Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke was the bulls-eye at the mayoral forum Monday night at Greater Tucker Missionary Baptist Missionary Baptist Church, and the three contenders for his job all had a quiver full of arrows.
The question for the packed crowd in the church's fellowship hall was whether the arrows hit their mark or whether Berke left unscathed. On the line is the city's chief executive job, which will be contested on March 7 (with early voting beginning Feb. 15).
To be sure, each of the contenders, former Councilman Dave Crockett, Councilman Larry Grohn and businessman Chris Long, had his remedies for what ails the city, but they also had Berke on a level playing field. And they didn't hold back.
Crockett referred to the current mayoral administration as "amateur hour" and "as transparent as the bottom of a Coke bottle." And where trustworthiness is concerned, Crockett said any other business "would have cleaned out management." He further said it would "take Solomon with an MBA to see what's going on in this administration."
Grohn cited the "failure of the current administration" and concluded by asking the largely black crowd if their neighborhood was better off than it was four years ago. In between, he said the administration only attacks the symptoms of specific problems, criticized it for lack of affordable housing and workforce development, said it should be spending more on paving, claimed the administration's minority business numbers were fuzzy, blasted its transparency and faulted it for paying early childhood workers low wages.
Long said Berke's policies purposely are "designed to only [positively] affect a select few" and that "too much money and time" are spent downtown. He referred to the city streets as "wagon roads," described Chattanooga as a "rich man/poor man" city and further termed it "Emerald City" for what he sees as the emphasis on construction and development downtown.
Berke, seemingly unrattled by the shots, opened his comments by saying the city had "seen a tremendous resurgence" and concluded them by maintaining that "a lot has been done" and "we have made strides." Yet, with a second term in his sight, he three times said "we can do more," twice said there is "more we can do," and said he's been asking Chattanoogans "what more we can do."
The first-term mayor said he's worked "tirelessly to help every Chattanoogan feel safe," contended the city's been "remarkably successful" in hiring minorities, bragged of the city's beefed up family development centers, stated he implemented the city's first transparency policy, talked of the creation of Baby University and expansion of Head Start availability, said he helped implement a bus route to Enterprise South, explained he curtailed the creation of easy lending outlets and mentioned he put more police officers on the street.
Specifically, Berke told the crowd his term had seen the opening of a Family Justice Center in Brainerd, the planning of a new Avondale Youth and Family Development Center and the announcement of a new park in Alton Park.
Had the mayor discussed development downtown, he would have had more to talk about. But the majority of the crowd in the Brainerd church were not individuals who are principals in that growth. He might have argued that they would benefit from it, but that might have caused a little heartburn in the crowd.
On Thursday morning, when the four are set for a similar forum sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and Chattanooga Women's Leadership Institute at the Bessie Smith Hall, Berke is likely to be a little more forthcoming about the positives he sees in the city center.
Aside from Berke, Crockett discussed the concept of high-speed rail to Atlanta, which he said "is the most important development opportunity" in Chattanooga; said he would "treat criminals as criminals" and not run a "social experiment"; and said he would offer "the most ambitious jobs program" in the city's history.
Grohn pushed the idea of workforce development, a "21st-century" Kirkman Technical High School, an affordable housing plan and an expansion of city internship opportunities.
Long talked up more affordable housing, a major push for black-owned businesses and black police officers, and expanded opportunities for the "people in need" who are not in "the prosperity area" (downtown). He noted, however, that nothing would get done until the city gets out from paying more than the minimum the 2010 stormwater consent decree insists the city must pay.
The crowd briefly applauded at the end of individual responses twice, once for Crockett and once for Berke, but none of the four seemed to overwhelm those in attendance at the event sponsored by the Chattanooga chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Since the race is nonpartisan, the lack of "Democrat" and "Republican" labels may have blunted the reaction of those in attendance.
Berke won more than 72 percent of the vote in 2013, but it was clear from the lack of enthusiasm for any candidate that such large majority will be impossible to achieve in March. A combination of 50 percent (plus one) votes from Berke's opponents might make a runoff very interesting in April.