With an election season full of competitive local races and an active city council likely to make some big decisions this year, SGA candidates could have increased opportunities next school year to make waves on the local political scene.

Three College Park residents are running for higher office, two city council seats could be up for grabs in a special election next year, and Prince George’s County is an expected battleground for votes in this year’s gubernatorial election, giving Student Government Association political leaders a unique opportunity to mobilize votes for student-friendly candidates.

On the city level, several council members have expressed a desire to work with students to find solutions to public safety issues, landlord-tenant issues, redeveloping downtown and fire safety.

The Diamondback contacted each candidate to find how they might overcome the traditional student apathy to pool support behind political leaders and encourage student involvement in city issues. Candidates were also quizzed on city response to the Knox Box fire, upcoming local political races and city council members.

The only candidate who had difficulty naming city leaders, potential candidates and some city issues was Josh Wert, the independent candidate known for his platform strongly geared toward utilizing university resources to achieve goals.

“I want to work with the people that can actually get something done,” Wert said, taking aim at Results Party opponent and University Commuters Association president Jahantab Siddiqui. “Jahantab talks about having a Terp Town. Well, that’s something they can’t do. They can’t force restaurants to come to the city … The SGA needs to focus on something they can do.”

Wert favors a shopping center on east campus over a focus on improving downtown, aims to have more people to lobby in Annapolis, and wants University Police to focus on real crime rather than partying students, he said.

“If we can get them out of the high rises and out of the neighborhoods looking for parties and have them looking for and trying to stop burglaries and assaults … We’ll be able to reallocate the resources we have,” he said.

Wert’s position is a marked departure from both YOU Party candidate Kip Edwards’s and Siddiqui’s plan to address student issues at the county level, which they both called the most effective place to get things done for students.

“Upper Marlboro has been a resource that hasn’t been touched in a long time,” Edwards said of the city where the Prince George’s County Council meets. Of downtown and Route 1 redevelopment Edwards said, “We can push College Park all we want on that, but the county has the big stick on that one.”

Edwards said electing College Park officials such as city council members Eric Olson, who is running for a county council seat, and Joseline Peña-Melnyk, running for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, would be helpful, but it is more important to just get students to vote in the first place.

“[Elected leaders] know the students don’t really vote, so it puts us in this situation where they’re looking at us crying at the top of our lungs for these issues, but they say ‘You don’t even vote,'” Edwards said.

Siddiqui’s plan to take issues to a county level largely center around increasing police presence. After talking with Prince George’s County Police Chief Melvin High at a meeting last month, Siddiqui said he is convinced the solution to stamping out crime in College Park lies in securing funds for the county department to cover College Park all the time rather than on a contract basis.

“I don’t see how it’s feasible to have police officers who finish a 12- or 14-hour shift who come here to patrol” when they are exhausted, he said.

He agreed with Edwards on turning out the vote among students, and said he would support council members running for higher office.

“It would be good to have someone elected who is more in touch with what College Park is all about.”

Block Party candidate Emma Simson was the only candidate who emphasized working with city leaders on addressing students needs. “There’s not a concerted effort to reach out to them on the part of the SGA,” right now, Simson said, and vowed to rally more students around issues and make their presence known at city council meetings.

Part of her eagerness to work with city officials on student issues stems from trying to reach a solution on rioting, Simson said.

“Any solution is going to have to come from the city,” she said.

Council members said they looked forward to working with students on upcoming issues.

District 1 councilman David Milligan said it is helpful during contentious issues such as rent stabilization to have more student input. “It’s good to have a lot of voices and see that there’s a certain consensus among the students,” he said.

District 3 councilman Andrew Fellows agreed.

“For me, it’s very, very important for students to get involved,” he said. “I would hope community involvement would be part of their life.”

Contact reporter Kevin Litten at littendbk@gmail.com