Police, economy, infrastructure highlight The State’s Columbia mayoral forum
The four candidates for Columbia mayor talked about their plans to make the capital city safer and more economically prosperous and improve the city’s infrastructure during a forum sponsored by The State Media Co. Wednesday night.
The State’s virtual conversation was moderated by the paper’s opinion editor, Trudi Gilfillian. Candidates for mayor include former District 3 Columbia Councilman Moe Baddourah; at-large Columbia City Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine; Sam Johnson, a former chief of staff to Mayor Steve Benjamin; and District 4 Columbia City Councilman Daniel Rickenmann. Benjamin, who has served for three terms, is not seeking re-election this year.
Baddourah is the owner of Badd Boys Cafe and previously served on the city council for two terms before being defeated by Will Brennan in a 2019 re-election bid. During Wednesday’s forum, he said he would support enhanced community policing in Columbia, and would like to see more police substations in neighborhoods.
“You put the police officers in the community, so they can understand and learn about the community and the persons who live in the community, and try to stop the young men and women from doing criminal acts,” Baddourah said. “It’s important for police officers to get involved with everyday life in the community and our young children.”
Devine is an attorney and has served in the citywide council seat for 19 years. She is the first and only Black woman to be elected to council. During the forum, she said she would focus on enhancing infrastructure in the city, including continuing to make investments in Columbia’s water and sewer systems, and push for improvements for roads, sidewalks and intersections.
Devine also said she would make it a priority to make sure there is equity in the city’s growth.
“I will have a director of diversity and inclusion, to make sure everything we do is with an equitable lens,” Devine said. “We know we have to invest in communities of color that have been disinvested in for so long.”
Johnson is an advisor with Nexsen Pruet and served for six years as Benjamin’s chief of staff. Throughout the campaign, he has stressed the need for the Columbia Police Department to fill the dozens of vacancies it has in its officer ranks. Police Chief Skip Holbrook confirmed to The State that, of the 93 sworn officer vacancies in the police department, 52 are for “front line” patrol officers, the type of officers who respond directly to calls for service.
Johnson said getting the positions filled is a critical piece in helping capital city citizens feeling safe.
“We’ve got to make sure we fill those vacancies,” Johnson said. “When you talk about trust, when you call 911, it’s because there is an issue, and it’s a pressing issue. You can’t wait 30 minutes for somebody to arrive. You need someone to arrive now. We need to make sure that, while safety may have been lost, that you are able to regain it quickly.”
Rickenmann is the former owner of several Columbia restaurants and has served on city council for 12 years across two different stints. At Wednesday’s forum he stressed he would work to use his experience in municipal government and the private sector to ignite economic growth in Columbia.
“Over the last decade we’ve seen only 2% (economic) growth, and we haven’t embraced outside investment,” Rickenmann said. “We haven’t sold our city. We haven’t done the things we can to take the hurdles out so that the working families have the opportunity to succeed. I’ve seen it from the business side and the government side, so I know what the solutions are.”
Columbia’s municipal elections are Nov. 2, with runoffs on Nov. 16, if necessary. Aside from mayor, seats up for election this year include District 1, District 4 and an at-large post.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 8:24 PM.
