Legacies in Leadership: Three Tennessee County Mayors/Executives Share Lessons They've Learned with 100+ Years of Experience Between Them

In this special edition of Tennessee County Voice, we step away from the studio and into a packed breakfast session from this year's TCSA Legislative Conference. The panel, "Legacies in Leadership," brings together three county executives with a combined century of experience: Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters, Tipton County Executive Jeff Huffman, and Dickson County Mayor Bob Rial — all set to retire when their terms end on August 31, 2026.

TCSA Executive Director David Conner leads a candid, often funny conversation covering how county government has transformed from a handful of staffers to multimillion-dollar operations, why collaboration beats command in the "weak mayor" system, the toughest unexpected challenges of their careers — from industrial booms to wildfires — and the one piece of advice each of them is leaving behind for the next generation of county leaders.

Whether you're a county official, a community member, or just curious what it takes to lead a Tennessee county for decades, this episode is a rare, unscripted look at what real public service looks like over the long haul.

For more information, visit www.tncounties.org

©️ 2026 Tennessee County Services Association

For more information, visit www.tncounties.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Hello there everyone, and welcome to this special edition of the Tennessee County Voice Podcast. Now, I say this episode is special because we were able to capture a very unique moment in time recently at our uh TCSA Legislative Conference, and that recording is what will feature in today's episode. Now, this panel was titled Legacies in Leadership, where TCSA was joined by Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters, Tipton County Executive Jeff Huffman, and Dixon County Mayor Bob Ryle, who are all planning to retire once their terms end on August 31st, 2026. Now, combined, these gentlemen have over 100 years of leadership experience in county government. And so we asked them to share some of their insights with fellow county officials during the Thursday morning breakfast session of our legislative conference this year. This panel was led by TCSA Executive Director David Connor, who you'll hear posing the questions to our panel members. So without further ado, let's get into this special panel, once again titled Legacies and Leadership. We hope you enjoy.

SPEAKER_07 1:48

That included the school system. Today that budget is $420 million. And having uh about 30 departments that report to the county mayor with about 450 employees. So it has grown substantially uh over the years. And uh I've been fortunate to be able to be there and sort of grown with it, but it it has turned into uh uh a big, a big business uh and and uh it's almost uh yeah, when you look at it, it's almost overwhelming uh dealing with that many departments, 30 departments and 400 and something employees. I I say this about employees. If you got 400 and something employees every week or every month, uh somebody does something that you you just wonder, and I bring them in and they'll sit down before me, and I'm gonna say, tell me just exactly what you was thinking when you did that. I'd like to understand. If you could just tell me what you was thinking when you did that, I'd love to understand that. That that happens about every month.

SPEAKER_05 2:58

Well, Larry wasn't too busy because he kissed a hog on Court Square over there severe, what, 40 years ago? He kissed that pig, I mean. So I'm just saying, for the record, uh, you know, that's I was out of high school too. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Hey, uh this is a true out of the morning. It's my turn, man. You brought this up.

SPEAKER_07 3:24

They Walmart had a fundraiser uh for a charity, and they had jars of about they had about 20 people, Winnie County people. And whoever raised the most mu most mu uh money in those people came in and put money in those jars. Whoever raised the most money, we signed a pledge that we'd kiss a pig. That sounds good, Larry. That sounds good.

SPEAKER_05 3:47

And so uh just my luck, I won that. So it's all for charity. That sounded good, Larry. That sounded real good, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:00

I mean, you know, the county's grown as well. All counties are grown. And many counties in Tennessee, you know, the largest employer is the school system. By far in in many counties. So we've you know, the industrial base has grown in Tennessee, the population's grown in Tennessee, as Larry said. County governments in many ways have really grown, and Tipton's in the same or vote. Dixon counties have the same vote as uh as well. But but what I've come to realize is the county government has grown, or it's become more and more important for the county mayor and the constitutional officers to work together or the county executive and the county mayor's office is fundamentally important compared to a municipal city mayor, or it's a weak position or you have you can't roll right through you have to collaborate or and you have to persuade or and you have to convince folks to come along and come your way. And if you can do that, you'll be successful. If you can't do that, or or you run into trouble. So that is one of the things I think over time, and particularly with with the COVID issue that came up with David uh these natural disasters now that keep occurring across Tennessee, it seems like every year that need to work together over time has increased more and more to the point where you really don't have to be.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

