Issues

Public safety is an important part of any municipality seeking to create a good environment for citizens to live, work, play, and go to school. The Southside Police Department plays a major role in ensuring public safety. I want to create an environment where our police are equipped and supported to be fully integrated into our communities. While it is important for our officers to be seen and respected as law enforcement officials, it is equally important to be seen as part of the community, someone to be trusted as an active participant in making Southside a great place to live. The city should provide the police department with all the tools necessary to do their jobs effectively to the best of our ability. While Southside is by no means considered a large city, we do have a major state highway (Hwy 77) that runs through the heart of the town. Scores of people travel through our city each day. We welcome these daily visitors passing through and hope they will occasionally stop and patronize our local businesses. However, traffic safety needs to be a priority. Speeding and other violations are often the norm. I will be open to innovative ways to make sure that our roads remain safe for both citizens of Southside and those just passing through. We just want everyone to be safe! As with all city employees, our police officers and staff should be provided with a fair, equitable, and safe environment in which to work. All of these principles are also true for our Fire Department. Just as our city is growing, the need for fire and emergency medical services will continue to grow. Our fire department is doing a great job! However, planning for both the short and long terms need to be considered. As mayor, I will work to put the Southside Police and Fire Departments in the best possible position to serve our citizens…now and long after I am gone from public service. 

Your municipal government should always be transparent, after all, it is your city! One of the best ways to promote transparency is to provide information to the citizens in a manner that is complete and understandable. Anyone should be able to read city council meeting minutes and a city budget sheet and have a good understanding of where their tax dollars are being spent. As with many cities, these types of documents can be confusing or unclear. I would like to see an initiative to make all of this information available in an understandable format.  

Southside is in need of several infrastructure projects. These projects are vital to the economic, public safety, and convenience aspects of our city. Some will be more complex than others and funding will need to be arranged in a commonsense, sustainable manner. The Southside (northbound) bridge project has been a need for decades and plans are beginning to come together. However, we still need to advocate for this project to see this finally pushed over the finish line! Drainage issues have long been a problem in some areas of our city and need to be addressed. Some of our streets need to be widened. This can be done in conjunction with any new paving projects. Finally, I would explore a project to connect School Drive to Pilgrim’s Rest Road. While this would be a big project, it would take pressure off of the Pilgrim’s Rest intersection with Hwy 77 and provide opportunities for economic growth with a new city center. Lastly, our current city facilities need to be inspected for any maintenance issues. As our city budget permits, these issues will need to be addressed. We need to take care of what we currently have and expand where needed. Routine maintenance is not always the most exciting of projects. However, deferred maintenance is always more expensive and problematic down the road! It is just a commonsense approach.