Where the Hannibal mayoral candidates stand on issues — in their own words

HANNIBAL, Mo. — Hannibal mayoral candidates Darrell McCoy, a former 1st Ward Councilman, and Charlie Phillips, current 4th Ward Councilman, participated in a nearly 2 1/2-hour forum hosted by the Northeast Missouri Conservative Group Monday night at the American Legion. 

Voters can make their pick between the two April 8 municipal election, with the winner replacing Mayor Barry Louderman on the Hannibal City Council.

Candidates for the 2nd and 4th Ward races participated as well, but here’s where the mayoral candidates differ — and where they align — on the issues most pertinent to constituents. 

(Answers have been slightly modified for clarity and conciseness)

On the relationship between the city and the Hannibal Board of Public Works (HBPW)

McCoy: What is the relationship right now? It’s crap. It has been for a long time. As far back as I can remember, the relationship wasn’t good when I was a firefighter for the city. 

What should be the relationship between the city and HBPW? It should be one of cooperation, working together to figure out everything. Everybody’s right, and I applaud everybody for their comments who are up there. Everybody is spot on with the HBPW in the city of Hannibal, from budget management, cost controls. I hate opening my utility bill … well, my wife does. But in the wage gap, you know, that was mentioned earlier, that’s a huge thing. When I was in the HBPW — for the short time that I was on there — I caught a lot of flack, pushed back on the rate increases. They were proposing a 16.9% overall rate increase. Went back and forth and it got kind of ugly. You probably saw it in the news. We did settle on a little over 9%, which I still felt was too high. You saw that divide really on display there between the city and the HBPW where the mayor had to step in constantly … to break up those tie votes between the board and the council or the board members there. That was an eye-opening experience for me on that relationship. 

What should it be? It’s an arm of the city government, and we need to get back to focusing on that. … It shouldn’t be any different than the fire department or the police department or anything like that.

Phillips: HBPW plays a dual role in our city. Yes, they serve under the city leadership and charter, but they also have an independent charter, board and budget. So, how do we get to the best relationship between the two? First is an appropriate amount of oversight, but we also have to rely on their own governance. That’s just the way that these two entities work. HBPW has proven themselves to be quite capable. Their leadership, their budget management and their work amidst local, state and federal guidelines is a big, big mountain to climb, and they’re well suited for it. I do believe there is a gap, if you will, in the oversight and cost controls. 

The city of Hannibal needs a greater measure in these controls, and they should be achieved with an increased presence by the city within the HBPW leadership but one that works in the best interest of the rate payers. Let’s always keep that in mind. Hannibal is not an island, and these controls must be judged against regional, state and federal guidelines and averages. We must continue to remember that they labor under their rates, and their rate controls should be judged against, again, national and regional averages. We must also hold accountable strict adherence to our existing charter, and if necessary, be unafraid to make those changes.

On what they think Hannibal could do to bring more economic development to the city

McCoy: Infrastructure, housing. The (Hannibal Regional Economic Development Council) is a fantastic organization. We need to continue to support those things. We need to continue to do what we’ve been doing. We’ve talked about incentives. When I was on the council with several of the gentlemen who are in the room now, we’ve done incentives. We had a hotel down on Mark Twain Avenue that was in the process of falling down. Police department was there every day. We were able to secure a purchaser back of that property. We gave tax incentives to that individual. He used locally sourced manpower, supplies, things like that, that further drove our local economy by doing that. That’s just one example. We need to continue to do that. 

I know Mayor Louderman discussed the interstate designation. We are in a great spot. I mean, two major interstates — river, rail, which I can speak to. We need to keep doing what we’re doing. Just keep our foot on the gas and keep working together. 

One thing that I would like to maybe look at in the future is — I wrote down “community planner” — but like a city planner. I know we’ve had one. Mr. (Chuck) Bevelheimer over Quincy just recently retired and has done good things. That would not take, in my opinion, over HREDC. It would be a compliment to them. This person would be somebody that we can maybe cost-share with local communities surrounding us. Somebody who really has the knowledge base and the dedication to go out there and help bring this business to us. Somebody who is well versed in utilities, land management, building houses — kind of the nitty gritty stuff that comes along with it. Somebody who actually can get down in the dirt with their boots on and say, “This is best for you, and this would work out good for you.”

Phillips: Instead of a one particular example or one idea that I put forward, I have more of a philosophy. We can all say Hannibal needs to bring in more businesses to grow, and that’s a simple and true statement. But the real answers are a bit more elusive. I believe in a grassroots approach. A happy and prosperous business community in itself is an enticement to bring in new growth. It becomes an example. If we can make Hannibal a place for local investment to flourish, others will follow. Strengthen our base and be that example. We should re-examine our relationship with HREDC in some fashion. 

