Hickory Mayor Debate - Lenoir-Rhyne University - October 4, 2013

Friday night, Lenoir-Rhyne University hosted a mayoral candidate forum at P.E. Monroe Auditorium. All six candidates were present.  Jeff Brittain, Candice Harold, Dr. Jody Inglefield, Ernie Masche, Terry Revels, and Rudy Wright answered three questions posed by the Lenoir-Rhyne Professor Cade Hamilton and his debate team.

Videos (2 parts) are at the bottom of this article. Video quality isn't so great because of the stage lighting effect and the natural darkness of P.E. Monroe. The contrasts lead to a white-out effect. This is the best debate that I have ever watched live - very professionally facilitated. This is as level a playing field as you will ever see in a local election.The only suggestion I would make is to have the time manager on the center-front row with large time cue cards.

Moderator Information:
Cade Hamilton, Director of Speech and Debate, School of Journalism and Mass Communications Lenoir-Rhyne University

The Questions:
- What is your most significant achievement for the greater good of the City of Hickory and why does that make you most prepared to be the mayor?
- What would you do as mayor to help attract cultural events and diverse populations to Hickory?
- What are the two most significant issues facing the city of Hickory in the next two years and what would you do to address those issues?

Additional Topic Areas:
- Transparency and Accountability
- Jobs and the Local Economy
- Variances between Candidates


In witnessing this forum, once again we see five candidates who see many issues in the community that need to be addressed and an incumbent Mayor who comes across in a My Way or The Highway fashion. At least on this night he didn't talk about turning the corner or say the other candidates wanted his job after he had done all of the hard work.

In this round, we once again saw a defiant Mayor inferring that he was going to keep on doing it the same way he had been for the past twelve years and pontificating about a lack of understanding as to why the other candidates weren't addressing the issues he wanted to address. He seems to be confused about this not being the typical Hickory City Council Beauty Pageant setting.  Of course, I don't mind pointing this out since I will never be awarded the Mr. Congeniality trophy.

The voters will have to make the call as to whether they agree with the five candidates who would like to see the city alter course on some issues/objectives or the three term Incumbent who seems to be wondering why he is being challenged and especially in this manner. To my knowledge, we have never seen a political race such as this in Hickory. And it really isn't hard to understand why it has come to this. The Status Quo wants to blame the Hickory Hound and the CEG, but maybe it is time that they do one of my favorite exercises of the past six-plus years -- REFLECTION!!! It is a healthy exercise.

There was an excellent opening message by Dr. Inglefield about his wife Rebecca and her arrest last year and being shocked about what he has learned over the last few years. "What does it take to shock the people of Hickory." He related all of this to a lack of communication and transparency. There was another excellent message by Jeff Brittain about finding Shark Teeth on a beach. He has hundreds. Most people never find one. He has a plan. He related that to bringing jobs to our area. No plan, no jobs. Ernie Masche took a cue from Mayor Wright and walked out towards the audience and sat on the front of the stage and spoke about it being time for a change and about transparency and needing youth in the community. He says that we need to look out for the whole city and not just certain sections. Candice Harold spoke about going to the Taco Bell on Hwy 70 on the weekend and meeting the young people who cruise late at night and how they expressed that there is nothing to do around here. They wouldn't be out cruising if they had a place to hang out. Terry Revels comes across as a man who truly loves and reveres the United States of America.

The Mayor has changed the dialogue from "Inspiring Spaces" to "Innovate Catawba" and "Innovate Hickory". He said that Inspiring spaces is a part of all of that. Pigs and Billy Goats... lipstick still ain't gonna change the situation.

The Mayor is now saying what he said at the Democrat Dinner forum was a S.W.A.G. (Silly Wild @$$ Guess) remark. You can go to the link at the bottom of this paragraph where the Mayor point blank says that the number being discussed is $80 million ($20 million State, $20 million Federal, $20 million Hickory, and $20 million hopefully from private interests - $2 million each over 10 years). I have also heard that from other sources. He knows that people don't want to hear this.
Link to the $80 million Comment.

