City Council candidates Hoppe and Robison differ on key issues

The Sixth Ward includes many student residences.

By Ryan Schmitz

Published Feb. 16, 2009

The two candidates to represent the Sixth Ward on City Council have cited similar issues as their top priorities.

Among them is a nuisance ordinance passed in 2006, which Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe supports.

"The municipal noise ordinance needs to be fine-tuned for certain areas," said Hoppe, whose ward is home to many students. "Certain areas create excessive noise for residents of downtown."

Challenger Rod Robison, a water systems manager at the Riback Supply Company and a 36-year resident of Columbia, said such issues are always present in towns such as Columbia.

"There are always conflicts in college towns between residents and students," he said. "The residents of the Sixth Ward whom I've talked to are concerned about this."

Mayor Darwin Hindman said the council took into consideration the noise issues in East Campus when adopting the noise ordinance and believes it is working well.

A point of contention between the candidates involves the potential establishment of a sustainability director for the city, which Hoppe said would improve Columbia's handling of economic and environmental challenges.

"We need a sustainability director to make sure that every aspect of the city works for residents," she said. "Without it, we rob future generations of their fair chance at prosperity."

Hoppe cited Dubuque, Iowa, as an example where assigning someone to manage sustainability issues produced positive results. The director there helped reach a deal with IBM to create 1,300 jobs at a local technology center.

Although Robison acknowledges the benefits of this idea, he said Hoppe's timing is wrong.

"I think the sustainability director is a great idea," he said. "However, I'm not sure about the connection between the sustainability director and the creation of jobs. I think that with tax revenues down, this isn't the right time. I would be in favor, but I need proof that it actually creates jobs."

Hindman said the economic and environmental benefits of having a sustainability director outweigh the short-term costs.

"This will allow us to save a lot of money," he said. "The sustainability director can find things that need to be done in the city and create green jobs."

Both candidates voiced concerns with crime issues that have become more prevalent in during the past year. Even though violent crimes for the city as a whole dropped, property crimes increased.

"We had a mixed bag with crime last year," Robison said. "The people I've talked to are concerned about crime spreading to areas where it hadn't been before. We need to figure out why offenders are so young and how they ended up on the wrong path at such an early age."

Hoppe noted the improvements, but said a spike in property crime is common in large cities across the U.S.

"Reorganizing the police department helped it to function better," she said. "We created a new professional standards unit and added 21 new officers in the last three years."

The candidates offered different solutions to fix the problem. Hoppe promoted the idea of community policing. Robison said the city government needs to continue to support the police and the department is understaffed.

Hindman linked the trends in crime to the financial crisis and emphasized the need to allocate resources fairly to all areas of the city government.

"Many of the crimes we are seeing are crimes of opportunity," he said. "We need to continue educational programs and community policing. There is no such thing as too many police, but we have to balance resources between the police department and the rest of the city."