South Side group hears from mayoral candidates

Mayoral candidates, Darryl Buchanan and Scott Smith, focused on crime prevention and their plans to increase public safety at the South Side Business and Resident Association meeting July 19.

Buchanan said he had a plan to put more police on the streets by closing City Hall one day a week. He said that would bring $5 million in savings from wages and benefits without laying off one person. With the $5 million in savings Buchanan said he would hire more police and fire personnel.

He also advocated a summer work program for youth saying that Newark, N.J., cut their crime rate by 46 percent when they provided local jobs for youth.

"Business will come when we reduce crime," Buchanan said. "We can move this city forward. We're more than the murder capital of America."

Asked about his relationship with former Mayor Don Williamson, Buchanan said that Williamson has no involvement in his campaign.

"I worked for Williamson for one year. I have 24 years of service to the city," Buchanan said.

Buchanan said he would first consider a person's integrity, then their academic record and finally their experience when selecting his staff.

Smith said he had no political background. He said he was a business owner who if elected, would make public safety his number one priority. He promised he would put 50 officers back on the streets.

"Where is our tax money going?" Smith asked. "We paid $3.2 million in overtime. As a businessman I think that is a controllable expense."

He favors work details for jail inmates.

"Rather than letting them sit in an air-conditioned cells, I'll put them to work — like they do in Saginaw," Smith said.

Smith said he favors merging 911 and wants to bring a minor league baseball team to the North Side.

"Once crime is under control, we could offer Genesee Towers to a Fortune 500 to get more jobs here," Smith said.

Smith said he would look for the most qualified people, wherever they lived, when he chose his appointees.

"We need a clean sweep of City Hall," Smith said.

Smith was born and raised in Flint, attended Mott College and owns a local landscaping business.

Following the mayoral candidates presentations, Dwayne Parker, Hurley Medical Center director of community marketing and diversity, said Genesee County was recently designated the most unhealthy county in Michigan by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's second annual County Health Rankings Report. Issues like alcoholism, smoking and obesity marked the county as unhealthy.

"At Hurley we're very good at serving people who come to us because they are ill," Parker said. "But we wait until they are ill before we act. Now, Hurley is stepping up its preventive health care and prevention programs. We are going to educate, inform and work with other agencies to meet these challenges. We want to become your partner in wellness."

Parker talked about the new emergency department's expansion and the need for a separate pediatric emergency care.

"We don't want our children exposed to gun shot victims," he said. "We're also stepping up our service to the elderly. There's no reason for an 80-year-old to have to wait several hours for emergency care."

Because his time was limited, Parker promised to return to the group's meeting with more information about Hurley's community outreach.

The group will meet next at 11:45 a.m. Aug. 16 at Applegate Chevrolet, 3637 S. Saginaw St.

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