Applicant Review

My perspective and thoughts- An opinion piece

First let me say that this (the 3rd) time the process was not nearly as painful as the last two. Thank you City of White House. Also, this is the 3rd time the city has had to fill a seat that was vacated in the last year. The first seat filled was in March of 2022 when former Mayor Arnold moved to Florida and Farris Bibb took his job. The next was filling Mayor Corbitt’s alderman seat when he became mayor in January of 2023. Clif Hutson then stepped down, and his seat needed to be filled which brings us to the interviews held last week. The first two sets of interviews had all candidates in the same room asking the same questions. By the time the last candidate was asked, their response was basically, “What he said.” This time around each candidate was interviewed separately. It went quicker and was far less painful to write about. The applicants were still asked the same questions, but without the competition there, the answers were shorter and seemingly more honest.

For those of you that didn’t request the applications that each candidate filled out, there was a question on the form that asked if the candidate was a registered voter and when the last time they voted. It did not ask who they voted for. Three of the candidates did NOT vote in the 2022 city election. One of those, Johnny Gunter dropped out of the process. In my opinion, that should rule out those applicants. If you could not even vote in the city election, what makes you think that you now should be part of making decisions? Part of being responsible for your city, is voting. For me, that rules out Catherina Castigilone and Jessica Bowman. Both very articulate and bright women, but neither voted in 2022.

Mark Carroll is a great guy. He has done some wonderful things for the community, but I think maybe he has not crossed 31W in a hot minute. He believes that the growth in White House has been well planned and put together. I’d hate to see his idea of “unplanned.”

Robert Urfer spoke so fast I could not keep up with him. He was very put together and seems like a very smart guy. He would like to see more green spaces and walking areas here in White House. I get the notion that he doesn’t realize that the last board voted out all of the green spaces and put little boxes on them. Have you walked the “greenway” by the high school lately? Walking spaces are great, but this is not a college town, and no one here walks anywhere. The cross walk lights don’t work at the library, and where would you walk to anyway? The gas station across the street? The kids aren’t even walking to school. Love the idea, but that works in places with colleges, and 15 minute cities. Look up 15 minute cities. (shudder)

That brings me to the final three candidates, which are my top three picks. John Currie got involved with our neighbors’ group a couple of years ago when we started fighting the Jackson Farms subdivision. (and lost) He has lived in a community that made the same mistakes White House has made. He has experience with this and would be a great addition to the board. Mike Wall has been involved with the city for years. He’s retired and has more time than I do to devote to city business. He even ran for alderman several years ago. He would be a great addition to the board. Jennifer Collado got involved with the city a year before I did when she fought against a chemical plant that wanted to build here. She was well spoken and had an understanding of infrastructure. I had never seen her at a meeting, unlike Wall and Currie, but after stalking HIP White House, it is obvious she has been involved. She would not be my first pick, but she would also make a good addition to the board.

I am unlocking the interviews from paid to everyone. Everyone needs to see the questions and how the candidates answered. Then you need to email your alderman with your opinion on who you want to represent you. In the next 2 paragraphs, I am going to answer two of those questions and some of you may not like my answers. Feel free to move on or get a group together to have me tarred and feathered.

4. When it comes to the city budget would you take a conservative approach to financing or do you lean towards progressive views in taking care of citizens’ needs? This question was stepped around by all of the candidates. Mike Wall was the only one who stated he takes a conservative approach to finances. Here is the problem, no one seems to understand that the government does not make anything. They only collect money from you. Taxes and impact fees are the only way the city “makes” money. It is NOT their money. It is YOUR money. The role of government is to take care of the things that private industry cannot or should not. The city is responsible for police, fire, EMS, roads, trash, sewer, water, parks, and libraries. I might have missed something, but this is about it. Personally, I’m not real happy about the rec center. Building a gym with an inside track is not something a private company would do, but the workout equipment and yoga rooms directly compete with local gyms. That’s not right. Using the taxes from those businesses to create competition is wrong. Every candidate should have answered with “the government is to be a good steward of the people’s money.” Nothing should be spent on things that private industry can do. I don’t blame the candidates, I blame our system that seems to teach people that government is the solution to all of our problems.

7. There is unprecedented demand for residential housing in Middle Tennessee. How do you feel about growth in our city? Has White House grown too fast, just right, or too slowly? What would you do differently? Get out your pitchforks because you’re about to hate me. I have heard it over and over again that it is our job to provide people with housing. They want to move here, we need to make sure they have houses. FALSE! White House does not have an obligation to anyone in providing houses. No city has an obligation to provide housing. The only time I could argue that housing would be needed is if a large plant is built in a city. If a manufacturing facility broke ground today and they were going to employ 2000 people, we better start building houses. That is a need. What we have here is a want. People decided they want to move to middle TN, so all of a sudden those of us who live here (in homes built in the early to late 1900’s) are just supposed to sit down and shut up about the rapid growth. Guess what, there are lots of houses out there. Those houses are just not where people want to live. White House did not have any sort of obligation to Lennar, DR Horton, Ryan Homes, David Weekly, Pulte, Goodall, or any other large developer that has shown up here in the last five years. White House did not HAVE to allow 1100 homes to be put in behind Heritage High School creating even more traffic issues. With each new subdivision comes new “wants” from the citizens. They want more restaurants, they want more stores, they want more……. Now I’m the asshole because I chose to live here because the city did not have those things. I didn’t want more fast food. (we have it all except Chik-fil-a and BoJangles) I don’t want Home Depot. I don’t want Calliber Collision. I don’t want another big chain corporate store. If I wanted those things, I would have moved to Hendersonville or Bowling Green KY. But again, I’m the hateful one because I chose a small town without those things. So the answer to this question is we grew too fast but there is nothing we can do about it now except to clean up the traffic mess one light at a time.

If you are still reading, you are either clapping in agreement or wondering how to get your hands on a torch and asking your neighbor if they have a pitchfork. Let me remind you, this is just one old gal’s opinion.

From here on out, all of my articles will be free. I read another Substack the other day, and it hit me hard. We do not have local media any more. The news channels only cover the “big” stories, and the Connection is always behind and seems to have a bias. We need local coverage of our city, and I am doing that. I am covering the planning and BOMA meetings. I have been to applicant interviews and candidate forums. I take hand written notes and research things online. Local news should be free and available. All citizens should be informed before voting or contacting their representatives. The last article about the applicant interviews only reached 29 people because of the paywall. I want our citizens to be informed and involved. That being said, this is and has been a lot of work. Those of you with paid subscriptions, I appreciate you immensely. Those of you with free subscriptions, please consider a paid. Journalism is dying in our nation but is reviving with local people. $5 a month or $50 a year isn’t a huge commitment, but it shows me what I’m doing is worthwhile and let’s me know you are engaged. If you have already paid for a subscription and are irritated, please send me an email and we will talk.

Thank you for reading this far. Let me know when you are on the way with torches and pitchforks so I can put the dog up.