Q&A with Canton mayoral candidate Kimberly Bell
Editor's note: The Canton Repository is profiling the five Democrats facing off in the May 2 primary for Canton mayor. The Repository asked the candidates to complete a questionnaire and their answers will appear at CantonRep.com this week. Candidate profiles also will appear at CantonRep.com and in the newspaper. Republican Roy Scott DePew is unopposed in the Republican primary.
Here is the schedule:
Monday: Kimberly D. Bell
Tuesday: Willis Gordon
Wednesday: William V. Sherer II
Thursday: Bill Smuckler
Friday: Thomas West
Kimberly D. Bell
Age: 58
Current occupation: Took a break from my career as a paralegal to focus on my campaign for Canton mayor.
What neighborhood do you live in: Ward 6
Family: I have one son and five grandchildren (three grandsons and two granddaughters).
Education: Canton South High School Class of 1982; Stark State College paralegal and legal assistant degree 2019-20.
Political party: Democratic Party
Political experience: None
Community involvement: Advocate for the people for social justice and other elements of ethical violations for a particular cause or policy. Community volunteer work with local churches and programs with inner-city children.
1. Why are you running for mayor?
After sitting and listening in on City Council meetings every Monday for the past three years or more trying to understand why certain parts of the city were not getting the same attention as other parts of the city who and why is responsible for these issues.
Also, after learning about the career history of the current mayor and the long-term career of other political Canton city government employees who have been playing musical chairs in City Hall long enough and it’s time for them to go and bring in new ideas and a youthful administration to keep up with the changing world of technology and social issues.
2. What relevant experience qualifies you for the position? Please list three strengths, along with three weaknesses that you will have to overcome.
I have experience of living in Canton all my life, living under all the recommended policies that each mayor has made over the years, qualifies me the experience. Other than that, I have no political experience.
Strengths: Leadership, communication, creativity
Weaknesses: Not knowing my limits, very defensive, wanting to solve every problem
3. Is the city headed in the right direction or wrong direction? Please explain your answer.
The city can be in a better direction once I take office with my new ideals and I dismantle the old policy and procedure handbook and make my own footprints instead of following in the former mayor administrations’ footsteps.
4. What would be your top three priorities in your first year in office?
Top three priorities:
Stop wasteful spending with taxpayers’ money.
Learn who my law enforcement officers are by doing a personal 15-minute interview with each and every one of them.
Find properties to create affordable living for low-income families and seniors’ ways to prevent homelessness.
5. The city has focused its attention on downtown, including Centennial Plaza, and the Hall of Fame Village in recent years. What are your plans, if any, to improve city neighborhoods?
Some of this question I answered in question 4, but just as you said, the city leaders have focused the attention on the Hall of Fame, so let’s not give any more attention to that project because Mike Crawford overextended the plans in creating this Village.
6. What is your crime prevention plan?
Crime prevention begins with finding out who is committing crimes and why they are committing crimes.
Then help change their outlook on life, and if their choice is to commit crimes, then we will enforce our great legal system to work to protect our Canton residents and businesses.
7. The Stark County NAACP has released numerous recommendations related to police reform following the fatal shooting of James Williams by a city police officer last year. Is police reform needed in Canton? If so, please offer some specific changes that you would advocate for.
The George Floyd generation and social media has changed American, and the world has put police reform front and center, as the No. 1 priority on every mayor’s agenda.
I was one of the soldiers and advocate who was on the battle line fighting for James Williams and the family (wife and children).
First thing is to study and focus on certain changes lawmakers must make with qualified immunity with police officers to better law enforcement’s duties to serve and protect each person as human beings and not as a subject to hunt down.
8. The city has provided millions of dollars to support the Hall of Fame Village development. Where do you stand on providing funding and/or financial incentives for this project?
Again, that Hall of Fame, let’s move on from that and focus on other parts of the city like the east side because the west side is looking good due to all the money to improve it for the Hall of Fame.
The shareholders of the Hall of Fame Village should be asking the NFL for funding and find ways to allow taxpayers to receive a yearly incentive from all the profits.
9. How do you intend to encourage and grow economic development?
I would start with expanding businesses on the east side of Canton, which is majority Black neighborhoods (African-American people spend more money than others), bring a major grocery store, two major eateries or cafes, a mini shopping plaza or small Black minority businesses to serve their community.
10. How important is the arts community to the future of Canton and what can the city do to support the arts?
Art is what makes each one of us different and for us to evolve as humans, we must change the picture/views of our surroundings, which a culture is developed by.
Art is expressing how we feel and how we imagine and dream. The automobile and house were created by the form of art on a piece of paper or carved out of some type of material into a sculpture of art. So the skill of music-painting-poetry-dance is a very important purpose of our lives.
11. The city owns the Canton Memorial Civic Center, which opened in 1951. What do you see as the future for this facility, and should the city invest in upgrading the venue or building a new one?
Canton Civic Center is an event center the city needs that hosts a lot of art and entertainment events as well as local school districts’ events.
The new Hall of Fame Village event center opening its doors should be restricted to offer any events that were held at the Civic Center over the years.
Yes, it needs an upgrade, but before I put any funding toward the Civic Center, I would start working on a new Canton City Hall facility and city jail. Investing in a new Civic Center ideally will start after I have proof of what kind of profit the Hall of Fame Village has brought to the city.
12. The perception is that talented, bright young people are leaving Canton. Do you have a plan to attract and keep bright young people in Canton?
We have to open up the conversation with our young people about their ideas for their generation, and in order to do that, we must have a young administration in the Canton mayor’s office.
Myself as Canton mayor need to attend events which serve this new generation of technology and social opinions and actions about life. Society is dealing with a very expressive generation to be heard and seen by the world (social media).
This election is so diverse and has advances from the old way of doing things in politics, and again thanks to the George Floyd generation, those of us who were both in the 1950s and ‘60s were taught to hold our tongue on certain matters, but today we are brave to speak up because of the unfair treatment and unjust behavior a certain race of people have suffered for too long without any justices.
So, to keep Generation X and Z here in Canton, I would start my administration with a new department involving a youthful diverse group which includes millennials/ GenX/ GenZ/LGBTQ who can work with me to create new ways of operating this city in the new world of open expression.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Q&A with Canton mayoral candidate Kimberly Bell
