The May 4 Democratic primary election for the County Commission seat in District 5 pits the same two candidates who ran for the post four years in the general county election. Commissioner Greg Beck won that race against challenger the Rev. Bernie Miller, who was then a Republican. This year, Mr. Miller presents himself as a prodigal Democrat who has come home to his true party. Based on his record, Commissioner Beck still deserves to win again.
The district they seek to represent encompasses core urban areas from East Chattanooga on both sides of Missionary Ridge to parts of the airport area, Brainerd and Summit. Both the incumbent and the challenger are concerned with similar priorities in their district: education, gangs, crime and jobs.
In interviews with both candidates, we found Mr. Beck’s quiet calm and measured positions much more reassuring than the flashier Mr. Miller’s more exuberant assertions. Commissioner Beck’s career resume and record are further evidence of decades of substantive engagement in these issues.
Mr. Beck began working with at-risk youth in 1981 when he joined Inner City Ministries. There he founded the Action Group, a youth organization, and a summer work/adventure program. Ten years later, he became executive director of the Community Center in East Chattanooga. And five years after that, he became executive director of the Bethlehem Community Center. In each of these positions, he worked directly with youth programs and community outreach projects.
He also served as a deputy in the Sheriff’s department’s corrections unit for nine years, from 1994 until 2003. And as a county commissioner since 2005, he worked to establish the first joint city/county summer jobs program, which served more than 300 youths and their families. Mr. Beck’s current job, as court officer for Judge Sherry Paty, also keeps him informed about crime and youth issues.
His varied background well qualifies him to advocate for targeted youth programs and crime prevention efforts. Given the recent rise in gang violence, he now advocates a more vigorous broad-scale program to disrupt gang activity, and to help steer at-risk youths away from gangs. He wants to provide more constructive activities, and to improve crime control.
Mr. Beck recognizes the value of education and good schools, and he correctly believes that more intensive efforts are required to get parents to support their child’s learning. Schools, he says, are blamed too much for problem students and failing grades, and parents not enough. If that can’t be changed, too many young people will be left out of the rising job market here and their futures will be jeopardized.
Mr. Beck could best approach these issues from a seat on the County Commission. We urge support for him on May 4 in a race that, with no other candidates in August, will effectively return him to office.