Fayetteville Alphas host City Council candidates forum

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Candidates for Fayetteville’s City Council races on Wednesday talked annexation, ethics, public safety and base realignment.

The three-hour forum at Fayetteville State University was the only public setting this fall for them to share their ideas and tout their resumes before Election Day, which is Tuesday.

The contested races are:

Bob White is challenging Mayor Tony Chavonne.

Kady-Ann Davy wants to unseat incumbent Charles Evans in District 2.

George Boggs hopes to defeat incumbent Robert Massey in District 3.

Ron Harrison wants to replace incumbent D.J. Haire in District 4.

Wade Fowler is competing against incumbent Bill Crisp in District 6. Crisp was absent.

The other council races have no opposition.

The Epsilon Rho Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity sponsored the forum, where nine of the 10 contested candidates sat behind a curved table. They faced an audience of about 100 people, mostly FSU students, who offered occasional smatterings of applause.

The candidates were paired by district or mayoral race, and the atmosphere was cordial. They took turns standing up with a microphone to answer a variety of questions, ranging from development codes to the homeless.

Some of their responses were personal.

Fowler talked about the loss of his first wife to breast cancer. Harrison said he raised his daughter as a single parent. Haire said he got a call Wednesday morning from his 22-year-old daughter who had been in a car accident. She was OK, he said.

Julian Stackhaus, president of the fraternity chapter who ran for sheriff in 2006, kept the candidates on topic and on time while two students took turns reading the questions.

Some of the questions were posed only to incumbents. Others were given only to the challengers. Some questions had to be answered by everyone.

Here is a sampling of what each one had to say Wednesday:

White: “When I become mayor, this is going to become one happy city. I believe in God, and we are going to have some music festivals … I will bring a new character, quality and atmosphere to this city.”

Chavonne: “We are in a competitive battle,” he said of BRAC and the promises of growth. “There is nothing that says they have to come to Fayetteville.”

Davy: “How I propose to change the face of Fayetteville is to incorporate the diversity we have. It’s already here. … As we continue to talk about crime, safety and jobs – in order to create that, we have to reinvent and have that face for Fayetteville.”

Evans: “We are talking about raising the bar, and some areas of the district I represent are not there, and I want to fight to get them there.”

Boggs: “Fayetteville has to be beautified. It has to be brought up.”

Massey: “The key is whether or not Fayetteville and Cumberland County are going to be in a position to put its infrastructure in place to attract the folks,” he said of BRAC.

Harrison: “If there is a dark side, it has taken BRAC to bring to the forefront issues we have had for decades,” he said of the appearances of Murchison Road and Bragg Boulevard and transit.

Haire: “You can’t go anywhere in the district that I represent without knowing me as a positive-driven worker for the citizens, and that’s what I enjoy doing.”

Fowler: He wants the city to refund the cost of garbage collection and let people shop for better service. “Because when you control some things that you think you can do better, give it back to the residents, so you have more control over your lives.”

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