Faux Sims Makes Grand Debate Entrance

A High Point mayoral debate on Wed., Oct. 17 at the Pennybyrn at Maryfield retirement home on Penny Road far outclassed the previous debate on Oct. 4 at High Point city hall in energy, specificity and the willingness of the candidates to tangle on issues.

Three of the candidates didn't show: Tammy Holyfield, Matthew Fowler and High Point City Councilmember Bernita Sims. Holyfield withdrew from the race before the debate, citing a serious health issue in her family that would prevent her from actively campaigning. Fowler's campaign has never been anything but a $96 filing fee and a signature on a form at the Guilford County Board of Elections. And Sims, who is on the executive director selection committee of the National League of Cities, was out of town serving on the committee.

This left only Councilmember Chris Whitley and developer and all-around business-group member Coy Williard. Sims' absence, however, provided the most dramatic moment of the debate. Not expecting her, the organizers of the debate put two comfy overstuffed chairs on the podium for Whitley and Williard, along with a lectern for the moderator.

While the moderator, new High Point Enterprise Editor Megan Ward, was being introduced, the doors at the rear of the Pennybyrn event room burst open, and Sims' campaign manager, Vicki Alston, pranced down the center aisle, yoo-hooing, waving, talking a mile a minute and saying of Sims, "I'll be sitting in for her tonight."

It was a great bit of political theater because it worked. Had Lynn Johnson, who provided the introduction for Ward, or Ward said, "You're not running for anything. Shoo," the gambit would have been a political failure. But they didn't. Johnson limited herself to calling it quite an entrance. She said, "You just surprised us."

First score to Sims, who was hundreds of miles away.

Williard and Whitley took it in good grace, allowing Alston a (non-comfy) chair on the podium. Neither objected to her participation.

Sims later said she notified Pennybyrn that Alston would be there. The message apparently didn't get through. Sims said she would have preferred to be there. She said, "I'm sure it would have been even livelier."

Dramatic entrance aside, Alston's presence didn't make much of a difference. She quickly ran out of canned answers Sims had given her and most of the questions went to Whitley and Williard.

Williard gave his opening statement first. He said that High Point is, he hopes, on the path to greatness, but it won't be greatness in the labor-intensive furniture and textile industries.

Williard said that, when he went into business in 1969, the High Point job market was wholly different.

"We had no trouble getting employees," he said. "The unemployment rate was probably 1.5 percent, in that range, at that time. If you could walk and chew gum, you could get hired."

Williard used that as a segue into mentioning his position on the board of trustees of Guilford Technical Community College, which he said has 45,000 students take at least one class yearly.

Williard said that High Point's new jobs are going to be in the aircraft and biotech industries.

"We need to train people for the new workforce," he said. "And the new workforce is not building furniture or making hosiery."

Williard said that High Point's public schools are in trouble – something he acknowledged the City Council can't do much about – but said he would advocate for mentors and parents to work in schools.

Williard also attacked the City Council, saying High Point has more employees per 1,000 residents than any North Carolina city with a population of more than 100,000 except for Charlotte. He said, "We have to overcome what is now the highest property tax in North Carolina for a city of 100,000 or more."

Williard is president of Williard-Stewart Inc. construction and MarketPlace Management Inc., and emphasized his business experience as a qualification for mayor.

Whitley, in his introduction, said that the decision by High Point Mayor Becky Smothers to run for an at-large City Council seat rather than for reelection as mayor leaves the City Council with an experience gap at the top. He said, "I think it's important that experience and leadership remain in place."

Whitley, trying to counter Williard's reliance on his business experience, cited his own. Whitley is president of RCW International Inc., which deals with commodities and is a partner in S.E. Whitley and Son painting contractors. He said the businesses have done well.

But Whitley leaned most heavily on his 19 years of experience on the City Council, especially his last three years as chairman of the City Council's Finance Committee, when High Point had no property tax increases. Whitley gave up the chairmanship of the Finance Committee two years ago.

Whitley praised the City Council's financial leadership, including its at-times pay-as-you-go philosophy.

Whitley said High Point has a bond rating higher than those of many North Carolina cities. He said, "We have a triple-A bond rating, and that became a triple-A bond rating in the middle of a recession."

Whitley said that, if he became mayor, he would re-review the city's budget for the current year, something he said would be unprecedented. He also cited large business expansions in High Point in recent years, including ones by Ralph Lauren Corp., Solstas Lab Partners and Stanley Furniture Co., as well as high-tech firms High Point has attracted.

Whitley said, "I think it's important for you to remember as you go through the night that experience does matter."

Alston did best with her stand-in introduction for Sims, for which Sims had obviously prepared her. She cited Sims' 10 years on the City Council, and, like Whitley, said the City Council needs continuity.

"I'm plain spoken, and I'm going to say it like it is," she said. "We have to have some remnants left on our City Council. We have to have people who know what they're doing on the City Council – and I think Bernita Sims is that person."

Alston said Sims would create mayoral commissions on youth and families, bringing young people into the political process and arts and culture.

What followed was a series of questions from the audience, which was a mixture of Pennybyrn residents, other voters, candidates for other offices and reporters.

One man asked whether, if Whitley or Sims lost, they would lose their City Council seats.

Whitley explained that, yes, the mayoral race is the end of the line if he or Sims loses. He said that is why he wants to be mayor.

