Responsible Government
Government closest to the people is the most effective.
We’ve embraced this philosophy and made enormous strides in making City Hall more accessible, transparent, and accountable.
On the Record
Transparency, communication, and accessibility have been cornerstones in our approach the last four years. We’ve got room to grow, but we’ve made tremendous strides on making your local government easier to use, easier to access, and more efficient.
Live-Streaming + Recording of Meetings
Believe it or not, we ordered equipment to live-stream our City Council meetings the week before COVID forced all local governments to move their meetings online. Of course we streamed our meetings during the pandemic, but we’ve continued to stream every regular City Council meeting, every Planning Commission meeting, and every Board of Zoning Appeals meeting - and we post those recordings on our YouTube page. We’re the only city in the area that does all of this, making us one of the most transparent governments in the Upstate.New City Website & Citizen Newsletter
One of the first priorities we approved four years ago was updating the City’s website. Our previous versions were simply awful. It was nearly impossible to find any information, and complicated even on the back-end for our staff to navigate. We upgraded our site to make access and transparency the centerpiece - with easy-to-find links for our agendas and minutes, news sections with the latest updates, and better department sites.More Reliable Council Meeting Schedule - Reduction in Special Called Meetings
From 2018-2019, almost 50% of all Council Meetings were “Special Called Meetings”, meaning they were in addition to the regular monthly meeting held. Typically, Special Called meetings occurred with little notice, even when there’s a vote on the agenda. We’ve drastically reduced the number of Special Called meetings so that you have a clear knowledge of when decisions are being made.Stopped Outsourcing Economic Development and Human Resources
Before 2019, we were paying an out-of-state firm to handle all of our economic development. Additionally, we were paying a firm to handle all of our HR needs, with everything HR-related stacked into a once-a-week on-site visit from the firm’s staff. We stopped all of that and brought HR and Economic Development in-house. The results have been clear - growth in local businesses, local relationships for new and potential businesses, and a much more structured HR environment.Procedural Changes in Boards & Commissions
Without getting into the weeds, we made changes to how our boards and commissions operate to provide greater transparency, more reliability in meeting schedules, and more responsible governance overall.Better Healthcare for Employees
There was a time in 2018/19 when our employees went without healthcare coverage, and then had to switch plans numerous times. One of the first things we did after taking office was to move everyone to the state health plan, offering better benefits, lower costs, and just as important - stability in coverage.
What's Next:
Stronger Communication
I'm a firm believer that it's not just what you say, it's how you say it that matters most. Government in general isn't terribly good at this. We've made tremendous improvements over the last four years, but there's a lot of room to grow in this area. From stronger use of our website to share critical community information, better engagement with departments and City Council on social media, to providing consistency in messaging - the next phase of our communications plan will be focused on doing it better than ever.More Public Input
When we renovated Sanctified Hill Park, we leaned on community members to provide consistent input by using a steering committee. When we worked through our Comprehensive Plan update, we did the same. When I launched my annual Mayor's Pastor Breakfast, we got tremendous feedback on the needs of our community. We've grown to be a better city every time we involve the public, and we need to look for ways to increase that public input.Continued Transparency
Transparency isn't something on a "to-do list" - it's a habit that you have to continue to excercise. As we move forward, we need to continue to lean into transparency in our operations, our communication, and our decision making.