Things that we used to have a lot of generalists doing, now we have to hire experts. We'll we economic development and tourism initially were handled by our local chamber of commerce, but we quickly saw back to the recession coming out of that. We needed experts on that. So we immediately moved the economic development and made that a professional position, hired a professional to do that inside uh county government. Again, tourism uh it's becoming a bigger and bigger deal. It really pushes a lot of things in Dixon County. We collect over a million dollars a year on hotel and motel tax, which all that money goes right back into economic development and charitable situations, working with things the government uh kind of works on the edge that we can have partners do that and we fund it that way. So we uh two two and a half years ago, we with the tourism director hired that full-time, and she's not only uh paying for herself, but she's helping raise the additional revenue. But that that has made a world of difference because a lot of people see that and don't think well that's not as necessary as the police and fire, and it's not, but it had helps add on to what county government does and helps us do things more effectively by doing it that way.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

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SPEAKER_06 8:25

I think Larry would agree with this. It's gonna be the transportation or it's gonna be healthcare and workforce development. You're never gonna have enough resources to solve all the problems or challenges that you think you have. So that's why your strategic plan and your budget are so important because you can talk about where you would like to put money, but the budget actually allocates where your priorities are and you put the resources where you think the priorities for your particular county are. And you stick with that, but you have to have a plan. If you if you if you come into office and you're just willing to have a caretaker government where you take care of every problem that comes through the door, and that's what your day's like, you're not gonna be very successful and improve the quality of life of the people that you represent. You have to have a strategic plan, and then you have to have people and ways to deal with the problems that come to your office. But you need to stick with the vision and the and the aspirations that you have with the folks that you represent if you're gonna move things forward. And one thing I think Larry said this before, one thing if you're a county mayor, you never finish anything. Your crime rate is never low enough where you can stop worrying about law enforcement. You know, you can never pave enough roads or repair enough bridges to be comfortable with having all good roads and all safe bridges. You can never reach an educational attainment level that's high enough where you can relax on education improvement pursuits and on and on. So you can only take the steps while you're in office to improve those situations and and move the dial forward, but you're never actually gonna get to where you're trying to get.

SPEAKER_07 10:24

And I can't believe this, but I agree with Jeff. No no, uh he's exactly right, but I want to go back to something Jeff mentioned that that was important in Severe County, and I wish I'd done it sooner uh than I than I did. But we started uh uh in the in the 90s a meeting with the city managers. I meet with them about once a month. We run our uh we operate our landfill, we operate an animal shelter, we have a transportation plan, we have a planner that that uh plans our transportation for the county and all the cities, and we submit that as one. Uh we have a water board, we bring water from Douglas Lake. But I meet with them every month uh for uh two or three hours uh every quarter. Uh and I try to meet with our state representatives uh and and uh periodically. Uh that is very important if you're gonna move forward. Because you're uh and and then meet with your uh uh your county commission as much as possible. Because what I've always said is uh folks are we're gonna disagree. Never gonna agree on everything. However, let's agree that when we do disagree, we don't get in a situation where we can't uh move on to the next issue and work together because there are so many issues, especially if you're in a growing uh area, that it that you've got to have the cities on board, you've got to have other officials on board, and and by meeting with them and communicating with them and making sure they understand we're gonna have disagreements, but let's not let that cloud our whole relationship. I think it will do any more for a county than anything else.

SPEAKER_09 12:14

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SPEAKER_01 12:23

I definitely would recommend the NACO High Performance Leadership Academy to anybody that's wanting to learn more about themselves.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

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SPEAKER_03 12:38

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SPEAKER_08 12:43

You guys are pinning some of this about things either you did started doing later or you wish you'd done earlier any of that. But we'll start with you on this one, Jeff. What is something that you wish you had done differently in hindsight?

