City Council Candidates Sound Off at Forum

CHARLESTON - What will they do to decrease the area's unemployment rate?

How would they ensure a fair distribution of city tax money to all parts of the city?

Do they support finishing I-526?

What would they do to attract new businesses and help them grow?

Those were the questions put to the seven candidates running for City Council Districts 7, 9 and 11 Thursday night at a League of Women Voters an Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce sponsored candidates forum held at the Delta Life Center at 2002 William Kennerty Drive in West Ashley.

All of the candidates are running for seats that represent portions of West Ashley.

Candidates Bob O'Brien and Keith Waring are facing off in District 7. Incumbent Councilman Aubry Alexander faces challenger Bob Aubin for the District 9 seat. The District 11 contest is a three-way race between Laura Dukes Beck, Andy Brack and Bill Moody.

To reduce the unemployment rate and create jobs the candidates took the following stances.

"The first thing you want to do is encourage an environment for corporations to come here," Waring said. "I don't think that we should have corporations that want to do business in the city of Charleston, for example be sued like the cruise industry like what is happening with Carnival right now."

He also referred to his expereince helping to create jobs while chairing the S.C. Economic Development Authority under former Gov. Jim Hodges which had a role in creating incentive packages to bring companies to the state, and his time heading the Charleston Metro Chamber.

"I plan to continue to work with the City Council and the administration on several initiatives," Alexander said. "We have two technology incubators in the city of Charleston, Flagships 1 and Flagships 2, which have recruited over 60 companies with an average salary of around $80,000.

"That's what we have done now," he continued. "We are on the precipice, this city of doing very great things right now."

He pointed to a project called Horizon, which is a development going on in the area of Johnson Hagood Stadium that will link knowledge based industries and biomedical technologies with the Medical University of South Carolina. Alexander said the council, of which he is currently a member has plotted out a future for the city to bring the types of businesses that will provide great jobs for the Charlestonians and thier children when they graduate from school and attract "brain power from across the country."

"I think the chief way we're going to get jobs in this area is by making sure that we have strong services and safe communities," Aubin said. "We need to make sure that education is a priority, making sure our teachers in the area are well paid, make sure that our schools are in good repair, and make sure that our police have the funds that they need so they can properly make sure that everyone is safe.

"Also our firemen, they do a very difficult job, they need to have the full compensation that they deserve to do that job," he added. "Having those things in place, having that basic structure in place is what will get companies to come here, when they know that it is a safe strong environment for their people to work in."

He said keeping a clean envirnoment was important to retain a healthy tourism sector that drives so much of the Charleston economy.

"The best way to bring more businesses to Charleston is to make it easy for them to be here," Beck said. "My primary point with that is that we need to smooth the process for them. We need to make sure the fees are as low as they can be, make sure the red tape is cut throughso that they want to come here instead of locating some place like North Charleston or Berkeley County."

She added that local jobs provided by local businesses are extremely important because with local businesses more money stays in the local economy than with "jobs from afar."

"I think the local movement we've seen in District 11 in the Avondale area for example and the Terrace area are great,and have been great for our community and out economy," Beck said.

Brack said he wants to set up business incubators, like the Flagships 1 and 2 Alexander mentioned, in West Ashley and James Island.

"The Charleston Digital Corridor has four different districts where they try to get technology businesses to locate," he said. "If you look at the map on the website, you'll see a whole bunch of pretty colors over the peninsula because that's where those districts are, there's one out in Cainhoy too. West Ashley and James Island are colorless because there is not a dedicated information technology district for that area."

"I would love to see the city dedicate a building so that small businesses that would start up there could have some space and share some computer technology, share some ideas that happen when you have people come together from different job areas," he added. "I think that would do a large amount to help small businesses get a little leg up."

He also said the city needs to develop a long-term, comprehensive plan that includes the input of regular citizens rather than just the burecrats, government planners and elected officials.

"I've really spent my entire career creating jobs," Moody said. "There's three things you need, you need an educated workforce, you need capital, and you need infrastructure."

"My effort would always be to push those things," he continued. "If government could do those things, we've talked about Digital Corridors, we've talked about lots of stuff like that, but we've got to have the capital so we got to bring in those people, we've got to fix the infrastructure, we've got to work on our schools."

"I know what it takes to create jobs and I know that I can help in that stiuation," he said.

"Creating jobs is not the obligation, nor should it be the duty of the council," O'Brien said. "Council's duty is to create an atmosphere that is fiscally stable for our community, and it is not right now."

"Over the past year the administration has voted on two projects totalling $300 million, of which over $160 million are not accounted for," he said. "We don't have assuarnces that we're going to receive that money. This is at a time when we have less than $30 million in general obligation bonds that we could put out."

He pointed to $71 million in donations for the rennovation of the Gilliard Auditroium to cover half of the cost of the project. He also mentioned police and fire department positions funded with federal dollars that may not continue to flow into the city, shrinking state and federal funding of other programs and franchise fees which make up a significant portion of the city's budget and are tied to economic conditons, saying "we have to take care of business at home."

On the question of ensuring an equal distribution of tax dollars across the city Alexander said to a large extent that already happens, at least in West Ashley, and said it was due to a strong contingent of representatives from the area on the council who are making sure their constituents receive their due.

He pointed to West Ashley Park off of Bees Ferry Road and the Northbridge Park that will be built in the near future. He pointed to the bike lanes being installed along St. Andrews Boulevard and Ashley River Road now. He pointed to the West Ashley Greenway as another example.

"There is allocation money for West Ashley because you have a strong contingent of West Ashley members of council looking at plans and budgets to ensure it," he said.

