Montrell Coburn is in it to win it.
During a Thursday evening candidate forum at the municipal complex, a routine question from Ward 4 Democrat candidate Pierre Beard about if candidates would offer ideas to their opponents if they lost their election elicited variations of “yes” from all of the candidates, except Coburn.
“Proverbs says a fool speaks all his mind,” Coburn said, referencing a Bible verse. “I’ll end on this note right here. Depending on who wins — would the Jews give Hitler their great ideas?”
After the meeting Coburn — running as an independent in June’s general election — said he was “playing poker” and his willingness to share ideas would depend on who won the mayor’s office.
Thursday’s forum was the second of four planned for this week, as Tuesday’s Democratic primary draws closers. The forum, hosted at in the Municipal Complex by Delta Sigma Theta and the Northeast Mississippi Chapter of 100 Black Women, lasted about 2 1/2 hours.
It included every candidate for the mayoral race, except incumbent Robert Smith. It also featured Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box, a Republican, and his Democratic challenger, Charlotte Braxton Verdell.
Throughout the forum, Smith’s opponents didn’t waste opportunities to criticize his performance while laying out their own ideas about how they’d perform in the mayor’s office.
Early on, Democrats Carl Lee and Selvain McQueen agreed part of the way to address Columbus’ crime issues is for the mayor’s office to not micromanage the police force — an accusation that’s sometimes leveled against Smith.
“If I’m the mayor and you find me at somebody’s death scene announcing to the public that there’s no foul play, I’m out of place here,” Lee said. “No mayor should be at a death scene talking about no foul play, even if that is correct. But you put out later that the man’s got a bullet in his head, you are out of your job.”
Lee was referencing the late October 2016 death of Rodrick Davis, who was found dead in his home on Burgundy Drive, the street where Smith also resides. Officials initially believed no foul play was involved in the death, but an autopsy found Davis died from gunshot wounds.
Coburn had a different idea on how to tackle crime.
“In particular areas where crime rates are particularly high — it’s sad to say they are in the predominantly black neighborhoods and black communities,” Coburn said. “What I notice is how many foreigners you see opening up stores in particular areas that sell drugs to that area — (compared) to Caucasian areas or white neighborhoods?
“They open stores and sell poison to our people, and that poison does things to the mind,” he added. “It creates criminal behavior, and I would try to address that (by) policy to try to get those stores out of our neighborhoods that sell drugs to our people.”
Later on, when talking about how to deal with the criminal elements some businesses attract, McQueen said any changes to ordinances should be conducted with public input. He also said that targeting specific businesses — a reference to The Princess Theater and O-Kay Foods voluntarily closing earlier after a pair of shootings to avoid having reduced operating hours forced on them by city ordinance — is unfair.
“I am totally against governmental regulation shutting people down early — your store closes at three o’clock — you can’t do that because a person can’t make a living,” McQueen said. “Especially if I were to, say for instance, own a nightclub — I would make sure it’s fair and equitable across the board.
“If one store has to have cameras and security and everything, then everyone should have security and cameras,” he continued. “I’m not going to single anyone out, so what’s good for one should be good for all.”
The candidates also discussed, among other things, creating an office of economic development to try to help Columbus’ lagging industrial sector. Coburn said he’d support the idea, while McQueen said he’d only support it if other options failed. Lee sharply opposed it, saying the city should instead work to improve its relationship with the Golden Triangle Development LINK.
Ward 3
Box and Verdell largely avoided fighting over the mayor’s race, though Box was sometimes drawn into defending the current government’s decisions.
For example, Box stringently denied an accusation from Lee that city administration was using the Kerr-McGee cleanup efforts to profit for itself. He also later said, after Lee sharply criticized the use of tax-increment financing to attract certain businesses, that TIFs can and have been useful for the community.
“When you get up there on this podium and you’re presented numbers that are going to bring millions of dollars into the city of Columbus you’re going to look at this a little differently than what you will as a candidate, I promise you,” he said.
‘Are you here?’
Smith’s opponents didn’t miss an opportunity to needle him over his absence from Thursday’s forum, after he was the only candidate to attend a forum at the Mississippi University for Women earlier in the week.
Late in the debate, an audience member asked if Smith had ever traveled to meet with companies to try to draw business to Columbus. Lee, who also said he believes public dishonesty is Columbus’ biggest problem, turned to the mayor’s empty seat and asked “Mayor Smith, are you here?” much to the delight of McQueen and some members of the audience.
“Mayor Smith is quoted in The Dispatch as saying that when the candidates were not there at the W the other night that what he had that we didn’t was leadership,” Lee said, turning again to Smith’s empty seat. “Are you here?”
Smith told The Dispatch after the forum that he had planned to attend the forum, but withdrew late Thursday afternoon because he was sick. He said he emailed organizer Anner Marie Cunningham to apologize for having to miss the forum.
“I don’t miss no forums,” Smith said. “But my sinuses were whooping me.”
■ ELECTION GUIDE: Sunday’s edition will include information and a Q&A with municipal candidates in Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Clay.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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