More than 40 Friendly City residents Thursday night crowded into the Columbus Municipal Complex as 12 of the 15 candidates for the upcoming municipal elections took turns discussing a wide range of issues.
Thursday’s debate, sponsored by the Columbus-Lowndes Political Action Committee and moderated by Mississippi University for Women political science professor Brian Anderson, marked the second political forum held at the complex this week.
During the debate, candidates for mayor and each ward of the Columbus City Council answered a battery of questions tailored to each office. Topics included everything from the city’s standing within the Golden Triangle to the candidates’ thoughts on a city sportsplex.
“These questions were submitted to us by local journalists, citizens and other area residents and professionals,” said Anderson.
The debate was separated into six “rounds,” one for each office being sought. Ward 4 Democratic candidate Fred Stewart is running unopposed and did not attend the debate.
Mayor
Democratic incumbent Mayor Robert Smith and independent candidate Thom Geiger fielded questions related to Columbus’ population trends, the city’s relationship with Columbus Air Force Base and the candidates’ feelings on a proposed Highway 45 bypass.
“One thing we can do to help stop the shrinking population trend in Columbus would be to annex. By annexing certain areas around the city, we would be able to reverse that shrinking trend and maintain our population,” Smith said. “We aren’t just sitting around on our laurels. I hope that Columbus will be a place where we can increase our property values and our quality of life in the future.
“As far as the city’s relation with the Air Force base, the mayor and the council have always been very close with the base officials since I’ve been here,” Smith added. “My relationship with the commander right now is outstanding.”
Geiger said the shrinking population may be combated with knowledge the city government should have been seeking for years.
“The declining population has been going on for a while,” said Geiger. “In four years, the city lost 3,000 people to the county. But nobody has ever made an effort to find out why those people left and what we can do to keep them in the city.
“And we seem to have a good public relations and media relationship with the base, but we need to really study what the people who come to the base are saying,” Geiger added. “When BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) comes through here, they look at surveys that pilots fill out about the city.”
The pair of mayoral candidates also shared thoughts about a possible Highway 45 bypass.
“That’s just another one of the things that’s languished on the city’s list for a while now,” Geiger said. “That’s one of the things wrong. The city doesn’t give status reports on projects like that. Citizens can’t get enough information.”
“I believe in an open-door concept of government, so there aren’t any city secrets,” Smith responded. “As of today, the city is on board with MDOT to get that bypass completed. I would look for work to begin on that during the next year.”
Ward 1
Ward 1 Democratic candidates Gene Taylor, incumbent, and Anthony Sanders shared their thoughts on the city’s economic future, relationship with Mississippi University for Women and a possible sportsplex in the city.
The city is headed in the right direction with its economy right now,” said Taylor. “Tourism is big, and our work with the parks and recreation department will put the city on the map on a much larger scale.
“With MUW, I have always felt it was a great asset to our community, even as it goes through a name change,” said Taylor. “I think we will start to see a significant rise in the number of our kids going there in the future.”
Sanders criticized the city for outsourcing jobs and looking to buy land to potentially house a sportsplex.
“To get our economy on the right path, we need to bring back the jobs the city outsourced and give them to citizens,” said Sanders. “And why would you try to get something like land when we already have it?
“And the W is important for the city, and I think things are going good now,” Sanders added. “I think it would be best to leave things like they are with that.”
Further addressing the sportsplex issue, Sanders and Taylor exchanged strong feelings on the matter.
“I am against a sports complex right now because the city is broke. We don’t need to spend money buying land for that when our kids and our families don’t have cars to drive,” said Sanders. “Plus if they build the sportsplex, they will tear down parks in Ward 1.”
“I don’t think you have your facts straight,” Taylor responded. “There has never been an intention to tear down Charles Brown Gym without building something to replace it. If they were going to just tear it down, I would stand in front of the bulldozer myself.”
Ward 2
The Ward 2 section of the event brought no debate among candidates, as Republican incumbent Susan Mackay took the podium alone. Democratic Ward 2 candidates Joseph Mickens and Troy Miller did not attend the debate.
“Most of the flooding we’ve seen has been on Maple, Poplar and Beech streets,” Mackay said, addressing a question about flooding in Ward 2. “We have drafted drawings for a retaining pond near the East Columbus Gym that will get water off of Poplar Street and will slow it down on the other streets.
“Most of the problem is coming from clay drainage pipes that were installed 50 or 60 years ago that are too small,” Mackay added. “We are going to have crews come in and put cameras into those pipes to see what we can do to fix them.”
Mackay also answered questions about the city’s relationship with MUW and solving Columbus’ gang problems.
“We have a good relationship with MUW, and they have always been open to working with us on issues,” Mackay said. “They are a large employer, and I would love to see them grow and prosper.
“On the gang problem, we have had police officers working with the city on this for a while,” Mackay added. “We recently hired several police officers, so I think they will be able to do more than ever to combat that.”
Ward 3
Ward 3 Republican candidates Gene Coleman, incumbent, and Charlie Box expressed their feelings on city-county relations, drainage problems and nuisance properties.
“I think the city-county tax system that’s set up now is fair, and I think we need to look at more ways to cooperate with the county whenever we can,” said Box. “I do know the county gives the city $1 million for road paving each year, and I think that’s pretty fair.
“Driving around the city, I can see cars on jacks and overgrown yards and everything,” Box added, answering a question about nuisance properties. “I think our nuisance property laws are adequate, but we need to do more about enforcing them equally for everyone.”
Coleman discussed city residents’ recent tax increase and praised the city’s nuisance property laws.
“Yes, the recent county property reappraisal did cause taxes to go up, and the school bond issue did, too,” said Coleman. “We could have reduced our millage, but it would have cost us police officers and public works employees. We don’t have those to give up.
“With the nuisance law, the last thing you want to do is to go say ‘I’m going to ticket you and haul off your car right now,’” Coleman added. “You’ve got to enforce it, but you’ve got to give people time. Sometimes you’re dealing with homeowners who are out of state or out of town or whatever the case may be.”
Coleman and Box also discussed their plans to deal with Ward 3 drainage problems.
“There’s been a drainage problem in East Columbus for the past 55 years,” said Box. “There was a study done in 2000 that laid out three or four things the (Army) Corps (of Engineers) could do to fix the problem. The Corps said they couldn’t do anything until legislation was passed, but nobody has worked to
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