The Vance County Coalition Against Violence became a debating society Thursday night at the Gateway Center.
At least three issues sparked extensive discussions and disagreements at the meeting: the relationship between the coalition and the Vance Organization to Implement Community Excellence; a letter of support for the Henderson Police Department; and backing for coalition member Cliff Rogers when he speaks Monday at the Speak Up Henderson forum.
None of those items was new business for the coalition or even required action, but all touched on questions about the coalition’s future direction.
Loree Adams, who is the coalition’s official representative to VOICE and was elected VOICE’s co-treasurer Wednesday, was reporting on this week’s VOICE meeting when she raised the subject of the two groups’ interrelated roles.
Adams said she and lawyer James Green talked about the possibility of forming one nonprofit group that would combine the coalition, VOICE and the planned Boys and Girls Club of Vance County, rather than forming separate 501(c)3 groups for each organization. After all, VOICE formed as a coalition offshoot that could focus on money and other resources, and the Boys and Girls Club is a rapidly advancing project of a coalition committee.
But Adams favors keeping the entities separate. She said her understanding is that the Boys and Girls Club must be an independent organization, and she sees VOICE and the coalition as serving different purposes while striving for the same goal: a reduction in the crime and violence of Vance County.
“Our energy is a little different from their energy,” she told coalition members.
Pressed to explain that difference, Adams said most VOICE members participate in the group as part of their jobs, while the coalition is a volunteer community organization. Adams said VOICE members must be more politically savvy, while Coalition Against Violence members have more freedom to speak their minds. “We keep them going in the direction they need to go.”
“There’s the possibility of having to pull them back on track,” the Rev. Todd Hester said. “We may see things from a different angle.”
Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce President Bill Edwards said the fact that one group meets in the mornings and the other in the evenings gives people more opportunities to get involved in fighting the crime problem, and the two groups complement each other and keep each other focused.
“It’s way, way too early, I think, for us to lose our identity,” Edwards said of the coalition, which formed in October. VOICE began in February.
The Rev. Peter White noted that many coalition members also attend VOICE meetings, but Clyde Davis III wanted to know why there is any split between the groups. “Why was VOICE created when the coalition existed?”
Davis said there shouldn’t be any separation between the groups.
“We can be more of a steering group,” coalition Chairwoman Elnora O’Hara said, while VOICE can bring in money.
Edwards said VOICE has tremendous potential but wouldn’t exist without the coalition, and the coalition has VOICE’s respect.
“I’m not talking about respect,” Davis said. “If we’re all working on the exact same goal, we should all be here face to face.”
“Well, we’re all involved in cat skinning, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Hester said. “And they are trained to skin a cat in a very specific way. And we bring a different type of cat-skinning expertise to the table. And the two don’t necessarily merge together, but if we collaborate, we’ll skin more cats.”
“As a former member of PETA,” Cathy Ringley rejected Hester’s metaphor but embraced his point. The coalition is tied to the grass roots, she said, while VOICE is connected to sources of money. And the coalition always has the option of opposing VOICE decisions.
The two groups also have the option of meeting together on occasion, Hester said.
There was no such peaceful solution to a dispute later Thursday over a letter the coalition last week agreed to send to the Henderson Police Department.
O’Hara said she should have the letter ready to mail out next week.
“Law enforcement in general gets 100 negative letters to one positive,” said White, a retired Highway Patrol major. “There’s nothing wrong with sending a general letter. … We need to thank the chief, thank his entire department, for everything they do in Henderson.”
“The Police Department is for the entire city,” and that’s what the letter will say, O’Hara said. It won’t single out any people or places.
“We just want to say, ‘Thank you for what you’re doing for the city of Henderson,’ ” White said.
“The police force as an entity is not the enemy,” Hester said. He and O’Hara called for focusing on the positive, at least for this one letter.
But Deryl von Williams and Terry Moore, who missed the coalition’s discussion about the letter a week earlier and who don’t approve of Chief Glen Allen’s job performance, argued against sending a laudatory letter, no matter how general.
They accused the police of running increasing patrols on Interstate 85 in the hunt for drug seizures that produce revenue for the department, and they said the I-85 traffic stops target blacks and Hispanics.
At the same time, they criticized the police presence in Flint Hill, accusing the officers of being heavy-handed in that predominantly black neighborhood.
“Certain neighborhoods they police, and certain neighborhoods they protect and serve,” von Williams said. She said O’Hara and coalition members need to talk to Flint Hill residents about how they feel about the police.
Ellis said the coalition has heard from Flint Hill residents, and O’Hara said she attends the meetings of the Flint Hill Neighborhood Association.
Edwards reminded the group that the coalition’s first big event was a forum at Greater Little Zion Holy Church, where the coalition sought and received citizen input on what they need. People asked for more police patrols, the coalition passed along that request, and that’s what the police have done.
“There is a problem with the Henderson Police Department,” von Williams said. “There is a problem in Flint Hill.” She said that the letter would put the coalition on the side of the police against anyone who complains about police actions.
O’Hara cut off the discussion by noting that the decision to send a general letter, not addressing or dismissing possible problems, was made at the previous meeting, and the coalition was moving ahead.
Von Williams’ frustration with the coalition boiled up again during a discussion about Mayor Clem Seifert’s Speak Up Henderson forum next Monday at 6 p.m.
The coalition agreed two weeks ago to attend the forum en masse to support property manager Cliff Rogers in his complaint about how the city’s Code Compliance Department chooses abandoned houses to target for demolition.
At the coalition’s meeting May 5, Rogers told of seeing what he believed to be a drug deal originating from an abandoned Flint Street house that he had complained about to the city a year ago. Rogers said he was unable to get action as an individual, so he wanted the coalition’s support.
Andrea Harris complained at the same meeting about a pair of longtime abandoned houses on her block and about the insult she felt at Seifert’s push for $25,000 in outside funding to tear down the old South Henderson School while doing nothing for her neighborhood.
The coalition agreed to back up Rogers and any other coalition members who had code compliance complaints or simply wanted answers about how the city chooses among its 200 abandoned structures for condemnation and demolition.
“I don’t think we ought to send the coalition to complain about one piece of property in this city,” White said Thursday night. He said the group needs to go with a list.
“We need to talk about the coding issue, not one little piece of property,” Hester said.
Ringley said Rogers wants answers about why the city isn’t putting a priority on abandoned houses linked to criminal activity.
White said he wants to know exactly what Rogers is going to say before agreeing to back him up.
Von Williams questioned Rogers’ motives. She said she wants to know whether his interest is perhaps in adding to his stake in rental housing in Flint Hill.
“I think we’re carrying a simple issue too far,” O’Hara said. She said the coalition can’t be concerned about motives.
“If we’re going to address abandoned properties, let’s address the laundry list,” White said.
The property that concerns Rogers should be used as a citywide example, Adams said.
O’Hara said the coalition will be there to support Rogers; if anyone wants to make specific complaints about other properties, that’s a private decision that doesn’t involve the coalition.
Von Williams warned the coalition that it’s being led astray by even addressing abandoned buildings when there are so many other problems, particularly the condition of the Beacon Light Apartments.
“You folks are heading off a cliff, and you’re just too dumb to know it,” she said.