Frederick Mayoral Candidates Debate Issues

They took part in a debate held on WFMD Radio on Wednesday.Mayor Michael O’Connor (L) and Tom Trott (R)Frederick, Md (KM) With less than two weeks to go before the election, WFMD Radio hosted a debate between the two candidates running for the office of Mayor. Both candidates were on “Mid-Maryland Live”:One of the issues was crime. Incumbent Democratic Mayor Michael O’Connor noted that the crime rate in the city has been declining for about 20 years. But he acknowledged that not everyone agrees with that assessment. He gave a lot of credit to the Frederick Police Department for their anti-crime efforts. “I’m proud of our department’s pro-active, data-driven, community policing approach,” he said. “The way in which we assign patrols; the way in which we use data to drive where we are going to place those patrols; to look the history of crime in the area; the calls for service; how incidents come up; and to use those as predictors of where it might be a good place for us to deploy officers.”Republican challenger Tom Trott said he was concerned about some of the activities along Carroll Creek. He said some residents won’t visit that area of Frederick unless it’s a major event. “The one thing with a better police presence on the Creek, though, I think we’d be able to stop this illegal drug use,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of people, but there is  some camping overnight on the Creek, and I think the City Council  needs to address that because it’s not meant to be a campground there.”Whether or not taxes are too high was also discussed by the two candidates. Mayor O’Connor was asked how to keep taxes reasonable. “If we had a more diversified tax base that was not so solely reliant on the property tax as the sole source, we would be able to address some of these affordability issues because we would be able to take the burden off the property tax as the driver of city services,” he said.Trott said reforms need to be made in the area of tax equity. “We get a slightly lower tax rate from the County of about nine cents less, so about ten percent less than other municipalities,” he said. “Myersville also takes advantage of this and they get a bigger discount. I don’t know  how this is possible when we’re providing our own police, our own snow removal, our own parks and rec,”The two candidates also discussed other issues such as economic development and traffic. The questioners were the hosts of “Mid-Maryland Live,” Tim May and Frank Mitchell   Residents can listen to the entire debate by going to WFMD.com, and clicking on the Audio Vault.General election day in Frederick is Tuesday, November 4th from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM. Early voting is scheduled for Friday, October 24th, and Saturday, October 25th from 10:00 AM until 8:00 PM both days. The polls for both general election day and early voting will be set up at the Trinity Recreation Center, 6040 New Design Road.By Kevin McManus