DETROIT – The Detroit mayoral debate hosted by Local 4 ended a little heated during closing statements Monday night.
Candidates James Craig, Saunteel Jenkins, Solomon Kinloch Jr. and Mary Sheffield participated in a debate at Wayne State University on June 16.
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Local 4’s morning co-anchor and Flashpoint host Jason Colthorp served as moderator of the debate, which was co-sponsored by AARP and presented in partnership with the Michigan Chronicle.
--> Watch: Local 4’s Detroit mayoral debate at Wayne State University
Opening statements
Candidates took a random draw to determine the order of delivering opening and closing statements.
The order of the candidates in opening statements was Kinloch, Jenkins, Sheffield, and Craig.
Improving public safety
Candidates were asked how public safety could be improved in Detroit.
Jenkins said there needs to be more police funding in order to improve public safety. She said there should be safe spaces for young people during the most dangerous hours of the day, as well as mental health resources available. She explained improving public safety is important to her because she lost her brother to gun violence.
Craig said he wants to work to improve the community’s trust in the police department. He said he wants to build on the successes that have happened in Detroit. One example he mentioned was the green light program for businesses.
Sheffield believes there should be more boots on the ground to establish a relationship with police and the community. She also wants to address and invest in youth programming to give younger residents more productive things to do.
Kinloch said residents deserve safety and justice. To decrease crime, he said the city needs to give people opportunity and make sure there are resources available.
Affordable housing
Candidates were asked how they would work to improve affordable housing in Detroit.
Craig wants to stimulate and grow the middle class. He said he will implement his program that aims to track everything that can be tracked, including affordable housing. He said there should also be incentives for developers and educate the community on financial literacy.
Sheffield said the city needs to address that the cost of construction for affordable housing is high, making the city need to provide abatements to match the cost. She said the real issue is high property taxes. She said that if elected mayor, she would reform property taxes.
Kinloch said he got into the race for mayor to ensure that no one freezes to death due to not having a proper home. He said there needs to be more incentives and programs to help people have access to affordable housing.
Jenkins also aims to offer additional incentives and programs to support those in need of affordable housing. She also wants to ensure that there is affordable housing for all Detroit residents, regardless of their income level and stage of life. She talked about how seniors need affordable living in the city.
Neighborhood investment
Despite significant devitalization in the city, residents still see abandoned businesses. The candidates were asked what their plan would be to attract and sustain development in the neighborhood.
Sheffield said the city needs to be intentional with where they revitalize the neighborhoods. She plans to reform internal red tape that prevented businesses from setting up shop.
Kinloch said he wants to convene businesses during his first 100 days to come up with a plan to find a way to construct homes residents can afford.
Jenkins said she has a master plan. Once the plan is established, the city could offer incentives for what the residents have voiced and what kind of businesses they want.
Craig said he wants to reform the land bank. He said a lot of the land can be purchased by residents instead.
Individual questions
Questions were asked individually to the candidates.
Kinloch
Kinloch was asked how he could balance working at the church and being the mayor.
He said he would be a mayor who would go to church. He emphasized he would prioritize being mayor.
“What’s wrong with a mayor with a Christian conscience?”
Jenkins
Jenkins was asked why voters should trust she would be committed to the job.
She said she’s been working for the city for many years. She knows how to work with the most vulnerable families in Detroit after working for THAW for years.
Craig
Craig was asked why voters should choose Craig as mayor when people are unfavorable of him, despite the polls showing residents want public safety to be improved.
He said he was a Republican when he was chief and said he got the job done. He said he wants to work to develop a relationship between the police and the community.
Sheffield
Sheffield has been criticized for missing meetings. She was asked how she could remain committed if she were elected mayor.
Sheffield said she is an active member of many city committees. She said as city council president, she has worked hard for residents to benefit from the city.
Helping senior citizens in Detroit
The candidates were asked what are the biggest challenges senior citizens in Detroit face and how they plan to improve that as mayor.
Jenkins said she wants to improve the opportunity for housing for seniors.
