By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Washington mayoral candidates refrained from public personal attacks Wednesday night during a forum in which they were pressed on the issues.
The tightly timed forum was organized and conducted by the Beaufort County Democratic Women. The event featured all four candidates for mayor and most of the City Council candidates.
Prior to the forum, the mayoral office-seekers expressed varying degrees of confidence in their election chances.
Incumbent Mayor Judy Meier Jennette said she had never campaigned so hard in her life, adding she is ready for Election Day.
Archie Jennings, a current council member and one of Jennette’s opponents, gently sparred with Mickey Cochran, another one of Jennette’s three challengers and a former Democratic Beaufort County commissioner.
On the way to his seat at the dinner table, Cochran quizzed Jennings about a city matter, and Jennings explained his positions as some onlookers apparently listened but tried not to look too closely.
Rounding out the mayoral foursome was Rick Gagliano, who nodded in the affirmative regarding the notion that the city’s P.S. Jones precinct (also known as Ward 3) could be a major player in the election, set for Tuesday.
As the pre-forum dinner was being placed in warming trays, Gagliano insisted that his outreach to the minority community, along with his position as vice chairman of the city’s Human Relations Council, have placed him in good stead with an important voting bloc.
Cochran declined to partake of the fried-chicken-plus-fixings dinner served before the questioning of candidates.
“I had dinner tonight with my four cats,” he said. “The more people I meet, the more I love my cats.”
Gagliano also didn’t eat; he joked that he had been under the impression that candidates could eat for free.
Despite the jokes and glad-handing ahead of the main event, it was the issues-related questioning that drew the most energetic responses from the audience.
The questions were drawn from individuals and several civic groups whose replies generated the themes of the night, said Delores Lee, secretary of the Democratic Women.
Moderator Alice Mills Sadler, chairwoman of the Beaufort County Democratic Party, advised that she could “edit” the questions, suggesting that she would do so on an as-needed basis in order to get closer to the candidates’ true feelings.
And the three-minute opening statements began.
“The mayor can’t do anything without the cooperation of the council,” Jennings noted, adding that mayor-council relations will be strained from time to time, but it’s the mayor’s job to manage through periods of stress.
Jennette spoke of her two-term accomplishments, appealing to the community by stressing that she worked with incumbent Councilman Richard Brooks to return the Greyhound bus depot to the city and pushed for amenities like a skatepark.
Gagliano indicated he was content to “let the council and the politicians run the city.”
“I want to tell you I’m not a politician,” he said. “I’m a human being.”
Cochran said he was running this “last time” because he felt the need to offer himself as an alternative to what he sees as an unresponsive city government.
He decried transfers of money from the city’s electric-utilities fund for use in the general fund. He endorsed the establishment of term limits of two two-year terms, a limitation which at present doesn’t exist at the city level.
“I want a stronger government,” he said.
Post-question highlights included:
• Jennings endorsing the call for the construction of a hotel, as outlined in the latest downtown redevelopment strategy. He dismissed rumors that the hotel would be built with city funds. “The city is not in the hotel business,” he said.
• Jennette saying it is important to hold down the rates paid by customers of Washington Electric Utilities, adding that the city has dealt with frequent rate increases from the agency from which it buys power. She said the ElectriCities group needs to lobby Congress for aid funds, and she proclaimed that municipal debt for nuclear power plants is “making eastern North Carolina a Third World nation.”
• Gagliano advocating the acceleration of downtown redevelopment plans and efforts to seek more grants for repairs to business facades.
• Cochran taking a stab at a Republican Beaufort County commissioner upon being asked who performs the city’s financial audit. “I thought Hood Richardson did it,” he quipped. He protested that he’s not an incumbent, and added, “I don’t know who does the audit, and I don’t care who does the audit.” Then, he requested a question that he could answer.
Eltha Booth, president of the Democratic Women, seemed pleased with the turnout prior to the event. At least 40 people signed up for dinner, and more trickled in as the forum got under way.
Booth was asked why the club chose to sponsor a candidates forum ahead of a nonpartisan municipal election.
“I feel that it’s important that the community knows about (the candidates’) vision for the city,” she said. “There is quite a large slate of candidates this time, and we know that there are going to be quite a few viewpoints of their candidacy and their campaign.”