A2 October 25, 2018
The Chronicle
Photos by Todd Luck
Sheriff Bill Schatzman listens as Democratic challenger Bobby Kimbrough
speaks during a forum held by the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce on
Wednesday, Oct. 17, at Forsyth Tech’s West Campus.
County Commissioner candidates Keenen Altic, Ted Kaplan andA.L. “Buddy”
Collins participate in a forum last week held by the Winston-Salem Chamber of
Commerce.
Sheriff and County Commissioner
candidates sound off
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Candidates for sheriff and county
commissioners told voters why they
deserve their vote during the final forum
held last Wednesday by the Winston-
Salem Chamber of Commerce at Forsyth
Tech’s West Campus.
The sheriff candidates were Sheriff
Bill Schatzman and his Democratic chal
lenger Bobby Kimbrough. Schatzman,
who was first elected in 2002, said his
department deals with cybercrime, identi
fy theft, everyday crime and drug related
offenses regularly. He emphasized the
responsibility of parents, schools and
churches in raising children to avoid a life
of crime and not use drugs. He said the
Sheriff’s Office does outreach in the
schools to encourage kids to stay on the
straight and narrow.
“You can’t arrest your way out of
social ills,” said Schatzman.
Kimbrough, a former DEA (Drug
Enforcement Administration) agent, said
that the epidemic of opioid addiction,
along with drugs and gangs in schools, are
major issues in the county. He empha
sized collaboration with other agencies,
including putting local officers on federal
task forces, which would allow the depart
ment to receive a percentage of asset for-
■ feitures. He
also said com
munity rela
tions were
vital to the
work of the
Sheriff’s
Office.
CAMPAIGN
“We’ve got to go back and strengthen
our communities and recognize that we all
have a say in this because it’s our commu
nity,” he said. ' .
For At-Large County Commissioner,
there was Democratic incumbent Ted
Kaplan and challengers Republican A.L.
“Buddy” Collins and Green Party
Candidate Keenen Altic.
Kaplan said the county plays a vital
role in economic growth by using incen
tives to attract and retain businesses. The
county helps to educate and train the
future workforce by funding public
schools and Forsyth Technical
Community College. He said Forsyth
Tech will soon break ground on an
Aviation Career Development Center at
Smith Reynolds Airport, which is owned
by the county. He said managing the coun
ty’s growth is one of the commissioner's
biggest challenges.
“Part of that is going to be new school
facilities, which the county commission
ers are involved in,” said Kaplan. “Some
of it’s going to be in welfare issues, some
of it is public health and mental health.”
Collins said the county needs both a
stable tax rate and steady tax base. He said
it needs an educated, trained workforce
that’ll be attractive to companies that want
to come to Forsyth County. He said
schools need to be a priority and that there
is no excuse for hungry children with
unmet medical needs in Forsyth County. A
former state and local school board mem
ber, Collins criticized the county for rely
ing on the quarter-cent sales tax referen
dum to fund teacher pay increases.
“To the extent that our teachers need
supplement pay increases, that should be
part of the budget from the get-go and not
afterwards,” he said.
Altic touched on numerous issues
including affordable housing, education, a
living wage and local eviction rates. He
said working people need to be united so
they can establish workplace democracy
and democratic ownership of resources.
He emphasized economic inequality in his
remarks.
“There’s not been a recovery for the
working people since the capitalist crash
of 2008 in which we bailed them out and
the 99 percent didn’t get bailed out,” said
Altic. “The wealthiest 1 percent now own
more than the bottom 90 percent.”
Adams vs Foxx
from page Al ■
On a question about encouraging innovation and
investment, Adams evoked the City Council’s role in the
Innovation Quarter and other public-private partnerships
that helped Winston-Salem transition from its dependence
on the tobacco and manufacturing industries.
“Winston-Salem had to reinvent itself and I’m proud
to say I had my fingerprints all over it for the past
decade,” she said.
Foxx agreed with Adams that the city and county have
done a “fantastic job” in transforming itself and that pri
vate-public partnerships are important, but felt that “at the
core of that is freedom,” including lower taxes and less
regulation.
When asked about recent hurricanes, Adams said that
climate change needs to be taken seriously. Foxx had a
different view.
“We’ve had extreme weather events for a long time,-
they aren’t exactly a recent phenomena and, again, we’ve
coped with them over the years,” she said. “I think
because of the advent of 24-hour news and some other
things, they seem to be a little worse recently.”
Later in the debate, Foxx said she wasn’t anti-environ
ment or anti-regulation, and that it was unnecessary,
duplicative regulations she opposed.
“I am one of the strongest environmentalist that I
know,” she said. “So I want people to have safe housing,
safe water, safe food and to know their elected officials
are doing everything that they can to make sure that the
places they live are as safe as they can be.”
The League of Conservation voters gave Foxx a 0 per
cent rating on her 2017 votes on environmental issues and
gave her a 3 percent lifetime rating.
Malishai “Shai” Woodbury right, chats with Elizabeth Motsinger during the A m A c ^ otos b ^ Te " n St “ s
Meet and Greet on Sunday, Oct. 21. Barbara Burke talks to citizens during the Meet and Greet on Sunday, Oct 21.
Greet
from page Al
Woodbury, who cur
rently works as a project
coordinator for the
Guilford County School
System, has over 20 years
of experience working in
education and is a founding
member of the Coalition
for Equity in Public
Education. A 1992 gradu
ate of Carver High School,
Woodbury said a point of
emphasis for her will be
having open lines of com
munication with the com
munity.
She also discussed the
importance of having equi
table schools
"One of my main points
of reference is being con
nected to the community,"
she continued. "I believe
all of the schools in
Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County need to be strong
so all of our children and
families can enjoy a great
education and have a won
derful experience."
After Burke and
Woodbury finished,
Commissioner El-Amin
took a moment to encour
age those in attendance to
vote "Yes" on the quarter-
cent tax increase that is on
the November ballot. El-
Amin explained that the
increase would be used to
increase teacher supple
ment pay across the district
if the Board of Education
approves.
Although it wasn't his
intention, El-Amin's call to
action sparked an
unplanned question and
answer session when a
local teacher asked, "What
money goes toward materi
als and books?"
She continued, "I'm
asking because I've been a
teacher for about 25 years
now and the last time we
purchased text books was
about 12 years ago."
Eric Martin, who
worked for the local school
system for more than 25
years before retiring, said
the reason schools don't
have textbooks is because
WS/FCS decided not to
buy books, any more,
instead choosing to use the
funds from the state on
other things.
"I'm the individual who
purchased the books for
over 25 years. The reason
you don't have books in the
classroom- is because
Winston-Salem/Forsyth
Gounty Schools chose not
to purchase them," he con
tinued. "... The money was
allocated by the state, but
when the money got here,
they decided they didn't
need to spend that much on
books."
As the only sitting
school board member in
attendance, Elizabeth
Motsinger felt the need to
speak up after Martin’s
comments. She said,
"There is not enough state
money coming in, and we
are paying less per pupil
than we were before the
recession in 2006.
"Where money for text
books went was to keep
teacher assistants in class-
rooms when on the state
level they cut out teacher
assistant pay," said
Motsinger. "... We chose
people. We chose not to
have massive layoffs dur
ing a recession and letting
people go that's where the
money went."
Others topics that were
discussed during the
impromptu town hall was
the current make-up of the
Board of Education, and
Ashley Elementary.
Although the meet and
greet didn't go as planned,
both Burke and Woodbury
mentioned that the gather
ing is something they plan
to do regularly to get a feel
for what the residents in
District 1 would like to see
from the board.
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