He and the city are also trying to ride the coattails of a man's devotion towards his wife in the creation of a conservancy on the lake and swerve the meaning of that devotion towards their own message and objective - Ain't Cool.  

One last comment - Hickory United PAC is definitely in Rudy's corner. They have to be, because none of the other five candidates support their extremist tactics that prey upon ignorance. They were the ones that asked a question about whether the candidates would support a gun manufacturer moving to Catawba County. As Dr. Inglefield answered the question the young Co-Chair of HUPAC immediately sprang up out of his seat, which was very noticeable, dialed his phone and was heard saying they were going to run an ad against Dr. Inglefield on Tuesday morning. He didn't even have the courtesy to listen to the man's answer. Wow! How ingenious! How original! Just like their ACORN thing from last year, but you know what they say about coming around and going around. Boys being boys, they never seem to learn that such tactics come back to bite you in the end.

Part 1




Part 2

Through the Looking Glass - See You Tonight

2013 Hickory City Elections - The Candidates < Link to everything about the candidates that have been willing to interact with the Hickory Hound.

Lenoir-Rhyne to Host Hickory City Mayoral Debate Details
Tonight's forum at Lenoir-Rhyne will be the most real discussion about political issues in our lifetime. You can take away the controlled pageantry of Hickory Inc. functions. It will be refreshing to see a level playing field and an open discussion about the policies that shape our future.  Questions are finally going to formally be asked in a public setting.  Let's get down to the raw truth. Who is going to stand up for the people of Hickory? Who has Hickory's best interests at heart?

Lenoir-Rhyne Mayoral Debate
October 4, 2013
6:00pm
PE Monroe Auditorium

3rd annual - The Edison Project - Catawba County Chamber of Commerce

The following presentation was the finals of the 3rd annual Edison Project. The Jackson Group's The Mesh was the winner, followed by David Waechter- Verdante BioEnergy Services, and then Bob Hedin- FaceGuard Software.

The sound in the SALT Block auditorium has always left a lot to be desired and was especially bad this day. It was almost as if there was no amplification, so the voices weren't loud, there was a low bass hollowness to the sound, but I edited it as best I could. I feel that this event is worthy of documentation and presentation and I hope that next year they will beef up the audio, because I doubt that the people further back could hear much -- I was on the third row, no more than 30 feet from the podium.

What is The Edison Project? The Edison Project is sponsored by the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce and is a celebration and recognition of the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of Catawba County. We are looking for entrepreneurs that have an innovative idea for a viable business in the Catawba County area that they would like to submit for consideration and review by a panel of judges. You will compete with other entrepreneurs for an economic incentive of $10,000 in cash ($5,000 1st place; $3,000 2nd place and $2,000 3rd place) plus other pro-bono benefits for the best new entrepreneurial business ideas in the Catawba County area for 2013.






The following information was from the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce website:

Tim Clark & Drew Estes- Cornerstone Columbarium: Founders Clark and Estes provide custom columbaria and niche walls for churches, municipalities and individuals. Services include design, footing, construction, urns, and niche covers, direct cremations and final expires insurance. Seeking $410,000.

Bob Hedin- FaceGuard Software: Founder Bob Hedin has developed password security system to supplant managing multiple security codes. With fully functioning software developed, company needs to prepare for equity capital to enable and market testing and management team building-out. Seeking $500,000.

David Hudson - Quality Relationship Building Professional System: Founder has developed a system to educate attorneys and financial advisors on how to work together and coordinate services to transition clients from one to the other with the goal of greatly improving the volume of business by offering the most complete estate plans in the Catawba Valley. Seeking $30,000 for 12% of equity.

Alan Jackson and Mary Margaret Baker - The MESH: The MESH is a 'new media' online network, design to produce and deliver original unique audio and video content to computers, mobile phones, tablets and any other device connected to the internet. Company plans to target western NC as a market. Seeking $150,000 for up to 49% equality.

