Four candidates vying for seats on the D.C. City Council debated the best way to provide students with opportunities to excel and constituents with equal health care facilities at a forum held at Woodrow Wilson High School Tuesday.
Councilmembers Kathy Patterson, D-Ward 3, and Vincent Gray, D-Ward 7, who are candidates for Council chair, as well as Councilmember Phil Mendelson, D-At Large, and former D.C. Chamber of Commerce President A. Scott Bolden, D - all candidates for an at-large seat on the Council - attended the forum.
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Robert Brannum, D, a candidate for Council chair, was not present at the forum. The Ward 3 and Ward 4 Democratic committees co-sponsored the forum.
While the candidates spoke about issues ranging from limiting D.C.'s public domain power to the issue of rent control, many questions involved health care and education.
Patterson, who heads the Council's Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation, addressed concerns about the District's ability to follow through on school maintenance projects.
"If you ask [D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, D], I have been a burr in his side on this issue for many years," she said. "There are issues with these projects citywide."
The candidates also spoke about how they would reach out to District teenagers.
Gray advocated improving vocational training for teenagers who don't plan to attend college, while Mendelson said getting teenagers involved required the District to improve its public schools.
Bolden agreed with Gray, adding that teens "have got to believe being a doctor or a reporter is as good as being a rap artist or an entertainer."
Patterson said she wanted to make sure all students in the District had an equal opportunity to excel.
"Wherever [students] are in this city, we have high expectations for [them]," she said.
Issues surrounding the National Capital Medical Center were another focal point for debate, with candidates generally divided over the $400 million National Capital Medical Center that would replace the demolished D.C. General Hospital.
Mendelson said he believed the current proposal does not use resources efficiently.
"It's an issue of economics - is a 200- to 300-bed hospital the most efficient use of our resources?" he said.
Mendelson also said eastern D.C., which the medical center would serve, is currently underserved and needs to have its own level one trauma center.
Bolden said he hoped the hospital would result in a more adequate emergency health response for District residents.
Patterson, who does not support the medical center proposal, said it was not an adequate solution.
"I don't believe [the proposal] addresses all of the needs of [S.E. Washington] residents," she
said.
Gray, a proponent of the current proposal, said his fellow councilmembers had not supported the medical center in its final stages. He said now that the project is ready to get off the ground, the Council should again support the proposal.
"The issue is no longer about creating a poor people's hospital - it's an issue of access," he said. "We need equal access to health care across the District. It's an issue of health; it's an issue of fairness; it's an issue of justice; it's an issue of equity."
The Ward 3 and Ward 4 Democratic committees will hold a second forum focusing on candidates for the D.C. mayoral race May 31 at Woodrow Wilson High School, according to representatives for the groups.
