|
From the Campaign Committee (1) |
|
Dr. Mumpowers first term in office indicates he has the courage to
make a difference. He focuses on the hard problems and finds ways to
solve them. As a public servant, he believes his first charge is to
protect public safety.
Whereas most elected officials assume the
drug problem is too out-of-control to handle, Mumpower confronted it
head-on. He strongly advocated strengthening the Asheville Police
Department during the last two budget sessions. Thanks to his
leadership, the new police chief was given a mandate from council to
attack the local open-air hard drug markets. This resulted in the
formation of the Drug Suppression Unit, a small group of enthusiastic,
highly-trained officers whose sole job is to tend to drug crimes.
Without the DSU, the APD would not have the manpower to conduct
surveillance and other activities necessary to make drug arrests.
Mumpower
says that enforcement has to match the enthusiasm of the dealers if it
is to make headway. Mumpower has shown extreme enthusiasm by going on
countless Ride-A-Longs with the APD as well as the officers who patrol
public housing off-duty. Legends are told of him camping out overnight
in public housing to observe drug activity and running through the
woods to apprehend drug dealers. He was instrumental in getting the
fence installed to block the dealers route of escape in Deaverview.
He
also took the initiative to write grants and organize volunteers and
donations to build a basketball court in Deaverview. Public housing is
one of his passions. He founded For Our Kids, a nongovernmental,
strictly volunteer organization that holds monthly community day
cleanups in public ho!
using. F
or Our Kids made national news for its
program in which children from public housing paint trash cans, thereby
building a sense of community pride.
While some have argued that
drug enforcement in public housing puts a disproportionate number of
African-American males in prison, Mumpower argues that not arresting
the perpetrators causes a disproportionate number of African-American
children to grow up with negative role models - sometimes dodging
bullets. Ignoring the drug trade also makes it easy for youth to find
lucrative alternatives to graduating from high school. For Our Kids
attempts to displace some of the illegal activity with wholesome,
pro-community opportunities. The group is responsible for starting an
after-school program at Deaverview and co-sponsoring midnight
basketball at Hillcrest.
He recently organized the Asheville
Drug Commission to focus on the real problems, study and find practical
solutions, and then act. He selected nineteen pillars of the community
with more than impressive credentials and talents. Included are Bill
Hogan (APD Chief), Valerie Collins (Helpmate), Robert Logan (Supt.
Asheville City Schools), Cliff Dodson (Supt. Buncombe County Schools),
Gene Bell (Housing Authority), Virgil Smith (Asheville Citizen-Times),
Mandy Stone (DSS), Beverly Jeter (Bartlett Arms RA Manager), Sherriff
Bobby Medford and DA Ron Moore. Mumpowers colleagues on City Council
were all very impressed with the groups potential to make a difference.
Mumpower
also differentiates himself through his opinions about how Asheville
should go about dealing with its homeless problem. His wife is a nurse
at Mission-St. Josephs, and typically one, if not two, of five
patients in her charge is a homeless person, or somebody
dually-diagnosed (one who self-medicates to avoid mental anxiety).
Mumpower rated the Ten-Year Plan to End Homeless
as unrealistic. In full swing, it hopes to provide nice apartments to
the homeless with all the medical attention they need for free, and
imposes no sobriety requirements for homeless shelters. Mumpower, a
practicing psychologist, said the degree of pathology of homeless
people will not allow them to fit the mold the program is trying to
impose on them. He further said that they were functional enough to
have a network, and the local homeless population would grow as word
spread that Asheville treats its homeless people well.
On other
quality of life issues, he partnered with Jan Davis and Dwight Butner
to get a Real Change vs. Spare Change program going. This involved
setting up collection jars in local businesses and handing out
information cards to panhandlers. Money collected would go to shelters
to provide food and safety as opposed to alcohol and drugs. The cards
directed the panhandlers to the missions. Concerning graffiti, Mumpower
spoke against a task forces recommendation to penalize business owners
for failing to remove graffiti from their buildings in a specified
timeframe.
Mumpower is not an advocate of fluffy programs. He
spoke out against Ashevilles hundred-page sidewalk plan that he
calculated would take 150-200 years to implement at the current rate of
funding.