Dr. Paula Love - RFP Match.com: Firm provides fund-matching services to companies who market their products and services to education entities. Three distinct offerings include: 1) GrantMatch, industry-specific intelligence, 2) BidMatch, which vets RFPs against company identified key words and phrases, and 3) RFP Supports which is a technical consulting arm of the company. Seeking $200,000 launch capital.

Carla D. Spencer- 2 Your Health: Founders has developed a meal planning solution for individuals with chronic kidney disease so that these clients can slow the progress of their disease, live a higher quality life, and reduce medical expenses. Seeking $75,000

Britney Valas- Sweet Behaviors: Company provides parenting development, including a daily support system and products to help parents proactively guide their children to learn responsibility and instinctively desired behavior. Seeking $635,315

David Waechter- Verdante BioEnergy Services: Founder provides location-based networking and database management in commodity-based feedstock inventory access for industry brokers, vendors and participants. Company is seeking to monetize on early success in transition to growth mode. Seeking $800,000.

Hamilton Williams Jr.- Hamilton Williams Clayworks: (Did not present) Hamilton started his company in 1994, and produces functional artisan and one-of-a-kind pottery. With a BFA and a passion, founder seeks to scale to production with expanded facilities, and plans to staff operations with locals. Seeking $50,000.

The Edison Project - Good News and Great Ventures - 9/19/2011 (1st)

The Edison Project - Good News and Great Ventures - Year 2 - 10/1/2011 (2nd)

Lenoir-Rhyne to Host Hickory City Mayoral Debate Details

While I am working on getting a few things out, let me take the time to inform you of the Mayoral debate taking place in two days.

Lenoir-Rhyne Mayoral Debate
October 4, 2013
6:00pm
PE Monroe Auditorium

This event is sponsored by the Lenoir-Rhyne School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the LR Debate Team.

The event receives personal/professional development or community service convocation credit for our students; it will offer the local community a great opportunity to find out more about each of the candidates before the final day of primary voting on October 8th.

LR is very proud to assist the community in elevating the nature of political discourse that attends to the personal, communal, and business needs of all of Hickory's constituencies. We sincerely hope that you will attend and tell your friends about this opportunity. A special thanks to Prof. Cade Hamilton for his work in organizing the event. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Prof. Hamilton at cade.hamilton@lr.edu.

Initial Format of the debate is that it will last approximately two hours.

Each candidate will have an opening statement of (3 minutes a piece) = 18 minutes

Questions from moderators - each candidate will respond (2 minutes a piece). We hope to have at least 4 questions from the moderators and have some extra time dedicated to some healthy debate and moderation if clarity is required. (4 questions x 2 minutes x 6 candidates) = 48 minutes + ???? response time = 60 minutes??? for the round

Following the questions from the moderators, each candidate will have a closing statement
(3 minutes a piece) = 18 minutes for the round

The remaining time after the closing statements will be from the audience. As discussed, Lenoir-Rhyne debaters and students will begin collecting questions as soon as we open the doors of P.E. Monroe and they will continue to collect them through the closing statements. We will then have students read the selected question (questions will be pulled from a hat) and candidates will have 2 minutes each to answer, again. 

The Hound: In the time covering all of Hickory politics, this will be the only large setting actual debate that has occurred. The reason why the questions from the audience are being done in this format is to cut out the grandstanding that has taken place at forums held in the past. You have had audience members stand up and take several minutes espousing statements without even asking a question. It is understood that context/background is sometimes needed in detailing a question, but when individuals turn questions into grandstanding sessions, they take away valuable time and it is rude to the candidates who are trying to get a message out and to the audience members who are there to get as much information as possible to make an informed decision.

Thank You Lenoir-Rhyne University Debate Society for working to help have a comprehensive discussion about this Mayoral race so that the public can make a more informed vote. There is no reason that hundreds of people should not be at this event. I hope it is the success that I think it can be.