Craig said the food deserts in the city can affect seniors’ access to healthy food. He wants to partner with grocery chains to improve the availability to healthy food to seniors.
Sheffield said there needs to be more home repair programs for seniors. She said she has been working on the issue for seniors to get their homes repaired. She said the majority of the senior citizens who live in Detroit don’t plan on leaving, so they need help keeping their homes safe and secure.
Kinloch said seniors are concerned about what type of world they’re leaving behind for their children. He said seniors want to focus on their children having opportunities.
Unemployment in Detroit
The candidates were asked how to not only improve Detroit’s unemployment rates but also how people can maintain jobs in the city.
Craig said he will continue to bring large and small corporation jobs to the city. He said if the city’s public schools were improved, people would have more opportunities for jobs in the city.
Sheffield said over half of Detroiters were not making a livable wage. She said she wants to create programs that enable people to train for higher-paying jobs and continue their workforce development.
Kinloch said the city should take care of the people who already work in the field.
Jenkins said she wants to improve education in the city and ensure the proper use of workforce development programs to help residents find good-paying jobs.
Education
The candidates were asked how they would, as mayor, work to improve education in the city’s public schools.
Sheffield said she wants to partner with the superintendent to join public and charter schools together to address absenteeism and support. She said it’s not about control but changing the outcomes of the youth.
Kinloch said he wants to appoint a chief educational officer to work along with the school system to find solutions as to why children are missing school.
Jenkins said programs like Pathways for Potential for people to go to schools to find solutions to keep children in school and figure out ways to bring more highly qualified teachers to public schools.
Craig said teachers’ morals are down. He said if the teacher’s morals are down, the children aren’t motivated to go to school.
Taxes in the city
The candidates were asked what steps they would take to reduce the property tax burden on residents while maintaining essential city services.
Kinloch said the city needs to continue to lobby and work with the state to decrease taxes in Detroit.
Jenkins said there needs to be another source of revenue to relieve Detroiters from high property tax. She wants to create a program that is a local tax. She said it would create a revenue source that would reduce property taxes.
Craig said the city needs to continue to drive small businesses and large corporations to decrease property taxes. He said there needs to be a mayor who has a relationship with state officials and the president to get some assistance.
Sheffield said there needs to be an alternate source of revenue. She believes that having local taxes, especially for downtown, can help reduce property taxes.
Business relationships
The candidates were asked what relationships they had with businesses and how they could cultivate to get projects and programs in motion in the city.
Jenkins said she is on the board with Henry Ford Hospital and worked directly with DTE to provide resources to the most vulnerable. She said she has the experience building relationships to get things done.
Craig said working with small businesses in Detroit during his time as police chief caused violent crime to go down.
Sheffield said she built relationships with businesses in her district to help revitalize the city.
Kinloch said there are many great partners in the city at the table, and the city needs to build leverages with those businesses at the table.
Closing statements
Closing statements were given in the following order: Sheffield, Jenkins, Craig, and Kinloch.
Sheffield said she has worked with the community for years and said the city has improved greatly but said more can be done. She said she wants to continue that work.
Jenkins said there needs to be a mayor with experience. She also bashed at her candidates in her closing statement. She said that there would be more guns in schools under Craig if he were elected mayor. She said Kinloch would work two jobs if he were mayor. She accused Sheffield of being on Instagram more than being in meetings.
Craig said he loves Detroit, and he’s a public servant, not a politician. He said he has a proven track record of success.
Kinloch said you cannot build yourself up by putting other people down in response to Jenkins’ closing statement.
Why these candidates were selected
The candidates were chosen by the recent polling done in partnership with the Detroit News.
--> Poll: Here’s who leads Detroit mayoral race 2 months before primary election
The poll was done by Glengariff Group, and we asked Detroiters who plan to vote in the primary who they would choose right now.
Any candidate would quality that got at least 10% — including the 4% margin of error. So anyone who got 6% of the vote and above.
Four candidates met that threshold:
- Sheffield - 38%
- Kinloch - 14%
- Craig - 9%
- Jenkins - 8%
All other candidates were 5% or below.