SPEAKER_05 12:55

Yeah, I you know there are a lot of programs I wish we've been more successful in. Uh and one is simple. It's it's cleaning up the county. I'm not uh I'm not satisfied with our efforts to clean up Tipton County.

SPEAKER_06 13:12

And the fact of the matter is, you you can't pick up everything. It's got to be an educational component to it. You know, Tasser, David, uh a few years ago did a study uh about litter. He got a lot of good information, a lot of good data. But in that regard, I um uh I'm I'm disappointed that we haven't done more uh to get something done about litter in in Tipton County. You all do a much better job over here in East Tennessee, quite frankly, than we do in West Tennessee, particularly if you're a county like Tipton that's next to a large metropolitan county, uh Shelby County, where people are going back and forth every day. Uh, it becomes a real issue. And that kind of visual pollution, as some of the experts call it, uh, gets to be a real problem in terms of folks wanting to come to your county and and the feel of your county. Um the other one is uh uh historical records. I don't think we've I've done a very good job of really organizing uh historical records uh in in Tipton County. We haven't been able to get much of that, and a lot of that's because of some of these other things that we've had. When Ford Motor Company, NSK Innovation made their announcement, we didn't change the whole world in Tipton County, uh uh Commissioner, and what our priorities uh were and are now. And so those are a couple of things that I can think of. They seem minor, but they're really not. Uh and they seem like it would be simple to do, but they're really not that either. They haven't been, at least in Tipton County, and there are others, but I'll stop there.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

A little bit naive. Uh I've been involved in politics for quite some time, but I didn't know how political it was until it took me five or six years to get in, and there was a lot of wasted time spending my wheels for I could have could have done a better job on that. Uh we one of the things we we cured, but we're still not completely happy with, and I you have the intergovernmental issues uh because Larry's right. You know, we we try to meet regularly uh with uh city mayors and or their city managers in Dixon County, but the biggest issue is in Dixon County with us, the city of Dixon is by far the economic engine of the whole county. So um it it is up, even we don't want it to be, it ends up being a city versus county issue on that. And that's something we worked on. It's better than it was 16 years ago, but uh there's probably some things I wish I'd have done a little better on that over time.

SPEAKER_07 15:48

One thing that that I wish had that uh had addressed earlier is uh you see all the cabins that we have. We have over 12,000 cabins out in the county. That doesn't include what's inside the cities of uh uh Gattenburg, Spirit, Pigeon Forge, and Pittman Center. And what caused those 12,000 cabins was a sand filtration system. In 2000, the state of Tennessee uh said we're gonna approve those, and you've got to treat them like a municipal sewer in your planning rigs and everything else. And uh I wish I'd realized earlier the impact that was gonna have in Sabir County because we're we're just now tightening down on that. The state approved them and the state regulated them, but now we're putting in we've finally got the state to allow us put in more regulations of our own, kind of uh slow that down. You know, who's who's gonna operate these systems when they fail and they are gonna fail. Um, we're letting too many of uh too many cabins on one system. We've let some things like that happen, and I regret that we're just uh we just recently in the last few years started uh addressing that. I wish we'd addressed it when the state said in 2000 we're gonna start approving these things. I wish we'd addressed it right then and said we've got to have more uh input, more regulations, because um that's what uh has allowed a lot of this growth that we've had uh to happen and we didn't see it coming.

SPEAKER_08 17:23

If Larry, if we can stay with you for a second, you mentioned you talked about all those department heads you meet with, but also that you meet regularly with your state legislators. How have you seen that interaction, that regular interaction with state officials benefit Sevier County? And what would you recommend to folks about how to how to work with your state officials?