Mumpower is pragmatic and on-the-ball. During the
aftermath of Hurricane Frances, though he had no water at his home, he
was calling the Red Cross centers to see how the water distribution was
going. He spent a lot of time talking to merchants flooded out of their
Swannanoa Riverfront businesses. And the For Our Kids community day at
Deaverview went on as scheduled. After Hurricane Ivan struck, he left
his office early to clear roads with his chain saw.
Mumpower
makes it his business to know and understand what is involved in the
!
day-to-d
ay operations of City government. Not only does he go on police
Ride-A-Longs, hes also been caught riding along with the fire
department and picking up curbside debris with the leaf truck crew.
During
the water dispute, Mumpower was famous for advocating for facts and
fairness. He made it known that he did not approve of the county
spending $10,000 of taxpayer money to distribute literature to
unincorporated areas alleging that the City would double water rates -
which never was its intent. His main objection to compromising with the
County was his belief that the City should not surrender its
multi-billion dollar asset. He stated that government should stay
simple. Including recreational facilities and other bonuses in a water
agreement was not in the taxpayers interest. He was opposed to
restrictions on charging differential rates because special legislation
was required to impose that condition - and the legislation in question
(Sullivan I, II, III) put Asheville at a disadvantage endured by no
other city in North Carolina.
When Mumpower learned that the legislators had ‘colluded (his word) with the County Commissioners to draft Sullivan Acts II and III,
he simply refused to participate in the negotiations. He also boycotted
meetings where the definition of open meetings was stretched in a
creative workaround. He wanted discussions to be public, and he would
not negotiate, as he put it, ‘with a gun to our heads. When the press
was not picking up on Mumpowers protest, he took advantage of modern
technology and sent his position papers via email to anybody who would
listen.
During the water negotiations, Mumpower went beyond
relying on staff repor!
ts to re
search what truly was in the best
interest of everybody concerned. When there was talk about City Council
passing a resolution to protect property rights against the new
interpretation of the Fifth Amendment, Mumpower was consulting experts
at at least three prestigious pro-Constitution think tanks. He also
conducted extensive research during last years budget session to
determine how best to effectively shut down Ashevilles open-air, hard
drug market.
Mumpower is great for answering all his emails, and
often invites people to discuss matters further with him face-to-face.
During formal meetings, Mumpower will offer words of encouragement and
comfort to nervous members of the public, ask if parties can deal with
compromise measures, and sometimes even give parties faced with
compromise a chance to rework the terms. He is well known for his
ability to ask questions that cut to the core and clarify cloudy
issues. A search through City Councils email shows that he makes an
attempt to bring clarity to concerns of anybody making an honest
petition before Council.
Serving on Council, Mumpower makes his
decisions based on the existing ordinances and other governing
criteria. He insists that he does not pander, play politics, nor
capitulate to pressure. He is sufficiently savvy to see through
orchestrated efforts to sway votes. At least once, he resorted to
making his own form letter to reply to form letters he was receiving
(about the misinformed ‘no logging in the watershed campaign). It
stated that regardless of the number of letters he received, he would
be voting on the basis of facts. There have been times when Mumpower
has been asked to spin his position somewhat to appeal to a broader
audience, and he outright refused, thinking this was dishonest. He
consistently insists that he will base his decision on the
6-lane/8-lane issues solely on facts.
He is !
not afra
id to tell
presenters when their hard work misses the mark–or when they are
demonstrating ‘the worst case of NIMBY-ism. He is wise to what he
calls ‘absurdities in the way people sometimes try to run government.
Serving the public is job one.
As a Conservative, Mumpower
recognizes his need to be careful with other peoples money. Government
should be in the business of doing for people those things that cannot
or should not be done by an individual. According to Mumpower, ‘I can
get a job. I cant build a road. He sees the UDO as being
over-regulatory, and has described it as ‘Frankenstein; that is, the
more the City tries to control natural forces, the more they realize
they cant.
Concerning government excesses, Mumpower is opposed
to granting economic incentives to companies who can and fully intend
to relocate to Asheville without financial assistance. He has
criticized certain subsidizations of affordable housing, calling them
‘socialist. He wants to meet the Citys needs for affordable housing
by changing codes to allow developers to build smaller homes, rather
than funding excesses through subsidies. Both he and Joe Dunn refused
to accept tax-funded overnight accommodations at City Councils retreat
in Hendersonville, preferring to go home to their wives.
|
|
|
|
|
