No matter your current political views, I think we all can agree that we are fed up with politics as usual.  It is time to put the government back in the people’s hands as it should have been all along.  Through party bosses and extremists we have seemingly saw our Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness watered down through the years.  Sometimes it seems that government has grown so large it is choking out those common sense principles that you and I believe in.  We must be resolute and stand strong.  Stop the bickering and the fighting amongst ourselves so that we can accomplish the greater good for our next generation.  It is on this common sense idea that I come to you with a plan.

  1. Decreasing the size of our county commission will be a priority.  Currently we have 3 county commissioners from each of the 6 districts for a grand total of 18 commissioners.  According to the last census Morgan County has approx. 21,000 citizens.  Just to show you a contrast Knox County has approx. 403,000 citizens and they have reduced their commission down to 11.  It is not necessary for us to have such a large commission. It only costs us more tax dollars to accommodate so many. To do this we can reduce it from 3 from each district to 1 from each district and 3 at large. The 3 at large would be spread 1 from each 2 districts. This would reduce the size in half and still have a very effective and efficient government.
  2. If you have read the Morgan County News at all or are involved in the community you know that this is a huge election year in the county. Every office except for Property Accessor and a few School Board seats are up for election in the same election cycle.  This could be a problem if everyone we elected were new to the job.  To keep some experience in the county we should look into staggering the elections so that so many are up during the Presidential Election cycle and so many are up during the Gubernatorial election cycle.
  3. Transparency in Government is a huge problem here in the county. I feel that the average citizen should be able to find out what goes on at the commission meetings without having to go to the meetings.  We all have families and our days already seem cluttered.  I would like to see our agenda put in the newspaper at least a week before the meetings and give the citizen time to know what is going on.  We could have a new tax put on us before we knew it but if we kept things transparent it would be hard to do things without the people’s Blessing.  My website will be used to update folks on what the commission will be doing.
  4. Brushy Mountain State Prison is a wonderful historical place in which I have had the honor of working as most of us here in the county have either worked there also or had family that have been employed there.  The walls have been filled with unfortunate bad memories but also very surprising good memories for those that were able to raise a family because of Brushy.  All that said it is at a crossroads when the State of TN decided to shut it down due to cost and build the new prison there were many people who did not know where to go from here with the historic building.  Our Commission has decided to pursue the idea of the State of TN letting the county take it over.  Although I commend the effort to get a feasibility study done I feel there is no adequate plan that has been presented right now to sustain the cost to run a prison that is over 114 years old.  The state shut it down for a reason. It cost way to much to run the it.  I will stand strong to make sure that the commission studies hard to come up with a plan that best serves the people of this county and our children to prevent a black hole opening up that we have no way to pay for but raise taxes.  Our taxes are high enough as it is.

People are tired of Partisan Politics running our country.  It’s time we got back to the citizen legislature.  I have a plan to help lead us in that direction and get the power back in the people’s hands.  It will be Coming soon… Stay Tuned.