SPEAKER_07 17:42

Yeah, it it's it's important uh to have a good relationship with your uh uh state representatives, uh, have a good relationship with your uh your senators, uh, and have a good good relationship with the administration. As we know, you know, the administration changes all the time. What I've said is you spend time building relationships with uh people in administration, and they're there two years, and you have somebody else you've got to so you're constantly building that relationship uh with the administration, and and we've been fortunate we've had some stability in our state representatives, and our state representatives have been friends of mine, and I talk to them constantly. One of our uh state representatives uh served on the county commission for 26 years, so I worked with him. Our other state representative is my son's best friend, and he he was at my house growing up the whole time, and I still can't I still tell him often I can't believe you're in the legislature. I didn't happen later. But but you know, that kind of relationship is important when you have because the state controls so much that we do. So uh what I can urge everybody is build that relationship with your state officials because you're gonna need them. Uh I'm I needed them more this year than have in years. I was in Nashville more this year than I've been in uh in the last 10 years because we had uh some bills we were trying to kill, and we had two or three bills we needed to pass uh for development out at the 407. So I was down there more this year than I've ever been. But it was important to have that relationship.

SPEAKER_06 19:25

Well, it is, and it's important to the associations that are fighting on your behalf up there, too. And I can tell you David Connors, the the heat bull for TCSA, and David does a great job. His character and his integrity are impeccable, and he is well respected in the General Assembly. I can tell you, ladies and gentlemen. He never takes any credit for it. It didn't mean look at him, he's not much to look at, but but he never takes credit for it, but I'm telling you, they listen to David because they know he's gonna tell them the truth, even if it hurts. And I think everybody ought to give David Connor a round of applause for the job he's done. I fear. And the rest of the group as well. It really helps them if you've got a relationship with your members of the General Assembly. And even if you don't have a bill up there that you're particularly excited about, maintain the relationship at least because there's gonna come a time when you are gonna need that state rep or that uh or that state senator to uh to to vouch for you and to work for you to support your your needs. Yesterday at the county mayor association, Kenny Yeager and Senator Griggs will go through there, they went to bat for county governments this year. You all need to know that and don't forget it. Those are two guys who are thoughtful. They take a positive, thoughtful approach to state policy, and they really went to bat for county governments in Tennessee this year, 30 Yeager Senator Griggs, and we need to make sure that's the same.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Are you a county official looking to connect and learn more about better serving your county beyond these podcast episodes? If so, take a moment to learn more and register for the upcoming TCSA Fall Conference and Trade Show, happening October 21st through 23rd, 2026, at the Embassy Suites in Murfreesboro. This one-of-a-kind networking and learning conference brings together hundreds of county officials from across Tennessee. Along with the conference, there is also a trade showcase, featuring partner programs and services that can assist county officials with better service to their citizens. To learn more and register for TCSA's biggest event of the year, please visit www.tncounties.org forward slash events. That's www.tncounties.org forward slash events.

SPEAKER_08 21:50

You've kind of let it into other things, and we're not just asking for praise or any information like that. Apart from the advocacy and those sorts of issues, how have the county associations? Association of K Mayors, but TCSA, all of that, maybe in terms of your Commissioners Association, how you've seen that affect the Commissioners or Highway Association affect them. How do you see the associations helping you be more effective in office? And if you have ideas about what we could do that we're not doing now to help you in the future, but or help future officials better, how do you see the associations helping you be effective in office?

SPEAKER_06 22:22

Yeah, well it's it's it's easy to say and it's it's said often, but you need to remember it's a cliche more or less because it's true. Uh these guys know their stuff and they specialize in county government issues. There are not many problems or challenges that have you have that they haven't seen before. And the County Technical Assistance Service, the UT Institute of Public Service, uh, the Tennessee County Service Association, the Commissioner Association, Highways, the Assessors, these guys are really, really good at what they do, and there's no question you can ask them that they won't either know or they can get you the answer to. The issue is this there's no way to compile any data on how many mistakes county government leaders would have made if they didn't have CTAS and TCSA and those folks involved. When you have a 40 to 50 percent turnover in county mayors every four years, you better have somebody who can orient the new people who have no experience at all in county government. And these guys can do that. They are a valuable, valuable resource to us, and we don't give them enough credit for the work that they do.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

