Zack Matheny, Jay Ovittore and George Hartzman (l-r) are vying for the District 3 seat on Greensboro City Council. (photo by Jordan Green)
The three candidates for the District 3 seat on Greensboro City Council appeared together tonight for a forum at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant that was hosted by the Fisher Park and College Hill neighborhood associations.
The three had met voters together before, last month at a forum hosted by the Democratic Women of Guilford County, but this was the first time all appeared for a forum solely devoted to the District 3 race. Incumbent Zack Matheny parried with challengers George Hartzman and Jay Ovittore on a range of issues, including public safety, constituent services and ethics.
Hartzman set the tone with his opening statement.
“We are in what I would say is the fourth inning of a pretty ugly scene, the worst that has occurred since the Great Depression," he said. "Crime, as unemployment benefits expire, is going to spike. We are going to have to deal with it together because the government isn’t necessarily going to have enough money to fund everything. On a community basis, we’re going to have to make some changes. We’re going to have to actually participate in these community watch programs.”
Matheny outline his accomplishments in his first term, focusing on keeping taxes flat.
“I’m going to do my best to not raise your taxes or your fees," he said. "We tried to cut $200,000 out of the Greensboro landscaping budget, out of a $600,000 budget. I never knew how important plants were to the city of Greensboro. I can tell you: I know now…. How do you juggle? We did it pretty nicely in this past budget cycle. Again, not raising your taxes. And we actually got it to where – the water rates were going to increase – and we stopped that as well.”
Ovittore outlined one of his signature proposals: hiring additional police officers and increasing patrols.
“We have 639 officers," he said. "Right now, Chief Bellamy says we need 950 officers. So essentially what the police department is doing is pretty laughable. We’ve got crime in this neighborhood and a lot of people complain, they put resources over here and they take resources from over here. Crime goes up over here. They reallocate resources back over here. Back and forth and back and forth. We need more officers and we need more coverage.”
Matheny quickly expressed skepticism.
“The 950 officers is probably a little bit high," he said. "At the last forum that we had my opponent said that we needed to double the police department.”
The candidates were asked to reconcile their professed support for strengthening the police department with promises to not increase taxes. Ovittore was the first to answer.
“I don’t want to raise your property taxes," he said. "In my first two years on council, if that comes up, I will most likely vote no. What I will tell you is the right way to raise money is to have a fund set up for police resources, and go to our state legislators, especially our Guilford County contingent – who I have a very good relationship with – and talk to them about increasing our city sales tax by a cent or two. I think everybody in this room would agree that for paying for more officers, if a soda costs a dollar, then we wouldn’t mind paying a dollar and one cent.”
Hartzman expressed his aversion to taxation.
“Greensboro has the highest tax rate of any of the cities in this state," he said. "Why is this so? It’s a question of allocation of resources.”
Matheny went on the offensive against Ovittore.
“Let’s focus on reality," he said. "That’s what I chose to focus on the last year and a half when I represented District 3. The reality is this: You might hear a police officer say, ‘You know what, we could use more police officers.’ You might hear the chief say, ‘You know what, we could use more police officers.’ Have you ever heard a police officer or a chief say, ‘We don’t have enough money’? No, you don’t hear it. Ladies and gentlemen, if there were a hundred people outside on South Mendenhall Street waiting to become police officers for the city of Greensboro, what do you think the city council will do? We’ll find the money…. We know our public safety ranks number one, number one. And so in reality, we have to get folks who want to be an officer for the city of Greensboro.”
Matheny also disparaged a pledge by Ovittore to hold constituent hours at Melvin Municipal Office Building.
“One of my opponents said he’s going to hold hours at the downtown MMOB," Matheny said. "I gotta tell you: I don’t know too many people who are my constituents that want to go down to the MMOB. I have worked hard to be accessible…. I will continue to come where neighborhoods want me to be. I will continue to come where individuals in my constituency want me to be.”
Hartzman, in turn, attacked Matheny, pointing to the significant campaign funds raised by the incumbent in his last race and questioning whether Matheny should have recused himself from voting on business brought before council by his contributors.
“I saw when the protest petition was being debated," Hartzman said. "And it came about from a county commissioner, Mike Winstead – his company is Mega Builders – wanted to build this three-story condo development out on Friendly Avenue. Mr. Winstead gave $1,000, his partner gave $1,000, and my understanding is that his attorney also contributed to his campaign. Less than six months later, the zoning commission came before city council. It was a split vote. Mike Barber recused himself from the vote because he had a financial [stake]. A lot of people said that Mr. Matheny should have recused himself from the vote because basically he had a financial interest…. If you consider he’s funding his campaign, it doesn’t fly. It doesn’t make sense. The system is broken here. That is a conflict of interest. It is a serious problem. I’m going to leave it at that.”
Matheny waited until his closing statement to respond, but gave no quarter.
“I will not apologize for volunteering for eight years, meeting people and learning a lot," he said. "And I think, quite honestly, it’s an honor to have had as many people contribute to my campaign. If George or anyone else would like to contribute to my campaign, I’d be happy to accept your check. You know, the thing about people who stand back and say, ‘Zack doesn’t have ethics and integrity,’ but if you look at what I have, it’s a track record. You may not agree with every decision that I make. But I am transparent. I let you know. It is out in the open. My contributions are out in the open. My decisions are out there. So I’m transparent…. I take that with a lot of pride that I feel I’ve served this office with the integrity that it deserves. I base my decisions on facts and reality, and I do my homework.”
Matheny turned the table on Ovittore and Hartzman, both of whom expressed support for the protest petition.
“The problem with that is now you’ve got a situation where if you had developers out there who want to do some infill development in the city of Greensboro… because if I were a developer – which I’m not, and neither is my company – it’s easier to develop in the county than the city," he said. "And that’s a situation that a lot of people didn’t give a lot of credence to.”
Hartzman said he doesn't see a need for city government to intervene to stop urban sprawl.
“From the research I’ve done I feel that inner-city neighborhoods like this and downtowns, and probably the other side of downtown are going to do very well," he said. "If energy prices go up – Are energy prices probably going to go up? Probably. The chances are. We seem to hate all the people that sell it to us. There is a limited supply of energy. And as that becomes more apparent to the economy as a whole the downtown areas will become much more valuable. Much more use of public transportation will occur. And the sprawl problem that we’ve had will be self correcting in a major way.”
Ovittore was allowed to make his closing statement after Matheny. He used it to explain why he got in the race, and to throw another punch at the incumbent.
“I got in this race at the last minute," he said. "As a human relations commissioner, I made a very tough decision, a very courageous decision. When this city council tasked the human relations commission to write a statement about the 1979 shootings, not too many commissioners raised their hands to volunteer for that. I raised my hand. Because I want to get our city past this. We need to get our city past this. I sat on that committee for a year. I read the truth and reconciliation report…. We wrote a statement of regret. We gave it to every city council person and the mayor before that council meeting to avoid any kind of surprise. I leaned forward to a reporter, and I said, ‘If my councilman votes against this, I’m in this race.’ And Councilman Matheny voted against it. And the reason he gave? He said, 'Our generation is past race relations.'"
Triad Elections '09
No comments:
Post a Comment