10 Questions with Candice Harold - Candidate 2013 Hickory City Mayoral Election

Candice Harold is a Candidate in the upcoming Hickory City Mayoral race. She will first face an October 8th primary against incumbent Mayor Rudy Wright and fellow challengers Dr. Joseph Inglefield, Ernie Masche, Jeff Brittain, and Terry Revels. If she succeeds in being one of the top two vote getters, then she will move on to the November 5th at large election. The questions posed here are available for all candidates to answer. I have agreed to post them without critique and there will be no critical comments allowed in this article. There will be a "Candidates" Hickory Municipal Elections tab to the Right of this article. It will show anything related to these candidates as we move forward in this process. Anyone who wants to participate is free to do so. Please feel free to contact me at hickoryhound@gmail.com

1)      Can you give us some background and a history of yourself?  (Where were you born? What is your educational background?  Why did you come to or stay in Hickory?  Tell us about your professional accomplishments.) 

Yes, I was born in Hickory, NC and lived here up until I was 21.  At that time I moved to Raleigh, NC for a job opportunity and joined the United States Army Reserve.  I lived in Atlanta, GA for over a decade, initially prompted by a visit to help out an Army buddy of mine.   I relocated back to Hickory to my childhood home that I have been renovating.  Unable to find local work, I have worked as far as Wilkesboro and now I drive daily to Statesville to work as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) business consultant.

I was educated in Hickory Public Schools and had many academic and sports successes.  I am a National Beta Club Alumna.  I lettered in track & cross country at Hickory High School.  I have my undergraduate degree in Business Administration with a concentration in human resources management from Strayer University.  I am a member of Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honor Society.

I am in the application process for Masters in Public Administration programs, as education has always been of prime importance in my life.  I consider myself a lifelong student and plan to attend law school as well.
 

Professional accomplishments

~   Running a grassroots campaign for mayor of Hickory

~   Mentoring young ladies that are college bound

~   Managing a major women’s athletic chain store at age 18

~   General Manager of major retail chain business with $1.3 M annual revenue at age 25

~   Increasing quarterly revenue from $220,000 to $330,000 upon taking over leadership.

~   Successfully managing a staff of 40 employees

~   Managing a high volume retail coffee chain store with $2.1M annual revenue

~   Successfully managing the call activity of 200 phone agents remotely

~   Chairing the Headstart Parent Advisory Board

~   Junior Achievement Consultant

~   Being a Parents for Public Schools Member

~   Being a PTA Treasurer

~   Being a PTA Secretary

~   Running a successful consulting company

~   Running a successful transportation company

~   Power of One Achievement multiple times, based on doing the right thing as it relates to shareholders, customers and peers

2)       Tell us about the accomplishments you are most proud of achieving in your life?  Something besides having a family or raising children.  We all recognize that those are common goals that we all aspire to.  What’s the most exciting thing you saw/did/experienced were a part of in your personal life?  In your professional life? 

The accomplishments that I am most proud of are all of the ones above.  Each one of those accomplishments has shaped me into the person I am.  My work ethic and values shine in the work that I have done.  I find great joy in serving others.  The most exciting thing I have ever experienced was an Outward Bound excursion.  That wilderness excursion solidified through learned skills/tasks and the observation of how others deal with situations, that I am a survivor and not afraid to tackle new challenges.

In my professional life, the most exciting was seeing how my leadership and actions affected the P&L of the store location I was managing.  Increased revenue, sales and customer base because I was determined to be successful, treat people right and win no matter barriers that I faced.  Being so young at the time and achieving such high levels of success remains amazing. 

3)      If I were to ask people that know you to describe you what would they say?  
Candice is passionate, resilient, has a diverse point of view, knowledgeable, loving, determined, hard worker, helper, a leader, tenacious, strong character, analytical, thoughtful, great listener, open-minded and puts the needs of others first over her own.

  

4)      How much bearing do the opinions of the people around you have on your decisions?  
I am one who weighs the pros and cons when making decisions.   Input from others is valuable from others and necessary. I make decisions based on facts not opinions, emotions or peer pressure.

