Youngstown Mayor candidates debate for the first time
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — This year, Youngstown voters will decide on who will be mayor and Monday night, the two candidates running as Democrats in the May 6 primary debated for the first time.
It was candidate's night at New Bethal Baptist Church where Tito Brown and Samantha Turner got a chance to explain why they should be elected.
Samantha Turner spoke first, saying her priorities if elected Youngstown mayor were a zero tolerance on crime, economic development through developing existing businesses, and reducing poverty.
'In the spirit of collaboration, we'll work with organizations like YMHA and the Home for Goods and the banks to ask how will you help reduce and create a better mindset shift,' Turner said.
When Tito Brown spoke, he touted his eight years in office in dealing with both crime and economic development.
'Crime is down by 40 percent. We're seeing unprecedented investment in the city of Youngstown and the community right now is better for our quality of living that we have in our ways,' Brown said.
Among the questions asked where the candidates stood on downtown's DoubleTree hotel — which continues to owe the city money.
'It's crowded. It's full. It's performing well, so we're going to take those opportunities and take those monies and make sure it's a better quality of life,' said Brown.
'But I will say, we have mishandled that relationship and allowed them to take advantage of our community and our residents,' Turner said.
The possibility of getting another grocery store into the city was brought up, with Brown saying Youngstown is funding one itself.
'So what I did, I just took $1.5 million and put an organization together to start planning and developing our own co-op. If they won't come, we have to do it ourselves,' he said.
Samantha Tuner said we talk a lot about the grocery store we don't have while we should be talking about the grocery stores we do have.
'We do have a Save-A-Lot on the North Side, Save-A-Lot on the East Side. We have two Hispanic markets and a meat market, Dollar General Market, Sparkle over in Cornersburg, and then on top of that, we have free bus rides on WRTA. So we do have access. Let's talk about positive things we have in our city,' Turner said.
'I took on this job and I said I would not cave to money, power and politics, and ladies and gentlemen, I stand today and I say I've never done any of that,' Brown said.
Both candidates said they would retain Barry Finley as Fire Chief — though Samantha Turner added that Finley should be getting more support for the good things he has done.
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