Candidate Profile: Robin Tasco

Editor's Note: This is the first in a series that will run throughout the week in which we publish question and answer sessions with each of the seven candidates in the . Each candidate will answer the same five questions. We'll also run videos of the candidates talking specifically about Chestnut Hill issues.

Today's featured candidate is Robin Tasco. Watch her video here, and remember, Election Day is May 17.

Tell us about your background and why you’re running for city council?

I’m a servant. And it seems as though people look at you like you are saying something different to them when you say that, but a councilperson is no more than that. The main job is constituent service, someone who is going to advocate on your behalf, for the concerns that you have. So you really have to be someone who is in touch with people and cares about their concerns. So because of the kind of person that I am, I think that is what makes me qualified for it.

My background is, I’m a certified electrician. I’ve been an electrician for 24 years. I’ve had my share of ups and downs with just trying to be in a white male-dominated industry. So you can’t have soft skin to be in that kind of business. After I got out of my apprenticeship, I came out in 1992, graduated with honors. After I came out I started giving back to the community. Going to organizations, telling them how to get into the process of getting into an apprenticeship program in the building trades.

Specifically the electric ones, because I am an electrician and I know how hard it is to get an apprenticeship in that field. We only take about 50 applicants at a time, while we could have over 800 people applying in a two-week window. Knowing how difficult it is to get in, I would go around telling people, in 1992 in my community.

As it got larger, I would start having them at the Free Library, setting up meetings to tell people about the process.

So all that is servant stuff. I gave my time. I went out of my way to work eight hours a day on a construction site, that’s no easy day I had to work, and I was a single mother, too. I had to get my son to day care, be at work by 7 o’clock, and the work was very physical. And then to come home after doing that, taking care of my son and then giving my time to someone else... you ask what qualifies you to be a public servant, I’ve been a servant.

I went on to be the first female business agent in the Philadelphia business trades, and the 8^th District is the first territory that I covered. We had five agents who had a territory, I worked with 17 men who had titles as union representative, and I was one of the five that had a territory.

So I think that says something about my commitment as a person. Because I was the only female, you have to know some of everything, not only was I a business agent, I did organizing, I did political operative stuff for the union and I also was a community liaison. I already was a servant doing the work you would expect from a councilperson.

How would you, as a City Council member, work with the School District of Philadelphia to improve students' performance?

I’m the kind of person who loves the thought of going to school and getting knowledge. I look at the syllabus of what you’re going to acquire for the whole semester, and I think, ‘oh man, I’m going to know all this when we get finished.’

So one of the things I would like to do is meet with the administration who runs the school, talk to the students, talk to the parents, set up a science fair every year, because kids are very competitive, and set up a stem studies that teaches science, technology, engineering and mathematics. When I got into the field, one of the qualifications I needed was to have one year passing algebra, and a lot of people don’t understand some of the things you need when you come into the construction industry. And mathematics is very important.

In the city's budget, where would you like to see more funding, and where do you think cuts should be made?

I would like to see more funding for the schools, when I say that, I’m for bringing the schools back under the control of the city. I don’t think the private track record has done anything better with making our schools more stable than what we can do. One of the things I would like to see decreased is some of the funding they use for the prisons. I think if they take some of the non-violent crimes and stop incarcerating people for them, and allow people to work off the restitution for the crime that they’ve done. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be penalized for them. I’m saying that we can decrease the funding that we’re using for the jails and put it in with the schools.

Where do you stand on DROP?

I agree with it for city workers. They need to have a retirement plan and be able to retire with dignity. That’s how I feel about it for them, I think they are entitled to it.

And for elected officials, absolutely not. Especially the way they have used the system to retire to acquire the money. If you say that you’re going to retire after four years, then retire.

How would you work to fill vacant properties and revitalize business districts?

Some of the things that they already had on the books to revitalize the blighted properties, first of all, I would like to see no more than two different agencies that work as a task force over the blighted properties that we have. I also would like to see us do the donor take-back, where people in the community actually acquire the property, and maybe we can do a small interest-rate loan so that they can have money to develop the properties.