2 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2004 Candidates debate pensions Meyer, Moore run for treasury spot BY ANH LY STAFF WRITER The two candidates for state treasurer might come from diverse backgrounds, but they do have one goal in common: to give their opponent a run for his money on Election Day. Richard Moore, the Democratic incumbent who was elected in 2000, has a tough Republican competitor in Ed Meyer. The state treasurer is respon sible for ensuring the fiscal health of the state and serves as the state’s banker and chief invest ment official. The treasurer also is responsible for more than S7O billion in public monies and state investments and the pension funds for more than 700,000 state employees. Moore said he deserves to be re elected because his record shows that he has managed the taxpay ers’ money in a prudent and effi cient way. “During my tenure as state trea surer, I have done an excellent job of managing the s7l billion of pub lic funds entrusted to this office,” Moore said in a prepared state- Race focuses on workplace safety Berry, Goodwin vie for labor position BY KAVITA PILLAI ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR The race for N.C. commissioner of labor has become a bitter war of statistics, with each candidate dis puting what the numbers mean for workplace safety in the state. Challenger Rep. Wayne Goodwin, D-Richmond, said he believes the state to be one of the worst in the nation as far as workplace accidents and deaths. He also said the commissioner of labor should be more involved in the economy of the state. He is running to unseat incum bent Republican Cherie Berry. “During this administration, there have been too many plant explosions, too many workplace accidents and deaths and too many job losses,” Goodwin said. The commissioner of labor is the head of the Department of Labor, which is responsible for policies associated with workers and the workplace. Its most important function is as a regulatory agency. The depart ment is responsible for ensur ing that the more than 220,000 employment sites in the state com ply with the safety standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It leads inspections and inves whatdoyouwannaloe? ♦! pl&ce to skop for 2k 11 yout* Hs]|ovh NJs! I NOW OPEN at [ NORTHGATE MALL | 919-286-7857 I CRABTREE VALLEY MALL Kid tU Mrtfet COStuhO to tun, Uids Oh FvAhtlih Stt TRIANGLE TOWN CENTER ft ofhZ*™ 1 RALEIGH • 9)9-792-2399 HI 1 W r j 1 io/ 2 ?/oh f Till: SONJA HAYNLS STONI: CIiNTKR I ()R BI.AC'K CI'LTI'RI: AM) I MS LC)RY Diaspora I cslival oj Dlaclv’ anti 1 ntlepcndent Mini "I'rorn Bahia to Brooklyn" With special guest, Brazilian film and TV producer Joel Zito Araujo and the North Carolina premiere of his film "Daughters of the Wind." Film premiere is November 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Union Film Auditorium. All films in this series are free and open to the public. For a complete list of films in the series: http://ibiblio.org/shscbch/ or call 919.962.9001. Sponsored with Chamas Brazilian restaurant. Republican Ed Meyer and Democrat Richard Moore are vying to be the state's banker. ment. “I will continue to invest the public employees pension funds in a fiscally conservative man ner.” Julie White, spokeswoman for the Moore campaign, said that under Moore’s leadership, North Carolina had the second best pen sion funds in the United States. But Meyer disagrees, saying that the value of the public-pen sion fund has declined by almost $lO billion under Moore’s leader ship. “If I were state treasurer, I would have advocated this so strongly that this would not have happened,” Meyer said. Meyer also voices concern about how Moore funds his cam paign. Meyer argues that there is a major problem with the way campaigns are funded, and that tigations into violations, inspects the state’s mines and quarries and deals with employee discrimina tion and wage and hour assistance, said Juan Santos, a spokesman for Berry’s office. The commissioner also signs off on the safety of all elevators in the state. Goodwin said, if elected, he would focus more resources on Spanish-language training for Hispanic construction workers, some of the most at-risk workers in the state for workplace injuries and deaths. He said he would work to pass legislation that he introduced as a representative to provide special training for Hispanic workers for construction companies. In exchange for putting their workers through the program, employers would receive a three year reduction or waiver of certain OSHA fines and penalties. Currently, the Department of Labor has a mobile training unit that travels the state at the request of construction companies. Santos said the