On this episode, we talk to Thomasville City Councilmembers Scott Chastain, Terry Scott, and new Mayor Todd Mobley. We ask them about their connections to Thomasville, and what plans they have to make our community stronger. Thanks for tuning in!
On this episode, we talk to Thomasville City Councilmembers Scott Chastain, Terry Scott, and new Mayor Todd Mobley. We ask them about their connections to Thomasville, and what plans they have to make our community stronger. Thanks for tuning in!
Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. On the podcast, we'll talk to experts on everything from Thomasville history and events to daily operations and city business, all while having some fun in the process where your hosts, Sara Pearson and Kristi Owens. Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville, where. Have a wonderful guest joining us today. I'm excited that he's sharing the table with us. And so, Tara, before we get started, anything new you want to share? Anything that's been going on, anything in Thomasville that you know of that you want to share with all of our listeners today? For me, the most exciting thing that I've been seeing around Thomasville are the art signs in the downtown district. I think that seeing black blackness through art expression when people really don't correlate the two is a wonderful thing. So that's what I've been doing. So if you're interested or you're in the downtown area, go check out the art signs. You'll love it, you'll love the history of it. Yeah, we Thomasville does a great job celebrating Black History Month, and we have amped up that celebration this year with, like you said, all of the different signage we have downtown and the banners and the gallery wall that's on display. So it does make a great opportunity to come down and walk around and enjoy, enjoy what they have going on downtown for that celebration. So today I am Tara Pearson, the public information officer with the city of Thomasville. And my co-host today is none other than Kristi Owens. She's the director of marketing for the City of Thomasville. Kristi, why don't you introduce, I guess, today? Yes, I'll be glad to. Like I said, we have a great guest with us today. Happy to have him back. He's been on our podcast before. We have council member Scott Chastain joining us today, and so we're looking forward to delving a little deeper in his background and finding out about some of his passions about serving on the City Council. Thank you all for having me. And I will second those signs that are incredible. The artists did a fantastic job on those. They're are really beautiful. They they really did. And just honing in on one of the ones that interests me the most was the expression through hair. And for black women, you may see us changing our hair so often, but it's because that's who we are and it's a piece of us and it's really art. So I agree with you. Yeah, they're fun to see. So while we're there, let me just start out by saying tell us a little bit about yourself. Scott Yeah, well, I'm born and raised in Thomasville with graduated from Central High School, and from there Chris and I share a common college at the University of Auburn and Warrigal, and I don't get to say that to many people in high, so it's always fun. And then actually I moved out to Philadelphia. My background is in landscape architecture and my wife and I moved back here almost 15 years ago now. And so we we've enjoyed being back in Thomasville and being involved in the community. We have some small businesses and I've been on city council now for two years starting my third year now, and it's been great. You mentioned that you were on the council. I guess you started in 2022. What were some of your goals when you first got on the council? Are they different than what your some of the goals maybe you have today? But what are some of the things that you know you're looking forward to maybe that council in this year? Sure. You know, I was careful not to make too many promises when I was doing the campaign because I feel like that's you know, I was running because I love the community and I wanted to be as involved as I can as a leader in the community. And so I didn't have a specific agenda in mind coming on outside of just supporting good initiatives that the city staff wants to do. And thanks, I'm here from the community that need to get done. I have a passion, my background. We'll talk about this more, I'm sure, and with parks because as a landscape architect and so that's always been an important thing for me to try to to get the city and do things to improve our park system. I'm always interested and being involved in those conversations is about how we as a community can evolve and grow and develop. So whether it's parks, building codes, ordinances, economic development, those are things that always are interesting to me. And I try to stay involved and and help move forward in different ways. Yeah. So you believe tying in our parks and our rights and just really their quality of life is something that's going to help Thomasville progress? Anything else that you can think of that's going to help Thomasville progress as you're moving along throughout your term? Yeah, I mean, when I think about progress, I think it requires a vision, you know? And so I think having a positive vision of where your community is going is very important. And we you know, my wife and I were both involved back in 18 with the comprehensive plan was done. And I really commend the city at that time. The the engagement from the community to help make that document was amazing. And it was really it was great to be a