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APRI Battle Creek: City Commissioner hopefuls participate in public forum

(The Battle Creek Enquirer)

City Commissioner Hopefuls Participate In Public Forum
By Nick Schirripa

More campaigning, more questions, more prognosticating.

The candidates and the answers were much the same as they have been throughout their campaigns, but 16 of the 21 candidates running for Battle Creek City Commission seats spent a few hours Monday addressing some 60 people who gathered in the Second Missionary Baptist Church basement.

Candidates who participated in the forum, sponsored by the A. Philip Randolph Institute Battle Creek Chapter, included:

• Jarrite Jackson and Chris Simmons from Ward 1.
• Ken Beninghaus, Bob Bennett, Johnny Cash and Patrick O'Donnell from Ward 3.
• Elizabeth Fulton and John Godfrey from Ward 4.
• Andy Yankama from Ward 5.

At-large candidates: Susan Baldwin, Beverli Carpenter-Hunter, Ryan Hersha, Bill Morris and Diane Thompson.
It also was the first public appearance for write-in candidate Debra Lynn Ward Gray, who filed Thursday to run in Ward 2 against the previously unopposed incumbent Tony Walker, who also participated in the forum.

The most popular challenge facing the next commission was economic development, according to most of the candidates, though some of the details differed.

Cash said in addition to fighting crime and increasing fiscal responsibility in City Hall, commissioners should look to stipulate any new jobs created under a tax abatement should be given to local residents.

Jackson, Godfrey and Thompson said educating the city's future workforce is the key to securing more jobs.

Many candidates — including O'Donnell, Bennett and Fulton — said engaging the community is a key to growth.

Gray said economic development also has to reach into the city's residential areas, helping would-be entrepreneurs find a way to start new businesses.

Walker said given the state and local economies in recent years, the next commission will have the most trouble exacting a budget that will provide basic services at the level at which residents have become accustomed.

Hersha said racial and socioeconomic differences still plague the city, and those differences have a negative impact on the community, its leadership and its economic growth.

Franklin Ballard of Battle Creek asked the candidates to address how they might work to remove barriers preventing people with felony records from getting jobs.

Godfrey, Thompson and Carpenter-Hunter said the city needed to continue work with the state legislators and prisoner re-entry programs.

Cash characterized people being denied jobs because of a felony record as legal discrimination, and O'Donnell said the community needs to be more forgiving.

Jackson said the culture of employability among job providers needs to change, and Morris, a Battle Creek business owner and employer, said he makes efforts to give felons a second chance.