number of Hispanic workplace fatalities dropped from 25 in 2002 to 21 in 2003, adding that the depart ment is conducting a forum for Hispanic construction workers in “(Ed Meyer) is taking campaign money from the same companies that fund public pension. It’s a conflict of interest.” RICHARD MOORE, democratic candidate for state treasurer Moore has not advocated this issue during his tenure as state treasurer. “He is taking campaign money from the same companies that fund public pension,” Moore said. “It’s a conflict of interest.” But Meyer chooses to fund his campaign through the generosity of friends, family and other sup porters. While Moore was unavailable to comment on this issue, White said funding from those compa nies helps the candidates reveal to voters exactly what they stand for so they can make a well-informed choice Nov. 2. “The treasurer wishes we had a better system,” White said. “But until we do, we have to raise the money to get the message out.” The candidates’ backgrounds differ as widely as their platforms. Richard Moore is a born-and bred North Carolinian who grew up in Granville County. He attended Wake Forest University and graduated from 1 —” m wL- H - mam, Republican Cherie Berry and Democrat Wayne Goodwin are running for commissioner of labor. November. But Goodwin maintains that the state is the ninth worst in the nation for workplace accidents “Until October of this year, the Department of Labor said that we continued to have the best safety record ever,” Goodwin said. “They admitted 10 months into 2004 that actually, in 2003, acci dents went up, workplace deaths went up, workplace accidents went up, the number of Hispanic deaths went up.” But Santos disputed Goodwin’s claims, citing statistics showing that the N.C. injury and illness rate was four out of every 100,000 full time employees. He said the figure is the lowest in the history of the state. He admitted that the number of workplace fatalities increased from 169 in 2002 to 182 in 2003, but attributed this in part to an air plane crash in Charlotte last year News Wake Forest Law School. He also earned a degree in accounting and finance from the London School of Economics. On the other end is Ed Meyer, a California native of Mexican descent. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in inter national studies and then attended graduate school at Georgetown University. But both men have extensive experience that qualifies them for the position of state treasurer. Moore has served as a fed eral prosecutor, a member of the N.C. House of Representatives and as the secretary of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. Meyer is a former member of the Reagan administration and the Social Security Administration and helped pass the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu. that claimed 21 lives. Twelve of the deaths were considered workplace deaths. The year also was marked by a plant explosion in Kinston that killed six people. “I’m sure Mr. Goodwin is going to put our fatality figures in a cer tain slant of light,” Santos said. Santos said the commissioner has worked with the private sector since the beginning of her term to increase awareness of the problems with workplace safety and that she created a Hispanic safety task force as soon as she took office. Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu. Town prepares for weekend BY BRANDON REED STAFF WRITER Town personnel are preparing for Halloween, but deciding which char acters of “Reservoir Dogs” they will be might not be on their to-do list. The Chapel Hill police, fire and transportation departments and Orange County Emergency Medical Services are gearing up for another busy Halloween on Franklin Street Chapel Hill police officer Phil Smith said officials expect about 70,000 people to visit Franklin Street this year. Last year, a record 78,000 people attended, he said. Smith said police will increase the number of officers on-hand to 340. He said that officials do not want to be short-handed and that based on last year’s attendance, they will need more officers. Smith could not comment on the number of officers who would not be in uniform. He also urged students not to consume more alcohol than they can handle and asked that students be patient with officers, especially at checkpoints. “Come out, have fun and enjoy the event,” Smith said. Many items are prohibited by town ordinances, including alco holic beverages, coolers, glass hot- tSHTI FT< jIH fc PITAS SALADS rSSSS VEGGIE ° PTIONS OPEN LATE 919.933.4456 115 E Franklin St Demonstrate your specialization in issues of international development and social change by earning a Graduate Certificate in International Development 1 UNC