Council, mayoral hopefuls speak at forum
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 10, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/JOHN JOYCE
Fremont mayoral candidate Keith Spivey, left, Goldsboro mayoral candidate Myelle Thompson and Mark Stevens, running for Goldsboro City Council District 3, take questions from the audience.
Despite being scheduled the same night the Goldsboro City Council was in session, the Goldsboro/Wayne chapter of the NAACP held an open forum Tuesday for candidates for City Council and candidates in the mayoral races in Goldsboro and in Fremont.
Goldsboro/Wayne chapter president Sylvia Barnes said the choice not to attend the forum at Rebuilding Broken Places was made by the council members.
"It's like I told Mr. (Chuck) Allen, you have a choice about anything. You could either come here, or you could go to your council meeting. That is the way I feel about it," Mrs. Barnes said.
Mrs. Barnes said that when the forum was planned she was unaware the City Council meeting would be moved to Tuesday night following the Labor Day holiday.
"This is our general membership meeting. We bring in programs, various programs, during those scheduled meetings," she said.
Allen, who serves as mayor pro-tem and is a candidate for mayor, called Mrs. Barnes last week when notified about the meeting, but Mrs. Barnes told him she could not reschedule the forum.
"I received a call from Mr. Allen, after letters had been sent out to everybody. I think he called me last Tuesday and asked me if the meeting could be changed. And I told him no, because we could not," she said.
Mrs. Barnes said no other time was available prior to the start of early voting Sept. 24. The primaries for Goldsboro's municipal races will be held Oct. 6.
Approximately 50 community members showed up to the hear from the candidates who were able to participate in the forum.
Those candidates who did attend were allowed to make opening and closing statements and to answer questions posed by audience members addressing concerns as wide ranging as what to do about coal ash to who ought to be allowed to address the City Council during work sessions.
City Council candidates included Antonio Williams, District 1, with incumbent Michael Headen not in attendance due to the council meeting; Troy Mitchell, District 2, with incumbent Bill Broadaway not in attendance due to the council meeting; Mark Stevens, District 3, with opponent Van Arthur Anderson not in attendance; and Tondalayo Clark and Bevan Foster, District 4, with incumbent Charles Williams not in attendance due to the council meeting.
Walter Ham, running unopposed in District 5, and Linda Harper, running in District 6 against incumbent Gene Aycock, also did not attend Tuesday's forum. Aycock could not attend because he, too, was in the City Council meeting.
Fremont mayoral candidates Keith Spivey and incumbent-Mayor W. Darron Flowers attended the forum and took questions, as did Goldsboro mayoral candidates D.A. Stewart, Henry Jinnette and Myelle Thompson. Allen, like the other council members, was at city hall.
Among the many concerns addressed in their open comments, the Goldsboro candidates focused mainly on the issues of high crime rates, low incomes and the prevalence of dilapidated housing in many of the districts.
Keith Copeland of Goldsboro is a member of the NAACP. He said he would have liked to see even more residents in attendance, as well as the missing candidates. He said it is time for city leaders to quit the bickering and get down to some real change.
"Anyone can point out what the problem is, but it is going to take somebody with some real vision to come up with some solutions," Copeland said.
He said the biggest issue needing an immediate solution is the crime.
"It's just way over the top. Just like (the candidates) were saying, we've got seniors and, you know, people are afraid to go outside," he said. And even if you have an event and you want to do something in certain areas, people are afraid to go.
Bringing the crime rate down will improve issues on some of the other areas, too, Copeland said.
"When you start eliminating some of that you will probably see some improvement in the schools ... it will affect everything," Copeland said.
The other outstanding issue he said is bringing skilled labor jobs to the area, not just retail.