Commission, said he was a nervous wreck before the forum.

"No matter what I say, not everybody is going to like it," he said during his opening statement. "And I think that's part of being in a city council position. It's not fun to run for city council. If you think that it's fun, you really ought to try it. You don't run to have fun, you run to make a difference and that's why I'm running for city council."

Voth, born and raised in Moses lake, has run his own business as a building contractor for 22 years.

"I'm passionate about the direction our community is headed and I want to be a part of it," he said.

Reese, who has served on the City Council for the past 13 years, said one of his main goals as a councilmember is to help improve the quality of life for Moses Lake residents.

"I have the experience and the knowledge that it takes in order to get everything from the public," he said. "You have to weight out what the public wants and what's best for the city. You take an oath at the beginning of your term every time and the oath is to do what's best in the best interest of the citizens of the city. I take it seriously."

Roth, an Air Force veteran, has lived in Moses Lake for 42 years and works at Moses Lake Industries.

"Moses Lake is my home and I care about what goes on here," he said. "I have the experience that it takes in order to help push everything through."

One of the biggest challenges the city faces is the budget deficit caused by the reassessment of REC Silicon. Making up about $500,000 of the initial $2.3 million deficit has not yet been announced by the city. Both candidates agreed the city will have to make some difficult decision.

"That's one thing we have to really look at," Reese said. "We have to sit down and do some serious thinking. We need community input. What do you guys want to see happen, what do you guys want to see stay, what do you want to see taken away or not taken away?"

Reese added he feels Moses Lake residents are spoiled by the free events during the summer by the Parks and Recreation department and would hate to see anything cut from the department's budget.

"We're a great community and we can have some fun here," he said. "At the same time, we have to fix our deficit. If you have an idea, don't be afraid to say it."

Voth also said he would not like to see the Parks and Rec budget cut, but pointed out the department's budget is more than the police and fire departments.

"Where do we draw the line?" he said. "We have a beautiful city but at what point do we stop building parks? I think that we should look at the way we are building parks and managing parks."

Voth added there are several parks near each other in the city and the Parks and Rec Department is already struggling to manage the parks already existing.

When asked if the city should retain its ambulance service, both Reese and Voth agreed it's necessary.

"I am in full support of the ambulance service. I think it provides our citizens with a great opportunity to pay to have transports, to have all of the necessary things we need to protect the citizens of our community," Voth said.

Voth took it a step further, adding he thinks the city should provide addition funding for the service. The ambulance service is paid for by a fee of about $8 on residents' utility bills.

"We have, in our county, a contract service. I don't believe that contract service served the citizens of our county well," he said. "I think that we should be able to find monies in other budgets that we can fund our ambulance service without additional costs to our citizens."

Reese also said he would not want to switch to the contracted service, commending the work done by the city's EMTs.

"The professionalism that these EMTs have, they're second to none," he said. "Our ambulance service is number one. There are very good at what they do. You can't put a price on life."

He said the city added the ambulance service with no intention of making a profit.

"We're in this to save lives," he said.

One of the more recent issues for Moses Lake is updating the Shoreline Master Program, a project eight years in the making. An open house was held last week to inform the community of proposed changes.

Voth, a planning commission member, said the commission has worked for eight months to make a recommendation to the City Council and are still awaiting comments from the state Department of Ecology.

"The Shoreline Master Program is a very, very serious thing that we have going on in the City of Moses Lake right now," Voth said. "We, as citizens of the community, need to look forward to some very serious regulations from the Department of Ecology."

He added at this point, the Planning Commission is not ready to make a recommendation and there are still concerns about docks, setbacks and property rights.

Looking at the document, Reese said he was amazed by its complexity.

"That's a huge document," he said. "I wouldn't recommend it now. There's still a lot to look at and I hope the council gets quite a bit of time to look at it."

Voth added there is a possibility the proposed plan could go to the City Council without a recommendation from the Planning Commission.

"That's how serious this is," he said.

Ballots are mailed out this week leading up to the Nov. 5 election.