The candidates were asked point blank if they intended to go after the money that former Mayor Willie Herenton and former city CAO Keith McGee received, apparently in violation if city law.
Lowery said he wanted to talk to the City Council, the Shelby County District Attorney General and others, but said he believed the payments were inappropriate and should be recouped. He also pointed out that those records "only came out" because he had been so forceful in pushing city attorney Elbert Jefferson out of the daily operation of the the city's legal office.
"I believe those funds were obtained illegally, policy or not," Lowery said.
Will he go after them? "I think perhaps we should," Lowery said.
Wharton signaled he would go after it: "Yes, based on what I understand the law is unless some lawyer just tells me I'm dead wrong."
Carpenter, Herenton's campaign manager in three mayoral runs, straddled the issue, saying that he did feel there is a difference between salary and benefits and that if there was a policy in place allowing cash in lieu of vacation time, the city had to follow it.
"Salary and benefits are two different things ... vacation benefits is a benefit," Carpenter said. "If the policy says that is the policy, we have to follow our policies. If it turns out there is some improper payment in violation of the policy, certainly we owe it to the taxpayers to get those dollars. But we have to look forward to what we are doing to move our city forward. Everything that we see is looking in the rearview mirror. We're going after this, we are going after that, we're investigating this. We say we are trying to save legal fees and we are already behind."
Chumney said she would go after the money.
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