{"id":19202,"date":"2016-04-04T13:33:05","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T17:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=19202"},"modified":"2016-04-04T13:33:05","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T17:33:05","slug":"scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/04\/04\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Scoring The 1st Danville City Council Forum (Part #3)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All righty. We&#8217;re getting back up to speed with last week&#8217;s Danville City Council candidate forum. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/29\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">Part #1<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/30\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Part #2<\/a> are already published. We&#8217;re continuing with the third question asked.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>If you need to remember how the scoring system works, we&#8217;ve covered that in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/29\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">Part #1<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/30\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Part #2<\/a>. Let&#8217;s roll.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Question #3: (From Danielle Staub reading from a piece of paper) In years past, the city has spent millions of dollars in failed attempts to attract businesses. In hindsight, what would you do differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was four years ago, and everything in the process has changed. Stupid-ass question. Danielle already knows the answer to that question because she covered it in her long-form WDBJ coverage that told us absolutely nothing that we didn&#8217;t already know multiple years ago. <strong>MUTE<\/strong> to Danielle for this question. Ugh. We&#8217;re going left to right, starting with Lee Vogler.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lee Vogler: Already taken many steps. (+2) Problem was 4 to 5 years ago. (YES! +3). Outside vetting firm. (+2) New economic development director and city manager. (+3) Asked for monthly economic development updates and getting them (+3). Performance based incentives. (+2)<\/li>\n<li>Robin Dabney: Evaluate and also assess (to evaluate IS also to assess, you know <strong>MUTE<\/strong>) the job skills and interests of residents. Incentives shouldn&#8217;t be from politicians or private investors, but community driven to look at their needs (What? <strong>MUTE<\/strong>). Develop education &amp; strengthen workforce areas. Partner with schools to see what kind of programs that they have as opposed to graduating our students out into the community without any type of soft skills or workforce development skills. (What? <strong>MUTE<\/strong>) (Ugh. This was a question about economic development and Dabney was totally lost on this one.)<\/li>\n<li>Larry Campbell: Lots of mistakes were made. (+3) Personnel was the #1 issue and has been corrected. (+3) Closely evaluating startup businesses. Want a track record before money is given. Some losses, but way more wins. (+3) Focus to cut down on losing ventures. (+2)<\/li>\n<li>Jim Lindley: Look at return on investment. (+2) There used to be a time when businesses wanted to come to Danville. (That&#8217;s still happening NOW. <strong>MUTE<\/strong>) Need to have a united community without division. (+2)<\/li>\n<li>Philip Haley: Believes in creating incentives to bring new business &amp; industries. (+3) Previous bad mistakes. (+2) City Council needs to ask the tough questions. (+2) Mistakes that were made should never have been made to start with. (+2) (Jessica Griffith says &#8220;Wow&#8221;. Bad form. If you&#8217;re moderating, stay neutral. <strong>MUTE<\/strong> to Jessica for that.)<\/li>\n<li>Trina McLaughlin: Some decisions were &#8220;accept anything for jobs&#8221;. (+3) Small business focus. (+2) Talked to small business owner who has a problem with the demand charge on his electric bill. (What? <strong>MUTE<\/strong>) Could move to the county and wouldn&#8217;t have demand charge. (Yes, they would on a commercial account. <strong>MUTE<\/strong>) The mall kicked out local businesses, why did that happen? (I don&#8217;t know, but that&#8217;s a private business decision for them to make. Even if it&#8217;s a stupid one, it&#8217;s definitely not city council related one bit. <strong>MUTE<\/strong>). (Swing and a big miss on this one. Ugh.)<\/li>\n<li>Sheila Baynes: Danville has the worst track record on this in the state. Six companies are Job Busts. Mistakes were made in the vetting process (+3). (50 seconds of &#8220;what we already know&#8221;. Ugh again.)<\/li>\n<li>Thomas Motley: Statistical data supports working with small businesses. (+2) Need to help minority businesses thrive (No, ALL businesses. <strong>MUTE<\/strong>). Invest in education. (+2)<\/li>\n<li>Madison Whittle: Would ask for last three years tax returns. (+2) Personally aided in bringing 26 new businesses to the area. (+3)<\/li>\n<li>Sherman Saunders: Danville not the only city that made mistakes, but no excuse (+3). New personnel, new policies. (+3) Must take calculated risks. (+3) Economic development continues to be risky. (+3)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yowtch. Eight hits on the MUTE button on that question. The incumbents had a natural advantage on that question, and it showed. Let&#8217;s look at the scoreboard after Question #3.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/MpZrqcg.png?resize=284%2C330\" alt=\"\" width=\"284\" height=\"330\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Question #4 is coming up next on SouthsideCentral!