Kids put Detroit City Council candidates on the spot at forum

DETROIT — With Election Day less than two months away, candidate forums are becoming very common. But with waning voter interest and low community participation, these gatherings are often predictable and audience members consist mostly of campaign staff and family members of candidates.

Maybe that’s why a forum earlier this week that allowed school children to ask candidates questions was a refreshing departure from the norm.

A forum on Wednesday sponsored by the non-profit human service group Neighborhood Service Organization and the Detroit Free Press was held at Grace Church of the Nazarene on the city’s northeast side. The crowd of approximately 150 people was very attentive with no hecklers.

Of the 18 candidates in the running for city council seat, 16 of them attended the forum. City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and activist Mohamed Okdie did not attend. Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley moderated the event.

Candidates were asked to share their ideas on how to curb crime, shorten police response time and how they would support Detroit Public schools if elected.

Because city council members have very limited power in affecting large issues like crime and public schools, many candidates brought up ideas that they could not carry out as a single council members. Jai Lee Dearing said that he would close the 311 public information service, which offers switchboard phone service to all city departments and use that money to hire more police officers.

Saunteel Jenkins and Jo-Ann Watson suggested creating “safe zones” or houses where threatened or troubled children could go to feel safe.

Kwame Kenyatta, who has served on city council for one term had the most realistic answer. “I’m never going to tell you I can do something I can’t do,” he said. “What we can do [is use] budget money so that [police] have everything that they need.”

A couple of the questions from the students were so original that they caught some of the candidates off guard.
One high school student asked how many of the city council challengers had reached out to incumbents and asked to share specifically what they discussed.

While most of the challengers could easily recall names of incumbents they had reached out to, some of them skipped a response to the question.

Former Detroit Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown, restaurateur Jai Lee Dearing and schoolteacher Shelly Foy were the challengers who had not reached out to incumbents to seek advice or discuss issues facing the city.

One student asked the incumbents in attendance, JoAnn Watson, Brenda Jones and Alberta Tinsley-Talabi if working on city council had changed anything about their personality in order to work on the council.

Kwame Kenyatta said he has learned to be more patient. “I only say something when I have something to say,” Kenyatta told the audience which was a mix of middle school and high school students, campaign staff, journalists and a few Detroit political enthusiasts who frequent local candidate forums. “But sometimes that fire still comes out,” he admitted.

Alberta Tinsley-Talabi said she recalled a time when “fire was going around the table” and she maintained professionalism.

The last question came from a young student named Triba Copelan who asked whether each candidate supported council by districts, and why.

Twelve of the 16 candidates in attendance said they supported a measure that would have city council members elected by districts instead of the current at-large only system.

Brown said he supported districts but noted that if was a change that take effect for some time. “You won’t have districts for four to eight years from now,” he said.

Former police spokesman James Tate said he supported districts for council members only if the Charter Revision Commission gave council members “additional powers” to run their respective districts, namely the power to direct department heads to act. Currently only the mayor has power over department operations.

But other candidates said they were cautious about such a measure and warned that electing council members by district will not fix the myriad problems facing Detroiters.

Social worker Saunteel Jenkins was critical of the measure. “We currently have a school board that is elected by district and look how good they’re doing,” she pointed out. Jenkins said voters should “ask the hard questions” when it comes to deciding whether districts would be good for Detroit.

Incumbent Brenda Jones echoed Jenkins’ opinion. “Citizens should be educated on what council by districts will bring and what it won’t bring,” she said.

Motivational speaker and teen counselor Raphael Johnson said he was not sure if districts would do any good. “It sounds good but we don’t have any proof that it’s going to be a problem solver,” he said. Johnson agreed with Tate that if district format is put in place, council members need to share powers with the mayor. If they don’t he said council members in districts would be “like a carpenter with no hammer and nails.”

Students Triba, Mia, and Sarah ask city council candidates tough questions at NSO forum