That's absolutely true. And and again, when you uh when you deal with a lot of the Metro counties that have huge staffs and attorneys and all kinds of experts sitting around a room ready to answer questions, that's a different world. But when you're the 28th largest county, you don't have those kind of staffs available. But uh for all the things that Jeff said, CTAS has saved my life so many times. And you know, between uh Wesley Robertson, Marty Spears, Steve Walker, the three guys I've had over the years, uh I've warned their phones out over time and they've made all the difference. The other deal is is like with David and Anthony, they're so responsive. I know they're busy, but when you call and ask a question, even in the middle of the legislative session, you know, within an hour or two, they're going to give you a call or text back, and and that means a lot because I know they've got a lot on them, but we're trying to manage a county and we need some answers pretty fast sometime. And the speed and the accuracy they give us uh it's just unmatched, and uh it's truly I truly appreciate it. It's made a complete difference on how we operate. Now we're not saying they're not a little weird because they are.

SPEAKER_07 24:47

I mean they're they're kind of weird, we're they're a different kind of group. That's all right. You know, the reason he calls you young David Connor is because he's so old. He calls everybody young. All right. There's people, there's people in the nursing home that are uh he calls young. Everybody's a comedian at the end. Just two things I'd I'd say uh agree with everything that uh uh that Bob and Jeff have said. I I would add uh uh two quick things. One of them is not only do they do a great job lobbying, but when you come to these uh uh conferences, they have timely topics that you get and sit in and learn about, and then you can take home with you and learn about issues and what you need to be doing, and that's that's very important. The second thing is uh somebody is the resource that I've used over the years, and a lot of people don't think of it, and that is the state auditors. Uh I know a lot of people get nervous when you talk about state state auditors, uh but get out of order, Larry. Yeah, but you can they are a resource, and if you call them, they will help you.

SPEAKER_05 25:56

Yeah, really sure.

SPEAKER_07 25:57

And and and they will work with you. Do you always agree? No, I've I've had uh uh I've had some interesting discussions over the years with them, but they are a resource uh for you, and if you look at them in that light, I think it'll help you.

SPEAKER_06 26:16

Never mind. I'll pass on that.

SPEAKER_08 26:19

Um hope hopefully the answer to this question is not state auditors, but the next question we're gonna be negative for just a minute and then we'll end on a positive notebook.

SPEAKER_06 26:26

Yeah, what are the two biggest lies in the world when an auditor comes in and see that says I'm I'm here to help you and when the folks be in audit say I'm glad to see you?

SPEAKER_08 26:34

Yeah, yeah. Um, but all right. So you there was a mention earlier about social media. That may be all of you, that may be your answer to this question, but what do you feel like during your tenure is something, one thing that has made serving in county government more difficult?

SPEAKER_04 26:49

It's absolutely social media. And it was it was just something my kids had in 2008 and nine before I got elected, and I never called it the right thing, face something or other, but now it's a living, breathing animal, and it it's there, it's here to stay, apparently. Uh again, when you're naive, you think, oh, this is easy, I'll answer a question, and uh then you find out no, you bring 10 more comments with your question, even when you answer a question with the facts. So uh I'm really to the point uh uh from a personal standpoint, it it makes you insane. So uh my you we could roll my block list out across this room and back a couple of times uh because you want to be able to answer questions and be available to the public, but uh it it almost becomes consuming and you almost have to step away from it. So the most I ever answer now is on a Facebook quote. I just uh simply put in my phone number at work, 615-789-7000, and basically saying call me. But they don't. They never do. You send them in the grocery store, you send them in the restaurant, the very people are banging things out about you and what you did wrong. You send across the grocery store, they turn and run. So we we have some controversy going on right now at their historic courthouse on redoing it. It's uh social media craze. My office has had one phone call and it was in support. So uh you you almost have to block the Facebook stuff. It's uh, but it it's out there, and you have a lot of people, especially my commissioners. I have to talk them off the edge, like just don't answer. Just go outside, look at the sunshine, do something else, do not let that just drive you to the ground.

