Closing Remarks

Applicants for Ward 2 Alderman Appointment- News/Opinion

As promised, this article will include the closing remarks from each applicant on Thursday night. Each response and closing statement were reported in the order that the applicants were asked. I did not change the order of the answers in my previous article and will not do so in the closing statements.

Carlos Payne- Considers himself to be authentic and wants to be here in the community and on the board. If he is not appointed, he still wants to be involved. It’s time for him to step up and do more in the community. He is willing to learn and wants to be involved with this process.

Jana Spicer- Communication is important. She has been involved in many things in the city and has been planning to be an alderman. She was involved when she lived out of city limits, and now lives in the city limits. She will be running for this position in the fall even if not chosen now. There has only ever been one other woman on this board.

Rebecca Johnson- She is passionate about the city. It breaks her heart to see the farmland and trees disappear. This would be an opportunity to bring a new vision to the city, creating a more walk-able place with more places to enjoy the outdoors. She will be running for this position even if not appointed. She would like to be an advocate for the citizens.

Stephanie Mitchell- She is passionate about the city. She and her husband chose to live here because they both work from home. She wants to be a voice for the community. She believes growth is inevitable but a small town that’s growing should have loyalty to its small businesses. She wants to be part of the improvement and growth and a voice for her ward and community.

These are from the notes I took on each candidate. The mayor spoke at the end and thanked everyone for coming. Again, it was well run and an interesting experience. It can be viewed in its entirety here.

All four applicants spoke well and appeared professional. Here are my thoughts and questions that should have been asked.

Carlos Payne is a great guy. Full disclosure, I know him personally. He coached my boys in flag football years ago. His family is lovely and he is a all around wonderful human being. I have never seen him at a city meeting until last month when he walked in with the president of the Chamber of Commerce. I have asked other citizens that have been at more meetings than I have if they have seen him before, and no one had. Questions to ask- Did the chamber president ask him to run? If you are applying for a position, why haven’t you been to any city meetings? In the grand scheme of things, Mr. Payne did not seem to answer the questions as thoroughly as other candidates. Again, I have nothing personal against Mr. Payne, as a candidate, I did not think he was the best for the job. You can watch yourself and may come to a different conclusion.

Stephanie Mitchell is a complete unknown to me. She moved here from Illinois with her husband just over two years ago. In the past 9 months, I have not seen her at a single city meeting. The question that the city needed to ask is “Have you ever attended a city meeting?” That one question should have disqualified any applicant. Ms. Mitchell is pro growth and has very little understanding of the community. Looking at her resume and background, she is very qualified to serve in a position such as this, but with so few ties to the community, one has to question what made her decide to put her hat in the ring. The lack of understanding about sunshine laws and repeated statements about growth and how she was enjoying it makes me question her as a choice on the board. Two of her statements stood out to me as bothersome. When discussing her skills and qualifications, she stated that she talks to lots of people, including truck drivers and “people of all levels.” I’m not sure what that statement means. A few sentences later, she used the term background instead of level. That may have been a nervous misuse of term, but when you view people on different “levels” as a politician, that is problematic. She also brought up rumors on social media and how there is “so much fiction.” She would like to be the person that steps up and corrects it. What fiction is she referring to? Has she been involved in the city to know what is fact and what is fiction? What rumors? As an applicant, you cannot throw out statements like that without clarification. In my opinion, Mitchell is a wild card that I would like to see more clarification on before being able to give a thumbs up to her as an alderman.

In my opinion, Rebecca Johnson and Jana Spicer came out at the head of the pack. Again, full disclosure, I have become friendly with Johnson over the course of the past 9 months of attending meetings. Johnson and Spicer have both been involved with the community in different ways for years. Johnson attends city and planning meetings regularly. Spicer has attended meetings in the past and is currently involved with the city in other ways. The stand out question was #12. This is the question where Spicer put herself out in the front away from the other candidates. The question was what do you do if another alderman calls you and wants to talk city business on the phone. She was the third one to answer that question and the first to know of and understand the sunshine law. Unfortunately for Johnson, she was the last to respond to that question. She did not have the option to be the first with the information about the sunshine laws. Both Johnson and Spicer want to see more responsible growth. Both women have an understanding of what WH was and where it is going. Based on the answer to question #12, and her knowledge of how the city functions in her answer to question #11, my pick would be Spicer. Even after stating that, both Johnson and Spicer would serve their ward well.

Transparency in government, question #12, is very important to our city. In my research into the city and its players, I have learned who owns what properties where, who is related to whom, and who is involved in what businesses. On the surface, things just look like everyone in town is related. However, this summer, the mayor sold his property to a developer, that same developer is building on two other properties. That mayor is now under an ethics investigation. The current mayor and one alderman were adamant that the investigation did NOT take place have been going to church together for 30+ years. The sunshine law is very important. Transparency in government is very important. Ask yourself this question: If this interview could be videoed and streamed, why can’t every meeting? Transparency is why I started this project in the first place. Last summer when I found out about the subdivision just down from my home, I discovered that the only time the public is allowed to speak at BOMA meetings is after something has been voted on at least three different times. Honesty and transparency are missing from all branches of government and media today. I will do my best to give you the facts from these meetings and let you know when I am expressing an opinion. I will pose questions that I think are important that I might not know the answers to.

Coming soon I will post a bio, the research I did over the summer, interviews with local political candidates, and notes from the city meetings. Thank you to everyone who is reading and sharing. We have 13k citizens in the city of White House. Please reach out to your friends and share this Substack. You don’t have to agree with me to follow me. We don’t have to vote the same way. You don’t have to share my opinions. You do need to be involved. This is our town and our county. We all need to take part in its vision. We can’t all go to these meetings or even have the 50-90 minutes to watch them. I vow to be your eyes and ears at these meetings going forward. I promise to bring facts and separate them from my opinions. Thank you for reading.