PORTSMOUTH, Va. — It's a crowded race for Portsmouth City Council candidates, with 11 people vying for three open at-large spots.
On Thursday evening, nine of those candidates took the stage at I.C. Norcom High School, fielding questions from the political action group Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Steering Committee, as well as questions from the general public.
The nine candidates in attendance were incumbent De’Andre A. Barnes, William Smith “Bill” Dodson Jr., Sharon D. Anderson, Bruce G. LaLonde, Yolanda C. “Edmonds” Thomas, Davy Smith III, Malinda A. Johnson, Kathryn W. “Kitty” Bryant, and Kelvin E. Turner. Incumbent Mark Whitaker did not participate, nor did Mia Phillips.
Each candidate had three minutes to introduce themselves to the audience, then moderators transitioned into the question portion, where two chosen candidates responded to each.
Portsmouth's crime rate was discussed extensively, one day after Police Chief Stephen Jenkins pointed to a 20% reduction in crime, in comparison to July of 2023.
"Crime is one of our most difficult problems," said Kitty Bryant. She added, "I do think having more women on city council is key in helping us diversify our approach."
Bill Dodson, Jr. spoke about the Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney's ties with the police. Dodson said, "They don't have a good working relationship." He added, "[The police] can't get out there and do their job, there just aren't enough of them."
Kelvin Turner told the audience: "When we talk about Portsmouth a lot of the time, it's not positive. We have to re-image Portsmouth. What do we have to do? Number one, we have to deal with the issue of crime."
Moderators and the public also focused heavily on the public school system, specifically the relationship between the city council and the school board.
Candidate Yolanda Edmonds Thomas is a current school board member. She told the audience, "One thing that I think could improve the relationship is integrity and trust. The city council has two liaisons and the school board has two liaisons. The school board is an open book. Our audits are on our website, our budget is on our website."
Bruce LaLonde is running with financial accountability as a key part of his platform. He criticized the turnover in the city's finance office, saying, "You've had eight CFOs in the last four years, three of them weren't even CPAs. They had no business handling your money."
The audience laughed when moderators asked Councilman Barnes, "How would you work to change the negative perception of city council that has made international news over the last four years?"
He responded, "When we were elected to city council, we were elected to fulfill what we campaigned and while I was on council, I've been able to get a lot of things done."
Sharon Anderson chimed in, saying conflict resolution needs to improve among council members.
She said, "We need to learn how to play in the sandbox together and we need to know how to respect each other. We need to be adults about the business of the city of Portsmouth."
Candidate Davy Smith III added, "The way I've been taught to do business is professionally, even if you agree to disagree."