SUN’s Southside Coalition will sponsor a candidate forum with all four candidates for the two seats on the Syracuse Common Council representing the Southside: 3rd District: Jim Stelter (R) v. Bob Dougherty (D) and 4th District: Khalid Bey (D) v. Howie Hawkins (G). The debate will be held on Tuesday October 18th @ 7 PM Payton Memorial Temple 1816 Midland Avenue
The leadership of SUN’s Southside Coalition will ask 5 questions of each of the candidates. After that, we will open up the floor for questions from the audience.
The 5 Questions from SUN’s Southside Coalition leadership (50 min.)
(Each candidate will answer each question. Each candidate will have 2 minutes to answer the question. There will be no rebuttals of opponents’ statements. Each candidate will have received the following questions prior to the forum.)
1) Southside residents seem to have more than their fair share of vandalism, unsupervised children out late at night, noise, fights: the kind of annoyances that ruin the quality of life in a neighborhood. The police claim they can do little about the problems due to lack of manpower. As a common councilor–what steps will you take to help solve some of these problems? (Louise Thompson)
2) SUN’s areas on the southwest side of the city have 15% of the city’s households–but we also have over 40% of the city’s vacant houses. SUN believes that the city’s Division of Code Enforcement is incapable of dealing with the problem. Big time slumlords seem to ignore Housing Court with impunity and ordinary residents seem to have the book thrown at them for small infractions. As a common councilor–what steps will you take to help solve these problems?
(Maria Johnson)
3) Every year, the city seems to cut the amount of money allocated for low- income families to finance home repairs in the Community Development Block Grant budget. Last year, faced with having to cut $1 million from the budget after additional federal cuts, the city Neighborhood Development Dept. refused to consult with either the community or the Council. As a common councilor–what steps will you take to deal with both of these problems? (Mary Washington)
4) The city is either underfunding or cutting out entirely many city services. Fewer firefighters on each shift, roads unpaved and unrepaired, senior centers being closed. The explanation is always the same–the city is broke. Yet no one on the Common Council has spoken out about the need to increase revenue, either in Albany or in Syracuse. As a common councilor–what steps will you take to help increase revenue for the city and state? (Peter Polikarpenko)
5) The Common Council signs off on many economic development deals during the course of the year. Projects like the Syracuse Housing Authority’s plan to build 50 single-family houses on the Southside receive city financial assistance and clearance on zoning and land use regulations. Why does the discussion never include requirements to hire local city residents to work on the projects? As a common councilor–what steps will you take to help make local job creation a part of the conversation about economic development? (Carolyn Stanley)
Syracuse United Neighbors is a 501-c-3 non-profit agency and is forbidden from endorsing candidates for office. This candidate forum is being held to help educate our members and members of the community. SUN encourages our members to learn about the positions taken by the candidates for office and to vote their conscience on election day.
