The Times from Munster, Indiana • 7

The Times FROM PAGE ONE LAKE MONDAY, MAY 3, 1999 A-7 Election Clay is already beating the bushes for someone to unseat Carter in the next recorder's election. Clay has also expressed discomfort in being aligned with a group of politicians who trace their political heritage to former Mayor Richard G. Hatcher, who refused to support Clay's six tries for office during Hatcher's feign. King supporters are confident the only unifying principal of the Smith coalition race won't be sufficient to topple the mayor. "Mayor King's campaign is based on what he can do," Jewell Harris said.

"Vernon's is based on his nationality." to 140 precincts. King supporters are crying foul and have accused Clay of violating his promise to support whoever wins the majority of districts. Pro-King precinct officials are calling for Clay's resignation from the city chairmanship, a request Clay laughed at during a recent telephone interview. "I am 100 percent supporting Vernon Smith," Clay said late last month. "Vernon Smith's record speaks for itself.

He's overly qualified for the job." The Smith coalition is probably a temporary alliance that will dissolve when the primary is over. Gary Democratic primary candidates MAYOR Vernon G. Smith Melody M. Tukes Scott L. King Carotyn Jordan Ulysses Burnett Raymond L.

"Jack Spratt Cloverleaf Curtis CITY COUNCIL At large (pick three) Clorius Lay Willie L. Terry Epifanio "Eppie" Marrero Frank Pickett Kyle Allen Roosevelt Haywood Jr. Elnora D. Dixon Lionel Hampton Charles "Chuck' Hughes Herman Borders Roy Pratt Aaron A. Allen 1st District Marilyn D.

Kusas Ron Frosty Ross Marvin Wright Paris Harris Gardest Gillespie Terrance Weems 2nd District Robert White Shirley M. Bynum Marilyn Wheeler Robert G. Miller Cozey Weatherspoon Jr. 3rd District Theodore "Ted" Hunter Elsie Franklin Mary Brown Michael A. Monik 4th District Andre D.

"Lefty" Cheairs James Alexander Gerald D. Clayton Sr. Leon Hamilton Lyndell Variant Tracy A. Lewis Carolyn D. Rogers 5th District Jeff Jordan Cleo Wesson Jerome Prince Martinez Newman Joel Henry Harris 6th District William "Bill" Oliver Curtis L.

Holt James M. Bostic Alex A. Cherry Jr. Willie Earl Thomas CLERK Leonard D. McKnight Herbert "Herb" Smith Jr.

Katie Hall JUDGE Karen M. Freeman-Wilson was the candidate most capable of consolidating the African-American vote, according to some of those familiar with the gathering. Calumet Township Assessor Booker Blumenberg, the first to announce his candidacy for mayor last fall, dropped out shortly after Smith got the nod to avoid splitting their constituencies. But the coalition, which includes Carter, Lake County Commissioner Rudolph Clay, State Rep. Charlie Brown, most of the heavy-hitters on the city council and businessman Lamar Taylor, who owns a tuxedo shop in The Village shopping center, appears to be somewhat weaker than the group that batded King in the 1995 primary and general elections.

One major defection to the King campaign was Calumet Township Trustee Dozier Allen, a political powerhouse by virtue of his personal charm, decades of favors and massive patronage corps. Allen, who supported Charles Graddick in the 1995 primary against King, is now a solid King supporter. In return, King's campaign has included Kyle Allen in its slate of preferred council candidates. The King campaign has also secured the backing of many of the strongest supporters of State Sen. Earline Rogers, a significant gain in a city with few centralized political groups.

The Gary Democratic Precinct Organization has been split by the mayoral race, and its boss could be the first casualty. Four of the six districts have lined up behind King, but Clay, the Gary Democratic boss, has thrown his support behind Smith. In addition, loyalties within the districts are split: King won the backing of 72 precincts, Smith got 67 and Jordan received one. The city is divided into six districts, which are subdivided in- mm IWf i McCOLLYCer REALTORS I Ik-JrlwtiSSs told an audience of 200 seniors at the Lew Wallace debate. The race card While Smith has focused on King's record, his supporters are focused mainly on putting a black man in the mayor's office.

"It is really a turning point," said Lake County Recorder Morris Carter, who believes African-American control of City Hall is an important ingredient in enabling the black community to take control of its own destiny. "Either we're going to do it for ourselves or we're not going to do it for ourselves. With less than 280 days left in the millennium, what will history record?" Smith was recruited to run against King after a meeting of black Democrats at the home of a prominent politician. Smith had made it known that he intended to run for mayor and, after six hours of talks, the group decided Smith TV ht I in i i we a ill! il Come to our Free Seminar and learn about a profitable career ith Northwest Indiana's 1 real estate company. You've always thought about it NOW DO IT! Tuesday, May 4 7:00 p.m.

