District 5 candidates discuss platforms

• By CHARLES LUSSIER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 17, 2008 - Page: 4B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Meeting as a group for the first time, four of the five candidates for Metro Council District 5 sought Tuesday night to define their candidacies in different and, what they hope will be, vote-generating ways.

Herbert Pate, a retired public school guidance counselor and three-time unsuccessful aspirant for this job, emphasized the need for better infrastructure, namely drainage, sewerage and streets.

“There are some streets in District 5, they’re like washboards, and we need to get them fixed and get them fixed in the right way,” Pate said.

Milton Lee, a retired lab technician with DSM Copolymer and a member of current District 5 Councilman’s advisory committee, said he will throw himself into his new job.

“I will be a full-time councilman,” Lee said. “You can call me anytime, even three o’clock in the morning.”

“Three o’clock in the morning is a bit much,” responded fellow candidate Thelma Ginn Brown, “but if the need’s there, I will be there.”

Ronnie Edwards, director of a local not-for-profit corporation that focuses on urban redevelopment, offered what she described as a more long-range vision for District 5.

“I’m now a grandmother,” she said. “As a grandmother, you see life through a different set of lenses.”

She said she wants to develop a master plan for the commercial corridors in the district and “connect the dots” between the area’s economic assets.

“It’s very important to look beyond just Band-Aid effects and to look three, five, 10 years out, and see what this district can look like,” Edwards said.

The four candidates, all Democrats, spoke to a small crowd at the Full Gospel United Pentecostal Church, 6729 Mickens Road. Johnnie Brown, the independent candidate, did not attend the forum.

The Baton Rouge Black Chamber of Commerce sponsored the forum in advance of the Oct. 4 election.

The business group has scheduled two more forums: District 6 at 6 p.m. tonight at The Miracle Temple, 3345 Plank Road; and 6 p.m. Thursday for District 7 at Gloryland Baptist Church, 2575 Michelli Drive.