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By EMILY BATTLE

CITY ELECTIONS: Check out our new interactive guide to the City Council elections. See profiles of the candidates and hear what they have to say about local issues.

Steve Braun is in the communications business. So it's not surprising that in listening to him talk about his campaign for City Council's Ward 1 seat, you repeatedly hear suggestions that city government needs to communicate better with residents.

A 37-year-old regional field operations manager for Cingular Wireless, Braun admits he's new to a lot of the ins and outs of local government.

"I plan to learn voraciously when I get in office," he said.

He doesn't come to the race for the Ward 1 seat with major gripes about things in Fredericksburg that he wants to change. Rather, Braun emphasizes his positive ap-proach to problem-solving as something he hopes to bring to city government.

"I'm really, at my core, a positive person," he said. "I really just think that's something that our council could really use is working together for the future of our city."

Braun was born in Manassas and moved to Fredericksburg when he was a teenager. He graduated from Stafford High School, then earned a business degree from Ferrum College in 1989, and a master's degree in business administration from Strayer University in 2001.

Braun's family organized the Fredericksburg International Scottish Highland Games and Irish Festival in the city for several years, and he says he's always liked the city's charm.

Braun's job involves managing the various ways Cingular sells its wireless products throughout a region that stretches from the Outer Banks in North Carolina to central Kentucky. He said the work has taught him to break down processes and examine them, and that's part of what he thinks he'd bring to a council seat.

He said he wants to look at ways to streamline permitting processes for businesses, and make the Fredericksburg Regional Transit routes more user-friendly.

"Being a process-oriented person, I want to dive into those a little bit and see what the issues are," he said.

He thinks the city should partner with people who want to start businesses downtown, and use its new Sophia Street parking deck to help them meet their parking requirements.