Offering incentives — that’s a catch-all phrase, “offering incentives.” A little more specific about those incentives. When we first moved to Hannibal, we were renters. We became buyers from a little project called Project South Side, and it was started by the then-city manager. That Project South Side gave us the impetus to purchase and become homeowners. Why can’t we re-grow or re-institute Project 4th Ward, Project 5th Ward, Project 2nd Ward? These are all local and grassroot attempts to strengthen the local business base to become an example. (Phillips later mentioned that Project South Side included a three-year tax abatement that was transferable to new owners and waived building permits and inspections.)

Furthermore, I might suggest that we relax our short-term ideas and projects for a bit of a longer term approach. The Hannibal economic growth is all about steady momentum. We do not need to give away all of our resources and opportunities for free, but if any growth is seen, I believe more will come. I take more of a broad-based, grassroots approach to strengthening our local economic base and becoming an example.

On how the city should fix its stormwater problems

McCoy: It is a can that we kick down the road for far too long, like with many things in the city. The HBPW has a utility established for stormwater and is missing a funding mechanism. According to the HBPW, their latest estimate is somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 to $3 million a year to fund this utility. But that is still unknown, because there’s a lot of the stormwater system that is unmapped or unknown. 

How we got to that is by kicking the can down the road. When this started years ago, developers — long before probably any of us in this room were around — didn’t really think about stormwater. They built the house. They had a ditch. When they needed to add a road or build onto their house, or their neighbor wanted to buy and build a house, they filled the ditch in, covered it up and that was the stormwater. The quandary that the city’s in is, ultimately, at the end of the day, the city of Hannibal is responsible, and when I say city of Hannibal, that includes the HBPW. The city is responsible to make sure stormwater gets from point A to point B — typically in Hannibal is the river — which we’re doing. 

Some of those costs, just for an eye opener: the North Street project, and then going up halfway Mark Twain Avenue … We’re looking at $15 million just for that one project. You look at the size of the city, and that gives you an idea of the overall cost that we’re facing. When you have these storm sewer issues in private neighborhoods where these things are collapsing and affecting some of these roads, some of these are private property issues where the city technically isn’t viable for what’s on the private property, but overall, at the end of the day, they are responsible. 

So my point is, we need to come up with a funding mechanism. I want to ask the audience if they’ll indulge me for one quick second. If I were to ask everybody in the room, would you be willing to donate $1 a month to help with this issue? Would anybody do that? (roughly three-fourths of attendees raised their hands) I mean, I know I would. Let me ask that same question: would you guys get $25 a month? (a few hands raised) I don’t see as many hands. Somebody said five (dollars). Somebody said, “That’s what it takes.” I appreciate those responses. My thing is, we have to start somewhere, right? We gotta rip the band-aid off. We cannot keep kicking this can down the road. 

I mean, we pay $1.92 for recycling fees, which is a great program. If we can start somewhere. I think we need to get the group together that tried to come up with ideas the last time. A group of like-minded community citizens that can work through this and figure out how we want to get started. But even a few dollars, $5. There’s a little over 8,000 meters in town that the board services. You’re looking at about half a million dollars a year. That’s a quarter of your funding, if we could just get started somewhere.

Phillips: Who is responsible for the stormwater crisis? Well, I don’t have a specific answer. First, a thorough review of our current charter contract with HBPW can highlight exactly our area’s responsibility. I’ll admit I’ve had some confusion, been given some confusion about areas of responsibility — above ground, below ground — and that seemed to have changed, and I’m not clear on that. I think we need to highlight exactly our areas of responsibility and/or costs. Can we continue with the application of state and federal dollars? Are we in a crisis mode? I know a lot has already been done in that regard, but are there federal infrastructure dollars that, under an emergency status, are possible? Has that been explored? It may pay to explore that again. I’m sure HBPW would have quite a good idea of these exact costs. Why don’t we ask or demand a line item budget review of those costs for the storm water sewer system, and then we would look at our respective areas, responsibility and/or cost, and go from there? But a more clear picture of what those costs are going to look like to the city is what’s required here, among other things.

On their observation of city’s financial state and what financial experience they bring to the council to improve it

McCoy: Revenue is the bottom line when we’re talking about finance … We are in a lot better shape than we’ve been for a long, long time … If you look at the black and white budget, yep, we are in a deficit. We had to make some tough decisions. We wanted to keep our streets safe, our houses from burning down, and we made some tough decisions at the time. I was part of that the first round. I was not the second round. From my time on the council, I still believe it was the right decision to make. Thanks to (City Manager Lisa Peck’s) leadership, we were able to build that reserve up, and the reserves are there. They’re for emergency uses. We cannot continue to operate out of that. I think we have Bianca, who does a great job with the city and HBPW. Both great financial gurus and are doing a great job. 