part of that. And so I keep those books pretty close by. And so because I do think that was a great vision of where we want to try to go. I think collaboration and engagement with the community is, is that always important thing for me? You know, when I moved back here, I wanted to be involved. I wanted to the city to try to be involved with the community in different ways. I think that's important when you're at any time you're trying to do an initiative. I think the more engagement you can have on the front end saves the city. And I think the community a lot of heartache on the on the back end with with bigger issues. So I think those are some things as far as progress goes. One of the I guess maybe one of the I hate to say hot topic, but one of the hot topics around our city recently has been our budget and what maybe what are some things maybe or some policies maybe the city has put in place or maybe should think about putting in place to possibly make our municipality more fiscally responsible? Or do you think there is anything else we could be doing that we're not doing right now? Sure. And I'm sure you've talked about the I mean, I think Mr. Carson, the city manager's says I've been on for just, you know, two years now. I think we early on we adopted some new financial policies, procurement policies. I think one of the bigger things that that's the doing is helping build up our reserves, which had been depleted a good bit. And so, you know, we deal with a lot of disasters, whether it's hurricanes or pandemics, which is obviously put everybody on edge and probably all cities trying to figure out how do you make sure in those extreme events that you can still function as a city? And so I think some of those early initiatives are already that's the groundwork that's already been laid that's working and I think is is improving Some of those things you're talking about. For me, I look at it as I think the more diversity of revenue streams we can have as a city, the better. And so if you're completely relying on one and not another, then that can put you in a tough position. And so, you know, as a city, there's a lot of we already have some revenue streams, we have enterprise funds. We're lucky that we have our own utility departments. And so those generate revenue which can help fund things in our city. And we're very fortunate that those are run well. I think there's always room to grow and be more efficient and to help those provide more funds. We also have taxes, tourism dollars and hotel motel taxes, sales tax. You know, that's a revenue stream that comes in. We've had conversations about property tax, which we don't currently have, but that is something I know, Alan, as a as a leader, the city has has really wanted the council to wrestle with. I think the community is starting to hear more about that and the need for it. You know, that is one lever that every city looks at. We currently don't have it in. It's one that is a little bit more controversial, but we're not. I don't think we need to be ignoring it. I think it needs to be talked about. And probably part of the solution at some point. Right. And the projects that we're tackling now feeds in really to the vision from the blueprint, the comprehensive blueprint and speaking of vision, a part of that, a few years ago, we actually updated our mission in our vision statements to be more community oriented, community action oriented. So tell us, what do you think we could be doing or we are doing to build a more just and equitable community? Sure, it's a tough question. I think every, you know, city in communities wrestling with those kinds of things of how to do that well, you know, I personally think from the city standpoint, they're wrestling with our they're doing a good job. Whether they're something they're addressing and making strides to accomplish. I think from a city, you want to make sure you're providing the same level of service, the same level of investment to everybody in the community. And that goes from whether it's level of service with utility service or level investment of infrastructure so that you're not, you know, investing all your money in downtown, but leaving other neighborhoods, you know, dilapidated and falling apart. But I mean, since I've been on I know from what I can tell at a seen what where the city is investing money it is across the community whether it be sidewalks, infrastructure, waterlines, new sewer lines, all that kind of stuff. They are looking citywide. And I think that's that's part of the conversations, making sure you're doing that, you know, through services and investment. And now I think the other side of it, which kind of tapped on a little bit already, is the engagement piece of it and making sure that we're engaging all aspects of the community that those they're representing it on different boards that help make decisions, that those that we have a diversity of people on at the table when decisions are being made and I think the community as a whole is making strides. And those are actually the city has done a good job of trying to make sure their that's top of mind when we're making decisions and doing things. But those are that's kind of the feelings that came to mind. I can agree with that. I think too, you're talking about the citizen boards. You know, many people don't realize we do have a forum on our website where if you're interested in serving on any of those citizen boards and we have quite a few of them, you can visit Thomas for dot org and you can fill out that form and we'll have your name. Yeah, I encourage anybody out here who seems interested in a certain