I received the following comment on Facebook, and as I began to type out my response, I realized it wasn’t Facebook-sized, so I decided to include it here and just link it:

I’ll give you the short answer here and invite you to come on out to Tea N Things on Monday evening for the meet the candidates event to talk about it some more. Hope to see you there!

• “How do you plan on drawing business here?”

My vision for increasing economic development in Simpsonville relies on creating stronger partnerships between the city government, business owners, non-profit and community groups, etc. As Henry Ford once said, “If everyone is moving forward together, success takes care of itself.”  We need everyone in Simpsonville on board. I believe the mayor and council should provide the vision and leadership to make that happen. Further, I believe that community development is economic development. And I believe that it starts (and is successful) when the city government has a broad vision for community & economic development to guide its decisions. Every decision should be preceded by the question, “how does this (or does this not) help us accomplish our long-term goal?” When potential businesses see a community thriving, they are naturally attracted to it. When they know that the city will help support them in becoming established as part of that community, they are more inclined to join the community.  When they see everyone working together towards one shared goal: the betterment of the city, they know they will be successful, that we’ll all be successful, and are far more likely to choose Simpsonville as a place to start/open a business. When they see strong leaders with a clear vision, they want to be a part of that.

• “How are you planning to pay for putting the arts in the old school building? Are you going to raise taxes or take money needed to fund other departments to pay for it?”

Bringing arts and culture to Simpsonville starts with a vision—a vision that the city government should share and commit to. From there, specific planning can begin. That planning will need to include multiple stakeholders. I will say again that creating stronger partnerships between the city government, business owners, non-profit and community groups, etc. is incredibly important to achieving this vision. Establishing an Arts Center is a long-term goal. It won’t happen overnight. But it won’t happen at all if we do not have leaders committed to a vision that includes one. It will also not be something I alone do—it will be a team effort, and all good teams start with a shared goal. On raising taxes: We just had a tax increase. We need to avoid increasing taxes again. We also need to ensure that we maintain the first rate services we’ve come to expect in Simpsonville. These same services that make it enjoyable for us to live here also attract new residents and businesses. That’s good for the city. And we certainly can’t cut necessary services to fund an Arts Center; that would be irresponsible.  I will say on a related note that I would like to see our departments adopt a zero-based budgeting (ZBB) model. In my experience (I have had to do this in my role as a department head in the public sector), ZBB creates a more efficient allocation of resources. This can help us “trim the fat” (if there is any), so that we can maintain those services without increasing taxes (this is true whether there’s an Arts Center or not).  We need to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Again, I hope to see you at the Meet the Candidates event on Monday evening! Click here to register.