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The Old Towne Association held a mayoral forum for local residents to hear from the run-off candidates on Tuesday night.

The event featured Johnny Moss and Aaron Roper. Due to space limitations, the Selma Times-Joural has listed the responses from three of the questions asked of the candidates on Tuesday night. Here are their responses:

What will you do to address crime in your first 30 days in office?

Moss: First of all, we want to sit down with the council president and council members to ensure that we’re on the same page. Actually, after that, we’ll have meetings with public works, public safety departments, meeting the chief of police, leadership in public safety to map out a plan of action to move forward to increase the patrol and decrease the amount of guns that are on the streets and to put a plan in place to move forward through technology, through grant opportunities I made yesterday for the group access and provides grant finding for opportunities to be able to put cameras in locations that strategically in our city to prevent some of the crime action that’s going on. So of course, my campaign has been about unity, unifying us and the government, working together to create a plan of action that we can move forward. And it would have obviously involved leadership of public safety and putting a plan together to identify our weaknesses, our strengths, and provide those resources to get our streets safe.

Roper: “To address crime in the first 30 days as well as in the 90 First and foremost, I will tell you crime on this side is not the same as crime on the other side of town. It’s not. And so the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to break it down ward by ward. And I want the citizens of the ward to come forward and be able to discuss what are the crimes that they are seeing in their neighborhood? What are the crimes that they’re not reporting in their neighborhood?

And be able to take those same crimes and make sure that we take it to the police and let them know that this is what the neighborhood is seeing, regardless of what they’re seeing. And then now it’s time to to bring it all together, but as it’s unreported and reported, bring in data so that we can begin to address them and develop a plan. We’re going to make sure that we strengthen the enforcement. Strengthening enforcement is going to be the key. Strengthen enforcement through technology as well as through programs.

You have programs just like this right here, Old Town Association would be able to do things like a neighborhood watch so that way they’d know who they can communicate with, they can communicate with their block captain, be able to communicate these issues downtown all the way to their representative as well. And so technology, I’ll give you an example. I recently saw where Tuscaloosa was able to reduce their crime. They were able to reduce it through doorbell cameras and surveillance systems on their homes. What happened is they said, hey, all we have to do is register our doorbell camera, register the surveillance camera, and then when the police needed access to it, they knew who to call.

When there was a crime on the street, they didn’t have to say, is Aaron over there? I think he has a camera. They knew who had cameras. They were able to be very pointed and be able to piece together these videos so that way they can solve crime. But also, I want to work with the police chief.

I want to work with the state troopers. All right. And everybody in between to make sure that their goals are aligned with the strategy of self. Is it, do you have goals within the department? If there are no goals, then guess what?

I’m saying we’re going to establish goals. All right. And if, and I also want to make sure that we identify what their gaps are. They may have gaps in equipment, they may have gaps in personnel, they may have gaps in training. I want to make sure that we identify those gaps.

We purge the gap, and I want to be very clear.

After we purge the gap, we expect them to deliver. We expect them to deliver because we have done everything that we need to do at that time, which is provide them with all the resources that they need in order to deliver what you expect from your city. So that’s how I would trace it.

What makes you different from the current mayor?

Moss: Headstrong, very intelligent, but we’re able to accomplish a lot of things, and we were able to accomplish a lot of things because we work together. I’m a very strategic person, very strategic thinker. I think methodically. I believe in compromising the chaos. I believe in bringing people together.

That’s one of the gifts that God has given me. I believe in unifying city government, working with the city council president, and understanding the roles of the mayor and city council government and the relationship and how that’s important to the city. I believe in hiring qualified people and holding them accountable. I believe in keeping situations in-house that are important to protect the HR policy, to protect the employees, to protect the city. And so I’m a very collaborative leader.

I like to lead by example. I like to be proud. I like to be accountable. And I also want to promote my personnel and my employees accountable as well. So Mayor Perkins is a fine leader.

We appreciate his leadership. But I’m a totally different leader and I work pro-city hall in a different aspect. I value collaboration and unity over just working independently.

Roper: “There’s a few things that make me different than the past mayor. Our lived experiences are different.

Our lived experiences are different. I’m very in tune with technology and innovation. I always listen to people. But I also am all about ensuring that the data matches exactly what the people are reporting. And being able to have a dialogue instead of monologue, being able to have the dialogue that goes back and forth with individuals.

A few other things that make me different are, number one, I’m a businessman. I own a business right here in South Bend, which means that I have to make sure that I’m not just representing myself, I know that I am representing others through the business. And as I go downtown after serving as your tax collector, the top thing that what makes me different is knowing the intricate details of the finances of the city, knowing how to drive revenue, knowing how to appropriate the actual expenses, ensuring that contracts are executed appropriately on the front end and so that we don’t have issues on the back end when it’s time to make payments. I know that we must be able to build trust from person to person throughout. I always build allies, all right?

Let me tell you, I operate with a concept. Rock throwers and rock catchers, all right? I have a whole lot of rock throwers, all right? But I also have a lot of rock catchers as well. And what that is, that’s my commitment to communicate back and forth with everyone, regardless of how I feel about it.

When you elect me as mayor, you get 48 consistent months of me working directly with the city council, directly with you, and directly with small associates just like Old Town. And I hope other communities do the same thing so that way I can be invited so I can hear directly from the people. And keep in mind, being a leader, you have to get out of your own way. And that’s something that no matter if things go my way or someone else’s way. I have a commitment to leading every day, 48 straight months.

And that’s regardless of who’s on the council. Guess what? I know that we must respect authority.”

Will you allow gaming in the city of Selma to bring in more tax revenue?

Roper: “All right, I know I took a little extra time on that one, so the answer to that, as I look everybody in the eye and make sure you can hear me, the answer is no. They’ve already been clear on that. They struck the ordinance off the books, and so the answer is no. Thank you.”

Moss: “No. Mr. Roper knows about the licensing.”