DETROIT — Five of the 15 candidates running for mayor and facing a Feb. 24 primary addressed a crowd at the Islamic Center of Detroit on Feb. 13 in a forum organized by the Arab American Public Affairs Council (AAPAC).

Candidate for Detroit mayor Sharon McPhail speaks to a crowd during an AAPAC election forum at the Islamic Center of Detroit on Feb. 13. PHOTOS: Khalil AlHajal and Tariq Abdul Wahid/TAAN

The primary will cut the field down to two candidates, who will face off in a May 5 special election to replace disgraced former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose term was to last through the end of 2009.
Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans, 60, former general counsel for the mayor’s office Sharon McPhail, 60, Plymouth United Church of Christ pastor Nicholas Hood III, 57, activist Stanley Christmas, 59,     and former public school teacher Joseph Holt, 42, spoke to about 200 people at the forum.

“I’m running for mayor because I want Detroit to be as nice as Dearborn… a city that’s safe, clean, a city where the street lights are on,” said Hood, a former Detroit city councilman who served from 1994-2001.

He said that as someone who’s been away from city government for some time, he’s capable of having vision that is often lacking in a system where officials are always caught up in keeping the lights on.

“Detroit’s best days are still ahead of us,” he said.

Rev. Nicholas Hood III, L, alongside forum moderator Tarek Baydoun.

Hoods wants to serve as an “activist mayor,” who, without delving too deep into the business of the school board, “would be a bridge between the corporate community and the schools.”
He also made promises to push for policing with more neighborhood focus, and to offer grocery store owners, many of whom are Arab American, full access to capital and resources for the purposes of expansion, through the city’s Economic Growth Corporation.

Minister Rasul Muhammad, a regional leader of the Nation of Islam — a black nationalist and religious organization, grilled most of the candidates at the forum on the specific significance of their campaigns to immigrant and Muslim communities.

“What I bring is a sensitivity and a humanism that often is lacking,” said Hood in response.

Hood said that as a reverend, he felt comfortable in a house of worship like the Islamic Center of Detroit.

Wayne County Sheriff and Detroit mayoral candidate Warren Evans

He also made mention of Detroit’s Chaldean communities and told about having stayed with an Egyptian-Syrian family in Virginia on a trip to Washington D.C. during President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
“If there is one segment of society that is cut out or shut out, we all suffer,” Hood said. “We’re all in this thing together. We all want the same amenities and quality of life in the city of Detroit… and we have figured out ways to get along in Detroit better than much of America. That interaction is very good, very positive.”

McPhail focused on efforts to provide Detroit children with an early promise of extra help paying for college, touting past efforts to do so when she worked for the city and making promises to develop a Detroit children’s fund. She said similar efforts in cities like Kalamazoo have resulted in influxes of residents who move to take advantage of the programs.

“Now you cannot find a cardboard box to live in in Kalamazoo,” she said.

She also pushed plans to expand job-training programs and use federal money for a homeland security training center at the giant Michigan Central Depot ruin.

“The best crime stopper in the world is a job,” she said.

In response to the minister’s question on plans specific to a crowd that would gather at an Islamic center, McPhail said she’s always pushed for cultural training for police, who at times enter people’s homes and don’t understand traditions and norms.

She said minimal language training for city workers was necessary for better communication with residents, and that job-training programs should include English as a second language courses. She also said she’s worked with groups like the Arab American and Chaldean Council, ACCESS and other groups to provide Arabic and Spanish-language explanatory videos at city service locations.

Evans spoke to the group about “running the city like a business,” with the ability to make tough decisions, but without cutting core, fundamental services including police, fire and trash pick-up.

“Obviously, the city doesn’t have the amount of money that it should have,” he said.

But if cuts are made across the board, “what you wind up doing is not having any departments that work well,” Evans said.

“The sheriff’s job is a good job, but not a job that fixes problems. The sheriff keeps things from getting worse.”

When an audience member who identified himself as an Arab American paramedic in the city complained of a shortage of manpower and long ambulance response times, Evans said there are ways to make small additions to police and fire units.

“There’s money in the budget, believe it or not. You’re going to have to cut somewhere else,” he said. “And the approach to policing, I think, needs some tweaking. We have to change deployment to try to work better with what we have.”

He said he estimates there are about 500-550 career, predatory criminals in the city who should be intensely targeted, rather than relying on random, on-the-spot patrolling.

On specific work for immigrant and Muslim communities, Evans said he has a history of working closely and getting familiar with diverse groups.

“I always collaborated in my career with communities… I’m going to bring everyone into the tent,” he said.

Muhammad and other Nation of Islam figures agreed that Evans had the greatest history of reaching out, expressing support for the sheriff after the forum.

“He’s not your traditional candidate,” Muhammad said.

He said Evans approached the Nation of Islam early in the race, traveling to Chicago to speak to leaders in October.

Evans also met with a group of Arab Americans in Dearborn early-on in September.

“He came to us to learn before trying to get our vote,” Muhammad said. “These things scored really high with us… We’re looking for a candidate that will not forget us.”

Two longshot candidates, Stanley Christmas and Joseph Holt, also spoke to the group.

“We can’t continue to do the same things over and over and over again and expect different results,” said Christmas. “They have failed us.”

Holt echoed the sentiment of the need to vote for unconventional candidates.

He focused on an anti-litter campaign and recreation programs.

“You need to vote for different people,” Holt said. “You need to vote for change.”

Osama Siblani, of AAPAC, said thousands of Arab Americans and American Muslims live in Detroit and that even non-residents have a huge stake in the race as business owners and regional residents.

“While we have one eye on the mayoral race, we have to have the other eye on the city council,” said Siblani, who is also a publisher of The Arab American News.

He expressed support for Arab American candidate for Detroit city council Mohamed Okdie.

“It’s not enough to make changes in Washington,” Siblani said. “We have to make change at home.”