The following is a transcript of District 5 candidate Trudy Wade’s answers at an Oct. 21 candidate forum at Congregationalist United Church of Christ:
Introductory statement
I’ve been here many times, and I know you know me. I’m a veterinarian. I’ve owned my own practice for about 28 years in Jamestown. I’m a native of Guilford County. I’ve been here my whole life except for four years in Alabama. So it’s exciting to come and talk with you. It’s been exciting serving on the city council.
And I’m going to tell you what I find the most rewarding part of serving on the city council. It’s not going to be big and glamorous. It’s nice for me to be able to say I’ve held your taxes down for the last two years since I’ve been on the council, and you didn’t have a water rate increase this year. Those are good things in this economic time.
But the most important thing is my ability to work with the community watches in my district. I’ve had a great time with those. That’s what it’s all about: working at the local level with people that really need help. That’s what I do: I work for you. If you have a problem with your trash collection, if you have a problem ’cause your street light’s out and no one will listen to you and you don’t know who to call, you just pick up the phone and call me. Because I’ll pick up the phone and call down to community affairs. We have a wonderful department there with Donna, and she’ll fix those things for you. That’s what matters to you. You go out and the tree’s down across the street, you want something done about it. You go out to walk at night and you don’t have lights on, that’s what worries you. And that’s what I’m there for: your district representative for things in your district. You live in an area where you have children playing in the streets and the speed limit’s 45 and it should be 35. That sounds like really just mundane things that’s not important, but that’s not true. That’s what affects your everyday life.
I spent, I don’t know, three or four weeks and I know how to count to five, believe me that. And when I need something for my district and we have a community watch meeting I have five council members there because I know at the next meeting we’re going to go back and we’re going to vote to do something for my district. And I plan ahead with that. I’ve had Mary Rakestraw there. I’ve had the mayor there. I have all the at-large city council members right there – Robbie Perkins, Sandra Anderson Groat. And if you have a problem in District 5 then I’m going to get someone there to listen to your problem. When we go back to the council members at council meetings and have these discussions there’s not a problem ’cause I already know five people have heard the problems. And they know when it’s brought up. And that’s what it’s all about: Getting something for your area and having your problem solved. And that’s what I like to do.
I had a phone call today. A person said, “I can’t believe you answered the phone.” Certainly I’m going to answer the phone, and I’m going to help you if I can. And that’s what it’s all about, and that’s why I love serving Greensboro and being on the city council. Thank you.
Remarks about the police department
I think we’ve got good men and women in the police department. I think we’ve got a lot more crime now because of this economy and people don’t have jobs and they have a lot more time on their hands to get in trouble. I think that we need to maybe – I’m not going to tell you what’s wrong with the police department – I think maybe organization. And I’m expecting the [city] manager to let me know where he thinks the problems are in the police department. That’s his area of expertise; it’s not mine. But I can assure you when he comes back to me and tells me: “I think we need to do blank, blank, blank,” if it’s reasonable at all I’m going to be right there pushing for it because I see everyday when I go out to my community watches that people are having their back doors kicked in, people coming in and robbing them in three or four minutes. I hear it all day long. And I know there’s problems out there, but a lot of it is the economy at this time of course is going to drive crime up. But you and me, we can do things as citizens about watching our for our neighbors. The police can’t be everywhere every second but if you see something wrong and pick up the phone and call it in, that’s the best thing we can do as citizens.
One of the things that seems to have come out of this problem with the police department, a lot of policemen seem to have a second job that is so important to them that it’s almost like being a policeman is the second job; the other is the primary job. Is that something the city council could have an impact on or look into?
Let me tell you about personnel and looking into what they do. That’s really not under our purview. What happens is, we have one employee: the city manager. If there’s a problem in our police department, we say as a city council – whether there’s really major problems or there’s perception, it doesn’t matter. The perception is there’s a problem. What is it we can do to make it better? He reports back to us, and he’s in charge of the police chief and the police department, not the city council.
Triad Elections ’09
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