Hood hangs back, Young channels Obama in Detroit mayoral debate

Detroit

Unlike the first Detroit mayoral debate on WADL-TV last month, the second debate held last night kept all four candidates on their talking points.

Not one insult flew, a stark difference from the first round in which Kenneth Cockrel, David Bing and Freman Hendrix exchanged verbal blows while the moderator, Mildred Gaddis, subtly provoked them.

This time the debate was moderated by TV anchor Dayna Clark, and the panelists included Nolan Finley, Detroit News editorial page editor and Stephen Henderson, Detroit Free Press editorial page editor. On stage were candidates Rev. Nick Hood III, Coleman A. Young Jr., Stanley Christmas and D. Etta Wilcoxon.

The debaters were randomly selected from the 14 candidates in the running in this February’s special election. According to a WADL spokesperson, the limited studio capacity would not allow all 14 candidates to participate in the same debate at once. The four were selected at random in order to eliminate the controversy that came up when the media hand-picked which candidates could debate the last time.

Dayna Clark noted during the debate that candidate Sharon McPhail had been invited to participate but chose not to attend because she found the random drawing of candidates to be “insulting.”

“We do have [an extra] podium to show that she was invited but chose not to attend,” Clark said three times during the debate.

The evening’s discussion focused on issues pressing the city, including the budget deficit, public education, crime and regionalism.

Each candidate appeared to hold their ground, with the most experienced candidate in Detroit politics, former Detroit City councilman Rev. Nick Hood III, failing to stand out among the group. Though he did well on specifics, he dodged a question about selling city assets, and he did not outshine the other candidates with his answers.

Stanley Christmas seemed uncomfortable in front of the camera, fidgeting and sometimes stumbling on his words, while Coleman A. Young Jr., who currently represents the state’s 4th house district, occasionally quoted scholars such as Victor Hugo and channeled Barack Obama’s inflection at times.

“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come,” he spouted in his opening statement without giving credit to Hugo. He also used the cliche politician’s fist pump and seemed to use the rhythms of Obama’s oratory.

Meanwhile, D. Etta Wilcoxon, another new face in Detroit politics, was among the most articulate of the candidates, though she offered the least specifics.

The debate opened with a question about how each candidate would handle the city’s ballooning deficit, which has tripled since October to reach $300 million.

Hood answered first with a promise to balance the budget and provide a “stable government” by reducing the city council’s budget to less than $550,000. He also said he would look into city jobs and services that could be cut.

“Do we need all of the employees that we have? Are there services that are not necessary?” he asked.

Christmas, a newcomer to the Detroit political scene, went second, declaring that no part of the budget would be “off limits” when it came to cuts.

He promised to go through the budget “line by line, item by item” to decide what to cut. He also suggested reducing the fleet of city owned cars and reducing the city’s services to reflect a shrinking population. “Our infrastructure has built-in deficit,” he said, referring to the spaces of the city where abandoned factories and building abound.

“Over on the east side it’s like a ghost town over there. Some parts have only one house on the whole block.” He suggested reducing garbage pickup in sparsely populated areas to every other week and giving residents of those areas more Dumpsters while they wait an extra week for trash pickup.

Young kept his answer brief. He said he would adopt a “zero-based budgeting system” and would be “reluctant” to cut health services.

Wilcoxon said she would reduce the city’s debt by making sure the budget was submitted to the state before penalty. (The city has failed to do so this year).

“The state is withholding our money because we have to get budgets turned in on time,” she said. But she disagreed with Christmas that the city should shrink its services to reflect population. “I would not put any portion of the city in a mothball status,” she said.

She said she would call on Detroit automakers to utilize “smart car” technology and ship these cars to Europe using the Detroit River. “We have an international waterway that is not being utilized,” she said.

She also repeatedly asserted that no city assets, including the Water Department, the Windsor Tunnel and Cobo Hall should be sold.

Henderson asked the candidates if they thought Detroit was safer after learning homicide statistics have declined 14 percent this year.

All candidates agreed that Detroit was not safe, though the decline in homicide was a good sign.

“The reality is, we’re averaging a homicide a day in Detroit,” Hood responded. “I would direct the police to re-think the philosophy of policing. I want to work on neighborhood crime that is casting a pall over our city.” He mentioned home invasions and robberies that “don’t show up in homicide statistics.” He implied that Detroit tolerated a “community of lawlessness.”

Wilcoxon said she was a “realist” when it came to dealing with crime issues. “It’s admirable to have a wish list of what we want to see done,” she said. “But we have to look at money. We have to figure out how we’re going to generate jobs.”

She said she didn’t feel it was her job as mayor to reduce crime but that it was her job to hire people who knew what they were doing. If she didn’t think crime workers were competent, “heads will roll,” she said.

Christmas said he wanted to mobilize communities to help police fight crime.

For his part, Young said he would focus on creating more jobs and that this would ultimately reduce crime. He also said she would tackle “drug infested areas” but that he would be careful not to turn Detroit into a police state.

At the end of the debate, each candidate opened an envelope and read the name of the randomly selected candidates to appear in the next debate, which is slated for Jan. 27. That event will feature candidates Duane Montgomery, Jeroll Sanders, Warren Evans and Donald Bradley.