SPEAKER_07 28:31

I have uh one one of the things that I think that I haven't done a good job in in Severe County doing, and that is uh getting the word out on the good things that is happening in county government. And there's a lot of good things happen. There's a lot of good things that we do. The all the departments do, the sheriff, uh the highway superintendent in my office, but haven't done a good job getting that out to the general public. They don't know all of this that's going on, and they read stuff on the internet, and you know if you read it on the internet, it has to be true. Uh but but it is uh one of the things that I told uh uh, and hopefully my vice mayor is gonna become mayor. One of the things I told him was uh I've ignored all of these people. I call them nuts, crazy nuts. I've ignored them all these years, never answered him, never said anything. I said, you can't do that in the future because there are people out there that get on there and they bel no it no matter how outrageous it is, they'll believe it and they believe it's true. And I told him, I said, from now on, you need, you all need, all of the officials need somebody professional monitoring what's going on and answering some of this crazy stuff out there because more and more people are beginning to believe it. And if you don't answer it and you don't uh say something, uh it'll cost you at election time because they do believe it. So that that's one thing that I have told him that I that I didn't do, but I hope in the future they'll do because it's important that people know what good county government is doing, and that that you answer these people uh in a way that that people realize that a lot of this stuff they're putting out is just totally false.

SPEAKER_06 30:30

Yeah, and I would say social media, but uh in addition to that, it it looks like the the pattern now on a pretty regular basis is more and more natural disasters coming, particularly across Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. I mean, we're seeing that now. It's been pretty consistent for a lot of years. And that that puts a real strain on local government resources and on the ability of everyone to work together on these. Is you got the Sheriff's Department, you got the emergency management agency, the public works department is out there. I mean, all of the county services, uh school systems are affected, and county governments are limited in their ability to respond to those natural disasters quickly with the money that they have. Sure, it may be, and we're not sure about what FEMA is gonna look like in the future, you get reimbursed by FEMA, but you you can't have someone whose house is blown away or a bridge is gone, and that's the only inlet to the to the uh subdivision or the land for folks that live back there. You you've got to be able to respond quickly to that. So you have to have the resources and the ability to do that, and then hope you get reimbursed on the back end. But that is occurring more and more frequently across the state of Tennessee. And it's gonna be a real issue in terms of insurance, it's gonna be a real issue in terms of putting a real strain on resources that county governments uh just don't have in some cases, depending on how bad that is. And I know that Anthony and the County Mayor Association have talked about this in the past, but it's gonna be if the weather patterns continue like it is now, it's gonna be a real issue for local governments in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_08 32:20

All right, we got two more. We're starting to wrap up. Uh this one may be a little unusual, may take a little thought. But can you is there something that was really unexpected uh that ended up making a big difference in your career and public service? It's gonna take some thought.

SPEAKER_06 32:35

Larry, you just cut your mic off. Uh in Tiffany County, it was uh industrial development. It was unexpected. Uh COVID was unexpected, obviously, and that was a comp you could spend another hour on response to COVID. And the county officials who went through that that are here. I mean, you know, I don't have to tell you. Uh but Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation and all this industrial development in our region over there has completely changed a lot of the priorities that we've had, and we're trying to deal with that now in terms of workforce, in terms of how we we approach uh industrial development now and how you respond to what the state's needs are, what Ford Motor Company's needs are, and trying to prepare for you know a tsunami of uh you know industrial jobs there. So that that's the big unexpected issue. It's a good unexpected, but it was unexpected.

SPEAKER_07 33:33

I think my big uh unexpected issue was the fires in 2016. I mean that uh that changed how we'd never had anything like that in Severe County, and that changed how we have viewed emergency management. That changed, I mean, uh we upped uh uh everything we were doing as far as emergency management. We added staff, we flood warning system, we've uh have a county fire, uh countywide fire department. Uh we've done all these things. Uh we do IPAWs ourselves here. Uh we had about 50 recommendations, what we did right, what we could improve on, and we've improved on all of them, but the fires really changed how uh I think we viewed in government how we have viewed emergency management and really uh upped it to a priority that we hadn't had before.

