Todd Paris, Salisbury Attorney and Candidate for Salisbury City Council
♦ At 6:30 p.m. at the Blue Bay the Rowan County Tea party hosted a Salisbury City Council candidates forum. Al Heggins. Pat Ricks, John Struzic, Rodney Queen, Leda Belk, Tamara Sheffield, Latasha Wilks, and myself attended. The forum was pretty much packed. A number of faces not usually seen at Tea Party meetings appeared, including but not limited to Rowan Democratic Party Chairman Geoffrey Hoy, ACLU prayer case plaintiff Nan Lund, social justice activist Whitney Peckham, and “Lord Salisbury” himself, Mike-o Martelli. The city council incumbents, who had a council meeting Tuesday, could not attend. Harry Warren of the NC legislature attended and was recognized.
The forum was well run. People asked me if there was video made. I don’t know if there was. I saw some camera phones and if anyone has video please send it to me or Steve Mensing over at the RFP.
Being a conservative group many of the questions concerned the city’s financial situation and the damage the $3 million dollar per year Fibrant deficit causes all city services.
The forum went on well past 9:00 p.m. and the staff at Blue Bay was quite patient. One audience member questioned the usefulness of Salisbury’s bus system which suffered like all city services from the Fibrant created deficit. Other questions focused on Salisbury’s crime, the local opiate epidemic, and each council member’s individual decision making process.
It is very hard to be a panelist and report on an event at the same time. I can make no claim to impartiality. It’s really hard to impart much information within two minute time frames, but I did my best. At times, I felt as like a rapid talking auctioneer. Everyone spoke well and answered the questions presented and unlike commenting before Salisbury’s city council and mayor, no one was gaveled out or ejected from the room for the content of their speech.
I was glad to see some of Salisbury’s more liberal citizens came and perhaps discover that while the tea party folks may differ over many views, these folks are cordial and polite, even to political rivals.
High points include a t-shirt that some tea party folks could have found provocative. Unlike city hall I saw no one try to interfere with this young man’s free speech. I received nodding from most the other candidates when I recalled how the city manager would not tell us at the candidate information session how many millions of dollars the city could be on the hook for should the lawsuit against the firm that erected Fibrant’s “on the poles” fiber optic roll out fail. Will this be millions, perhaps tens of millions of dollars? What are we walking into? There was an almost universal mention of the lack of or need for more transparency by candidates regarding this city hall and staff.
When asked about Fibrant’s financial position, I told them it was a debacle and a black hole for tax dollars. While some folks mentioned “better marketing” and trying to run it like a business”, no candidate can now say with a straight face that it has “turned the corner” or is “making a modest profit” as was done in 2015.
If I lose this year, I hope some of the things I have said tonight are remembered by the victors. You can’t completely trust city hall staff. You have to make them show their work. You have to ask them questions and you better demand that budget well in advance of the date you vote on it so you can do your due diligence. Maybe we could have avoided some of the messes that we are in.
Photos from the Rowan Tea Party Salisbury City Council Candidates Forum:
