by Mary Rupert
Candidates cited experience and their visions of economic development as differences at a forum for 4th District Unified Government Commission candidates Thursday evening.
Incumbent Commissioner Tarence Maddox is challenged by Harold Johnson and Scott Murray in the March 3 primary contest.
The forum, held Thursday evening at the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center, 1317 N. 10th St., was sponsored by the Historic Northeast Midtown Association. About 35 people attended.
All candidates agreed the 4th District needed more businesses including a grocery store, supermarket, restaurants and retail stores. They had different views on how that would be accomplished.
During the discussion, Maddox pointed out, from his experience and efforts on the commission, the various obstacles facing the grocery store project. He said it was “very difficult.”
While he said he will continue to do everything in his power to help the 4th District, Maddox said there was no magic wand he could wave to make more economic development happen there. Developments such as a new grocery store, supermarket or retail stores often are dependent on businesses’ decisions to locate there, and those decisions often rely on such factors as the number of people living in the area and the median income.
There is a healthy campus development project, with a grocery store and a community center, planned near the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center area. However, Maddox said he was a little concerned about the project; it could be some time away, as $6 million has to be raised from donations for the community center, and the grocery portion of the project needs an additional $2 million. His original idea was to build the grocery store, not the larger project, he said.
Maddox said his goals would be to continue to grow the tax base in the district and to decrease crime, to attract stores and restaurants. His “Ban the Box” effort to get the UG to remove the box on applications that prevented ex-felons from getting job interviews was successful, and is a first step toward helping residents to get jobs. He said he brought this idea back from one of the conventions he attended.
Maddox also pointed out that he was instrumental in getting the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center reopened after it had been closed for several years.
Johnson, pastor of the Faith Deliverance Family Worship Center, cited his experience in working with people and handling financial matters through working 22 years at a large area bank. While at the bank, he worked with some large nonprofit building projects using tax-exempt and conventional bond financing.
Johnson said he had the best skill set of the candidates, and had served on several nonprofit boards. He said the 4th District residents need to tell the story of the community, including how crime rates are down. Economic growth would not be a quick fix, he said, and it takes a long period of time, very focused on the objective, to make necessary changes.
Johnson said the people in the district did not have enough access to adequate health care. The healthy campus plan did not address the true disparities of health care access that exist in the community, he said. He said there is a need to look at how the 4th District could have better access to health care, as the county’s two hospitals are located in the Rosedale area and in western Wyandotte County.
Murray, a former UG planner who is the president of the Turtle Hill Neighborhood Association, said he was proud of his work with The Legends development and of his experience in writing more than $3 million worth of grants. He said he has more than a million dollars worth of experience.
“This city and county have come a long way, and I want to see some of that development in the 4th District,” he said. The 4th District has not gotten its share of the pie, and he said his goal would be to bring some economic development to the 4th District in the same way as The Legends, on a smaller scale.
He said with enticements such as breaks from the Board of Public Utilities or tax abatements, development projects in the 4th District were possible.
“I believe in leadership by example,” Murray said, adding that you would see him out cutting the grass and boarding up vacant homes in the district.
He said the grocery store may not be as large as some people would like, but he believes it is possible to build it with the help of incentives, and that people would go to it. And Murray is in favor of not waiting around until the median income of the area goes up.
He also is in favor of changing building codes to allow owners of homes in an impact zone to fix the houses themselves, and save money.
Murray said he believed some of the healthy campus could be done. He also said there are ways to bring more health care access to the area, such as bringing staffed and medically equipped RVs to the area, without building a hospital in the 4th District.
“I believe a commissioner can get things done,” Murray said. He cited Commissioner Ann Murguia of the 3rd District as an example of someone who personally met with developers and companies to bring a grocery store, dollar store and Walmart Neighborhood Market to Argentine. “That’s the kind of role model I want to work with.”
Johnson said a commissioner has to be a consensus builder, be respectful, and also state his issues. “The whole idea of a unified government – we don’t see that any more, there are little factions now,” he said.
Commissioners would need to look at how they can best work together, and to make sure there is a plan “that works for all of us,” Johnson said.
He described himself as “not a lot of flash” and said he works in a very methodical way.
Maddox, who has experience in mentoring and coaching youth, said the commissioner’s role is basically a policy-making role. It is not the commissioner’s role to build a grocery store, although the commissioner can start the conversation, and help the process, he said.
On the topic of changing public safety departments to reflect the community’s racial makeup, Maddox said he wasn’t sold on the mayor’s task force on diversity, and wants to see more action. He said the dynamics of the police or fire departments could not be changed without going directly at the unions.
He also said there needs to be a police and fire board that oversees what is happening. The diversity of the other departments in the UG also needs a task force to fix it, he believes.
Murray talked about an outreach effort to minorities that would recruit people for the public safety departments. He said it should be known that police officers’ salaries are good after a few years and include benefits.
Johnson said it was clear to him from a recent public hearing that the application process is unfair. He called for more transparency in the process. He also said the hiring of family members had to stop. The application and hiring process is completely skewed, he believes.
Maddox said that the district could not afford another four years for a new 4th District commissioner to learn the ropes on the commission. He said he has learned how to set policy and how to get along with the other commissioners.
None of the candidates, except Maddox, brought up a Legoland incident or a censure of Maddox by the UG public administrator in March 2014, that made the news in the past year.
Maddox said that people mention the Legoland incident that was on TV, and “people say, he’s on TV, he did this. No, Commissioner Maddox stands up, he produces and he makes sure the citizens of this community have the things they need,” Maddox said.
I think this was a very fair and accurate article. Nice job Mary.