Source: Rhino Times Greensboro

Mendenhall Presses Pugh Hard In Ward 3

by Paul C. Clark

September 13, 2012

The race for the Ward 3 seat on the High Point City Council is heating up, with both candidates – incumbent Mike Pugh and challenger Judy Mendenhall – crossing paths at local events and basing their efforts to win over voters on their experience.

Both Mendenhall and Pugh attended a Tuesday, Sept. 11 meeting of The Southwest Initiative, an effort led by High Point preservationist Dorothy Darr to renew historic southwest High Point, the traditional center of its furniture and mill town past, and once the city’s economic driver – although most of its many jobs have long since disappeared.

Mendenhall, who was mayor of High Point from 1985 to 1987 and served on the City Council from 1979 to 1985 and from 1989 to 1992, is pressing Pugh hard, rattling off a long list of issues she said have not been dealt with in Ward 3 and detailing her campaign swings through Ward 3 neighborhoods.

“I think you can tell from my resume that I pretty much know the issues that affect most of Ward 3,” she said. “I’ve met with people in the Allen Jay area, the Highland Mills area, the Ward Street area, the West End and, of course, in the area I live in west of Westchester Drive.”

Mendenhall’s resume, aside from her mayoral and City Council experience, includes serving on the boards of many of the nonprofit groups in High Point and serving as executive director of West End Ministries, development director of Open Door Ministries, the first president of the High Point Market Authority, president of the High Point Chamber of Commerce and in executive positions at several other High Point institutions.

Mendenhall is critical of Pugh’s performance as a Ward 3 councilmember, saying he does not deal well enough with the rest of the City Council to get things done that are needed in Ward 3.

“I think the biggest issue I see is that right now there is really not a voice at the table for Ward 3,” she said. “As I’ve met with pastors and people in the area, it’s become clear that they feel there are issues in Ward 3 that don’t get addressed. Obviously, jobs are a big issue in much of Ward 3. But even when the city gets jobs, people in Ward 3 can’t get to those jobs. So transportation and retraining are major issues in Ward 3.”

Pugh, an independent commercial and residential real estate agent, said his argument for his reelection is simple: that, although he is perhaps not the most diplomatic politician on the City Council, he goes to great lengths to serve residents of Ward 3.

“I just stand on my record,” Pugh said. “I stand 100 percent on my record. I consider the people my employer. I’ve tried to do the best job for them I can.

He added, “I will continue to serve the people as I have in the past. I give my constituents 150 percent. When they have a problem, I have a problem. Their problem is my problem, and I will continue to work for them and I think my constituents know that. I think my history with my constituents will speak for itself.”

The two Ward 3 candidates are very different politicians.

Mendenhall is a Republican, and ran as one and was active in the Republican Party until High Point switched to nonpartisan City Council races in the 1990s. However, she said she thinks partisanship has no place on the City Council, where most issues don’t map neatly to party positions.

Pugh is a Republican, although as he has said before, “not much of one.”

“I’m a registered Republican,” he said. “But I’m an independent. I don’t like tags. There’s different kinds of Republicans. I look at each issue. I don’t look at my registered designation. I try to look at everything with common sense as to what’s best for the city.”

Mendenhall touts her ability to build coalitions and assemble votes to get things done. She said that, in her short two-year stint as mayor, the City Council accomplished an enormous amount – extending water and sewer to the new Piedmont Centre office and industrial park in northeast High Point, which now has more than 170 companies with 11,000 employees. One of the smaller office parks there is named Mendenhall at Piedmont Centre.

She also cited the creation of the main High Point library and a water-and-sewer agreement with Greensboro that has guided annexation patterns ever since. She said that has added to High Point’s tax base.

Pugh is a loner on the City Council, voting consistently against budgets and usefully questioning the City Council majority on issues, but not negotiating much with the other councilmembers or putting together votes to pass initiatives of his own. As a result, although Pugh said he has never voted for a tax or rate increase, he has had little other influence on the city budget.

“I want to make High Point one of the best places to live in North Carolina rather than one of the highest taxed places in North Carolina,” he said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to make those changes in this election. Utility rates are too high. Taxes are too high. Anyone who voted for the budget this year doesn’t deserve to be elected this year.”

Mendenhall said that some sections of Ward 3 are depressed and that, while the city can’t be the nucleus of the solution to the ward’s needs, she will use the “bully pulpit” of a council seat to address them. But she said councilmembers should also look beyond their wards.

“I just feel that I have a lot to offer, not just representing Ward 3 residents, but the whole city,” she said. “The council table requires vision. It requires leadership. It requires people who are willing to question why we do things the way we are doing them.”

Both Mendenhall and Pugh said Ward 3 residents are unhappy because of the ward’s economic problems. Pugh said that unhappiness will win him votes, because his constituents know he is fighting to overcome the problems. Mendenhall said that Ward 3 residents are unhappy with Pugh and don’t think he’s accomplished enough.

In this economy, whichever candidate is right on that issue may have the winning edge.