Friends and Family

The greatest honor of my professional life has been representing the people of Chickasaw on their City Council. With my colleagues on the Council, we have been able to accomplish a great deal without a lot of financial resources. I hope to do the same as your county treasurer. During this campaign, I have come to realize how blessed I am to have so many friends and family members throughout our great county. With their continued help, we have a great chance not only to win this election, but to make our county just a little bit better.

YouTube Campaign Video

Education & Experience

A variety of people have held the treasurer's office over the years, including a retired state employee, a paralegal, and a career county official who later became the county's license commissioner. I bring a unique background to the position, having graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2004, subsequently serving as an assistant attorney general and as a city councilman charged with presiding over the council's finance committee. As an undergraduate at the University of South Carolina, I took graduate level public administration courses, including "Public Financial Administration." I will bring a prepared eye to the county's finances.

Courting Voters

I have always believed that the campaign process is important preparation for elected officials, allowing officials to learn about the areas they represent and how to be responsive to citizens.  Although I have been very active in county government, including stints on two boards appointed by the County Commission and a term as president of the Mobile County Municipal Association, I have learned a lot about our county and its needs on the campaign trail in the last several months.  I intend to continue to make myself aware of those needs, including necessary road improvements.  I will always remember that it is an unusual occurrence for the average person to contact an elected official about a complaint or issue, and that such a contact is the most important thing on that person's mind at that point.

"Open Checkbook"

I have mentioned Baldwin County's financial transparency initiative a couple of times on the campaign trail.  Baldwin has done a good job of putting information online for the public to review.  The county even has a basic searchable database.  As your treasurer, I will work to create the same type of system for Mobile County. However, I would place the link in a more prominent place on the county's website, and I would hope to offer other searchable fields - other than just "payee."  Click here to check out Baldwin County's system.

Working with Others

We are taught all through school that working effectively with others is critical to success, yet it is very easy to lose sight of that when serving in public office.  I have often wondered about the reasons for that, and I have come to a few conclusions.  First, elected officials are the only people I know of that cannot be fired by people higher up in government.  As such, there is little built in incentive to work well with other elected leaders.  Secondly, for better or for worse, there is some political advantage to "bomb-throwing," or leveling strong, sometimes personal attacks against other elected officials.  As a city councilman, I have worked hard to strike a balance between working well with my colleagues and pointing out problems to the public.  I try to follow some simple rules, such as discussing a matter with an elected official prior to making public comment.  However, as you have seen during my term on the Council, I am not shy about addressing issues and taking the fight to the public arena when necessary.  I will follow the same approach as your county treasurer.

Management Style

The treasurer's office is fairly small, with 5 employees when fully staffed.  Given that, I thought I would discuss my management style.  Having been both a subordinate and a manager, I have learned that good managers make strong hires, provide guidance and general direction, while letting employees do their jobs.  Employees should feel free to be creative in handling problems and should be made to feel confident that their reasonable decisions will be supported by those in authority.  At the same time, a manager, particularly an elected official, should be prepared to take responsibility for mistakes made.  I have never been comfortable with the trend in even some small organizations of directing every moment of the workday.

Regulations

My background as a lawyer will help me apply the vast amount of laws and regulations pertaining to the management of public funds.  For example, in Alabama, public funds may only be invested in federal government-backed bonds.  At the same time, the funds must be liquid to allow for public needs to be handled as they arise.  The county has wisely hired a private contractor to handle the day-to-day investment of county funds.  That practice should remain in place during the next term.