There are some things that we can look at. I know that insurance costs for city employees are huge. I don’t have anything concrete. I’ve heard through the grapevine that there’s some pretty good upside coming down the pipe on that, things like that. Duplicate services — and I don’t want to get on a tangent, because I know that (I’m going to get) hit with the (time) buzzer if I start going down this road — but we pay for a lot of things. We talked about the HBPW almost exclusively tonight. They have a lot of the same employees that we have at City Hall. I’m 100% not for cutting jobs, but are there things that we could do to save money? To eliminate some of those costs where that cost sharing could come between a good relationship like … between the HBPW and the City of Hannibal.

Phillips: Let’s be clear, our city finances are in what others say is in a good position and the best we’ve been in a long time, but we are also running a deficit. To me, the two don’t jive. A deficit, to me, is a red flag. I also, in my dealings with staff, have been led to believe that that deficit is going to grow and grow and grow, so without any clear path or any clear new revenue streams, that, to me, signals that we cannot be complacent. We cannot be resting on this year’s laurels. As a matter of fact, Hannibal has been hit with a large number of unexpected costs, and that deficit is increasing. The deficit must be our primary work in the coming months, especially for the staff. The lion’s share of our time and our attention must be directed at this. I don’t have the solution. Like many others here in the panel, I do not have a finance degree, and, in fact, I have a bookkeeper and accountant for that and so I don’t have a lot of experience other than what I learned from my peers at the council and on staff. 

For my part, whatever future role that I play in the city of Hannibal, I do have a suggestion: a deep dive into communities and municipalities across the state and the region. Obviously, Hannibal is not the only city or municipality that’s facing financial crisis. Again, I think that we could find examples of success and recovery with other cities and municipalities in the surrounding area of the state. We could use them as a guideline and/or blueprint, because the answers are not coming from within. The answers we seek are going to have to come from without. We’ve got no brilliant, lightning strike plan to resolve the current deficit or the impending increase deficit. So again, I don’t have the solutions, but I do believe that the majority of our attention and our work must be focused on the deficit in this coming year.

On the main challenges currently facing the city

McCoy: We’re at a crossroads, in my opinion. I mentioned it before. We kicked the can down the road so many times on so many issues. I could give you a whole list. What are the challenges? Revenue, economic development, utilities, the HPBW, infrastructure, housing — the list goes on and on and on. What are we going to do about it? That’s the real question. 

Everybody knows what the challenges are. They’re the same challenges that we had five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. We have to either quit treading water and move forward or just decide that this is what the city is going to be. It is what it is right now, and it’s not going to get any better. Those are our two choices. I’m for the (former). Let’s rip the band-aid off and let’s move forward with things that nobody wants to talk about. You know, the bypass — and I shouldn’t have even said the word, but it’s coming. We all know that there’s not much that anybody in this room can do about it. 

So instead of kicking the can down the road and waiting 20 years until it shows up in our backyard, let’s figure out how to move the city that way. I’m not using the word “annexation” and things like that, but let’s get everybody together. Let’s have educated conversations on what we can all do to move this city forward. Let’s challenge those challenges that we face. Let’s figure out how to overcome them one step at a time. Let’s quit kicking the can down the road. Let’s make the city the best it can be.

Phillips: My comments are going to echo Mr. McCoy’s somewhat, but I’m going to say it in a different way. The main challenges before Hannibal, in my opinion, are two-fold: unity and growth. I dare say, we all know what our problems are. There’s just too many to list in this short time here, and the (list of) solutions is an equally long list. But I can say with great confidence that these two elements, unity and growth, are very simple, yet they formed a basis for all of our work going forward. I truly believe that.

In terms of unity, I see it, or the lack of it, as one of our greatest shortcomings. If we can create greater unity among our leadership, and we can create a deeper pool of shared knowledge in a collaborative team that will have a much greater chance than relying on a single or a smaller pool of workers or ideas. So let’s bring people in the leadership closer together. Unify our efforts and as a team, face our city’s problems unified. If we can do that, then I am confident growth will follow. It will follow if you bring our best and our greatest minds together.

On what they believe the city manager’s role is and what they’ll be looking for in choosing Lisa Peck’s replacement

McCoy: I believe the role of city manager is very simple: to manage the city with the support of the council, and the biggest thing is to not be a politician. I just want to break that down just a quick minute, it goes into who I’d be looking for also.

