Candidates give platforms, answer questions at forum

By Jacob Barker

Published March 2, 2007

A forum hosted by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce gave mayoral and Columbia City Council candidates the chance to give their platforms and answer questions on Thursday. The April 3 election will determine the outcome of races for mayor and seats on the City Council for the Third and Fourth Wards.

Mayor Darwin Hindman was unable to attend, but his opponent, John Clark, Third Ward candidates Gary Kespohl and Karl Skala and Fourth Ward candidates Mike Holden and Jerry Wade attended the forum.

Hindman had a statement outlining his qualifications and goals read in his absence. In it, he stated that when the City Council loses Bob Hutton and Jim Loveless this April, it will also lose their combined 20 years of experience. Therefore, Hindman's statement recommended that Columbia citizens vote for him based on his 12 years of experience on the council.

Clark, who ran against Hindman three years ago, said he still thinks the City Council has not been playing an equal leadership role with the city manager and city staff members.

"(City Manager) Bill Watkins can only do his job well if the City Council does its political job well," Clark said. "I believe we need to elect people to the City Council this time so he will have strong support for doing things we need to do and the things he's been trying to get the staff to suggest to the council to do."

Each City Council candidate addressed the city's visioning process. The city has undertaken this process to get citizen input on growth and development.

Skala said he has been involved with the visioning process from the start and thinks it can restore citizens' faith in government.

Kespohl said he thinks the process will produce a lot of good ideas, but said he had reservations about how fast it is going and the number of citizens involved.

Holden and Wade were both enthusiastic about the process.

"What is most important for a City Council member to do is that they have to embrace the visioning process as an important tool for governing the city," Holden said. "If the visioning process comes up with a citizen-driven idea that maybe doesn't fit well with a council person's personal agenda, then they have to be able to look past that and realize it's citizen driven."

Wade also said he strongly supports the visioning process.

"It has the potential to catalyze and energize the community to take a new track in terms of its future direction and action," he said.

The candidates also discussed whether the council was adequately representative of the city and whether council members should be paid.

Holden said he said he supports expansion of the council and paying council members' expenses but would rather have a volunteer-led council. Wade, on the other hand, supports much more dramatic changes to the council.

"We have to quit pretending like we're a small town," Wade said. "We are a city, a growing city, and we need to recognize the task of the council can no longer be filled out of the back seat of a person's car or from their store. We need to have office space, support staff and pay."

Kespohl also thinks that Columbia has grown too large to be adequately represented by a seven-member council but is opposed to council pay.

"I've been a volunteer all my life, and there is nothing as strong as the heart of a volunteer," he said. "I just feel we can get quality people without having to pay."

Skala said he is not absolutely opposed to council pay, but he does not favor it.

He said that he thinks Columbia has gotten so large that it is critical that council members have staff support to adequately perform their duties. As for expanding the council, Skala said he does not want the council to get too large.

"I've always been fascinated with small-group dynamics," he said. "I think the City Council could possibly be expanded perhaps to as many as nine. Once you get beyond that magic number of about 9, 10 or 11, you wind up with too many people."