Putting a Lawyer on the Commission: Kyle Henderson

Tonight on The People’s Voice, we’re sitting down with Kyle Henderson, candidate for Baldwin County Commissioner — District 2, as he makes his case for the open seat.

Kyle is a local attorney, Christian, husband, and father who brings  legal experience and a promise to fight against high-density developments, urging elected officials to consider how development decisions impact families, property owners, and the future of our community.

In this episode, he talks about why he’s running, what sets him apart, and how he plans to approach smart growth, protect the character of our area, and make sure decisions are made for the people.

Blair Castro & Thomas Jenkins give you a direct  conversation so you can hear it straight from the candidate himself.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, welcome to WFUZ TV, the People's Voice Podcast. I'm Blair Castro, and I'm here with Thomas Jenkins, and we have Kyle Henderson in the studio with us today, who's running for Baldwin County Commission District 2. Two. Baldwin County Commission District 2. Kyle, thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Thank you for having me. I greatly appreciate y'all inviting me on to talk about things that matter to the citizens of Baldwin County because what matters to them matters to me.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

So your background, as is on your campaign material, says that you are a lawyer and we have never had a lawyer on the county commission before. Can you talk a little bit about why you think that would be a benefit?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yes. County Commission, that's correct. As far as I'm aware of looking back in history, there's never been a lawyer on the County Commission in Baldwin County. And the importance of that is as we grow in Balma County is getting larger and larger, there's things that we need to be able to do that we currently do not have the ability to do right now. Um, which is um people talk about certain things such as home rule and limited home rule, which that is that's basically what it means is most of what we can and can't do is legislated by the state in Montgomery. So what we have to do is what I want to do as a lawyer on the county commission is write legislation, send it to Montgomery for our local legislative delegates, and have them pass bills that affect Baldwin County. But when those bills are created, laws are created, I want to fashion it after the community that it would either benefit or affect and make sure that their voices are heard. So I believe that doing that and also understanding policies and procedures to me is very valuable for a county commissioner. So that is um one of the things that um I believe that I can bring to the table that there's nobody else that can is the legal mind and legal aspect and um thorough understanding of the law whenever certain issues come up that in front of the county commission. So what issues are voters bringing to your attention uh the most high density subdivisions, that infrastructure and high density subdivision and they kind of work together, right? Um and to talk about that is high density people they don't have a problem with growth, okay? But they feel like the growth right now in Baldwin County is not on the correct path. And what do you mean by that? You mean that the big residential home builders that are mass. Now I'm not talking about the private, the custom home builders, we're not talking about those. We're talking about the DR Hortons and the 68 Ventures and those type of companies where they buy a piece of land and will put as many houses on the that one acre, the or however many acres that they have as they can. And that is not what people in Baldwin County have told me that they want, they want, they don't have a problem with houses coming up, but instead of having a house every quarter of an acre or third of an acre, they believe that it should be bigger lot sizes and also at the same time have more uh um make sure that the infrastructure is in place. And right now there's as you can see, driving down the roads at different times, different intersections. The weight and the backup is long. I mean, 64 and 181. And Daphne, uh, it's during school hours, it backs up all to all the way to Belfast School. When the Circle K was built at that corner, coming onto 181, they knew it there should have been a turn lane, a long turn lane to address the issue. It wasn't wouldn't have been perfect, but it would have alleviated some of it. There's no turn lane to write. Now that we're in an election cycle, all of a sudden now we got the money to do it. Um, that should have been done four years ago. I mean it's we had to have somebody that's forward thinking, that's proactive, not reactive, and we'll do what the citizens of Baldwin County want. Doesn't matter what I want, doesn't matter what big business wants. It goes back to what the citizens and the people in their community want. And that is what I can promise to bring.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

