CITY, SCHOOL ISSUES DRAW ABOUT 20 TO FORUM; WARD SYSTEM DISCUSSED

Candidates for three Cape Girardeau City Council seats stated their positions at a public forum Tuesday night.

About 20 people attended the forum to inform voters of issues prior to the April 4 elections.

Only two of the three wards have contested races. Ward 3 Councilman Jay Purcell is running uncontested for a four-year term. He was first elected in 1998 to fill an unexpired term.

Two candidates are running for council seats occupied by Dr. Melvin Kasten and Melvin Gateley who could not file for re-election because of term limitations. Ken Lipps and Hugh White are vying for Kasten's Ward 4 seat, and Matthew Hopkins and Lawrence Godfrey are seeking to fill Gateley's Ward 5 seat.

All but one of the candidates said they would like to abolish term limits for council seats because they force knowledgeable people out of office prematurely. The city charter allows a maximum of two consecutive terms.

Lipps was the lone dissenter, saying he was "on the fence" but leaning towards support for term limits.

Support for the city's ward system, which enables councilmen to represent a geographical segment of the city, was mixed. Godfrey, who successfully spearheaded a movement to create the ward system in the early 1990s, said he though it enabled "the rich and the poor man" to run for council. Lipps likes the ward system because it encourages citizen involvement while Purcell expressed support because it "allows a person to be elected by his neighbors" instead of on the strength of his campaign budget.

Hopkins said he doesn't see what the city has gained with its move from an at-large election system to the ward system.

"Everyone is concerned about the whole system, and I don't think the city is large enough to have a ward system," he said.

White, who formerly was elected to City Council under the at-large system, said he prefers that method to the ward system because it enables voters to elect the most qualified people without regard to where they live.

"I think what serves the city of Cape best are committed councilmen regardless of where they live," he said.

The candidates expressed concern for the city's fiscal management, including an $8 million overrun on improvements to the sewer system. Several candidates also said they want to develop more trust for city government and see more residents become involved in community issues.

Lipps said he would take a "fiscally adversarial" stance against city employees and managers to encourage the best use of the city's budget.

"Everyone wants what's best for their department, but it's we the people who are going to have to pay the bill," he said.