The candidate forum for the Emporia City Commission had it all Thursday night, including economic ideas, movie references and a call by one candidate to arrest officers of the Emporia Police Department.
That last came from candidate Percy Wayman in response to a question about consolidating the police and sheriff's departments. Wayman claimed he had not been able to get the police to make out a crime report and that others had had similar experiences.
"These police officers need to be incarcerated for not doing their jobs," Wayman said.
Other candidates were quick to defend local law enforcement.
"I think our officers, everyone in our police department and sheriff's department, do a fine job," candidate Jesse Solis said.
"I am continually impressed with their quality of training, professional deportment and the extra mile our police department goes to," Commissioner Tom Myers agreed.
Around 25 people attended the forum held at Visser Hall, though not without some difficulty. Due to a mixup, the event was scheduled for a third-floor classroom instead of the larger room on the first floor that had originally been planned. Organizers only found out that day and ended up posting signs and directing traffic.
"The room's not as ideal as it will be (next time), but it works," said Kay Calvert of the League of Women Voters. A forum for the general election has been scheduled for March 5 in the original room, room 118.
Because the date for the primary election forum had been rescheduled a number of times, one of the eight candidates in the city primary could not make it Thursday night. Candidate Kevin Nelson, a member of the Emporia school board, was out of town and sent a written statement.
"By drawing on the rich history of Emporia and its great tradition and people, we can make Emporia a city others will envy," Nelson wrote.
The remaining seven that attended were Myers, Solis, Wayman, Commissioner Bobbie Agler and candidates Phil Dillon, Jeff Longbine and Mike Mercer.
Most answers during the night came back to economics. In a question about business recruitment, Longbine said the city had done well in drawing industries and needed to also take advantage of opportunities in commercial development, an attitude also shared by Solis and by Agler.
"We adopted the attitude that if you get the industrial jobs, retail will come," Agler said. "We've discovered in Emporia and nationwide that that's not necessarily the case. You have to have both. It's a quality-of-life issue ... (Having) shopping, having a good place to eat is crucial to recruiting people."
Myers agreed that commercial development was important, but said the city should take care not to hurt its existing businesses in the pursuit of new ones. Wayman said he wanted to see more factory jobs and Mercer, a former IBP employee, said that industrial jobs could still lead the way,
"When we bring in more industry, I think the commercial will follow," Mercer said. "I don't think the city should play a big role in the commercial side of things."
Dillon argued for a new approach, saying the city needed to look at 21st-century businesses such as biotech. Emporia's median household income of $31,000 is well behind the rest of the state, he said, but some professional jobs could help it at least catch Salina at $36,000.
"We've got to change," Dillon said. "We've got plenty of intellectual firepower. Let's put it to good use."
When the question shifted to downtown development, Solis and Myers were quick to praise the work that had already been done through the $2 million Streetscape project and the ongoing restoration of the Granada Theatre.
"The downtown is the heart of this community," Myers said. "The renovation of the Granada there is especially important to me. ... That's where my parents were attending a movie when my mother went into labor. So my roots in the downtown go back a long ways."
Mercer said that more attention needed to be paid to the downtown's infrastructure by bringing city work crews up to full strength, so that problems could be fixed and not just patched. Wayman said the community should be encouraged to shop downtown with local businesses rather than at big-box retailers on the west side of town. And both Agler and Longbine said that overall business traffic needed to be improved so that everyone would prosper.
"I would like us as Emporians to stop looking at 'downtown,' 'east side,' and 'west side,'" Longbine said. "Let's look at Emporia as a retail center for the entire community. People don't come and buy just one thing downtown ... There's a reason that all the car dealerships are next to each other. We feed off each other."
Dillon argued that looking at downtown didn't automatically mean he was pitting himself against the rest of the community.
"If I have a broken arm, It doesn't mean I'm not interested in the rest of my body," he said. "It just means that my arm needs attention."
Both he and Agler said the community should work with the university in improving the downtown.