5)      Can you tell us of a professional mistake that you have made that may have had an impact on who you are today?  Does it still bother you?  Can you share with us how you came to grips with that error? 
A professional mistake that I made that has had an impact on the woman I am today would take us back to managing the retail store at 18 years old.  I was being recognized for top sales in the company, but the verbal accolades always came from my peers that were out of the region and/or state.  This bothered me at the time and I wondered why the District Manager never made mention.    It does not still bother me because as I continued to manage people, I realized what being a great manager meant.  It meant praising people when you catch them doing a great job and never taking the job they do for me for granted.  I learned to tell and show my employees they were doing a great job.  When I received bonuses, I have given each staff member an equal share of my bonus.  It is important for employees to know that they are valued and how much you care.

6)      If you were given enough money to tackle one project (think nearly unlimited) that you felt was important to the Hickory Area, what would that issue be? 
Wow! There are so many projects, so little time and so little money.  Homelessness and Jobs come to mind.  I am going to look at jobs/wages together which will affect the homeless as well.  I would increase the minimum wage of all Hickory Citizens.  What?  I would supplement the hourly wage gap to bring the hourly wage to $12.00/hour. We would also start a push for Made in the USA factories manufacturing everything from socks to furniture. I would provide a free 2-year education to all the citizens. Startup funds would be provided to all entrepreneurs.

7) Let’s say there is no money available for the foreseeable future.  What one project (priority) would you push as part of your agenda that can be done with little or no money?  

If there was no money available for the foreseeable future, my project would be a “Get Fit Initiative.”  Health is one of the areas mentioned in the Gallup report naming Hickory on the list of “Most Miserable Cities.”  Being a lifelong runner, I stick to that as a method to maintain my weight and stay healthy, plus I do not frequent fast food restaurants.  There are many residents suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.  People are faced with these issues due to heredity, socio-economic reasons and lack of healthy food choices in their communities.  

As a city, we can get fit together. The Downtown Farmers’ Market will accept the government electronic food benefit cards, so those living in poverty can have access to such treasures as fresh foods, instead of the current convenience foods.   We will partner with the NC Cooperative Extension to provide free healthy cooking and nutrition classes, plus gardening tips/assistance to the community gardens to be placed throughout the city in the areas that are not within walking distance to grocery stores.

Some cities have experienced much success with “Biggest Loser” events and it becomes annual or semi-annual.  Entrants pay a small fee ($20 for example) and the health measures such as blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels and/or weight are tracked for 6,8 or 12 weeks.  Winners receive the proceeds from the entry fee.  Workouts can be completed at community recreation centers and local health clubs to ensure no matter the area one lives, one can participate.  The collective focus on health could be something to catch on in Hickory!

8) What is your overall philosophy of the development of this area?  Where would you like to see us in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?

My philosophy for the development of this area is growth.  In 5 years, we will be well into recovery from the economic downturn that we are facing present-day.  Unemployment has dropped substantially and growth can take the front seat.  There are more vibrant small business throughout the city because we have been investing in our most valuable resource, our people!  We continue to listen to the needs of the people and pride and morale are increased.  There is less disparity in the development of communities within the city.

There are more homeowners than ever before because people have the tools they need, such as knowing about down payment assistance programs and resource centers such as the Family Guidance Center to explain the process, plus there is more affordable housing for renters.  Public housing is stepped to where residents that do not want to be lifelong residents can have a managed plan to becoming homeowners or renters outside of public housing.  

Economic growth and equitable disbursement of funds throughout the city is prevalent.  Long-term 10-20 year goal is to ensure all these measures and others are in place in order for us to have sustainable communities that will stand the test of time and rough economic times without crippling to repeat what we have experienced during the economic downturn. 

9)  If you could define your Personal Legacy what would you like it to be?  What would you like to be remembered for? 

I would want to pass a legacy along of tenacity, honesty, respect for others, and love for diversity, purpose-driven, mentoring, entrepreneurial spirit and leadership.  I want to be remembered for empowering people with the education and courage to achieve their goals, aspirations and dreams. 

10) How do you define Leadership? 

Leadership is the ability to guide others to a common goal.  Leadership is making the tough call, when others wouldn’t.  Leadership is not about popularity, but solidarity.  Leadership is being able to empower, encourage and energize others.  Leadership is about getting the job done.  Leadership is balancing power and delegating effectively.