Personal Background
I'm one of eight siblings, so I learned really early about how to put my position out there. We called it arguing when I was younger, but I know how to support my position on things. I was born in Columbus, Indiana, in a small town very similar to Walterboro. That's one thing I love about Walterboro it kind of reminds me of home, and it's my home now. Then I entered the military after high school. I was in the Air Force for nine years. I served in special operations in Florida before I went overseas to RAF Lakenheath. I was there for four years when the Gulf War broke out, and after that, I came back here and that's what we brought me back to Charleston. I lived in the Charleston area since 1990, so was there for a long time. I went into the school system, which brought me to Walterboro. I was a school counselor at Forest Circle Middle School. I was at the school for three years, and then I went back to school, and became the assistant principal at that school. After that, I moved to Dorchester County Career Technology Center where I'm at now, and we have a campus in Summerville, and I moved to that that campus about 10 years ago, and I've been doing that for 20 years with that school. So, I really enjoyed being around the kids. I retired from that job five years ago, but they asked me to come back, so I came back and have been doing that ever since. I've been on Walterboro City Council for 12 years. I have a lot of experience here in town on what's been going on. And you know, we've had a lot of good projects we've been working on, so I will keep working on that.
You said you've been on the council for 12 years, and now you're looking to move to the center seat. What spurred you to go ahead and run for mayor?
When Mayor Young decided that he wasn't going to run again, I figured that it would be good to have somebody with my experience to be able to move in that position. I've worked with Bill the whole time I've been on council, and he's done a good job showing me kind of how things work. I've been on council with Paul Siegel for twelve years. And then Judy bridge, I've been on council with her for almost twelve years, Carl Brown for eight years, Ladson Fishburne, for about six years, and then eight years with Greg Pryor, who's not running for re-election, so I have a lot of experience with the council that we have, and it is just kind of a good progression for me to move into that position with the relationships I already have with people and with the people in the community.
What do you see as the role of mayor in a city like Walterboro?
That is one thing I want to work on. I want to educate people on what our government's all about. Here we have a council manager form of government in Walterboro, which means council hires a city manager who runs the day-to-day operations of the city. The mayor is mainly the person that guides them in meetings and what's going on and helps with the agenda to get things done. I see the mayor's position in Walterboro, as one that helps bring people to council and helps get them on board to understand how the process works and to help them get what they want as their platform to get it to the public and get it out so we can debate on and work on it. Also to be visible in the community, so people know that you're a person they can come and talk to and to bring community groups together to get everybody involved with government, because I think we can do better with that.
As a mayoral candidate and a seated council person right now, where do you see the city? Do you see us going in a positive direction? Where do you see Walterboro right now?
I think that we're going in a very positive direction. An example is we have a lot of growth that's getting ready to come to town. We're just finishing up a plan where we're working on where to put housing in town, in the areas where we can serve it best, and where it would make sense to put the housing. Sometimes we get developers that will come in and just want to put something in a place that really doesn't make a lot of sense. So, we've worked on a lot of planning for the growth that we have. We've worked a lot on our relationships with county council, with the school district, with our state legislators. We keep in constant contact with our representatives in Washington too. I think that we're going in a very strong direction. We're doing a lot of improvements at the airport. I've been on the airport commission for about 10 years now, and we're just doing a rehab of our main runway. There's a lot of growth coming in that way. That's a good economic driver for here. I just see that everybody's kind of on board now. In the past, I've seen us kind of separate, with some of our government, other governmental bodies around everybody's working together and trying to get things going. So, it's very positive, and I think we're moving in the right direction, but we got to hold on to the to the small town we have and that's another thing that reminds me of Columbus. You know, they had that city is about 27,000 people now, but it was small, like Walterboro, but they grew in the right way. They still have a very nice downtown, a lot of parks and things, which really keeps a hometown. I think that we're moving in that same direction.
Conclusion
Well, my big message for this election, I'm very fortunate. I think that people realize that I have the experience to be in the mayor's position, and that's why no one else ran. I'm ready to use that experience to bring our community together. Everybody needs a voice in our community. I think we can do better communicating as a city, and, if part of communication is listening, I think we need to listen a little bit more rather than just push things out. We're working on an app that we can do to get things in from the community. I want to engage a lot of community groups, as many as I can, to try to have regular contact with them, to hear what's going on. I want people to feel safe. I think we're moving in the right direction. We formed a public safety committee for council, and we're focusing on a 12-point plan. I think it's working. I think we need to continue to continue to engage the public, and those types of committees, again, where they have a voice, where they can be heard. I want to make sure that everybody feels part of our city, everyone, not just certain people, everybody. I want to engage the youth of our community more and get them more engaged in and what we're doing with the city. I went out and spoke with a US government class a few weeks ago, and it was a great experience to get them to understand how the city works and how municipal government is the most important government they'll ever deal with in our life, but we don't hear a lot about it. We always hear about the national government, but in the long run, if they elect the right people at the local level, they'll be heard in Washington, that's where I go to talk to Washington, and they listen to me when I go. I think there's just a lot of things I want to do. I think that we can really move Walterboro in the right direction where we're going, and I want to do it together.
For the full candidate interview visit The Press and Standard YouTube page at this link: https://youtu.be/wxc2mg5mpBo