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Continued from A-l run-up to Tuesday's election. It boils down to whether King will get another four years to pursue a 189-acre lakefront development and other economic revital-ization efforts, or whether he'll be turned out to give somebody else a crack at pulling this moribund city out of its misery. Gary politics are notoriously difficult to predict That said, early indications are that the race card has been overdealt, a development that bodes poorly for the Smith campaign. "We're tired of the black thing," an African-American employee at Lew Wallace High School confided in the hallway after a mayoral debate at the school late last month. "We're not buying that anymore.

We're tired of electing blacks who make promises but nothing gets done." Butting heads For the first time in 13 years, the folks who run City Hall know how much money the city has and where it all is. This might be King's most impressive accomplishment of the last 3-12 years. In any other municipality, such a claim might sound ludicrous, given the fiscal conservatism and professional accounting expertise that have come to characterize even the smallest municipal operations. But Gary had not published a financial report since the mid-1980s and has been such a financial mess for so long that critical state audits became routine. The problem got so bad in 1994 that millions of dollars in city bills went unpaid.

City leaders borrowed $6.5 million to pay off those debts, but not before city administrators encouraged stiffed contractors and suppliers to file lawsuits against the city. City leaders felt the lawsuits would help them gain state permission for the $6.5 million loan and the extra taxes needed to pay it off. Last month, King's finance director, Husain Mahmoud, released the 1997 financial report, a document he hopes will enable the city to improve its bond rating from somewhere in the low Bs to Bond rating is the equivalent of an individual's credit history and decides how much the city must pay in interest and underwriting fees. The report also showed the city has gone from a $7 million deficit in 1994 to a $17 million surplus in 1997. However, King's first term has thus far been primarily characterized by that which never was.

Three major job creators a $25 million theater and retail development at 25th and Grant; a $35 million warehouse and industrial park project; and a multimillion-dollar citywide cleanup program were nixed by a hostile city Here Continued from A-l conflict resolution, mentoring programs and involvement in after-school activities. The evening concluded with audience members voicing their concerns. One parent was worried about a rumor of a threat to Munster High School that was reportedly posted on the Internet. "There's a real fear about sending my child to school, and gambling that the authorities have it under control," she said. Munster High School Principal Michael O'Connor and Police Chief William Sudbury both said the matter was investigated, and there is absolutely no evidence to support the rumor.

In addition, the town's public schools and St. Thomas More have crisis plans in place which are coordinated with the police department and cover situations such as gas leaks, hostage-taking and weapons. Superintendent William Pfis-ter spoke candidly and passionately about his fears and determination to keep buildings secure. "I haven't slept much lately," he said. "This has become my newest nightmare.

It used to be a school bus turning over. But believe this: I gave my word. I'm going to keep children safe in our schools. "But the way it's done is by everybody, and there are three important things we've lost sight of folks school, church and community." Jeff Earl, youth minister at St. Thomas More, agreed.

"When I was little and I did something across town, my parents knew about it before I got home," he said. "But we've become so obsessed with bigger and better, we've lost sight of our sense of community." 7. Several parents and teachers said students feel much safer because of the two on-site plainclothes police officers that have been stationed at Munster High School the last four years. council. The main objection was that the jobs were either retail or unskilled labor and did not fulfill the council's vision of attracting high-tech, high-paying positions.

"You can play politics with the mayor, but if the city needs to be clean, it needs to be clean," said Jewell Harris, a top adviser to King and architect of his 1995 victory. "Vote for it. It's good for the city. Pick another time for political fighting." However, Smith says he isn't impressed with what he's seen of King and he blames the mayor for the lack of local investors in either of the Buff ington Harbor casinos. "The money is not staying here to the extent that it should have," Smith argued at the Lew Wallace debate.

Smith also dismissed King's criticisms of the city council's actions regarding the theater and industrial park developments. "It's easy to blame, but the buck stops in the administration's office," Smith said. Smith's campaign promises include putting a computer on the desk of every student in Gary, developing hotels, riding stables, an indoor-outdoor skating rink and a miniature golf course in the Bor-man Expressway corridor between Grant and Broadway; building a new police station downtown; and convincing county leaders to move the juvenile detention home from Crown Point to Gary. Those last two projects the police station and juvenile home would serve as anchors for, a massive economic rebirth of downtown Gary, in the same way that a large department store anchors a shopping center development, Smith said. Smith also indicated he would require Gary police officers to live in the city and pledged to create a police cadet training program similar to the ROTC.

"I wish you could have experienced the city of Gary when it was the crowning star of Northwest Indiana, when it was what was going on in this state," Smith Grief counselor Pat Kish wrapped up the forum with a poem written in honor of the students of Littleton, followed by a moment of silence. Afterward, parent Katherine Sipes said she was impressed by the discussion but disappointed that more didn't attend. "But this was a good start," she said. "This was great to have all the schools come together for the safety of our children," high school parent Pam Wadycki said. "It's a step in the right direction." 0 CB i 4 i VyM'ftld -tLt't- 5 PLY LIFETIME STRUCTURED GUARANTEE PECAN OAK CHERRY NATURAL SAND Would you be smiling if this happened to your eyeglass frame? Yes, jfou wear frames made from Flexcn.

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