"You're controlling the agenda," Whitley said of the mayor's job. "At that point, there are things I've been wanting to do for years ... It takes five votes."

Ward called on Alston, mistakenly calling her "Ms. Sims."

Alston said Sims will advocate for four-year City Council terms. Alston said that Sims thinks that, once councilmembers are elected, it takes longer than two years to get up to speed and accomplish things.

High Point, unlike all other North Carolina cities, has its City Council elections on even-numbered years – a change the City Council made several years ago in an effort to increase voter turnout . That has worked to some extent – but it has also left city councilmembers at the bottom of a long ballot, below national and state candidates. The City Council also eliminated primaries – an action that gave Sims her best shot at the mayor's seat, since Williard and Whitley are splitting the white and Republican votes. Sims is a black Democrat.

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In response to a question about High Point's election format, Williard said he wants to return City Council elections to odd-numbered years and to reinstate primaries. He cited as a reason this year's mayoral race, in which there will be five candidates on the ballot, but essentially only three running.

Whitley, too, said he supports having City Council elections on odd-numbered years. He described the current system as "horrible." He said, "We are last on the ballot, so people just forgot about us."

Whitley lists attendance at Elon College and NC State University on his website. One audience member asked whether or not Whitley had graduated.

Whitley replied that, no, he had not – that he left NC State after three years to go into business, which he regrets. He said that is why he encourages his daughters to finish degrees.

Someone in the audience asked why High Point has no shopping center or downtown. High Point's downtown has been taken over by furniture showrooms.

One woman asked, "What about Oak Hollow Mall?"

"Have you been out there lately?" a man replied. "It's a wasteland."

High Point University recently bought the mall, and rumors about what the university will do with it abound, although High Point University executives seem to genuinely have no plan for the building.

That's where Alston began running out of answers from Sims, and began answering for herself. She said Oak Hollow Mall is inaccessible to much of the city anyway, and she would like to have shopping close to her home, so she could quickly buy pantyhose.

Whitley said Oak Hollow Mall never fulfilled its promise – that some stores never came to the mall and others arrived too late. He said, "Malls are no longer going to exist."

Whitley said that smaller shopping centers – "nodes," he called them – are the most likely shopping future. Whitley represents Ward 5 in north High Point and has championed the growth there. He said, "It turns out that the Palladium area is the most viable shopping area we have in town."

One of the heaviest debates in High Point politics in recent years has been the flight of stores and restaurants to northeast High Point, and the efforts of the High Point City Project, which the City Council created to try to renovate central High Point neighborhoods, to bring commerce back into town. The City Council has only sporadically supported the effort, however, and Whitley has been a critic of the City Project.

Whitley said that all he could say about the City Project is that it is a work in progress. He said, "Who is going to go down and actually shop in those areas?"

Williard said that Smothers opposed Oak Hollow Mall until the last second – which made Smothers sound prescient – and argued against giving up on the mall.

"I think Oak Hollow Mall has a shot," Williard said. "I think there's a chance to bring some kind of shopping back there."

On the City Project, Williard retreated from his position at the Oct. 4 debate, at which he said the eight Core City neighborhoods slated for redevelopment should all be attacked at once. That would be a monumental and expensive drive for redevelopment that recent City Councils haven't dared. Williard said on Oct. 4. that, as a community, High Point has to spend money to get the job done.

By the Pennybyrn debate, Williard had retreated from that position to saying the City Council should focus on only three neighborhoods – Uptowne, the section of North Main Street between State and Ray avenues; the upper part of downtown (might as well call it Lower Uptowne and be done with it) and the High Point University area.

Williard did not explain his change in position. Williard is aligned with High Point University President and CEO Nido Qubein. Williard's new plan would leave out all neighborhoods south of Lower Uptowne, which is not going to win him votes in south High Point.

Someone asked about High Point University's role in the city, and all the candidates said nice things about the university. No candidate wants to risk angering Qubein this close to Election Day.

Someone else pushed for getting more young people involved in government – "Everyone in here is almost as gray-headed as I am," he said. All the candidates said nice things about young people. Young people may or may not turn out to vote as they did in 2008, but there was no reason not to butter them up.

The candidates' brief closing statements diverged wildly.

Alston basically said, "Vote for Bernita Sims."

Whitley cited his position as chairman of the National League of Cities Information Technology & Communications Committee, saying High Point will need to be as high-tech as it can be to continue to compete.

He also said that a woman who attends his church told him that the platforms of all the mayoral candidates, especially his and Williard's, seem similar. Whitley said his 19 years on the City Council gave him seniority. He said, "I would say his looks a little more like mine."

Whitley said the mayoral race boils down to himself or Sims. "For any of these other candidates, it's a leap," he said.

Williard, for his closing statement, reached back four years to Hillary Clinton's "3:00 a.m. phone call" ad against Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season – switching the topic of the call from a national security crisis to a business wanting to settle in High Point. He said he is better qualified to talk business to such a company, to discuss education with it, and to connect it with local business and human services groups.

"I have answered numerous questions tonight," Williard said. "Now I ask you, who do you want to take that call?"

Williard also said that the race boils down to his business experience compared to two candidates with 10 and 19 years of City Council experience, respectively. He said, "If you think that 19 years and 10 years are the most important thing out there, then you need to vote for one of them."