<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/0yAV3PH.png?resize=200%2C200\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All righty. We&#8217;re getting back up to speed with last week&#8217;s Danville City Council candidate forum. Part #1 &amp; Part #2 are already published. We&#8217;re continuing with the third question asked.<\/p>\n<p> [&#8230;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[58,20,22,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-danville","category-newscentral","category-opinioncentral","category-politicscentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-4ZI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19928,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/04\/08\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":19202,"position":0},"title":"Scoring The 1st Danville City Council Forum (Part #5)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"April 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We're back after the halftime break at last week's Danville City Council candidate forum. Let's quickly jump to the next question. Here's the links to the previous articles: Introduction & Question #1 - Question #2 - Question #3 - Question #4 You'll find the scoring system explained in those articles.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Danville&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/FKsTfkT.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17860,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/30\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":19202,"position":1},"title":"Scoring The 1st Danville City Council Forum (Part #2)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"After the introductions and the first question of Monday night's Danville City Council candidates forum, we had to take a break so that our scoring system and MUTE button could recover. Here's the recap of how the scoring system works: Good answers get two points. Great answers get three points.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Danville&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/HocHUpw.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19533,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/04\/05\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":19202,"position":2},"title":"Scoring The 1st Danville City Council Forum (Part #4)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"April 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We're going to make it to the halftime break in this article. Part #1, Part #2 & Part #3 have already been published, so you can catch up and refresh yourself on the scoring system. Let's roll. After three questions, here's where they stand! That scoreboard is to be expected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Danville&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/MpZrqcg.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17699,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/24\/madison-whittles-campaign-office-grand-opening-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":19202,"position":3},"title":"Madison Whittle\u2019s Campaign Office Grand Opening (Part #2)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We've already published Part #1 in this two-part PhotoCentral series on Danville City Council candidate Madison Whittle's campaign office grand opening, and we'll wrap up our look at Wednesday's happenings here. We're at the Forum building on Piney Forest Road. Let's move on! (Editor's Note: \"Madison Whittle for City Council\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;PhotoCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"PhotoCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/photocentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Madison Whittle for Danville City Council","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/whittle600x90A.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/whittle600x90A.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/whittle600x90A.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6795,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/19\/some-thoughts-about-todays-danville-city-council-forum\/","url_meta":{"origin":19202,"position":4},"title":"Some thoughts about today&#8217;s Danville City Council forum","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"April 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The five candidates for City Council got together today at Danville's Liberty Hill Baptist Church for a forum sponsored by the Danville Ministerial Alliance. Let's go to some random thoughts... It takes a lot of time to run for City Council. This was the third \"forum\" in a seven-day period.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;EventsCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"EventsCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/eventscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17845,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/29\/scoring-the-1st-danville-city-council-forum-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":19202,"position":5},"title":"Scoring The 1st Danville City Council Forum (Part #1)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"SouthsideCentral was at the first Danville City Council candidates forum held Monday night at the Alpha & Omega Missionary Baptist Church on Kemper Road. I was impressed. I was also dumbfounded, shocked and my eyes rolled across the floor more than a few times. Ten out of the eleven candidates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Danville&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/HocHUpw.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19225,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19202\/revisions\/19225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}