City finances, nonpartisan elections and issues related to downtown revitalization dominated an election forum Tuesday for two Republican city council candidates vying in Ward 5 — incumbent Amy Craig and her primary challenger Anna Norris. No Democrats filed to run for the council seat.
Craig, 46, is seeking her fourth term on Hopkinsville City Council. She chairs the council’s Committee of the Whole and the Future Funding Committee.
Norris, 48, and Craig are both mothers and Hopkinsville transplants, and they share similar occupations. Craig teaches French and public speaking at University Heights Academy. Norris runs her own business that provides tutoring and a classroom environment for home-schooled students.
Norris and Craig met in the Hopkinsville League of Women Voters’ first forum of the 2022 elections. League member Martha White moderated the forum.
(Editor’s note: In the lead-up to this year’s candidate forums, Hoptown Chronicle shared with the League the issues you said mattered most in response to our Citizens’ Agenda survey. Candidates addressed several of these topics on Tuesday and we’ve detailed their responses in this report.)
City finances
Norris, who moved to the city 12 years ago, stressed her commitment to “fiscal conservatism” and her belief that Hopkinsville has a crime problem that needs to be addressed.
“I believe that we have to take a really good look at the budget and how this town spends money,” said Norris, adding the city ought to be saving for “rainy days.”
Noting the frequency of shootings in Hopkinsville, Norris said, “We’ve got to get a handle on what’s going on with safety and security of the residents of this community. People aren’t going to stay if it isn’t economically viable and safe.”
Craig, a resident for 15 years, said that being a conservative doesn’t have the same application in national and local governance. About 80% of the city’s budget is committed to police and fire protection, which doesn’t leave much “wiggle room” to cut expenditures, she said.
She also referenced the fact that the city is not allowed to sock away federal coronavirus relief funding as reserve money. There are stipulations about how and when local governments must spend the federal money. Hopkinsville’s share is more than $6 million, and the committee that Craig chairs is studying potential projects the city could fund with part of that money.
“It’s not money that we can just save,” she said.
Nonpartisan elections
Although they agreed on some topics, Norris and Craig were clearly on opposites sides of the nonpartisan election question.
Norris favors the city’s current system of partisan elections. Candidates run with party affiliation in their wards. In the primary election, voters are restricted to casting ballots in their party’s primary and within their ward. In the general election, voters cast ballots in all 12 wards.
“I think we do a disservice to the voters to not give them the full picture and information as to where somebody stands party wise,” she said. Knowing a person’s party affiliation could help a voter understand where that candidate would stand on issues that come before the council, she indicated.
Craig said she has long supported a switch to nonpartisan elections. She voted with the majority on city council when it passed an ordinance in July 2020 to shift to nonpartisan elections; however, Mayor Wendell Lynch vetoed the measure and later appointed a committee to study the implications of nonpartisan elections. That panel is in the process of drafting a report it will send to the mayor and council.
“I believe it was Mayor [Dan] Kemp who once said there are no Republican or Democratic potholes. And I think that really kind of sums up my feelings on partisan politics at the local level,” she said.
Craig said she disagrees with limiting voters to their party in the primary and noted that her husband, who is a registered Democrat, cannot even vote for her until the general election.
Issues that come before the council are not predictable Republican or Democrat, she suggested.
“I have seen votes go every direction on the city council that had absolutely nothing to do with political party, so ultimately I think it’s important that we get to know the person individually and not just the party,” she said.
Downtown development
Craig and Norris agreed that the old L&N Train Depot is one of downtown’s historic properties that the city needs to save.
The depot was built in the 1890s. The city purchased it from the railroad for $30,000 after the last passenger train stopped in Hopkinsville in the spring of 1970, Christian County historian William T. Turner previously told Hoptown Chronicle. Its last major restoration was in 1982. The building has been empty since a small fire in January 2019 forced the Pennyroyal Arts Council to move its headquarters out of the East Ninth Street building.
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In the past year, CSX railroad agreed to lift a deed restriction on the depot that would have prevented a for-profit business such as a restaurant from locating there. But funding is the big question concerning the depot’s future. Preliminary estimates indicate it would cost at least several hundred thousand dollars to restore the property.
“I love that building,” said Norris. She said it was encouraging that a group of citizens began pushing for its restoration in the past year.
Craig said, “I think it’s such a beautiful building and there’s so much history there. That’s been an ongoing discussion for quite some time.”
They generally agreed that other areas of downtown with dilapidated buildings need attention and that city incentives can help.
Craig cited incentives available for business and property owners through the Inner-City REZ and the Downtown Renaissance District. Some of those come before city council for approval.
Norris added, “We have to make sure that what we’re doing isn’t losing money.”
Landlord-tenant regulations
Neither candidate supports city council adopting landlord-tenant regulations.
“That is a slippery slope to me, said Norris. She questioned how government could “get involved in what is essentially a private business.”
Craig said laws are already in place to “protect both the landlord and the tenant.” Code enforcement officials can get involved if a tenant is subjected to poor living conditions, she said.
With stiff opposition from local landlords, a landlord-tenant ordinance backed by the Hopkinsville Human Rights Commission [then called Human Relations Commission] was rejected by city council in 2018.
Closing remarks
Each candidate had one minute at the end of the forum to sum up their candidacy.
“I believe in positivity. I believe in open communication and transparency. I’m honest. I’m hard-working,” said Craig. “And I’m passionate about this community. I’m passionate about serving in this community. I’m willing to make hard decisions, and I’m willing to ask hard questions. … I pride myself in having a good relationship with our department heads because I think having that communication is key to having a community that is functioning well. And having a relationship as well with the mayor that is positive, I think that is really, really important, and I want to continue that open communication.”
Craig said she wants to help Hopkinsville regain the kind of positivity she saw with a surge in community pride during the solar eclipse in 2017. Currently, there’s a sense of negativity in Hopkinsville, she observed. She said she’ll work to keep citizens informed about local issues and pledged to “stir up a sense of positivity.”
“I want to be involved and I want to have a voice and to be a voice for those who might feel like there maybe isn’t as much transparency, maybe there isn’t as much fiscal conservatism as there should be within the city council,” Norris said. “I think this is a great place with a lot of potential, and I think that it is absolutely important to focus on the positive aspects of this town. But I think it is also important to be honest about things that we really need to fix — and we really need to change lanes on some of these issues so that we are fiscally conservative in the future, that we are economically developed in a way that benefits everybody in this town to the best of our ability.”
Norris stressed she wants to ensure Hopkinsville is a safe place to live.
The League of Women Voters forums continue this week. Here’s a schedule.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
