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Voters to settle key issues, races: Host of candidates, two hot-button propositions on the ballot in Columbia. [Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.](Columbia Daily Tribune (MO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apr. 4--A crowded and hotly contested mayoral race in Columbia combined with two ballot issues, Columbia City Council and Columbia Board of Education races could generate a record voter turnout at the polls Tuesday, Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren predicted. "You put all these things together, and it certainly should be a record" for the city of Columbia, Noren said, "and possibly the school district." A record 27,700 Boone County voters turned out for April elections in 2003 and 2008. The only reason Tuesday's election might not match those turnouts is that there aren't as many contested races in out-county areas, Noren said. The county has some 96,000 active, registered voters. The percentage of voters casting ballots could be as high as 60 percent to 70 percent in Columbia's Fourth Ward, she said. Other precincts could see 30 percent to 40 percent turnout. "Those areas take their local government very seriously," she said. Three years ago, a Columbia mayoral race, elections for two contested Columbia City Council seats, a proposed Boone County library tax hike, races for two Columbia school board seats and a no-tax-increase school bond issue attracted about 21,700 voters countywide, including nearly 13,000 Columbia voters deciding the mayor's race. The high interest could create another April election rarity: Some voters Tuesday might have to wait in line at the polls. Noren emphasized they should be prepared to exercise patience. "It's going to be much busier than they normally see," she said. Noren advised voters to double-check their assigned precinct location. There will be only half as many polling sites Tuesday as there were for the November 2008 general election, when there were 100 polling sites across the county. "They can't assume that their polling place is the same," she said. Voters who didn't get a sample ballot and new voter ID card should contact the county clerk's office or visit the county Web site -- http://www.showmeboone.com/ -- to update their information online. PROPOSITION 1 Civil liberties and public safety are the focus in the debate over the proposed installation of surveillance cameras in downtown Columbia. The approval of Proposition 1 on the municipal ballot would authorize Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton to deploy or move "conspicuous" downtown safety cameras. All recordings could be subject to provisions of Missouri's Open Meetings and Records Law during a 60-day period before the recordings' destruction, with exceptions provided under the law. Keep Columbia Safe organizer Karen Taylor and her family initiated a petition drive that resulted in the referendum after a brutal beating of her son, Hickman High School soccer Coach Adam Taylor, last year in a city parking garage. Surveillance video helped identify her son's attackers and resulted in three arrests less than six hours after the attack. All three suspects were later convicted. Taylor and advocates of the cameras say "safety first." Dan Viets of the Mid-Missouri Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the recently organized Keep Columbia Free organization say the ordinance is not needed because no evidence exists that cameras deter crime or significantly assist in solving crimes when installed along public streets in low-crime areas such as downtown Columbia. Although Viets says he admires Taylor's efforts, he would prefer that private businesses install their own cameras. He contends he is not opposed to cameras in parking garages and says cameras should be installed in the city's higher-crime areas, if they are to be installed at all. He and camera opponents say "prove they are effective" and "civil liberties first." -- Brennan David COLUMBIA MAYOR Six candidates are on the ballot to succeed Darwin Hindman, the city's longest-serving mayor. --Jerry Wade, whose term as Fourth Ward councilman is expiring, has been a proponent of the "smart growth" philosophy in development, seeking to avoid urban sprawl. Wade, 69, feels that gloomy financial forecasts by other candidates are overplayed, saying Columbia is on the right track for economic growth. He cites several startup businesses and the shovel-ready Ewing Industrial Park site and believes technical job training is a good next step for the city. --Eastside Tavern owner Sal Nuccio, 42, also believes in "smart growth," saying it would lead to more jobs and a better environment. Living and working downtown, he says a downtown police unit effectively has cut crime, though he would like to see that model expanded to have officers walking downtown beats. He believes the city's economy would get a boost if more professionals and tradesmen were recruited. --Planning proponent Sid Sullivan, 67, questions current development practices that can map out streets before neighborhoods are planned. He says the city needs better social programs to work with youths as a means of fighting crime, adding that putting kids into the criminal justice system worsens the problem. He suggests alternative ways to boost the economy, such as promoting tourism and attracting retirees to Columbia. --Carfax network administrator Paul Love, 39, feels he has played it straighter than other candidates by being honest about economic shortfalls and addressing a need to start cutting nonessential services and programs. He is a proponent of high-tech jobs, having worked in several. Love advocates more officers on the streets to combat crime as well as increased participation in neighborhood watch programs. --Bob McDavid, 63, chairman of the Boone Hospital Board of Trustees, is retired