Mayoral candidate Jane Murray continued to hammer away at current Mayor James Kalb on the subject of the misuse of monies from restricted accounts to pay salaries in his office at Thursday night’s mayoral debate, sponsored by the student government association at Shawnee State University. And, in response, Kalb continued to attempt to fire back, defending the system used by his administration, once even delving into Murray’s background in government.

Murray also told those present, “There are funds that are restricted funds. They are restricted because they are supposed to be used for specific things. They are not supposed to be used for the general operation of this government,” Murray said. “We pay, for example, water, sewer and sanitation fees. Those fees are supposed to go to maintaining the infrastructure for our water supply system, our sanitary storm sewer system, and our garbage collection.”

Murray then listed several funds that she said are restricted, including the taxes for gasoline and fuel, that come from the state.

“Last year with the increased price of gasoline, remember we were paying over four dollars? So there was a windfall. We had over a million dollars received by the city in those funds. Only $200,000 was used and one street was paved. This year, until this past week, no streets were paved,” Murray said. “I will abide by the law. We will rebuild our infrastructure. It will take a long time. The hole is deep. Climbing out of the hole takes a long time.”

Kalb then rebutted the charge by talking about Murray’s past political position in Kentucky.

“I feel there are some things worth mentioning. There has been an accusation that this administration is mis-spending money and that we are breaking the laws. As I have said before, we are audited regularly. Much of our grant money follows strict guidelines,” Kalb said. “There was a notation with Ms. Murray with her previous employer, the then-mayor of Lexington. And I have answered this question before but I guess the newspaper there was investigating for the mis-spending of funds. That was an investigation. Now Ms. Murray’s answer was that it was just small gifts which she had no receipts for or anything. But I think that would constitute the mis-spending of funds.”

Kalb responded to an accusation by Murray that the city missed out on $20 million in stimulus funds, for a sewer project by not being prepared with a project.

“We were never offered $20 million,” Kalb said. “As a matter of fact, we got $5 million and that was out of 500 applicants statewide.”

One of the questions involved each candidate’s plan for the vacant housing, and specifically the Marting’s building, which the city owns, but which the voters have rejected as a site for new city offices. That same subject came up under what to do about crime and drugs in the city.

“The public has made their preference known a couple of times that they don’t want the city offices in the Marting’s building,” Kalb said. “The Marting’s building is a very sound building. It was actually built to house another floor on top of it — solid concrete and steel. I think it is too good of a structure to tear down. The building is for sale. In fact I have a message on my desk that somebody called, and I have to get back in touch. The property is for sale, but we are looking at several different options, small business on the first floor, entertainment and a food court.”

Kalb was responding to a statement by write-in candidate Jerry Skiver minutes before.

“As far as the Marting’s building, I think the public has spoken. I think we need to market it. Don’t forget the annex because that is part of the Marting’s building. There’s also adjoining property,” Skiver said. “I think we just need to get out of the real estate business when it comes to that piece of property.”

Murray also spoke about the infrastructure in the city, calling it “a huge concern of mine.”

“We have a lot of rental properties that are inhabited by people who are not caring for the property, including the owner,” Murray said. “They are inhabited by drug dealers who are running prostitution operations.”

Murray said many situations had been pointed out to her by residents in the area of Seventh and Eight Streets.

“A house across the street. That one was owned by a prominent local businessman. Across the street a prominent local businesswoman owned a house that had 12 undocumented Mexican adults and six children, 18 people,” Murray said. “It took the neighbors a full year to get the city to take away the pigs and the chickens that were in the house. This is not how government is supposed to operate.”

Murray said maintenance and building codes must be enforced.

“We will put the slumlords out of business if they do not want to maintain the property,” Murray said. “It’s time. It’s way past time for our residents and our homeowners, who have had to put up with this now for years.”

That produced a rebuttal from Kalb.

“I would like to say it is easy to get up and say what you are going to do. We have been working at it for six years. And we are making progress,” Kalb said. “This is not as easy a thing as saying this is what you are going to do. It does take a lot of planning. It takes a lot of preparation, and there are laws that have to be followed.”

Skiver also spoke about making the new school complex and the new athletic complex as the centerpiece of city planning, “and radiate out from there. In other words, addressing those homes that are dilapidated and need to be torn down.”

Skiver said - “There are people who are willing to invest if they see we are willing to invest in ourselves.”

Kalb said he also supports rental licensing fees since 50 percent of the housing in Portsmouth is rental property, as a way of recouping needed money. An agent or the property owner would have to be in town, according to his plan.

Skiver responded to a question concerning pressing issues in city government.

“Number one, I think you need a servant attitude in addressing this. There’s a trust issue. You have a fiduciary responsibility to the public — to show them how the dollars are being spent,” Skiver said. “I’d recommend to the shortfall that we would have an open, transparent and inclusionary process that would review our revenues, our appropriations and expenditures, coupled with recommended reductions in all departments, i.e. elimination of overtime excuse for emergency call out; a freeze on hiring and non-essential purchases, and recommendations on revenue enhancements that are citizen-sensitive.”

Voters will decide on Nov. 3 which of the candidates will lead the city in the years ahead.

FRANK LEWIS may be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 232.