TERRE HAUTE — Two incumbents, three newcomers and a former city councilman will vie for three at-large seats on the Terre Haute City Council on the Democrat ticket in the May 8 primary election.

The incumbents are George J. Azar, former president of the council and restaurant owner, and James P. “Jim” Chalos, current council president and city firefighter. The hopefuls are Carmen Owens Black, a Realtor and employee at Sony DADC; Vicki L. Curts, an English instructor at Eastern Illinois University; and Don Morris, executive director of the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. Also, William F. “Bill” Thompson, a professor at EIU, is seeking to return to the City Council after serving for 16 years through 2003.

Azar said he intends to tackle the issue of establishing standards and guidelines for issuing tax abatements as incentives to attract business.

“One of my goals, hopefully, before the end of this year, is for the [council’s] Road to Progress Committee to come up with an ordinance, and present it to the City Council, that will put an end to guess work on tax abatements, and set standards and guidelines so as to be fair, not only to the businesses, but to the local labor force as well as the city government,” Azar said.

Azar, 60, chairman of the committee, said a template from Vanderburgh County has been studied to provide incentives based on investment. “So much investment would allow so many years of abatement and there would be incentives for using local labor,” he said.

Azar said he hopes an ordinance can be presented to the City Council in June. “It is a compliment to business people and labor groups and council members involved in this. It has been a year process and even though things sometimes move slow in government, the end result will be worth waiting for,” he said.

“I believe it will have a positive impact on economic development. Industry and government will know exactly what we can do and what we are willing to offer,” Azar said. “I believe we will be totally in with everyone else and it doesn’t just give an automatic carte blanche abatement to whoever decides they want to do something. I believe it will be a more fair system.”

Azar will be the council’s finance chairman for the city budget this year. Azar said the council must decide how to prioritize money to spend, especially watching for any impact from state legislation that could reduce income from property tax.

Black, 50, describes herself as a community servant and believes “a leader is a serving person. As a council person, I can service my whole community. I wanted to make sure that the voice of the people is being heard and a fresh perspective. As a team player, you bring your work to the table.”

Black said one of her concerns is the problem of methamphetamine labs in the city. First, a citizens advisory board should be formed, she said. Black said many meth “dealers or cookers are in a rental property and I believe there are times that landlords know that something illegal is going on. Landlords have to be more responsible and pay attention to what is going on, not just collecting rent,” she said.

Black said the City Council needs to increase citizen participation, which could mean holding meetings on Saturdays or in certain parts of the city. “The people of Terre Haute have been alienated from the political process or do not feel like they are part of the community at all,” she said.

“That shows love and care and that will bring people from neighborhoods out,” she said.

Black said she favors increasing city funds for animal care, as well as making sure that pet owners register pets and are held accountable for their animals. Black said the city could build a pole barn and house animals “and make sure they get their shots and even discount those shots; and even have people perform community service to do that.”

In addition, she favors building skate and water parks. “Things of that esteem and nature build pride and also grow our city. My concern is our children. What do they have to do? They have no means of exerting their energy, really, in the city,” she said.

Chalos, 39, said the main responsibility of the City Council is to make “Terre Haute a better place to live. My father [former Terre Haute Mayor P. Pete Chalos] always said ‘leave a place better than you found it’ and the only way to do that is to get involved.”

“As a City Council, we have to court business and provide an environment that is friendly to business. Every city in the country wants a business to come to their city. We have to stay competitive and we have to create an environment that people would want to come here,” Chalos said.

He said it is important that the city and Vigo County work together for a business environment, referring to support for recent expansions of existing companies such as Clabber Girl, Sony DADC and Pfizer. One area that the city and county can work to develop is land on the former Terre Haute Coke and Carbon site along South 13th Street.

Chalos said work must continue on improving city streets, sidewalks and sewers. He also favors a strong city park system. “I think a good park system is a cornerstone of a good community. They need to be safe and need to be clean. I think we need to continue to keep our park system a good system.”

Chalos said he favors adding new amenities to the parks, such as skate or water parks, but each much be looked at with “fiscal responsibility compared to the other needs we have in the community. I think water and skate parks are wonderful and something we need to look at doing, but we always have to remember that we have to prioritize and keep things in balance,” he said.

Chalos said the city “has started a good thing with a spay and neutering program. That will be a long-term solution to get animals off the street. We need to probably come up with some kind of a city-county shelter or find a way to fund the [Terre Haute Human Society’s] shelter a little better, so we can finally resolve the animal issue in Terre Haute,” he said.

Curts, 64, said she decided to run to change the city administration.

While passing out fliers for Democrat mayoral candidate Jim Horrall and fliers for her campaign last week, she missed a step and broke two bones in her wrist and has a hairline fracture on her ankle. “I look like I have been in some sort of a war. I guess I am. I am in a war with Burke,” she said.

Curts favors strong enforcement of animal-control ordinances through police and animal-control officers. “We need a municipal shelter for animal control. We need a place that people can take stray animals seven days a week and have animal control on call for weekends and evenings,” Curts said.

