NAACP City of Salisbury candidate forum (part 1)

In order to make this a little bit better read, I’ve chosen to split this post up into two parts. I’m going to reverse the chronology of the actual event and do the City Council seats first, followed tomorrow by the Mayoral hopefuls.

Tonight’s moderator was Orville Penn, and the setup was a bit unusual for this forum – it was more of a freeform discussion where the order of speaking wasn’t necessarily predetermined, nor was there a timer. Obviously this benefited some candidates more than others.

I would have preferred to have the districts broken up into separate discussions myself; however, Mr. Penn chose to bring the five participants up en masse. As introduction, District One contenders Tim Chaney and Cynthia Polk joined incumbent Shanie Shields at the head table, while both District 2 candidates Muir Boda and incumbent Debbie Campbell also attended. The no-show was District 1 candidate Ralph McIntyre.

The questions began with a very simple one: why should you be elected?

Tim Chaney began by citing some recent life events, which prompted him to make this run in an effort to give back to the community – a community which “needs to move ahead.”

Shanie Shields followed by a wish “to be your servant again” and continue the positive things occurring in the community. We need to work together, she continued, and revealed that this would be her final term if elected.

The microphone was then passed to Cynthia Polk, who told us she loved the community and wanted to do more for it. She wanted to move from the back lines to the front lines and running for Council would allow her to do so.

Another one who loves Salisbury is Muir Boda, who cited his being “just a regular guy” as a way he could “bring a different persepctive” to city government. He and his wife both work in the retail field and to him it was a question of looking from the outside in.

Finally, Debbie Campbell related that she was “inspired to run” in 2005 because the people who ran Salisbury “didn’t hold much stock” in the people who lived here. Campbell also noted her openness and willingness to listen to other points of view.

On the question of crime, moderator Orville Penn asked, what would the contenders do differently than the incumbents?

Muir Boda cited his work with the youth at Oak Ridge Baptist Church and focused his answer on that aspect of the problem, because school safety was a concern of the youth. He advocated the involvement of the entire community including building partnerships with various city organizations to sponsor more safe youth activities, particularly on weekend nights.

The youth also figured in Cynthia Polk‘s answer, because she asked teenage youth about their thoughts and was told that better after-school programs were the answer. Additional connectedness and accessibility would also be of assistance.

Tim Chaney told those present that he’d spent a good number of hours on the ground, putting up numerous Crime Watcher signs and patrolling the neighborhood to watch for suspicious activity. That needed to be more of a priority for the public as well.

While she’s an incumbent, Debbie Campbell did speak out, acknowledging the magnitude of the problem, as it scares away prospective employers. She thought we could benefit from better coordination between officers and the public and brought up her involvement in the crime task force that was studying how Dover, Delaware addresses crime.

Shanie Shields didn’t take the opportunity to answer, or didn’t grab the microphone quickly enough before Penn asked the next question.

I kind of wished that someone had brought up what I’d call the Giuliani solution: cracking down on some of the smaller crimes like prostitution, loitering, and the like. This could be a result of coordination with the Sheriff’s Department too.

That next question concerned who these candidates would prefer to work with as the next mayor.

Debbie Campbell declared herself neutral and would work with whoever won. The same held true for Cynthia Polk, as it was a question of networking for her.

Two of the candidates pledged their support for current City Council vice-president Gary Comegys. Shanie Shields endorsed Gary but said she could work with any of the four (although she misstated Mike Della Penna’s name as simply “Mike Penna”) and treat them with respect; shortly thereafter Muir Boda also announced his support for Gary while also saying that he also had “tremendous respect” for Bob Caldwell and Jim Ireton, adding that Mike Della Penna was a “good guy” too.

Tim Chaney, for his part, threw his support behind Jim Ireton but said we “must work together” with whoever won.

So if there’s a mayoral poll between these five, it looks like Comegys is the clear leader.

Penn then asked a question about municipal services: keep them in-house, combine them, or outsource?

Shanie Shields mentioned that the purchasing and finance departments had been combined during her term, but still needed to be “revamped”. She also brought up that human resources had been taken back from the county. One combination she did not support was that of combining the city police with the Sheriff’s Department.