The city manager … is like the CEO of the city. They’re the business side of the city. They are supposed to take care of the business of the city — which is what we typically try to do at a council meeting, conduct the actual business of the city. We’re very fortunate to have Lisa in that role, and Lisa’s taken a lot of heat over essentially not being a politician. She tries very hard to stay out of politics, as I believe that any city manager — not just for our city, but any city — should. They should be solely focused on the citizens of the city and providing the best business guidance that they can at the discretion of the council or the direction of the council. 

But yes, that person should have a good background of strong education in city management, city government, which we’ve been very fortunate to have with Lisa. I could give you 20 million other reasons that we’re fortunate to have Lisa. They all have dollar signs in front of them, and I think that we’re going to be really hard pressed to replace (her) when it comes to that. I know I’ve had conversations with several of you in the room about the city manager. There were questions about the length of the contract for the city manager and I know it’s — I’m gonna go there, yeah — I was a part of that. City managers are … hard to find. A local community posted the job, I believe, three different times and increased the pay all three times because there just wasn’t a pool of candidates for them to hire from. We were fortunate enough to have Lisa, and I was proud to support her contract extension, really, because we didn’t want to lose her. I hate to see her go, but she’ll have some big shoes to fill, that next person will. But again, my thought of the role of city manager and what I’m looking for is not a politician and somebody who can manage the city with the support of the city council.

Phillips: As our charter points out, Hannibal’s form of governance is city manager-led. That role is the single most important position, and that position, in many ways, determines our city’s successes or failures. The role of city manager is under a microscope. Therefore, the role of city manager should also be under the microscope from the staff and the council who will enact the decisions made from that office. It isn’t always the case, it should be. Oversight and transparency are crucial, as is regularly scheduled progress reporting to their peers. The city manager’s office should hold the budget and fundraising in whatever form that is — grants, state aid, economic development — as its primary goal, as I believe it is now. That office should also serve as the city’s representative as the chief negotiator in dealing with city contracts, new and old. This work is already being done, but I believe it can be done better under a more unified leadership.

On the perception of corruption among some constituents and how to increase transparency in city hall

McCoy: As far as the public groups and things go, I don’t disagree that there’s probably that perception there for a small handful of people. What I have found in the last several months that I’ve been out talking to people is when those people actually take the time to stop and ask questions, to go to city hall, to go to the fire station, to call me, to call anybody up here — they’ll quickly find out that that is not the case, and we like that. That’s kind of the whole theme that I’ve had tonight, about getting everybody together and on the same page. 

You know, transparency is a big thing. We should be doing more of that. And I feel like, if I’m lucky enough to be elected, I would really like to lead on the council to try to do more of that. Let’s have some open public forums maybe once a month. Let’s get together. Let’s meet at city hall at six o’clock and do this. Let’s just ask questions. We don’t have to conduct any city business, but unfortunately, due to the charter, we have to have a public meeting and go do that process. But why aren’t we doing that now? Why aren’t we giving the public the opportunity? 

The problem we have is we don’t have enough of that going on. We closed Fire Station No. 2, which is a travesty to me being a firefighter for 10 years for the city. I went and met with the fire chief two days, almost three days later, and then also went to city hall and met with Melissa (Cogdal), who’s in the back of the room, and Lisa (Peck), both on the same day, the same afternoon. I asked all of those people, “How many phone calls, emails, text messages, or how many people walk through that door and ask you questions about this fire station closing?” You know what the unanimous answer was? Zero. That’s a problem. Folks, that is a problem. And this perception, I’m glad you brought it up, because there is, there is a perception. Social media is a great thing until it’s not, and we’ve all seen how that works out.

Phillips: I do find that question or statement a bit offensive. As a city councilman, I’ve not once yet incurred or observed any criminal activity of any sort at any level. So I can say that with confidence the level of transparency that you’re seeking, I believe that will come about with a unification effort, which I endorse. This is part of my campaign. This is part of my message, is unity. I think if we involve the council to a greater degree, and if we involve a unified council to a greater degree with the staff, I think that city hall as a whole will be a much more effective and by that very nature, a more transparent working entity. If whoever becomes the mayor — I have an opinion on that — but if whoever becomes mayor can make that happen, I do believe that transparency will follow. But let’s be very, very clear: my message and my desire and my goal is a unified council and staff.

You could take the word “perception” or “corruption” and you can change that to to use another word or another term, like, you know, a distance or a lack of communication, or a lack of teamwork, or a lack of those things. I think you can change that word “corruption” with, you know, disassociation, if you will. 

I read those public or social media comments myself, as well. Actually, there’s a very distinct core group of malcontents that are pretty much running quite, you know, a large percentage of the social media board. I believe they speak for a very minor percentage of like-minded people.