In his closing statement, Myers reminded the audience that he had been the author of the city's rental housing standards, though he wanted to see more done on enforcement. He also asked the audience to be kind to all the candidates, who had only a limited amount of time to answer each question in the forum.
"If some of us sound like simplistic idiots answering complex questions, keep in mind it's because we're trying to squeeze our answers into a narrow time frame," he said, grinning.
Longbine emphasized his desire to make Emporia "the best place in Kansas to live, work and raise our families" while Wayman presented himself as "the only Wayman candidate in the election of 2007."
Dillon said the city stood at a crossroads similar to his favorite Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," capable of becoming a prosperous Bedford Falls or a decrepit Potterville. Agler followed up by saying the city needed not just good leadership but a positive attitude.
"We've got a fortunate location and a lot of good businesses in this area," Agler said. "We need to build on that, but we have to be positive in the process."
Mercer said he was an average guy who wanted to be sure that everybody had a voice in the process. Solis, meanwhile emphasized his ability to work hard, multi-task and get things done, and urged the audience to make their own voices heard.
"Our veterans fought for us to have the right to vote," he said. "It's good citizenship to vote. Please get out and vote."
The forum will be broadcast locally on Channel 20 at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday. The primary election will be held Tuesday with the top six candidates moving on to the general election in April.
Chrisferg (anonymous) says...
Thanks for the rhetoric candidates.
The only store I ever shopped at Downtown closed (Outfitters). I don't even go downtown. Emporia needs to develop and update, not try revive past.
Emporia needs to find something new besides manufacturing, livestock and industry for employement if it wants a real future. Trying to milk more retail and commercial spending out of the existing community is not the answer.
I like the talk about BioTech talk. It's progressive but the current workforce won't attract it. That's an industry that will have to be lured and then import it's own quaified labor force as well. Pretty tough road there. Those are next generation jobs, not one that we can currently step into.
It's time to get ahead of the curve and not behind the times.
February 23, 2007 at 7:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Phil_Dillon (anonymous) says...
Chris
I agree that a change to a 21st century approach is going to be difficult and will take time. But, it's badly needed. Right now census data shows that 17,9% of Emporians are living below the poverty level. Think of. Over 4,000 of us living in poverty. Our median household incomes are $30,000, 27% below the Kansas average of $41,000. We're locked in a low wage, high poverty spiral and we need to reverse that trend. Our taxes, on a mill levy basis, are about the highest in the state of Kansas. In fact, if our levy were appiled to an average house in Massachusetts, the bill would go up from the current $3,700 to an astronomical $6,800. In the residential area close to downtown where I live there is a large amount of sub-standard rental property. About the only ones who profit from all of that are the owners. The rest of us pay with high taxes, while the owners profit at the expense of someone at the lower rung of this city's economic ladder. It's a disgrace.
In the sixties John F Kennedy committed the nation to landing a man on the moon by the end of that decade. He said we needed to choose to do so not because it was easy, but because it was hard and necessary. This all came at a time when we lagged far behind the Soviets. Well, we all know how that race ended. It was difficult and chalenging to get there, but we did it.
Yes, turning Emporia around will be difficult. But, like any worthwhile endeavor it can and needs to be done.
One thing that might surprise you is that we really do have the intellectual firewpower to enter the 21st century. We have a great university, a first class technical college, and good solid people. Things can change. We need to overcome the current inertial to begin the long march to the city on the hill.
Thanks
Phil Dillon
candidate for City Commission
February 23, 2007 at 8:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mythoughts (anonymous) says...
I agree with Phil about the substandard housing. On one block you can have a well kept, well groomed eighty-year old house and on either side will be places with half the porch caved in, the windows covered with tin foil, and a few pigeons nesting in the holes in the roof.
People who own properties like that should be fined heavily and made to either clean it up or tear it down. Where is your pride? Where is your shame? Put some of that rental income back into your property! How can we recruit new businesses to town when a person can't drive two blocks without seeing decreipt, ratty houses? Grrrrrrrrrrr.
February 23, 2007 at 2:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )