During a municipal candidate forum sponsored by the Winston-Salem chapter of the National Urban League Young Professionals on Oct. 13, the recent announcement that Dell Inc. would be closing its Forsyth County operations in January 2010 proved to be a hot topic.
James Taylor, the Democratic nominee from the Southeast Ward, said he had met with city officials since the Dell announcement on Oct. 7 about what could be done to assist the 905 workers that will be displaced by the plant's closing. Taylor said the $15.5 million in economic incentives Dell has promised to repay the city could go toward workforce development programs.
"I think it’s important that we work with our local colleges — Winston-Salem State, Forsyth Tech — to provide training for these people to allow them to go back into the job market and be competitive," Taylor said.
Taylor also said he supports the creation of a city emergency management fund to assist in situations that affect hundreds of residents like major layoffs.
John Hopkins, the Republican candidate from the North Ward, said offering vocational training for displaced Dell employees is key to helping them make the transition back into the job market.
"It’s amazing nowadays. You don’t have to go for these big degrees, particularly in the computer industry," Hopkins said. "If you can get things like certification — Comp TIA plus certifications — they do marvels for your career. They can be very helpful."
Vivian Burke, a 32-year incumbent representing the Northeast Ward, said the city has plans to revitalize its workforce development program to assist displaced Dell workers.
"We will take these employees and help to get them to training programs," Burke said. "I believe that local government and county government need to take on a big responsibility in trying to get these people employed.”
Derwin Montgomery, a 21-year-old Winston-Salem State student and Democratic nominee to represent the East Ward, said Dell's closing is yet another reminder of the global recession. Montgomery said the harsh reality is some of those 905 employees may have to relocate to find suitable employement.
"We have to ensure that these people are able to work and them not working staying here in this city doesn’t benefit us anymore than it benefits them," Montgomery said.
Claudia Shivers, the Republican nominee running for the Northeast Ward seat, said the city could attract big and medium-sized businesses with things other than economic incentives.
"One of the incentives we can have, we can have a beautiful thriving city that has wonderful schools, that has lower crime rates, that has wonderful neighborhoods," Shivers said. "So that in itself can be an incentive, so we know these organizations want to come and be a part of our city.”
Denise "DD" Adams, the Democratic nominee running for the North Ward seat, said the city council should have implemented greater oversight to ensure the $15.5 million the city invested in the Dell deal was being protected.
“I think going forward with any big business or businesses that we deal with, just like we do small businesses, we’re going to have to do big business the same way — hold them accountable," Adams said. "And when they’re not meeting their marks, when they’re not able to tell us how they’re going to increase their productivity, increase their employment, then we put them on what we call a PIP — which is a performance improvement plan. All of this should be built going forward that we hold them accountable just like the banks hold homeowners accountable every month for that mortgage they're receiving.”
Peter Sorensen, the Republican nominee from the Northwest Ward, said the Dell plant closing highlights the issues with the state corporate tax code.
“The fact is, businesses operate in a manner and they will operate in a place that is the best for them financially because they have employees they have to care about," Sorensen said. "They also care about the shareholders. Until the state of North Carolina can actually align that, us hunting for that big game and bringing it here is going to be very difficult because we’re going to have to end up writing our own checks back to these people...Until we can actually fix the tax code itself, we need to stick with the small and medium-sized business plan.”
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