So going back to high density, um, can you give a more specific definition of what you think high density is? And to piggyback off that question, how do you feel about some sort of moratorium?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Well, to me, I would go to high density. I mean, I I believe um my personal opinion is anything over um over 50 homes in a subdivision, some people say even that, but I would believe that would be starting to be a high density subdivision because especially in the amount of um it the amount of uh acreage that they use. Um but he but if you go to say fully recently speaking to someone, and I'm not sure if this is correct, but they have my understanding is two water meters per acre, which in theory that would be, and I'm not saying this correct, but that would be basically half acre lots. So going, because they understand that infrastructure has to be in place first, and they they want to have growth, but they don't want to have quarter acre lots where everybody's stacked on it on top of each other. But what's happening now is is you have the schools. Um, you have schools coming in, and some of these developers are are telling these schools, hey, we'll give you 20 acres to build a school. I think they have to have 19 at the minimum to build a school, we'll give you 20 acres to build a school. Then they build 3,000 sub-I mean homes right next door to it. It defeats the whole purpose of growth. I mean, and it creates a bottleneck, it creates issues. So to get to the point that you're asking about um uh moratorium, yes. When the law allows for a moratorium related to various uh infrastructure needs and studies and so forth, I believe that we need to take advantage of that and and put a stop on um things for a period of time to make sure that what we are doing is going to be what's best for Baldwin County. And what's best for Baldwin County is what, like I go back, what the citizens want, what the people in their community want, what the care their character that they want in their community. So that's what we have to do. And I believe that because for example, the current commission, if they put a more moratorium today, I I would support it. Because then you can stop and say, what do these people in Baldwin County want? What do these citizens want? Their master plan that they that they have right now. Well, I'm I don't believe that that is necessarily the master plan of what the people in the commun the individual communities want. So you start with a master plan and and then you you start and you go, what do y'all envision? And then you bring that back to and create a master plan. So the current county commissions master plan may not be the next county commission's master plan because if I have anything to say and do about it, it's going to be what the community wants. As long as it's legal, as long as it's legal, because I am a lawyer. I'm a lawyer by trade, so I mean it has to be legal. So as long as it's legal, then I will do what the um community um asks.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

So outside of growth, what are some other high priority issues for you? You're running for an open seat, too, so there's going to be at least two new commissioners no matter what. Um, how do you see the next generation or like the next era of the county commission looking? And if you were on there, what are some other priorities for you?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Okay, the next county commission is going to be determined by um is gonna make the decisions, probably that dictates the future of Baldwin County for the next 40 or 50 years. Um with growth, um, like I said, you can have healthy growth, you can have responsible growth, you have responsible housing, and then you can have a free-for-all. My perception of it, it's more like the wild, wild west right now. Um there are some laws in place and so forth, but um it seems like uh every time you turn around a corner, it's not in the city. City in theory, growth, in theory, growth should start inside a city and work its way out, right? Um but what we're seeing right here is we're seeing all these spot zonings or are these massive subdivisions that are coming up in rural areas. And they aren't, I mean, in just in the middle of nowhere, and we're not talking about housing subdivisions that are five acres or six or ten acres. We're talking about third acre lots. And so that's high, I mean, it when you turn a hundred acres into third acre lots, that's that to me is a high density area. I mean high density um subdivision. So um, but what I can bring to it is we need to the thing is is water and pollution, we are the last county and we are the dumping grounds of everywhere else in the state. We get we get water runoffs. Um I'm not against I'm not against um energy, but I'm against energy that affects the citizens and the communities of Baldwin County. So for example, that's the solar farm that they're gonna, that they're uh let me back up, not solar farm. It's a solar development. So I will not I'll try not to say farm because it's nothing about farming there. It's a solar development that is they're trying to destroy the ecosystem of the Mobile Delta. If you look at an aerial map of all the water running through there, um whenever they clear all the land is cleared out, it's gonna run downhill and it's gonna affect all the neighbors. And whenever it rains, I don't care how much grass you have on there, when you have 13, they said there's 13 times a year, typically where we have two inches of rain, at least two inches of rain. Whenever that happens, it's gonna fill up our um delta and it's the mud and the water runoff from that development because there's not gonna be enough green, I mean trees and so forth to protect uh the ground, and we're gonna get that, and the neighbors are gonna be affected. And um so that's one of the things, and also clean drinking water, make sure that we have clean drinking water and make sure that the pollute, any pollutants that we we need to be able to make sure that the county of the county no the county does not own Baldwin County Sewer. That's a private company, but we need to make sure that the water that we drink is safe, and if we need to exceed um the minimum regulations by the federal government in this situation for clean drinking water, I think we should be given the ability to do that, especially since um um we do get runoff from everybody else, including a bunch of industries on the rivers. So that is a passion of mine to make sure that we protect Mobile Bay. Um because, I mean, they said in the 50s it was clear. Um, if you go back to and listen to people from the 50s, it was clear now. It just uh looks like a mud dump. And I'd like to see more resources going towards that to make sure that we can do whatever we can to um try to restore it to the beauty that it once was.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Um, how do you feel about education right now in Baldwin County? What are some things you'd like to see change in the future or what's working for you?

