Columbus mayoral candidates question one another in live TV debate

A regular Columbus Council critic had the laugh lines of the night Thursday during a mayoral debate televised live on WTVM.

Paul Olson was talking about how the city spends its money when he mentioned plans to construct a whitewater rafting course on the Chattahoochee River through downtown.

Olson said Columbus leaders keep “chasing after wants instead of needs.”

“Like for the whitewater rafting, you know, when it’s one of the nastiest rivers in the United States,” he added. “You can’t swim in it; you can’t drink in it; you can’t fish in it. But we’re going to raft in it.”

Later when candidates were allowed to ask one another questions, Olson asked Wayne Anthony, who has served as a citywide councilor since 2002, how he could support Columbus’ membership in the National League of Cities, which Olson said supports gay marriage.

Anthony said the league includes 26,000 cities with common interests and concerns. He doesn’t agree with everything it does, he said.

Olson came back to gay marriage in his closing statement, saying both Anthony and Teresa Tomlinson support it. A mayor needs a “moral compass,” he said.

“The other thing is, Anthony and Tomlinson both are for homosexual marriage,” he said. When people laughed, he said: “You can laugh all you want to.”

Otherwise candidates Olson, Anthony, Tomlinson and Zeph Baker talked about the usual topics of economic development, public safety and fiscal accountability.

Tomlinson said the city government needs to be more accountable for its finances and efficiency.

“We can’t afford another Parks and Rec situation,” she said, referring to the scandal that led to the arrest of the Parks and Rec director and a subordinate.

The city needs to do “efficiency audits” to ensure its money is spent wisely, she said.

During the time candidates were allowed to question one another, she asked Anthony why the city over the past few years continually has had issues with financial oversight.

Anthony noted that council in 2006 restored its internal auditor position, and it was the auditor who discovered the issues in Parks and Rec. “It did what it was supposed to do,” he said.

Anthony touted his business experience, having once worked for KFC, heading a division with $10 million in annual revenue. Asked what’s the city’s most pressing issue, he said public safety. Business leaders thinking of bringing their operations here should not on the Internet see that Columbus crime is increasing.

Asked what issue he thought most pressing, Baker said, “Economy, economy, economy,” adding that in recruiting new businesses, the city needs to spread economic opportunity throughout Columbus, and put businesses where residents welcome them. “We cannot develop without community buy-in,” he said.

Baker had an immediate response to a question on how to erase Columbus’ perceived dividing line between north and south, the north side considered more white and affluent, the south poorer and racially more diverse.

“How can we erase the dividing line if we continue to put it in our conversations?” he asked.

To keep pointing out such a division reinforces the perception, he said.

He said the city needs to work harder at bringing to Columbus events now going to places such as LaGrange and Atlanta. Bringing visitors here brings customers to local businesses and revenue to the city, he said.

Olson repeatedly stressed that he is the only candidate promising to cut taxes and spending. He pledged to maintain a property tax rollback set for this year and to keep garbage fees from going up. Like Baker, he said the economy is Columbus’ most pressing issue.

“We need manufacturing,” he said.