In their words: Paul Love

By Pierce Courchaine

Published March 9, 2010

This is the fifth 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 CARFAX employee Paul Love.

The Maneater: For the students who don't know you very well, can you start off by talking about yourself?

Paul Love: I came back here in 1988 as a student. I liked it so much I stayed. My first real time job was at DataStorm; it was started by two gentlemen who worked here and were students at the university. From there I worked at Morenet, which is basically the Internet service provider for most of the schools and libraries in the state. I worked at IBM and now I'm working at CARFAX, which was also another business that was started locally.

M: First, we're going to start off with some basic issues. The first is crime. Do you think Columbia has a crime problem?

PL: The answer is yes. We've always had really low crime. But the rate of crime seems to be increasing. A lot of it seems to be becoming more organized. When more people become involved in crime, they start competing for the at-risk youth in our community.

M: What are some of the economic concerns of Columbia, and as mayor, how would you solve them?

PL: We need to start looking for additional businesses that can be started or attracted to Columbia if we want to continue to have our same standard of living. One of the things I've been looking at is perhaps trying to attract some of the high technology companies here. The other thing that the city can do to help businesses like that locate here is offer them a period of time, say three or five years, where we offer them a deal on power.

M: The fiscal year 2010 budget cut spending by 3 percent. Is that enough?

PL: No! The fact that we are living out of our current savings, the amount of the city savings was going to be running out sometime late 2011, 2012. We're going to have to cut about $5 to $10 million out. Columbia is in a solid position compared to cities who are already shutting off services. We haven't shut off services yet. The problem is we need to scale back.

M: According to documents made available to the public, around 2005 you sued the UM Board of Curators for defamation related to your resignation from MU subsidiary Morenet. Are you still alleging the UM Board of Curators have violated anti-terrorism laws in their dispute with you?

PL: It's funny because I kind of had to talk to them so they'd be nice and let me on campus. There's a Missouri statute, 574.115, that provides information on how the Missouri government regards acts that might be terrorism. I will tell you that as part of the discussion I had with the university in court, they might willfully and maliciously falsify the information that they reported.

M: Will this dispute with the university impact with how you deal with the university if elected mayor?

PL: The answer is yes and no. I will look at them in a slightly more practical standpoint. A perfectly good example is the sewer dispute. For years, the university has paid about $5 for their entire sewer bill. The dispute is if they are using the sewer system, should they pay going rates for the sewer? I have to say if you're using the sewer in the city, I'm not trying to penalize you but just like everybody else, I expect you to pay for what you use.

M: Would you be more biased against the university's interest?

PL: I'd asked that they be treated fairly. I probably wouldn't give them so much stuff.

M: Now we're going to move into our final section, student issues. What do you think are important issues to students?

PL: When I was a student here, I always felt like students were kind of picked on by the police. Most of the alcohol checkpoints they have set up are in student areas or on pathways that go directly to student housing. I'm not saying they should be granted exceptions, but I think we need to look at everyone in town. I think there are laws on the books that are designed to be selectively enforced. I think we need to change those laws or we need to enforce them.