I think Cynthia Polk may have slightly misunderstood the question, as she talked about outsourcing on a more broad national scale. While the work can “lose its quality”, she also thought that that left employees with no allegiance to the city and there was “power in unity.”

Muir Boda mainly spoke about improving efficiency in operations, although he brought up the idea of combining the dispatch units of the city police and Sheriff’s Department.

Things should be “kept in-house”, but “more regulated”, opined Tim Chaney, who also discussed a long-term possibility of doing away with the City Charter if the city continued to grow more and more into the county.

Debbie Campbell has “asked about this for several years”, cited the reduced use of take-home cars, and described some ideas that could yield savings: an in-house city attorney, bidding out the city’s insurance and banking, and making the finance department more efficient, perhaps with an automated bill kiosk.

To me Campbell and Boda had the best ideas, although I would like the possibility of privatizing garbage collection explored as well.

Let’s talk about crime again, said Orville Penn, particularly the police substations.

It didn’t sound like any of the five were going to promise to reopen the substations. Debbie Campbell did think that there needed to be more of a police presence in the neighborhoods, while Tim Chaney mulled the possibility of a mobile substation for the city like the Sheriff’s Department already owns (a converted bookmobile). Muir Boda advocated more targeted patrols, Shanie Shields brought up the upcoming civilian police academy, and Cynthia Polk flat-out told the attendees that the substations are “a waste of money and manpower” in these tough times.

Orville then turned the candidates’ attention to jobs, focusing on “green” jobs and District 1 in particular. However, two of the candidates looked more at manufacturing jobs while the other three were less specific.

Of the manufacturing jobs advocates, Cynthia Polk said that we think of manufacturing jobs when we think of jobs, but we also had to “respect the river” – we “can’t poison the water we’re going to drink.”

Muir Boda remarked that manufacturing jobs are both a city and county issue, but we needed also to have a “business-friendly environment.”

Shanie Shields stated the obvious – “we need to bring jobs” and spoke of the North Prong development as a catalyst for these jobs. However, the necessary cleanup of the area would be a “joint effort” involving federal, state, county, and city governments.

Tim Chaney tied the issue into crime, housing, schools, and tax rates, saying Salisbury needs to be a “quality place to live.” He also advocated local retailers, saying that their money doesn’t “pay for corporate jets.” (No, but are corporate jets REALLY the problem?)

Finally, Debbie Campbell did address the “green” part by pointing out “green can be a valuable tool” to bring employers. She also stated we “have to have a vision” and “leverage our educational resources” to help attract workers.

Since time was running short, we had more brief questions from the moderator, who asked for quick and optional statements on various topics.

Two of the panel addressed the issue of the city’s audit.

Debbie Campbell chided the city, saying “we have to know” about the financial situation. It was a thought somewhat echoed by Tim Chaney, but he conceded the audit was “more timely” although there was “room for improvement.”

The other three spoke to the issue of home ownership, particularly compared to rentals.

Muir Boda stated a somewhat obvious fact – we will need rental housing in Salisbury, particularly around the university. We just needed a better balance. Shanie Shields told us that “those who want to be homeowners should be” and that she didn’t agree with the “4 to 2” legislation because it decreased the availability of rental housing. Finally, Cynthia Polk stated that we couldn’t make the decision for a select few, and we had to have both rentals and owner-occupied homes.

Each contestant was asked for contact information as part of any closing statement, since the forum was also being taped for PAC-14.

In his closing statement, Tim Chaney pointed out that voting is “very important” and the anemic polling numbers from 2005 (where 49 District 1 voters participated in a mayor-only primary and just 203 voted in the council election) needed to improve.

Muir Boda echoed that remark.

Ditto for Shanie Shields, who also “would like to be your servant again.”

Cynthia Polk cited her sign tagline, “let’s partner in caring”, while backing it up with action, and was encouraged by the number of new people in the political process because of the Presidential election.

To wrap things up, Debbie Campbell went back to previous topics and told the 40 or so in attendance that zoning and affordable housing matter and “we need to get serious about it.”

As this was a more or less open forum, probably Debbie took the best advantage of the situation. Among the other four, each had his or her moments but probably Chaney and Shields did the best.

Tomorrow I’ll review the mayoral side of things.