VOTE411 Voter Guide

I have 31 years of local government experience with Pickens County. I have held multiple management positions within Pickens County Government, managing a staff of over 100 employees up to 600 employees. I was responsible for drafting and managing multi million budgets. This required me to assess needs, goals, and vision cast by governing officials and develop long range cost effective plans to address goals set forth. My final position prior to retirement in 2019, was Pickens County Administrator. Since retirement I have remained active in local government and my community. I presently serve on Liberty’s planning commission and volunteer at the local Meals on Wheels. The skills listed will bring needed knowledge, skillset and understanding of how to develop long range plans and funding strategies to accomplish set goals.

In May 2025 City Council passed a core commercial downtown resolution limiting service industries businesses in the core commercial district. This resolution states that service industry can’t occupy over 25% of the district and not allowed to occupy a building over 1,200 sq feet. This was implemented with no communication to affected owners or businesses. The question was raised asking what percentage of buildings in our core district are affected and staff had no data to support said recommendation. As most are aware Liberty’s core commercial has around a 60% vacancy presently based on my calculations. I feel we need to look at long range vision downtown, but presently supply far exceeds demand and I can’t support this resolution.

In order to plan for growth we must first evaluate long term cost associated with said growth. At the September Liberty City council meeting elected officials approved the second reading of the rezoning of 20 acres located within city limits to allow for the construction of 110 new homes. A council member asked at the meeting how much tax revenue would be generated and no information was available. This tells me that we are not evaluating long range cost vs expense. I plan to advocate to evaluate long range revenue and cost and implementation of impact / availability fees to cover actual cost not covered by revenue generated.

Presently, I feel Liberty operates as a reactive form of government. We react when problems arise. I plan to advocate for the implementation of a long range capital improvement plan with a sustainable funding source. We have 100’s of miles of water, and sewer lines over 25 years beyond the useful recommended life cycle with no plan in place to address. Our facilities and rolling stock are in disrepair and in need of updating. The first step to addressing needs is to evaluate needs, generate cost estimates and find sustainable funding sources to address needs.