from a 27-year career as a Columbia obstetrician. He emphasizes a need to address increasing crime. He has said that more development could help expand the tax base and boost the economy. He feels Columbia is perceived as unfriendly toward business, and he supports attracting and keeping all jobs, not just high-paying or high-tech positions. --Moberly Area Community College student Sean O'Day, 23, last week said he was encouraging voters to support Sullivan. He has promoted environmental sustainability, saying that investing in green power is a good way to secure economic growth. And he urges promotion of entrepreneurialism among youths to encourage them to start businesses. Wade, Nuccio, Sullivan, Love and O'Day have said they oppose Proposition 1 authorizing the use of downtown surveillance cameras. McDavid avows he is in full support of the proposal. Wade, Nuccio, Love and McDavid support the police use of Tasers. Sullivan and O'Day oppose use of the device by law enforcement. Wade, Love and McDavid feel the relationship between the city manager and city council is working. Sullivan feels the city council should more often exercise its power of inquiry. O'Day says the council-city manager relationship could be more open. -- Daniel Cailler COLUMBIA THIRD WARD Incumbent Councilman Karl Skala is campaigning for a second term against local businessman and landlord Gary Kespohl. The two faced each other in 2007, when Skala won by a few dozen votes. Skala, 63, was endorsed by the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition. The retired director of Swine Hormone Research Core at the University of Missouri, he advocates more restraint on development than Kespohl, believing it too often places a burden on residents to cover long-term costs for infrastructure. He voted against a proposed development, the Crosscreek Center, saying he wanted better jobs than generic retail work. He favors high-tech work, pushing for the Ewing Industrial Park site and potential data centers. Kespohl, 63, was endorsed by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. The owner of Central Missouri Computer Center Inc., he favors more commercial and residential development as a means of expanding the tax base and raising more city tax revenue. Kespohl has said that approving the Crosscreek development would have created jobs. He has said he would welcome all jobs because he feels that out-of-work residents sometimes turn to crime to support themselves. The adversaries also differ in attitudes toward a private hospital on the city's east side. Skala initially favored the Landmark Hospital project at 604 Old 63 but changed his mind after hearing complaints from constituents. Kespohl has said he approves of the project, though critics contend an e-mail advising caution about project approval came from Kespohl's business computer. Skala opposes downtown surveillance cameras, demanding the decision be data-driven, and calls for better allocation of police funding. Kespohl favors downtown cameras, believing they will help fight crime and that they are financially feasible through proper management of city funds. Both men favor police use of Tasers. -- Daniel Cailler COLUMBIA FOURTH WARD Two candidates with previous city government ties are vying with two political newcomers in the Fourth Ward race for a seat on the Columbia City Council. Tracy Greever-Rice, Sarah Read, Rick Buford and Daryl Dudley are seeking the seat that became open when Jerry Wade announced his mayoral campaign. --Greever-Rice, 46, a former member of the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission and current member of the city's Vision Commission, is a self-described skeptic who promises to research issues before casting votes. And she says her work experience gives her know-how to access relevant data: Greever-Rice is assistant director of community and economic development at the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis at the University of Missouri. Greever-Rice has promoted transparency in government. She's also said she would like residents to be involved in earlier stages of planning decisions, especially those that affect their neighborhoods. --Read, 54, an attorney who operates a consulting firm, also is running on a communications-centered platform. She has pitched the idea of partnering with the public, which would involve ongoing discussions with constituents to make sure residents understand how and why council decisions are made. Read wants to give the public alternative ways to participate in government through the Internet and at forums other than council meetings. Read served on the Vision Committee before the city tapped her to draft a follow-up implementation report on the visioning process. She is president of Columbia Parents for Public Schools. --Buford, 39, says he is running for office because he wants to make Columbia a better place for his two young daughters. He considers himself an alternative to the status quo. Buford works for CarFax, where he says he has gained budgeting experience that would be beneficial in office. His campaign has revolved around city budgetary issues, such as questioning whether taxpayer money should be spent on niceties such as public art in a down economy. He's proposing that the city's Office of Sustainability be expanded to promote fiscal sustainability in addition to its environmental focus. --Dudley, 51, threw his name into the campaign ring at the request of customers he sees as manager of a Hy-Vee convenience store off West Broadway. He promotes himself as an "everyman" candidate and says he listens to hundreds of residents while on the job. He believes the public feedback puts him more in tune with what average people are concerned about, namely the economy and public safety. Dudley, who has said he supports anything that would bring more business to the city, has made jobs and crime his