Independent mayoral candidate Montrell Coburn issued a promise to Columbus Exchange Club members on Thursday during his closing remarks of a forum hosted at Lion Hills Center.
Speaking on his vision and “inventor mindset,” he promised to lead Columbus in a different direction than his opponent, incumbent Robert Smith, has over the past decade.
“The next four years will be nothing like you’ve ever seen if I’m elected mayor,” Coburn said.
The mayoral candidates, who will face-off in the June 6 general election, discussed a range of topics, from retail development and public safety to parks and education, during the forum that opened the floor to questions from Exchange Club members.
One area where the candidates most starkly contrasted, however, was in how to encourage home ownership and raise property values in the city.
Smith said he would work with local developers and the city’s redevelopment authority to convert areas with low-value rental property into higher-value neighborhoods where residents would be more likely to own their homes. He also pointed to new homes in Northaven Woods, which are part of a rent-to-own development built by BH Properties that allows low-income residents to work toward home ownership.
Coburn had a different idea, suggesting each ward have some sort of store — a gas station is the example he told Exchange Club members — where families essentially take turns working shifts to earn money.
“Families … would be over and own that particular store and everyone (would be) practicing good constructive economics and spending money with that store, giving them the opportunity to make money to buy their own land, their homes, their vehicles to play with,” Coburn said. “Once they’re homeowners, then another neighbor from that ward comes in and owns that same particular store and practices good economics and giving them that ability to gain that wealth and that access to own their storefront and gas station and get their own home.”
Retail development
Later on, when asked how to strengthen Leigh Mall in the face of losing stores such as JCPenney, which will close this summer, Coburn said the city should “think outside the box.” Family-attractive stores or venues, such a movie theater, could help draw more business, he said.
“I have an inventor mindset,” he said. “I have ideas and things that I also wanted to do and profit for my family and gain wealth.”
Smith said he’s well aware of residents’ desire for improved shopping choices in Columbus, adding discussions are ongoing on how to address the issue. Building a new mall might be difficult, he said, and would likely require a regional collaborative effort between Columbus, Starkville and West Point.
But Smith did indicate, noting he could only “say so much,” developers are looking at Leigh Mall.
“We do have some developers that are looking at purchasing the mall and upgrading where JCPenney is located at the present time, once they move out — and you know Cowboy Maloney (a furniture store that recently relocated across from the mall of Highway 45) has moved out also — as far as putting in two or three high-scale stores, like Kohl’s, for example,” Smith said. “That is in the process as we speak.”
Education
At one point, a club member asked the candidates their thoughts on the Columbus Municipal School District deciding last week — by a 3-2 vote — to not extend Superintendent Philip Hickman’s contract beyond June 30, 2018.
Smith said he believes at least part of that decision has to do with CMSD’s poor state accountability rating.
“If you look at the school rating, (it) is a D,” Smith said. “It’s been a D for the last three years. Even though people say that the graduation rate is higher … the district is still a D.
“I would assume,” Smith continued, “that if the district had progressed to a C, the board members would have saw fit to where they would have extended the contract, which (Hickman) requested. It’s my understanding that it’s not too late because we all know that in the month of August, that’s when they receive the scores back, and maybe they’ll decide at that time to reconsider.”
Coburn, who said Hickman — who the school board hired in July 2014 and is not an elected official — had only served “one term,” suggested the superintendent needs more time to turn the ship around.
“You’ve got to at least let the man stay in office a little while so he can begin to accommodate and kids can begin to grow and understand his mapping process and what’s going on,” he said. “Then maybe our grades will pick up better.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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