In their words: Bob McDavid

By Pierce Courchaine

Published March 2, 2010

This is the fourth installment of "In their words," a six-part series of interviews with Columbia's mayoral candidates leading up to the April 6 election. This week is retired doctor Bob McDavid, Boone Hospital Center board of trustees chairman.

The Maneater: For those who don't know much about you, why don't you talk about yourself a little bit?

Bob McDavid: I came out of a small town in the '60s, De Soto. It's over by St. Louis. I spent a year at Rolla, decided I was going to make a run at med school, came up here in '66 and got in med school, and graduated in '72. And then spent '72 to '76 doing a residency in obstetrics and gynecology. So in 1976, when I completed my residency, I started a practice here in Columbia over at Boone hospital and practiced OBGYN there 'til 2003.

M: Starting off, do you think Columbia has a crime problem?

BM: I sort of fall back on the FBI uniform crime report site — they report 176 violent crimes in Columbia in the first six months of 2008. They report 244 in the first six months of 2009. And that's a 38 percent increase of violent crime at a time when nationally violent crime dropped 4.5 percent. Perception is really important. If people perceive there is a crime problem, then you got a crime problem.

M: As mayor, what would you try to do to lower that crime?

BM: The perception among a lot of people is the City Council is more interested in personal privacy rights than creating a safe area. Citizens need to feel like people in charge really care about crime and get these statistics taken care of.

M: What is your stance on cameras downtown?

BM: I'm going to vote for the referendum. It'll be interesting to see democracy at work because people will get a chance to tell us what they think. I disagree with, but I understand the personal privacy argument. But if you're going to argue that we shouldn't have security cameras downtown, then why do you put them up in front of the new city building? There's two different messages there.

M: How do you plan to bring in jobs to Columbia and keep the jobs here?

BM: One of the things that's going to recruit jobs to Columbia is Columbia. Columbia is a great place to live, and you need to not get in the way of that. The city has done some good things about planning for economic development. We have some industrial sites that what they call is shovel-ready. In other words, we got the zoning, and we got the infrastructure in place. But you know what? So does every town in this country. The mayor's got to be a salesman too. It's a sales job, and I take that very seriously.

M: As Columbia grows in population, how are you going to handle that growth?

BM: We want to see economic activity increased. One of the ways to increase is get the great ideas to stay here in Columbia and not go somewhere else.

M: What do you feel are Columbia's biggest economic problems?

BM: Columbia is in a much better position than it used to be. What you can't be known as is a business-unfriendly town, and we've had that reputation in the past. On the other hand, we have to protect the integrity of Columbia's character. We got to protect our neighborhoods so we've got to grow responsibly, but we still have to grow.

M: As a retired doctor, is there anything the mayor can do to improve the overall health of the citizens?

BM: There are a lot of initiatives that we've done at Boone Hospital that we could bring into the city. Simple things like, know what your numbers are, which means 'What's your blood pressure? What's your cholesterol?' These are initiatives that I have an interest in and I would be pursuing them at the city level.

M: What do you feel are things to students?

BM: They're probably not any different than what they were in the '60s. Students want a good place to live. They want good transportation. You want a place to have fun.

M: One important issue to most students is the nuisance party ordinance that says fines can be issued to 10 or more people for underage drinking, parking violations and noise complaints. What are your thoughts on that ordinance?

BM: We have to be understanding of the need for students to have a good time, and we have to be understanding for the need of residents to have some peace and quiet. We spent two hours at the last council meeting debating that issue and did not come up with a resolution, which points out that we need a lot of communication to sort through that.