Mayoral forum addresses economic growth, crime

The open forum gave voters insight on the candidates.

By Gregory Zajac

Published Feb. 5, 2010

Five of Columbia's mayoral candidates met Wednesday night at Paquin Tower to field citizens' questions about city development to access for people with disabilities.

The forum, hosted by CARE@Paquin, was designed to introduce the candidates to the public and give the people they serve an opportunity to be involved in the community, Chairman Sean Spence said.

Mayoral candidates Sean O'Day, Bob McDavid, Paul Love, Sid Sullivan and Jerry Wade attended the discussion. Bar owner and candidate Sal Nuccio declined an invitation to the forum.

One of the topics discussed was economic growth. Sullivan, who is a member of the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition, said he would like to strategize to make Columbia's service industry grow.

"We need to do the marketing in terms of what is the best fit for the city of Columbia," he said.

Love, a network analyst at Carfax, said he wants to spur economic growth by attracting high-tech companies to Columbia.

Four Ward Councilman Wade said he had a three-pronged approach to spurring growth of the economy, which includes attracting outside companies, starting businesses locally and helping those local businesses expand.

"Let's not shoot and whatever falls claim it, let's target what we want that will create the economy we want," Wade said.

McDavid, a retired physician, proposed tapping into the resources already in Columbia by working closer with faculty and students at MU.

"We have a genius factory in this town; it's the University of Missouri," he said. "There are bright people over there with a lot of ideas."

O'Day said the economic focus of the city should be alternative energy, scientific development and entrepreneurship.

"Not just attract businesses, which is great — you have to have manufacturing to make the infrastructure to be able to build businesses," O'Day said. "But we need people starting businesses here, not just opening up another shop."

After a homicide in his neighborhood, Love was motivated to run for mayor. As a result, solutions for crime are an important part of his platform, as well as restoring some personnel losses in the police department.

"We had four or five detectives that have been moved off of major crimes and narcotics, also off the Internet task force," Love said. "I'd like to get those guys out there, not writing tickets, but instead catching criminals that are menacing our towns."

Other candidates addressed preventing Columbia's youth from falling into the cycle of crime. O'Day pushed education and said it is the way to prevent crime across ages and social classes.

Wade said members of the community need to remember their responsibility to those being left behind and help them break the cycle of poverty. He proposed taking a look at what other communities have done to make a difference and bring them back up into the economy.

"We need to bring the youth together and let them tell us how they can begin to be a part of the solution, and we need to see what other communities and innovations are taking place," Wade said.

Sullivan said the problems young people face result from failing parents and emphasized more stringent law enforcement is not the answer.

"There's not adequate coverage for kids in the criminal justice system," Sullivan said. "I would like the city to seek to explore putting youth counselors on the street to work with kids."

Columbia residents will decide the mayoral race and other city elections when they head to the polls April 6.