area, whether it's like downtown or economic development or whatever it may be, and I'm like go fill an application. You can start on these boards and you can be at the table that help make the right decisions. And unfortunately, you don't get a lot of people that actually fill out the applications. But I think it's important to keep reminding people, So what if there was something you wanted to share about Thomasville or something? Maybe you would want to to tell our citizens, Can you think of one thing you would kind of want to summarize and close out the interview with maybe to share before we close things out today. It's hard to think of just one. You can do a couple. Well, no, you know, first thing I always I think it's easy to get caught up in negativity these days in a lot of whether it's national conversations or even local conversations is when you know you're your own council, you hear a lot of times you hear from people when they're having a problem or something like that. But I remember or I try to remind myself every day that, I mean, we're very fortunate to live in Thomasville. I go around the state some we're hosting Leadership. Georgia, you talked about this a little bit earlier, and people from around the state and the country come and we live in a we live in a beautiful community, not that it doesn't have its challenges and that it can improve, but we're very fortunate, I think, to be where we are. And so I think it's always important to remind ourselves of that and so that would be the first thing. And the other things you mentioned, just some I've got two more years of this term and you know, there might be I might run again. But I think parks are a very important. One thing I wanted to mention was about parks. I wanted to kind of come back to that a little bit is I've kind of realized, as I've been on the city, how difficult it is for a smaller city like ours to actually build a support fund and sustain a park system. And if you look at it like a lot of cities that have robust park systems are really do a good job keeping out their parks. Like behind it is like a parks conservancy or a friends group or something that is really rallying the community to give money to pay for a new playground or to raise money to pay for this. It's not always the city having to foot the bill for everything that happens at a park. And so I think, you know, Thomas has always had a you know, it's always assumed that the city can always tackle every issue. And the way things cost these days, that's not always the case. And so, I mean, that's just going back to a passion of mine and something I'm kind of wrestling with how in the community, how we can do that better. It fits in with a comprehensive plan about trying to develop something that can, over the next 20 years could help sustain our parks and improve them without, you know, bankrupting the city. So that's one thing I'm kind of a challenge. I've given myself and hope to kind of get some support around that takes a village, right? Yeah. So it's not just raising children. I mean, yeah, you know, we're we're trying to help a community grow. So it's going to take all of us to partner together. Yeah. Arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder. So, yeah, sure. We certainly appreciate you being here with us today. I think it's important for the community to hear your voice and to hear hear some of the things that are important to you serving on our council. So we always appreciate the opportunity to talk to our council members. And, you know, we know we have a lot on your plate. So again, we certainly appreciate you coming by and spending some time with us. I'm glad you all are doing the podcast and thanks for having me. Come back anytime. yeah. Good luck to you today. You'll probably be able to get will join us. We have another part with another guest from our city council. So stay tuned. Welcome back to part two of our podcast. We actually have another wonderful guest joining us at the table today. We have Councilmember Terry Scott. He's actually also our mayor pro tem for the Thomasville City Council. Welcome, Mr. Scott. We're glad to have you with us. Glad to be part of this. You have you're actually a local minister and I know you do a lot of work throughout the community. And this is actually your second term. Yes. Yes. So City Council areas, I might tell you what I'm just so draw for you about. And also I don't mind even having two people. Yeah. Yeah. We're glad to have you here with us today. So, Mr. Scott, I'm just going to dive right in there with the questions. Just tell everyone a little bit about yourself. Well, okay, I'm retired military, 27 years native, Thomasville. I retired back in 2012. I'm married. I've got four wonderful daughters, all grown. They're out of the house. They all go over. They are in the house in all. I'll tell you that's retired now. Decided to move back to Thomasville under the law requests he said you can move out, move by the commissary I'll move by the Thomasville and and just saw that there was still some these things need to be done in Thomasville and around southern office. Yeah. So you like we mentioned earlier this is your second year serving or second time serving on the city council. Right. The first time I think was back in 20 1618, I think 1818. So what made you, I guess, decide to want to run for office again? I'll tell you what, I took two years off and I still saw there was a need for things to be done in my community. And so I decided to pray with my wife again and we decided, okay, you got another shot. This might be the last term, but I decided to give another term