SPEAKER_06 34:29

You know, I hate to brag on Larry. He brought up the fire, the the great fire as we call it. I told him the other night. Um you know when I come to Gattenberg, I go down to Pancake Pantry, get up early, you can go in there and park. You can actually park on the strip until 9 o'clock. And uh I sit in there, and everybody in the coffee shop here got those people who whoever they are, they know something about everything. I mean, they're they they really know what's going on. And you sit there for a while drinking your coffee, and you know, they're just cussing Larry up a storm. Well, why in the world did Mary Waters do this? Well, and so after a while, they're kind of looking at me because I'm just not saying anything, so I start cussing them too. And a lot of times I don't even know what the issue is. I just you know, I'm just trying to fit in. Uh uh, you know, when you leave there, and I, you know, I hate to say this about there, when I leave there, you know, I've got a little skip in my step. I feel better about life. Uh I have a more positive approach. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week, and you know, I just feel better overall. It's a stimulant, more or less. And I told him that, and I told folks at Knoxville that, but here's the thing. Listen, a great fire. You saw it. I mean, it was I've never seen anything like that. You're fighting a fire on the front and it's blowing fire behind you, and you I mean, I don't know how you deal with that. But those same people that were cussing marry waters that morning, watching their TV, trying to figure out if they lost everything they got. Trying to figure out if members of their family are alive or whether they they died in the fire. I just don't know. I mean, there's uncertainty and instability everywhere. It was just complete chaos. You all know, you you you saw. And you can bet your bottom dollar that some of those folks who were there that morning are looking at their TV saying a FEMA. I've heard of that, but I'm not sure what that is. A TEMA, that's gotta be they've got to be related somewhere. I think that's I think that's Governor Haslem. I I know him, but I don't know who's re who's there representing us, who's representing the mountains folks. Uh wait a minute. There's Waters. There's Larry. He'll know what to do. I bet he knows those people. As long as that old goat's been around, he's probably got their cell phone number and his his roller decks. And so Larry steps forward. And if you watch the CNN interview, the news interview, and the news conferences that we had, that was Larry. He's the guy that stepped out front. Now he'll tell you if you ask him that there were all kinds of leaders in municipal and county government, both pulled together and fought that. But the guy that was out there was Larry, and he brought stability to the situation, and he just simply does not get enough credit for that in the job that he did. If you want to see how to handle the news media on a national level, you go back and roll the tape on some of those uh those uh news reports, those uh media reports that uh Larry uh did on the Great Fire. And the other thing is this me, like a lot of folks, after Gatlinburg basically burn out and said it'll never be back in our lifetime. That's it. I mean, maybe in 20 years, 15 at the best, maybe they can get back on your feet, but they're done over there. I don't know what in the world, how they're gonna get by. But what happened? It was Larry again. The growth in Sevier County, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Ford, Several, it just exploded. The economic development engine that Severe County created, I hate to give him credit. Exploded. And if you ask the Department of Revenue for the state of Tennessee and Nashville what happened, they'll give you the numbers. And look at Gatlinburg today. So Larry needs to deserve the credit. I mean, he needs to get the credit for the job he did under unbelievable circumstances for the Great Gatlinburg fire. And that hurt me. Ladies and gentlemen, that hurt me. I can't tell you how much that hurt me to say that. I was with you till you call me an old goat. I just slipped out. I'm I went off script on that there.

SPEAKER_07 38:42

The only good thing about uh what Jeff said about going to the coffee shop and and uh them uh cut them cussing me is that uh a friend of mine went into the coffee shop the day before the election, and all these people had been cussing me. And he he did he said, I went around the room, there's about 20 of them sitting there saying, Well, tomorrow's election, who are you gonna vote for? I guess I've always voted for Waters. I'm gonna vote for him again. I don't want to vote for the old thing. He's been there too long, but I guess I'll just vote for him. He said, one after the other, said every one of them said they're gonna vote for me. And I said, as long as they vote for me, I don't care if they cuss me or not.

SPEAKER_06 39:22

Larry takes a cussing so well. I mean, he really does.

SPEAKER_08 39:28

All right. Well, last question. We will we'll start with Larry. We'll work our way down, and it's gonna modify it slightly for Bob on the end. But looking back on your career, what is the one thing you're most proud of?

