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ELECTIONS
Four vie for two at-large seats
Mike Davis, Steve Williams, Alex Vence and Rebecca Thacker.
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON — Public safety and resolving numerous financial problems are the focus for the candidates running for Huntington City Council’s two at-large seats.
Running for the seats are Democrats Rebecca Thacker and Steve Williams and Republicans Mike Davis and Alex Vence.
Unlike council members who are elected by district, at-large council members are elected by voters citywide. The top two vote recipients in the general election will get elected to the council.
The current at-large council members are Garry Black and Paul Farrell. Black chose not to run for re-election, while Farrell ran for circuit judge in the primary.
Davis retired from the Huntington Police Department as a lieutenant. He spent 25 years on the force. He now is director of the Cabell County 911 Center.
Davis said the main role of city government is to protect the people it serves, so his focus as a council member would be on restoring resources and personnel to the Huntington police and fire departments.
“We just have to apply what we have,” he said. “The city code plainly says that the user fee must be used for police protection and street maintenance.”
Davis also said he would be a staunch opponent of privatization. A better plan would be to meet with department heads and figure out how their departments could be better organized to provide more efficient services, he said.
“City employees don’t get the credit they deserve. The only thing I hear every year is how their departments are going to be cut every year,” he said. “The problem is that City Council doesn’t have a good, working knowledge of city agencies. I think each councilman should be assigned to a department and learn everything they do.”
Thacker, 45, became involved in governmental affairs over the years as an advocate for the disabled. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child.
She has served on Mayor David Felinton’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities and has been involved with several programs sponsored by Mountain State Centers for Independent Living, which provides advocacy, networking and resources to people with disabilities and their families.
Thacker said her top priority as a council member would be to get more people involved in city government.
“Sometimes, I’ve been to council meetings where there has only been eight or 10 people there,” she said. “If we have a collective system, it’s going to work better for everyone.”
Implementing the city’s home rule plan also would be a focus of Thacker’s. Under the plan, the city would implement a 1 percent occupation tax, repeal the $2-a-week user fee and reduce the business and occupation tax. Thacker says the proposal is more fair than the city’s current tax structure.
“But the public doesn’t know the full implementation of it,” she said. “It needs to be studied more.”
Vence, 31, is a real estate broker and owner of RE/MAX Professional Advantage and owner of Hardhead Mining, LLC, which sells coal to utility companies and has investments in a mine in eastern Kentucky. He also serves on the Huntington Planning Commission.
Vence said residents don’t trust City Hall, which is a major hurdle when the city asks people to pay more for services. Residents have paid more in fees over the years, but haven’t seen anything in return, he said.
“We need transparency at City Hall,” Vence said. “We need to put the city’s checkbook online and update it daily to show people where their money is going. We also need to ensure the people who are paying their fees that we are doing everything we can to collect from those who aren’t. Basically, we need to restore people’s confidence in City Hall.”
Vence also said he is supportive of a review of all city departments to determine whether they could be run more efficiently and provide better service if they were turned over to the private sector.
Williams, 52, was Huntington’s last city manager from 1984-1985 before the city switched to a strong mayor form of government. He also served four terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1987-1994. For the past 23 years, he has worked for a range of financial services companies. He now is vice president of Huntington Investment Co., a retail brokerage firm for Huntington Banks.
Williams said his previous public service and professional background give him the qualifications to deal with several pressing financial issues in city government.
“Whenever you approach a budget, you have to set priorities,” he said. “For me, the first priorities are public safety and being able to repair streets. We have to make sure that we have money for those things.”
Funding for more public services will have to come through pension reform at the state level, Williams said.
“Absent that, we would have to make some draconian cuts,” he said.
There should be no “sacred cows” in the budget, Williams said. However, he is of the opinion that one service that has been frequently mentioned as an option for privatization — garbage pickup — should be left in public hands.
“I think we’re providing sanitation service more efficiently than private enterprise could, but it does seem to me there are other areas where we might have to see if privatization is a possibility.”
Another one of Williams’ goals would be to establish a clear role for the city in job development.
“We need to partner with HADCO and become a player in that arena again,” he said.