Aubin said the money spent on projects in West Ashley needs to be spent on things that people see and that make a difference in their daily lives. He called for more bus shelters and sidewalks and public transportation in the area, "things that ensure people can get where they need to go." He said a new park is a nice idea, but there are more pressing needs that money could be spent on, he said.

"We need to view every project based on how it is going to help the people of the city individually," Aubin said. "What is going to have the most impact?"

For Beck the budgeting process is the place to ensure city funds are dolled out evenly.

"That's where the spending decisions are made," she said.

Brack again called for a community driven long term plan to lay out a coherent vision for the city's future based on the things residents want to see, and using that process to set priorities for spending across the city, then sticking to the plan to ensure the projects are completed.

Moody said it was wrong to start pitting different parts of the city against each other, calling it a circular firing squad mentality.

"I live in West Ashley and my trash is picked up, the police come when we call, the fire department responds," he said. "That's about 85 percent of the budget right there, I'm not sure who's getting shorted."

To do more would require raising taxes, Moody said, and he is opposed to doing that.

O'Brien said the lack of amenities in District 7 is disgraceful for the city. Citing numbers from the city's website, he said of the 120 parks listed in the city only three are in District 7, and two of those he said are "empty fields facing a drainage ditch."

Waring took a more positive view, calling the Charleston a forward thinking city and noting that the city has put in place a $100 million plan to replace sewer lines. He also talked about the new bike lanes being installed on major roads in West Ashley

"The worst thing we can do is begin to be parochial," Waring said. "We put bike and pedestirna paths on the (Arthur) Ravenel Bridge, we can certainly put them in West Ashley."

Aubin said he was not in favor of finishing I-526. He returned to his theme of better uses for money saying he thought there were better ways to improve the safety and traffic on James Island and John's Island without finishing the interstate highway.

"Just because you spend $12 million to figure out how to dig a hole doesn't mean you have to spend $80 million to actually do it," Aubin said.

Beck also said she opposed the completion as it is currently designed. She too said she thought there were better and cheaper, "more fiscally responsible" traffic fixes that could be made on the islands. She didn't rule out the possibility of being convinced otherwise though, but also noted that the decision wasn't up to the City Council.

"If they can measurably show me it will improve traffic in fiscally responsible way I'll vote for it," Beck said. "But it is a county question at this point, not a city question."

Brack also lined up against I-526 under its current design.

"I don't think the road should be expanded unless it is widened first," Brack said. "If it is extended now without being widened, it will not be safer, I think it will be dangerous and people will die."

Moody on the other hand staunchly supported completing the road.

"Build the darn thing now," he said.

Moody said there are currently nine traffic choke points from John's Island to Downtown, and that in the coming years that number will grow to more than 30. He said the project has held more than a dozen families hostage to the process because they can't sell their property based on the uncertainty of the route the last leg of 526 will take, and their land lies along the right-of-way.

"The state should buy those properties now," he said.

O'Brien sided with Moody, saying the road should have been completed 10 years ago, noting the controversy had been brewing the entire 20 years he has lived in Charleston.

"With the state infrastructure bank $1 billion underwater, if we can get the money we should do it," he said. "But I don't think we can count on the state."

Waring is also in favor of completing 526. He pointed out that in the past decade the population of South Carolina grew so much the state got a new congressional district.

"Three of the largest cities in South Carolina are in Charleston County," Waring said. "We need that infrastructure, we need to build that highway and we don't need to vacilate anymore."

Alexander also supports finishing 526, but he doesn't think that decision really rests with the city or the county any more. Noting that a lot of roads in the city are not actually city roads, but rather county or state roads, he talked about the importance of taking issues to the next level and working with county and state officials to get things done.

"I believe the fate of 526 has left the hands of the people in Charleston County," Alexander said.

Finally on the question of attracting and helping new businesses grow, Beck echoed her response to the question of reducing unemployment and talked about smoothing the process for business owners and cutting red tape.

"The fees and hurdles and red tape and bureaucracy that keep local bus from coming here need to be eliminated so that they will come here," she said.

She also mentioned the city's existing comprehensive plan, a document required by state law for any municipality that enforces a zoning code, and pointed out it has a business component.

Brack called that plan, titled Century 5, "149 pages of bureaucratic BS" written by bureaucrats for bureaucrats, and said what he is calling for is a citizen driven plan that includes the comments, thoughts and desires of the city's residents. He said he also wants a citizen's committee to review all of the city's ordinances and any new ones before they go into effect.

Moody said the city ordinances could use a thorough review especially business license fees, which he said were the highest in the vicinity. However he said attracting new businesses was more of a private sector issue than a public sector one.

O'Brien said the city needs to make it easier for businesses to locate thoughout the city, and pointed to the peninsula district south of Calhoun Street, which he called the "gem" of the area. While the city must be careful not to let the character of the area be degraded, it needs to work better with people who come before the city for building review in the area because "now they feel they are opponents of the city."

"We need to create a climate of service," he said.

Waring said one of the few positives of a economic slow down is an opportunity to review the current rules and regulations to see where they increase the costs of doing business and where adjustments should be made.

Alexander talked about a business leaders group that has recently begun meeting to identify the problem areas in the city codes that make it hard for businesses to start up and grow in the city, and that will be making recommendations on how to make changes to address those problems.

"If you want to make improvements you need to find where the problems are," he said.

"The chief way to help businesses start and grow is to ensure we have strong infrastructure and that we foster a spirit of community, and that we're not pitting areas against each other," Aubin said.

He added that he agreed with Brack's call for a citizen driven comprehensive plan.