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Well of course Baldwin County Commission has very we can voice our opinions on education, but we have very little to do with the education standpoint. Some of the m some of the tax dollars do go towards education in Baldwin County, but my kids are in the are in the Fair Hope feeder pattern. And um I have two beautiful daughters, and um, and uh I've been pleased with um the education that they have had, and it's and it sometimes it's hard, but but I've been pleased as far as that from the educational standpoint from learning and everything. Um I I think um I I've been satisfied with um with it because I came from public education. I grew up in Scambia County, Alabama, went to Flumpton High School. I'm a pr my mom was um in public education as a teacher. She ended up becoming a career tech coordinator in Scambia County, Alabama, which was it was formerly called trade schools. But um, so that to me, um I think when you asked the question about um education, I will say this. The future of education to me, or the future of the workforce, is in a career prep or like a trade, form of trade. Um there was a study done recently that said the greater Baldwin County area, Mobile Greater Baldwin County area, is gonna need either five or ten thousand welders within the next 10 years. So I'm just saying this to the ladies right now. If there's ladies that want to become welders, you should and I don't I think that would be a great opportunity because being able to move up the corporate ladder, I believe, um, because it is a field dominated by men. But I believe that that women in that field is crucial and can fit a very much needed demand, well paying. And um, and so I would I would encourage people to look at that. We need more. I talked to a guy the other day that um uh does works in with heavy machinery, has heavy machinery type equipment. He's like, it's great to have people go to learn how to um do diesel mechanics or do um regular gas engine mechanics, but we need people that can also go out there and work on heavy machinery, replace tracks, replace gears, and go out there and be able to do those type of functions too. Um so I so I think that um there's a a big demand for um even heavy machine, machine or mechanics around here, and um and it's a really good paying job. So I believe the future is that. I mean, not everybody needs to go to college, and a lot of people that go to college come out$100,000 in debt and then pay for it for the rest of their lives. When you can go 18 months or whatever and uh get a trade starting off, and the good thing of I I support baldwin prep school, okay. 100% because that's a fabulous facility. And um, what they're teaching these kids, and after they learn for parts of the day, I think when they're seniors or stuff, they have the opportunity to go out there in the real workforce and apply their trade. So this gives them workforce experience, it teaches them how to budget, how to have a business if they so choose, and um, and they're making substantial money the day they get out. And um, so that that's the future, I believe, is um instead of all these kids going to college, and I think the future is um in industry related to the jobs that from that the prep school is trying to provide. And what they told me at prep school is they look at the industry and markets and stuff, and they're trying to create trades for the fit for the trends in the market around here and so forth to fit those needs. Um, so as new areas pop up or demands pop up, I anticipate that they will try to fill those demands. So I think that the school is on the right path. It nothing's perfect, but they are on the right path for that.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

So bearing in mind, with all this uh exponential growth that Bobble County is having, what uh plans or thoughts have you had in regards to law enforcement keeping up with that infrastructure growth and being able to continue to respond adequately to things?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Well, we always need to make sure law enforcement is properly funded. Um there's no doubt that I will make sure law enforcement is properly funded. Um the county commission has a has a certain amount of money that they can spend every year. There's a budget. Um, and so um, but one of the things that we have to make sure everybody deserves a safe place to lay their head at night without fear of having somebody come in there and try to burglarize them or harm them. So everybody deserves a safe place to sleep at night, and we and I want to support law enforcement um in um trying to make sure that happens. Um crime's gonna happen. We are much more fortunate than other county, some other counties around us, and um, we've done pretty good. So I do think infrastructure and um growth, we do need to make sure that what we're doing is at the same time as we grow, we're not creating situations where um certain we we turn certain areas into dangerous, dangerous subdivisions or areas of Baldwin County. And that's one of the things but and I think we can work with the cities and the counties together on a lot of those issues. Did that answer the question?

SPEAKER_01 18:25

So you're running in the Republican primary. Can you talk a little bit about your ideology and some of your involvement with the Republican Party?