and and there was a still a dine me for my community and wasn't my community. I look at the city as a whole and just not on the map on my district. I represent the Marco station I represent, but I look at the whole city as the whole and I just saw there was still a dire need for a lot of support in the community. So you still saw or you saw that there was still a need for you to support the community? Yeah. Give us a goal or two that you have to help support that need. One of the things affordable houses, affordable houses are we have a lot of single parents that don't have affordable housing therein. Are they staying with their kids or the uncles and mothers but can't afford to live on their own? And so I decided to we got within developers to maybe one day we'll build affordable housing for these single parents. Also, I mean, I thought about jobs. We got we got checkmate out here. So they employ about 100 some folks, Ashley Furniture, the Marriott Hotel. So those are jobs that that came under my administration. And so I feel privileged that I was able to do those things along with other council members. We got Scott Chester, who was a who's awesome fellow man. I tell you what, he's awesome. So we just spoke to him before. really? Okay. Okay. Yeah. Before you say, yeah, he's going to be a part of this podcast with you as well. So yeah, we enjoyed talking to him too. One of the things we were talking to, like you said, council member Chastain, about this is the budget has been an interesting topic for many in our community, concerned about the budget or the way that the city of Thomasville manages its finances. So yeah, yeah, what we were talking earlier, like I said with, with Mr. Chastain about different policies that the city has put in place over the years to, you know, make our city government more fiscally sound. And so what are some things maybe do you have anything that you would possibly hope that maybe the city could pursue to look at differently? As far as, you know, those finances are are concern? My thing is this here. Are we as a city? It's the city we have to cut back ourselves. We got to cut back on our spending. I said before, we can act as citizens to cut back on. And of course, you know that the we talk about Avalon tax and that was a big that was a big subject a while last year. And so it's still a subject now. But in the meantime, I have town halls meeting throughout the city, throughout the community, and I address those issues with my constituents and pretty much my constituents, whatever they put out on me, I pretty much go with what they say about at S.A. the city has to have money to operate off of. So I put that hand hand in and I make my decision based on there. So but the city as a whole, I think that we can we can do better as a city. that's operation of the city. But in the meantime that we still got a lot of projects we need to have done, like the Room ten Avenue Project, the Charter three project. So things that that I see that we need to get done. So but as a whole, we need to see where our budget is located. It Well, I think it's a good thing that you mentioned. So now there's going to be a few meetings held throughout the city or over a period of time that the community can come right and ask the questions. Ask the questions because we're open, we're transparent. No, it's a hard question that not a hard question to be addressed because here we are with the city needing money and who we are folks that don't can afford the Avalon tax. So I look at when I say Avalon tax, I look at folks like, well, fixed income folks who make $1,000 a month, single parents. The stuff that that's going to fix budgets if if we put the Avalon tax into our budget, are you able to pay the taxes that year? And a lot of times said no, but folks that that's rich and stuff, they can afford to pay theirs. So I'm looking at more or less the fixed income people tired of folks and everything. Yeah. So it sounds like you're really answering two questions because in my next question was what do you feel could be done or us enhance on building a more equitable community and you're just stating that you want possible levies being the equal or equitable within our community? As likely as likely. And I'm oppose at first I'm still opposed it, but I'm saying not a seven millage at beginning, but let's start it a three or four millage to where it could be equity affordable to folks. That's that can help. There's a lot of fixed income You're talking about a potential property tax. Yes. Yeah. A lot of people don't realize that Thomasville is one of the only cities in Georgia that does not have a property tax. I think we're one of either two or three. Yeah, And I mean, for but 20 years we've been with that one. And so I mean so let's let's let's look let's let's look at the big picture. Let's look at the big picture. We have the city. We always spend more than we have. Do we We just spend the money to be spending. And I think to you know, I'm sure you see this all the time being on the council and, you know, you have to go attend the workshops and the council meetings because certainly that's part of your your role as being a council member. But I think, you know, when we talk about things like city finances, budget, those hard questions, it's a great opportunity for us to encourage the community to come and attend those meetings so they can hear, you know, what those projects are and they can hear the discussions because I think the more that you're involved, the more that you understand that the decisions sometimes that are made and you said you said that so correctly, then I invite the concessions to come out to the town hall meetings. I'm to I'll workshop tribe meetings, voice to opinion, because that's what we did for a window to listen to you. And so we listen to you and we we take it in our hands and we vote on what? But pretty much we all we listen to. And I think, like you said, once you start coming to those meetings, you sometimes have a better understanding and different understanding and you just maybe learn things or look at things in a different perspective that you see on the outside looking in. And that's the importance of outreach and education. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what we do at the city in Thomasville and how we operate. So I think it's going to be a great opportunity. Yeah, that's a great opportunity. Like I say, I invite anybody and everybody to come out and just listen to us if they want. What's their opinion about something? Don't see them quite understand colors that put the colors aside. We'll talk to you and I'll, we'll go from there. What if there's anything? Maybe you would like to tell the citizens of Thomasville or, you know, can you think of something to a point that you really want to make to the citizens and let them know about something? Well, and I think, like I said, it's Avalon taxes. It's not dead yet as so this year here could be a rough year falls but could be a good year. But it could be a rough year for us. And will we action the citizens to really coming out. And like Sitara said, these are meetings going to have come out the means and take into consideration, do we really need them or do can we do without them? You know, so I invite all Microsofts, come on out and be part of our design session. Yeah, it's always good to keep the community educated. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think. Is there anything else you wanted to close out with or something else you would like to make sure that we touched on or that you shared with us before we close things out today? No, I tell you what I enjoyed Saturday at Black History Parade. It was a success. I think we had about 116 participants to come aboard. And we just we had Thomasville. We had one hour tell her about telling about what? The trip exactly. Well worth the trip. And everyone raving about how big this event was compared to previous Black History Month celebrations. So we're growing. Yeah, and it's gaining traction and we want that to become a lifestyle in some sense. My heart goes out to the staff members, y'all, Y'all did the job and so not put your lot, but we all did an excellent job and everything. So I think Allen got up last night and told how many man hours that the city put in. And so it's, it's yeah, it's a combined effort, this collaboration effort that the city the citizens committees get together and come together and make this happen. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're happy to have you on the council again this year, serving out your term with us. And we look forward to great things from the Council this year. We're going to do some great things. I know. I know you will, and we certainly appreciate you joining us and in being a guest on our podcast today. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Listen, don't go anywhere. We have another amazing guest. Stay tuned. Okay? Thank you. Welcome back to part three of our podcast. We're here continuing our conversations with members of our Thomasville City Council. And today we have Mayor Todd Mobvoi joining us and we're excited to have him a part of the show. Welcome to your mabley. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me so, Mayor, we're just going to dive right into it. Tell us a little bit about yourself today. I was born and raised here in Thomasville and I went on to Georgia Southern and got my undergraduate degree in business management. And then I went back to school at Nova Southeastern University, got my master's in educational leadership, and then I became principal at Tulsa High School. And I was there for ten years and retired and decided I wanted to run for city council to continue helping the city. And I ran one. So here I am now. thank you. We're glad to have you all part of the team, if my notes are correct. You've been a part of the council since 2018, is that correct? Yes, 28. I retired in 2007. And then you were previously our mayor pro tem. And of course, as we've mentioned, you're actually our mayor this year for 2024. So what are some things maybe that you're going to bring to the council this year, maybe serving as mayor in a different capacity? Do you see yourself serving in a different capacity, I guess, or do you see yourself continuing to give to the council as you've done in the past, or do you see yourself able to go in a different direction? Being as mayor of the Council this year? I believe the mayor has just been part of the council. All of us have to work together and no one's more important than the other one, and we need to work together to make sure that we're successful in whatever we do right. And the city council team has already expressed the policies and a number of things that have helped the City of Thomasville maintain a financial responsibility. What are some other policies or if any, changes that you guys want to make to help us continue that effort? I really don't see any more policies since we have our financial policies in effect now and with our budget being like it is, we're just trying to make sure that we keep our budget balanced and make sure that we take care of the people in terms of money. But what about with new council members We have this year for 2024. I know you