BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Vacant properties, after-school programs, violence and, of course, sports teams were among the topics candidates for Birmingham mayor and District 2 city council and school board seats discussed during a forum Thursday evening at McElwain Baptist Church in Crestline.
The event gave the candidates an opportunity to speak about themselves for a few minutes and also gave the community a chance to ask a couple of questions of each group.
Despite the large number of candidates in attendance -- and in part because each candidate couldn't speak in much detail -- one voter who showed up said he still needed more time and more exposure to the candidates in order to make up his mind.
"The city as a whole is struggling," Eddie Smith said. "It's hard for the city to get along when the council and the mayor can't get along."
Mayor
All five mayoral candidates -- including incumbent Mayor William Bell -- talked about their backgrounds, the Mayor-Council Act and how they would treat the other branch of government, and ways to help out the younger generation, including whether a new professional sports franchise would help.
"I promise you one thing: That I want to be the number one cheerleader for the city of Birmingham," Mayor Bell said. "We have done the things necessary to put Birmingham on the map."
Bell talked about how, in the past four years, his administration has raised the city's national profile, including through the return of the Birmingham Barons and the construction of the new Westin hotel. An audience member asked him about another possibility: a professional soccer team a group in Birmingham is working to start called the Birmingham Hammers. Bell said he hadn't been approached about the project, but said he would be open to helping the group.
"I welcome soccer," he said. "It's one of the fastest-growing sports around."
Stephannie Sigler Huey, a businesswoman turned math teacher at A.H. Parker High School, said she's talked to young people and studied the feasibility of it and said a professional basketball team would have a more significant economic impact on the city.
?"You trust me with your children," she said. "Trust me with the city."
Candidates Kamau Afrika and Adlai Trone focused on education as a way to help young people. Trone emphasized his relative youth and his ability to connect with young people as a teacher and tutor at Carver High School.
Afrika said if he were mayor, he would make education a top priority, in addition to fiscal responsibility, which he said is lacking in the current administration.
"We have a government that is out of control," he said. "If you want somebody who has fiscal responsibility, choose Kamau Afrika."
The relationship between the mayor and the city council was also a major topic of discussion, with candidates asked to explain their understanding of the Mayor-Council Act.
Afrika said he had read the Mayor-Council Act but believed it is outdated.
Trone, a former Auburn University football player, said the key is teamwork, not egos.
"It's about taking the 'I' out of the equation, and it's about the people," he said. "With the confusion that goes on, it's the people and it's the neighborhoods that are suffering."
Pat Bell, who said she grew up in a broken home in the Kingston projects and is running because she isn't satisfied with the people she's helped become political leaders before, said she hadn't read the Mayor-Council Act but believes the council needs to work better with the mayor.
"In some cases the council people are acting like Mr. Bell is a dictator," she said, "like they're frightened of him."
City Council District 2
Land use and property values were issues to the candidates for City Council District 2, whether it involved vacant buildings, the departure of Trinity Medical Center from the Montclair Road area or the effect of schools on home prices.
But first, they discussed the relationship between the council and the mayor.
"The mayor is your CEO and the council is your board of directors," said Rolanda Hollis, a real estate broker and one of the six people running for the seat. Neil Shah was not present at the forum.
Hollis said she's been on boards and understands the difference between being an adviser and being an administrator.
"I am running because I think we need a voice," said Everett Wess, a lawyer -- he defended die-hard Crimson Tide fan and convicted tree-poisoner Harvey Updyke -- and former computer engineer in the space and defense industries. "I want to have District 2 be the district it ought to be."
Bart Slawson, an environmental lawyer, said his legal background has taught him how to work with people he doesn't agree with.
"You have to figure out a way to deal with people who are just as smart as you area and just as hard-headed as you are," he said.
Incumbent Councilwoman Kim Rafferty said one key is making sure the community's voice is heard.
"Some of my greatest achievements are in not telling the neighborhoods what I want or what I see but asking them what they want and what they see and giving them the tools they need to accomplish it," she said.
Richard Rutledge said the city has issues it needs to work through together.
"Birmingham is a city that I see as having tremendous potential, but that potential is unrealized," he said.
He said part of that is because school issues -- whether they're failing or disappearing because of consolidation -- are driving down home values.
Slawson focused on eliminating dilapidated, vacant and abandoned properties. He wants the city to use its newly granted power from the state to create a land bank, which would make it easier for the city to take property from absentee owners who aren't paying taxes and let it be redeveloped by others.
?"It fights crime. It creates construction jobs. It creates a tax base," he said of the land bank. "Somebody needs to fill these holes in our communities."
The move of Trinity Medical Center to a new location on U.S. Highway 280 worried many of the candidates and an audience member, who asked about it.
"I am deeply concerned about what the potential economic impact could be," Rutledge said.
Rafferty said that while the hospital isn't leaving the city, she has been working to find ways to keep the facility in use and keep jobs in the area. Possibilities include different types of medical centers, letting nursing students use the facility and tearing the building down and starting something new.
Another issue brought up by the audience was violent crime, specifically among young people.
Hollis pointed to her experience working with small businesses to make sure young people are able to work.
"If we're providing jobs for the young people in our community, I think that will help reduce the crime," she said.
Wess said he volunteers at elementary schools and tries to serve as an example for young men, showing that they can be successful.
"We need men to go and have an effect on these young boys so that we can go and curb this violence," he said.
Board of Education District 2
Only two candidates are in the running for the District 2 seat on the Birmingham Board of Education, and the race pits a newcomer -- Lyord Watson -- against Virginia Volker, the longest-serving current member of the board.
The main issue for debate was the board's relationship with the administration, especially since the state's financial intervention a year ago. The board has been accused of micro-managing, and that perception is a main reason the district's accrediting organization put it on probation last month.
"Unfortunately it's all about money, and the decisions we make are all about money, and it's hurting our children right now," Watson said.
An audience member asked Volker about her responsibility for the district's issues, calling her an "agitator" on the board. Volker said she accepted responsibility for one-ninth of it.
"We are here to be representatives for our constituents," she said. "We are not here to be a rubber stamp."
She said she has been working with Superintendent Craig Witherspoon and the state intervention team, but that she will continue to represent the will of the community.
?"It's too important to let the school system go backward," she said. "We have to keep on track."
Another audience member asked about after-school programs and how they could be improved.
"There are some tremendous programs in the school system already," Watson said.
Volker said another need is before-school programs, as many parents head to work early and their children need to be learning and developing during that time also. She said before-school and after-school programs aren't in every school, but every child needs access to them.
"If it's not in your specific school," she said, "agitate for it."
Source: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/08/candidates_for_birmingham_mayo.html
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