At a panel Wednesday night, candidates for Durham City Council and mayor heatedly discussed their opinions on issues ranging from affordable housing to capital punishment.
Although the panel, facilitated by North Carolina Central University's student government, saw a turnout of only about 40 people, the audience's questions left candidates pressed for time to get out all their points and rebuttals.
The majority of the night was occupied by a debate among the City Council candidates. At one point, both candidates and audience members rose to their feet when the topic turned to crime, as candidates Michael Peterson and Ray Ubinger took sides at opposite extremes.
Peterson, a former columnist for The Chronicle, cited programs already running in Virginia. He suggested that Durham adopt Project Exile, which sends anyone illegally owning a gun to jail for five years.
In response, Ubinger, a clinical data assistant at the Medical Center and a member of the Libertarian Party, explained his "peaceful" drug policy. "By the government forbidding something, the problem is getting worse," he said. "We shouldn't put people in jail who are simply exchanging personal property."
He added that when the government incarcerates people who are not hurting anyone, there is less room in prison for murderers and rapists.
The candidates also fielded questions relating to Durham's economic environment and affordable housing.
"Empowerment" was incumbent Tamra Edwards' economic solution. "We as a city council could act as a facilitator to bring the community together," Edwards stressed.
She explained that the city should look to successful businesses to help provide job skill training and development for the city's youth--a point several other candidates agreed with. "A working person is a productive person," said Howard Clement, a 19-year council member.
Some candidates, notably Peterson and challenger John Best, said the city needed to perform a complete audit and recover the money--about $800,000--that the city gave out in small-business loans that are now under federal investigation.
All candidates acknowledged the importance of affordable housing, although some were less willing than others to use public funding to improve housing availability.
Peterson argued that there is "tons of HUD money" to be put toward housing, and that the allocation of city funds for such a purpose should be sidelined until money is recovered from the programs that have not yet been audited.
In contrast, incumbent Angela Langley emerged as a strong housing advocate. "I do believe in putting public money where it can help our citizens," she said. "A home is an anchor for a person because you really can't do much without an address."
Other City Council candidates present included challengers Cora Cole-McFadden, Jeffery White, Joe Williams and Steven Matherly, and incumbents Dan Hill, Thomas Stith, Lewis Cheek and Erick Larson, a Perkins Library employee. Incumbent Jacqueline Wagstaff did not attend.
Following the debate among the City Council candidates, NCCU students posed questions dealing with capital punishment, tax increases and crime to mayoral candidates Bill Bell, Brenda Burnette, Ralph McKinney and incumbent Nick Tennyson.
Burnette and Bell adamantly opposed capital punishment, saying the justice system sometimes leads to the conviction of innocent people. Tennyson agreed that the system was flawed, but said he still supported the death penalty in principle. "Some crimes are so egregious that the only appropriate punishment is the loss of one's life," he said.
Burnette called for a cautious approach to taxation. "We have to make the people with the money pay," the current City Council member said.
Bell agreed, but added that some taxation is beneficial. "I don't think people mind paying taxes if they're getting better services," he said.
McKinney blamed businesses for taking advantage of black people, claiming they often overcharge them because of their race. "If we recovered money from the bigots, we'd have money and no need for new taxes," he said.
McKinney also said public funding would not be necessary to prevent violence. "There is so much money in the world that people have no use for," he said. "If they saw Durham had a commitment [to violence prevention] we wouldn't have to tax."
Mayoral candidate Stephen Hopkins did not attend.
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