guys have you know, we have, I guess, one or two council meetings under your belt right now. So have you outlined some goals for this year for our city? Is there anything that that you're hoping to accomplish? Well, I know that the first two months we've really worked well together. Our first task was putting together the committees and ourselves being on committees and we all worked together to make sure that happened and we all worked together. And I hope that's how we can continue, is to all work together, make sure that what we do benefits all of the people in Thomasville. And we've mentioned in some of our previous interviews with council members, you know, we we through these series of interviews with all of you, we're hoping that maybe the community will understand the importance of maybe attending a council meeting and understanding how some of the policies are voted on and how they're put in effect for our community. So hopefully having you guys on and talking and just making your voices familiar to the community, that that would encourage people that have questions or just interested in how you come about as a team to to make decisions for our community, how that whole process works. I'll be honest with you, before I got on City Council, I had never attended a city council meeting before. Yeah, most people have not. And it is extremely different than what you think. And because there are a lot of decisions that had to be made that weigh heavily on our citizens here in Thomasville. And I didn't realize all the things that really go on behind the scenes to make our town as great as it is. Yeah, yeah, it is a lot. And you guys put a lot of work into it in order to make those hard decisions. It's not a part time job, but it's also something so rewarding. I feel as a citizen to be able to have the ability to come to a place and receive the education or the information that we need to help our city continue. You said something earlier in your response. Working together, I think you mentioned, is three or four times, and I believe that probably answers my next question, which is what you feel the council and the city staff could do better to create a more just and equitable community. And you just kept saying work together. And that's what I believed in when I was principal, too, was to make sure that we all everybody, the school worked together for the common goal. Right. And that's what I believe in. And I think that our city council, that's what we're doing. We all working together for the common goal. And we may have some times that we don't agree with each other, but in the end we just need to make sure that we come out agreeing right. Is there something you know, we were fortunate to have a lot of visitors that do visit Thomasville throughout the year, and a lot of people don't realize how many visitors we have that actually come through our city. But if you had the opportunity to to sell Thomasville or to tell someone something about Thomasville, maybe something you've learned to being on the council or just something you know strongly you feel about our community, what do you think that might be? I believe that we have a community that we all get along and we wor I encourage people to visit our downtown area and just visit Thomasville as a whole is a really nice place to come to. I have friends that come from out of town and others I meet downtown. I walk every day through downtown and as many of you may see me and I usually look at the tags and, you know, 80% of the tags are people from out of state, right? Yeah. So, you know, we like having them come into our community and hope that they'll come back. Yeah, we have a growing community, definitely. Is there anything else that you want to add to today's discussion? Did you get to say everything that you wanted to say today? I just want to encourage our citizens that they want to come to our council means please, come on. You're welcome to our workshops. You're welcome. We want to be as transparent as polish as possible with everything that we do. And if you have any questions, email me or call me in. We'll set up a time to discuss it and just come to our meetings. You'll learn a lot. Definitely. Well, we certainly appreciate you being a part of the podcast today. We think it's important that the community, you know, gets to know everybody on the Thomasville City Council, including the new two members that we have this year. So we certainly appreciate your time with us today. I appreciate your having me. Thank you, Mayor Mobley. And by way of announcements, we're still in the month of February celebrating Black History Month. So as you're strolling through our downtown streets, you'll notice hand-painted circle signs displaying African-American history. You'll also see banners with our local history right here in Thomasville. And our first Friday sippin shop kicks off Friday, March 1st, at 5 p.m. You can enjoy shopping, dining, sipping and strolling our downtown streets with a free concert by the skunks. Come out and have some fun with your family. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. We want to remind you to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite listening app so you don't miss an episode. You've been listening to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. The show is produced by the City of Thomasville Marketing Department. The show's music is by Pond five dot com. To learn more about the City of Thomasville, visit Thomasville dot org or follow us on Social. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening app so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening.