Poway City Council forum draws crowd
An overflow Templar’s Hall audience heard the eight City Council candidates disagree Tuesday night on several campaign issues, including term limits, the proposed Walmart store expansion and whether to extend water lines out to Highway 67.
But for the most part, all eight June 8 hopefuls were on the same page when it came to backing the city’s General Plan, preserving hillsides, wanting city staff to be more customer-friendly and motivated to helping existing businesses survive and new businesses to open in town. All eight also opposed having Poway get involved in the Arizona immigration law controversy.
The forum was the only one scheduled before the June 8 primary election, when voters will decide whether four-term City Councilwoman Betty Rexford should be recalled from office and, if she is, which of the eight replacement candidates should fill the remaining five months of her term. Voters are being asked to vote on both matters, regardless of their views on the recall question.
Rexford, facing allegations she abused her authority in office, has denied any wrongdoing.
The candidates are Pete Babich, Howard Collins, Chuck Cross, Dave Grosch, John Mullin, David Radcliff, Steve Vaus and Roger Willoughby.
Regarding whether Poway should have term limits, Collins, Grosch, Radcliff and Willoughby said they favored them, with Radcliff adding that he would only serve one four-year term if re-elected in November. Babich, Cross, Mullin and Vaus opposed term limits, saying the voters always have the opportunity to vote out incumbents.
Asked about Walmart’s proposal to expand its Poway store and add a full grocery department, Babich, Cross and Vaus declined to offer an opinion, citing a recent city attorney memo that advised council members and candidates that opinions expressed prior to City Council consideration of the proposal might result in a legal challenge down the road.
That did not prevent Grosch, the leader of the “NO-WE” anti-expansion group, and Collins, who has been speaking out against the issue since the 2008 council campaign, from saying they continue to oppose the idea.
“Do you want a store bigger than Costco in the middle of Poway?” Grosch asked the audience.
They were joined by Willoughby and by Radcliff, who said he could possibly change his mind later.
Noting that the giant retailer is paying for a city-selected consultant to prepare a full Environmental Impact Report on the expansion, Willoughby said, “If I’m paying big bucks, I’d better get a good report.”
Mullin said that he would review the application in terms on whether it conformed to the city’s General Plan.
“I don’t see how you can support the General Plan and then pick and choose which (project) you approve,” he said.
The current City Council stated last year it has no interest in extending water lines along Poway Road to Highway 67, thereby possibly opening that part of the city up to limited residential development. The question came up Thursday night, with Mullin and Radcliff saying they would consider the idea, but only if all costs were paid by the property owners. The other six candidates opposed the water line extension idea.
Asked whether they felt Poway had a pro-business environment, candidates collectively said they didn’t think so, and that something should be done about it.
Vaus, noting that the city can’t continue to depend on sales tax revenues from auto dealers, suggested a greater emphasis on getting residents to patronize mom-and-pop stores. He cited a low-key business-to-business referral program in New York as an example of one that could work in Poway.
Mullin said “We must get over the anti-business reputation at City Hall” where “obstacles are thrown and rules are changed” to hamper the opening of new businesses and the growth of others.
Addressing the future of Poway Road, Babich said a challenge is to get north Poway residents to shop locally rather than in Rancho Bernardo or Carmel Mountain Ranch. He also said the city could seriously plan to turn Poway Road into a “downtown experience.”
Grosch was a harsh critic of what he said was a lack of redevelopment agency progress toward upgrading Poway Road.
“It looks like Detroit,” Grosch said, with “hundreds” of empty buildings.
Cross said his impression is that Poway Road has “insensitive landlords” who raise rents in tough economic times and force tenants to leave.
Collins suggested that the city, chamber of commerce, business park association and other “stakeholders” get together to plan and implement a marketing plan to attract new businesses to Poway.
The candidates made prepared opening and closing statements and spent most of the two hours answering audience-generated questions, several of which were difficult to understand.
The candidate panel also struggled all night with feedback from the public address system.
The forum was co-sponsored by Poway Civic Association, Friends of the Poway Library and the Poway Woman’s Club. It was run by the League of Women Voters.
A video of the forum can be viewed online at http://blip.tv/file/3628594.
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