“The Humane Shelter has limited the city to 15 animals [per week] only because Mayor Burke has refused to add any more money; $85,000 ran out in September. We had no animal pickup for five months. That is dangerous. I want to stop the public from having to be animal control,” Curts said. “Other cities don’t dump this problem on the public.”

Curts would like to see the City Council have a “tighter monitor of the spending of the general fund after it is in the hands of the mayor. We need to monitor exactly who is being paid for what.”

Instead of providing $1 million as an incentive for a downtown hotel, Curt said the money should have gone to animal control. The money was distributed from the city’s portion of the County Economic Development Income Tax, commonly called EDIT.

Curts said she favors more “play equipment in the parks. I would like to see a skate park north, not just south. Gilbert Park has one basketball goal and we could surely afford an entire basketball court so kids could get a game going. Coy Park [at 16th Street and Barbour Avenue] has absolutely nothing.”

“I would like for the neighborhoods to have play equipment for children in that area,” she said.

Curts said the city’s Police Department should be in a city-owned building. Curt said nearly $400,000 of rent the city had committed to its current facility could have been used toward the construction of a new building.

Curt said she favors phasing out the city’s $30,000 contribution to the Hyte Center “and let the center be in control. It is turning us into a class-divided city and I don’t want to see us be a class-divided city.”

Morris, 53, served as administrative assistant to Mayor Kevin Burke for two years and now is executive director at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center.

“I have missed it and this is an opportunity to get back in and work for the city,” Morris said.

“First and foremost we have had a lot of neglect on sewers, sidewalks and street repair for quality of life and for business. We have had such neglect in the past. It wasn’t a popular thing to raise taxes to fix that, like the [combined sewer overflow] has to be addressed or we will have to pay some big fines. We will end up paying more fines than taxes, that is number one,” Morris said.

“We also have to address the trash problem in the alleys and streets and people not keeping up their yards. We are getting a lot of repeat offenders,” Morris said. “With the incoming [City Court] judge, we possibly can sit down and look at some alternatives to hold these people accountable, bottom line.

“Maybe we need to increase the citations, the fines and hold the people accountable; if you make a mess, you clean up the mess. If you are back a second time, maybe we need to fine you more.”

Morris supports Councilman Todd Nation’s idea to require that lids be on all trash containers in the city.

Morris said city residents are suppose to register cats and dogs. “Last time I checked, there are only 400 families that have registered animals,” he said. City ordinance requires a $5 payment for spay or neutered dogs and cats and $25 for unaltered dogs or cats. That money can be used for animal control.

“We have to make it so easy to register an animal that there is no excuse; maybe we can do it online or from a phone call,” he said.

Morris said he does not support a municipally owned animal shelter.

He said the city needs to continue to work on long-term enhancement projects, such as railroad relocation and development of the riverfront.

On the Hyte Center, Morris said he favors a city subsidy of $30,000 a year, as long as there is financial accountability. The center, Morris said, serves a “vital need and there will always be a Charles T. Hyte Center in that area, we just have to get the financial situation straightened out.”

Thompson, 63, while on the City Council in June 1999 appeared in court on charges he altered his drug prescription. Thompson was charged with obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and attempting to obtain a controlled substance by fraud after going into a walk-in clinic for the drug Fioricet for a headache.

A pharmacist examined the prescriptions, and suspecting they had been altered to read “Fioricet with codeine,” contacted the issuing physician. Thompson voluntarily surrendered to the court where he entered a plea of not guilty and was freed on bail.

On May 23, 2001, Thompson successfully completed a program through the Vigo County Drug Court and the court ordered the charges dismissed.

“I was addicted to pain medication. The drug program in Vigo County is excellent. It makes you realize that you do irrational [things], get so addicted to a medication, a physical addiction as well as psychological, that when it hits you in the face, you realize how much it can consume you in life,” he said.

“I think only those of us who have been addicted to something can understand that,” he said, adding his addiction is now in the past.

Thompson said he “missed public policy. I’ve always enjoyed the arena of public debate,” and wants to return to the City Council.

As when he formerly served on the council, Thompson favors a city-owned and -operated water utility, which could better control water rates. Water companies are granted monopolies, he said. “There have not been much technological changes in a water utility,” he said.

Thompson said the city should join with Indiana State University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to attract business. “When Mayor [Judy] Anderson was on, we had a gentleman from Rose-Hulman look at how we could save utility bills for the city and those savings would give more money for other services we offer,” Thompson said.

Thompson said the city should provide more subsidy to the Terre Haute Humane Society. “It should be part of our obligation as city government,” he said.

Thompson said he was opposed to the EDIT tax. “I think we need to look seriously at the city’s total budget, how many bonds we have out and how much in terms of total dollars and interest rates we have to pay,” he said. “I was very much opposed to the TIF [Tax Increment Finance] district for Wal-Mart.”

Thompson said he would like to bring back the Brush-Up Terre Haute program, which he said he started as street commissioner under former Mayor William J. Brighton.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.