SPEAKER_07 39:42

I go back to what I talked about uh getting everybody together and communicating with everybody and cooperating. Is I'm most proud of the fact that we do that on a consistent basis in the county because it's made a big difference in our progress. We could have never made the type of progress we did if we weren't all working together. And so I'm most proud of that we do that, that we have these meetings with city and county and state folks all the time, and we communicate and talk and work together.

SPEAKER_06 40:19

Yeah, I'd say the same thing, uh David, and also it makes a big difference in who you hire for these key positions. You have got to get good people, and sometimes you have to pay more to do that. But getting good people in these positions is critical. If you're the county mayor, you don't want to have to deal with the logistics and the process of county government, the purchase orders and that kind of thing. You want a good finance director, you want good support people, so you can take the vision out there and get that going, get it started, and basically enact your strategic plan. You it's hard to do both. The county mayor, the county executive needs to take the vision component and deal with that. And you've got to have good people taking care of the wheels of local government in order to be able to do that. The other thing I'm proud of is just the relationship I've had with the Tipton County Commission over the years. I was a commissioner for eight years, uh, and then I ran for County Mayor in 86. Uh, but I I never forgot um the role the county commission plays. And that has helped me tremendously over the years, I think, and I've always tried to bring the commission along uh in terms of industrial development or things on the for the future, I think, and they have been responsive uh on on issues of vision in Tipton County. I know I don't know many folks get involved in the details uh and and in the machinery of government process. Uh the Tipton County Commission has done a really good job of thinking ahead, thinking for the future and planning and acting plans uh to do that. Uh so I I think those two things are probably the things that I'm proudest of the most. The people that I've hired in in key positions that have done an outstanding job, working with the other constitutional officers and all those things that Larry said in the beginning about trying to collaborate and work together. It's the only way you can do it if you're a county mayor or county executive. And the county commissioners have a key role to play, the county highway folks have a key role to play. And if you're all working together, even if you have some disagreements along the way, you can make a lot of progress. And if you're not, you're in trouble.

SPEAKER_08 42:42

Our last question to Bob, a slightly modified version of that. You you've been off for 16 years. Why was it you were able to get things done in 16 years? It took these guys four decades.

SPEAKER_04 42:54

That's been weighing on me for a long time. And and I want to say uh to Jeff and Larry both, I I apologize. I I should have worked harder to get you guys up to speed. But over the but over the final three months, I want to work with you. We're gonna get you there by September 1st. So I'm I'm I'm with you, I'm there for you.

SPEAKER_06 43:14

Let me tell you, Bob Riles, of course, he's on TASSER, I'm on TASSER, Larry's on TASSER, Rogers Anderson's on TASSER. You're gonna lose all. I don't know what you're gonna do, David. That's that's gonna be on you. Uh but Dixon County is gonna miss Bob Riles because he came on 16 years ago, but he's been an outstanding leader in in Dixon County. Uh, he really has. And Larry and I have guided him along the way. Sure, uh after hours he gets a little crazy. We have to bring him back down to earth. And you know, we've struggled with that, but but he's come along fine. But but I the the most disappointing position that folks weren't gonna run to me was when I heard Bob Riles was not gonna run as mayor in Dixon County because he's been outstanding.

unknown 43:56

I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_08 43:59

I just want to say whenever my career is over and I reflect and look back on it, for each one of you guys, you've been incredible public servants. Uh, it's been an honor to get to spend time with you, especially with Larry and Jeff. A lot of times I saw you at national meetings at NACO, other places like that.

SPEAKER_06 44:13

We brought David along when he was just a baby, wouldn't he? Yeah. Larry, we we he struggled with us for a while, but he came around finally.

SPEAKER_08 44:20

Um Yeah. Look at him now. You you guys, I learned something very early on, which is about the importance of hydration. Uh, if you spend much time at these parts of hydration. Anyway, um, I can't tell you how much you've you've meant to be. David, you're you move along now. So let's give them all a round of applause. Thank you so much, and I'll turn it back over to the president.