Three incumbents, Walton file in EC

Two challengers file in Edenton, Hertford

By REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer

Monday, July 06, 2009

Three incumbent city councilors and a former city council member led the way Monday as filing began for this fall’s municipal elections in Elizabeth City.

First Ward City Councilwoman Jean Baker filed for re-election to a fifth two-year term while 2nd Ward City Councilwoman Anita Hummer filed for a fourth two-year term. Also, 3rd Ward Councilman Ricky King filed for a second term and Johnnie Walton, who served on City Council from 2003 to 2007, filed as a candidate in the 4th Ward.

Elsewhere, challengers filed in both Edenton and Hertford for open council seats in the towns’ elections in November.

George Grother filed for incumbent Town Councilman Jerry Parks’ at-large seat in Edenton. Two other seats are up for election in Edenton: Councilman Willis Privott’s 4th Ward seat and Councilwoman Phyllis Britton’s 3rd Ward seat.

In Hertford, Quentin Jackson filed for one of two commissioner seats currently held by incumbents Horace Reid and JoAnn Morris. Morris has said she doesn’t plan to seek re-election; Reid has indicated that he will file for re-election.

No one filed Monday for the two open council seats in Winfall. Currently those seats are held by councilwomen Donna Mummert and Debbie Jean Whedbee.

In interviews with The Daily Advance Monday, Baker called for a continuation of current policies and projects in Elizabeth City while Walton and Hummer said council needed to be more concerned about the needs of low-income people and neighborhoods.

Baker said the city had gotten off to a great start on the Aviation Research and Commerce Development Park and had taken initial steps in exploring a potential downtown conference center,

“Certainly the city has a lot of projects that need to be continued,” Baker said. “I just hope we have the leadership on council to do it.”

Although the city is involved only as a funding source, the Albemarle Economic Development Commission has done a great job in economic development, she said.

“Things that people don’t realize are happening,” Baker said. “Good jobs are coming.”

The city needs to continue dedicating dollars to sidewalks and road improvements, she said.

“I think we’re making some headway,” she said.

Hummer, who is in her third stint on City Counci — she served from 1993-97, 1999-2001 and since 2003 — said her experience is a plus.

“I think that we need people who will offer stability to the Council,” she said.

She said the city was making strides in some important areas. She mentioned surveillance cameras in neighborhoods and computers for police patrol cars as examples of progress in the city.

But there are changes that need to occur in city government, she said.

“There are a lot of things that still need to get done in the 2nd Ward and I think the 2nd Ward has really gotten left out of a lot of things,” Hummer said. “We didn’t get the grant that we needed to get.”

She was referring to the city’s application last year for an $850,000 Community Development Block Grant for the Sawyertown-Pennsylvania Avenue area. She said the project would have gone a long way toward eliminating the blight that attracts crime.

“We need a council that considers low- to moderate-income people more than they currently do,” Hummer said. “I’ve been consistent in trying to hold down taxes and trying to be careful about unnecessary spending in the electric fund. People who are just getting by feel like no one cares.”

King, who filed for re-election late Monday afternoon, said the resurfacing of Roanoke Avenue and the beginning of stormwater work in the Roanoke Avenue area were important accomplishments during his first term.

“I’m happy to know that the sidewalk from Providence Road to Applebee’s will be constructed because it will help out a lot of elderly people,” King said. “That’s one good thing. Hopefully we can continue on and greater things happen.”

He also called for continuing assistance with utility bills.

“We can continue to try to help the people with the electric as much as we possibly can,” King said.

Walton, who lost to incumbent 4th Ward Councilwoman Volanda Watts in 2007, pointed out Monday that he lost by only a few votes.

“I didn’t think the community had decided I wasn’t a good politician,” he said.

He expressed concern about spending.

“I feel like this past council is not voicing the considerations of how the community is feeling,” Walton said. “When unemployment is the way it is – and economic times — the city increased the budget instead of decreasing it.”

The 2009-10 city budget increases spending about $5 million over the previous year’s budget, though it actually reduces spending in the general fund. The increased spending is mainly in the electric fund, largely as a result of increases in the cost of electricity from the city’s wholesale supplier.

Walton said the recent “Operation Spring Bling” drug bust showed a lot of kids in the community are not doing positive things. But the city is cutting youth programs out instead of increasing them, he said.

The 2009-10 budget increases funding to one youth program — the Police Athletic League — from $5,000 to $20,000. But council has streamlined its support for nonprofits and last year channeled money through the Coalition to End Homelessness and a special fund to help with utility bills rather than providing money to more than a dozen nonprofits as had been done in some prior years.

Walton said the money should be spread out among more nonprofits.

Click here to read more candidates' responses to other questions, plus other local elections stories.