campaign priorities. He thinks creating more lower-level job openings would curtail criminal activity. -- Janese Heavin COLUMBIA SCHOOLS QUESTION Residents in the Columbia school district will decide one of the largest bond issue packages ever placed on the ballot by a Missouri school district. The Columbia Board of Education's $120 million bond issue would not immediately raise taxes if voters approve it by a 57 percent majority. Combined with $18 million left over from a 2007 bond issue, revenue from the $120 million bond issue would be used mostly for a range of capital improvements: --A $75 million high school. --A $15 million elementary school. --$7.5 million for additional gyms at Hickman and Rock Bridge high schools. --$14.8 million for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning projects. --$7 million in capitalized interest. The district would place $7 million from the bonds in the district's debt service levy, which would remain the same at 80.19 cents per $100 assessed valuation, allowing the district to avoid raising taxes to pass the bond issue. --$1.2 million to issue the bonds. --$10 million for facility renovations and repairs. --$7.5 million for technology upgrades. If voters OK the plan, the district would reconfigure grade-level attendance in fall 2013. District-designated intermediate schools would host students in grades six through eight, and the three major high schools would host students in grades nine through 12. Supporters coalesce under the banner of the Committee for Continued Excellence in Columbia Schools. Lange Middle School parent Robin Hubbard leads an informal group opposed to the bond issue, "It's Okay to Vote No!" She objects to the building site for the high school in northeast Columbia, saying its location might hurt central Columbia. She also said building a high school for 1,700 students conflicts with research supporting smaller learning communities. -- Jonathon Braden COLUMBIA BOARD OF EDUCATION Voters will decide who fills three seats on the Columbia Board of Education. Two seats are for three-year terms, and one seat is a one-year term. Jan Mees, Dan Holt and Jim Whitt are seeking three-year terms. Jonathan Sessions and Phil Peters want to serve a one-year term. --Mees, 61, is the board president and is seeking her second three-year term on the school board. She is a former stay-at-home mom who then worked 21 years for the school district, including 17 years as a media specialist or librarian. Mees has said her experience in the schools has allowed her to better understand what teachers go through each day. --Holt, 52, ran unsuccessfully for school board a year ago, falling 446 votes short. He has spent much of his career in the financial industry, though he is a stay-at-home dad now. His wife, Lisa Holt, is chairwoman of the math department at Rock Bridge High School. Holt has been the only candidate to support the concept of merit pay -- a system that ties student achievement to teacher pay raises. --Whitt was appointed to the board of education on a vote by the school board in June. He is executive director of cPhase Sports Association, a not-for-profit that sponsors a youth basketball team that travels around the country to play in tournaments. Retired after working 23 years with General Electric in St. Louis, Whitt, 63, has said that his main focus would be narrowing the achievement gap between groups of students in Columbia schools. --Sessions, 27, has said his youth benefits him in the race because high school experiences are not nearly as far in the past for him as for other board members. Sessions graduated from Hickman High School in 2001. He holds a bachelor's degree in educational studies from the University of Missouri. At MU, he started what became Tech 2 Consulting, which offers information technology services to local companies. Sessions has said his expertise would benefit the school district. --Peters, 60, specializes in health law as an MU law professor. He recently returned to the law school faculty after a two-year leave of absence as executive director of First Chance for Children, a not-for-profit working with low-income and minority families to ensure kids are prepared to start kindergarten. Peters wants the school district to make decisions based on the evidence of which programs work and which ones don't. He also has said his experience as a lawyer has trained him to not offer judgment until he has heard everything to be considered in the decision. -- Jonathon Braden HOSPITAL BOARD OF TRUSTEES Two people are running for a seat on the five-member Boone Hospital Center Board of Trustees. --Barbara Weaver of Columbia is looking to serve an eighth term. A retired registered nurse, she was first elected in 1981. She has served on numerous state and national boards focused on health care. Weaver, 75, is banking on her three decades of service to gain re-election. "Everybody works well together, even though we may not always agree," she said. "But we are at least informed, and I think we make good decisions."PRon Gini of Rocheport is a newcomer to the political process. A retired graphic artist who has worked as an office assistant for doctors and medical clinics, Gini until recently was co-owner of the Malher-Gini Mercantile general store, which sold antiques ranging from art and books to primitive pieces and one-of-a-kind lamps. Gini, 57, would like to see "new blood" on the board as well as local management of the county-owned hospital, which is managed by St. Louis-based BJC. He said of his bid for the post, "I decided to, hey, give it a shot and see what happens." -- Jodie Jackson Jr. Reach Jodie Jackson Jr. at 573-815-1713 or e-mail [email protected]. To see more of the Columbia Daily Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.columbiatribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo. 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