City Council candidates square off

Six of the eight candidates vying for Statesville City Council seats answered questions for two hours Thursday night at Shiloh AME Zion Church during a forum sponsored by an African American political action committee.

Many of the topics put before the candidates by the Iredell Political Action Committee (IPAC) were related to the black community. But one issue stood out above the others: crime.

Juan “J.D.” Williams is in a three-way race for the Ward 6 seat with incumbent Flake Huggins and Donnetta Watkins. All three participated in the forum.

Williams was unequivocal when asked by moderator Skip McCall what he felt was the city’s most challenging issue.

“The crime rate,” Williams said. “We’ve got to take a more direct approach to dealing with that before anything else. You got people in this city who are prisoners in their own homes, afraid to walk through their own neighborhoods.”

Watkins agreed that crime was the top issue, but felt it was a result of communication problems between the residents and members of the police department.

“We have to reach out to the community and let them know they have a voice,” she said.

It was a theme Watkins stuck to.

“I believe it takes everybody to build our community up,” she explained. “Ward 6 is very diverse and it will take all of us and all of our backgrounds to make it what we want it to be.”

Huggins, who has held the Ward 6 seat for two four-year terms, spoke mostly about the position from an insider’s perspective.

In his opening statement, Huggins said that a council member “should have vision, integrity, sincerity and accountability.”

He then when on to give a rundown of the way the city operates, from the mayor and city manager’s office down to the various boards and committees that are appointed by the city council.

“The Statesville city government extends an invitation to everyone to participate,” Huggins said at the end of his statement.

Council members Paula Steele and Michael Johnson were at the forum despite the fact that both are unopposed for their seats in Ward 1 and Ward 4.

When asked why the city’s police and fire departments had such paltry minority representation, Steele said the city has gone to lengths to recruit minorities but has not been successful.

“Finding qualified police officers is currently a national problem,” Steele said.

Johnson said that Statesville is essentially in the same market for officers as a much larger and wealthier city to the south.

“We are competing with Charlotte,” he said. “And we are not competitive enough to do that.”

Bonita Eisele was the sole candidate at the forum who is running for the presently-vacant Ward 3 seat.

Eisele said she has known the seat’s most recent occupant, A.E. “Pete” Peterson, for many years and that his will be a tough act to follow.

“Filling Pete’s shoes is going to be a very tough challenge for whoever wins it,” Eisele said.

Eisele said she wanted to debunk talk of her being out of touch with the blue-collar community, which she was accused of being while on the campaign trail.

She said she grew up poor in West Virginia.

“I’m not poor now,” she said. “But I’m certainly no high-falutin rich lady.”

Ward 3 candidates Doris Allison and Dave Jackson did not participate in the forum.

-By

Posted on 09/28/07 at 08:17 AM
Statesville •City Council • (0) Comments

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