Voters will send at least two members of the Durham City Council home Tuesday, as five incumbents and one challenger battle over three at-large seats on the council.
Incumbents Lewis Cheek, Tamra Edwards, Dan Hill, Angela Langley and Thomas Stith are competing with challenger Joe Williams in the race, which revolves around the issues of growth, development, crime and efficient government.
Almost every candidate listed crime prevention as the top issue facing Durham. Williams, for example, advocated higher visibility of police officers on city streets. Cheek agreed, also calling for better technology for police and more community involvement in preventing crime.
Although all the candidates agree that crime needs to be addressed, they differ on issues of growth and development. While on the council, Cheek, Hill, Langley and Stith have voted in support of most rezonings for new residential or commercial developments on the periphery of Durham.
They argue that it is important for the city to grow, and to provide nearby homes for people who work in the Research Triangle Park. "It makes no sense to me that we don't have quality residential properties all around the northern rim of the Research Triangle Park," said Hill, Trinity '66. "We have nothing there."
But Edwards has generally voted against controversial rezoning projects, arguing that they place too much stress on the city's environment, roads and overcrowded schools. "We are adding to the problems that we're facing in Durham, not only with the schools, but also with crime," Edwards said at a forum last week. "I have a problem with that." She did not return phone calls from The Chronicle for futher comment.
Cheek, however, pointed out that developers often promise to improve nearby roads and that one developer donated land to the school board for a new school. "By and large, I think that we see that with the increased development, with the roadway improvements that are required, a lot of times we end up with a better situation rather than a worse situation," he said.
The candidates all support development downtown, however, where they say projects like the potential redevelopment of the old American Tobacco and Liggett & Myers warehouses into attractive residential and commercial facilities could provide new jobs, draw more people downtown and improve the city's economy.
"I've been supportive of downtown development because that's good for the entire community of Durham," Stith said. "Those companies [that open offices or shops downtown] will have to hire residents throughout the city."
Langley added that the creation of upscale apartment complexes and commercial facilities downtown must be balanced by attention to the needs of nearby low-income neighborhoods like North-East Central Durham. "[We should] focus on economic development in neighborhoods where they have the greatest need," she said.
The candidates also advocate government efficiency, especially in the wake of a troubled small-business loan program. Cheek and Stith, for instance, support a managed-competition program that would allow private businesses to compete for the ability to take on some city services, and a gain-sharing program that would give city employees who can suggest a way for the city to cut costs a share in the money saved.
Hill suggested working to improve the tax-collection rate and to reduce claims in the city's workers' compensation program, which far exceed those of cities like Greensboro.
Williams, a former tennis champion, said the council needed to do more to fight Durham's problems like crime and the lack of educational opportunities.
"How many years are you going to take to do something?" he asked. "If you've been on the council for four, six, two years, why don't you do something?"
The race is particularly competitive, pitting five incumbents against each other, because the council's size will be reduced from 13 people to seven in this election. In the primary, all five incumbents finished within 6 percentage points of each other, with Stith, Hill and Cheek in the top three spots but Edwards and Langley close behind.
Edwards, Langley and Stith could get a boost from the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, which endorsed them and is expected to make a strong push to turn out the vote for this election.
Hill said he anticipated that one way or the other, voters would elect candidates with similar positions, not several candidates with different views.
"I think it's going to be very clear as to who the winners and losers were in terms of philosophical approaches to government," he said.
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