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yes, thank you. I'm on the Baldwin County Republican Executive Committee. I'm a committee member, and um and so along with that, I'm a member of the um Eastern Shore, I'm associate of the Eastern Shore Republican women. I am an associate South Baldwin Republican women, associate of Point Clear Republican women, and associate North Baldwin Republican women. So with all, and also Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce, Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, and South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce. So I'm I'm involved in all those, and also um we're involved at Three Circle, Three Circle Church. So we go to church at Three Circle in Fairhope. Um, and uh so right now we don't have time time to stop to do hardly anything because we're we're go, go, go. But but um along with that, my my philosophy and the way I approach everything is I need all as much information as I can. We're voting on zoning or to approve or deny a subdivision or or changing um changing um from R1 R to R2 or whatever. I need all the information surrounded. I don't need to get in there the day of and just go, okay, what what are we talking about today? I want to know it. I want to be able to look at it, and and I'd want people that work with me, because no one works for the county commissioners. We work together, everybody works together, and employees. Um so I want them to make sure that the voices of the community have been able to be heard. I think that we can do a better job on with the online platforms to make sure that um public notices go out to um to the individuals. If individuals in certain communities want, I think it's probably too expensive to send out mass letters and stuff like that through the mail over time. But I think if there's a plat some type of platform that we can create where somebody puts their email address in there, and based upon their address, where where we see that and we say, okay, this person lives in this area right here. This is their email that they provided. Now, if they change their email, that's on them. But we provide a public, not only posting a public notice, but send out public notice that way to to to them to make sure that they know. Then I think that that's important to me. But at the end of the, like I said, end of the day, the com the people in the community need to shape their community and have that voice. And that voice is the and again I say that voice is my voice, and and I want to be clear about something. Um, my platform is also on transcountability and transparency. Um, I believe that people are entitled to know about me, know what I stand for, what I plan on doing, and also at the same time, know what know I do have an opponent, but know what my opponent stands for. I believe that if you're gonna be in the public and you're gonna run for office, then people know have deserve to know for you to be accountable and transparent. And one of the things I have requested at least on two different occasions, three actually, is I've asked my opponent to have a debate, just me and him, a town hall format, or at this point, I don't, whatever he wants. I believe it's important for the citizens of Baldwin County to hear the difference between me and him, because if you look, and all I got to do is tell the people, look, you can go online and look where our money's coming from. I'll tell you, my money's coming from friends, from colleagues, and majority of that and people that I've represented. That's where my money's coming from. I believe that if you take, let's just be real, if you're taking money from people who developers that build high-density developments, then there is an appearance, I'm not saying that the person's gonna do it, but there is an appearance that when push comes to shove, you're gonna rule in their favor and do what they want. And that's I believe that that's the difference right there between me and my opponent in this situation, but because I will do what the community asks me to do. And um and that's and so I'm just asking the community to look and make sure that they are picking the person that they believe is what wants what's best for them, knowing that the same time that growth can be a good thing if it's done the right way. And um, and one of the things that one of the things that people don't really know about me, um, I grew up in a my uh my great-grandparents, um, one side of my family were sharecroppers. Um but um my dad, my grandparents on both sides always, whether it was 10 acres of sweet potatoes or just a small little garden, they've always farmed. My first job was I grew okra. We my brother and I, I think had eight eight eight rows of okra, and we picked it every three days, I think, and and we sold it to the senior citizen site in our small hometown. So that was my first job is growing okra. Um, but um also growing that, I mean, we have 220-ish acres of pines and in uh around Andalusia, Alabama. So I've always grown up on a tractor, jumping on a tractor, whether it's disking the fields or um plowing, I mean clearing out the fire lanes, using a bucket to move dirt. Um, so that and um and also a neat little fact about me is is I don't mind doing small little um car repairs like right now. My truck alternator is out and uh I was gonna put the alternator in there today, but when I picked it up, um it felt it fell before we left the sh business and it dented part of the um alternator, so it had to be sent back and uh a new one's coming in, but I'll be installing that probably tomorrow. So I I know what I know what I'm trying to do is I I know what to a degree, I know what farm some what farmers do. Um I know that whenever they have repairs to be made, it's not a hundred dollars, it's thousands and thousands of dollars. And um, so we need to do what we can to to make sure that farmers keep farming in Baldwin County. What whatever incentives we have to try to keep them from selling their land, we need to do it. Um, and um so that that's one of the things I'm passionate about too.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

So a lot of people running have talked about how this is not really a full-time job, but it is a full-time job. How would you serve and what would say you may made it on the county commission? What do you think your current day job would look like? Would you step back a little bit? Would you retain that, you know, kind of full-time practice, or would you move more into the full-time commissioner side?

SPEAKER_00 26:07

I would balance it because, but um, there's gonna be times where um I'm gonna have certain, I plan on having certain days that works out where I am in the county commission office. What those days will look like, I'm not sure yet, but there'll be days where I will be available to meet and um you know, and and but also be able to practice law. I mean, there are certain days that I have to be in court. I'll make sure, and if I'm county commissioner, it will not be during, of course it will not be during the times the county commission is meeting. If I need to go to Montgomery for something with County Commission, then I'll arrange my calendar, my law office work schedule to make sure that I'm able to go up there and to be able to do that and whether that's Washington, D.C. too. I'll make sure, but but as far as um it's gonna be a balance, but I will have I think um I think um there's several, there's a couple people up there right now that are county commissioners, they do have full-time jobs and they're able to do it. Um, even so I think um right now that's the plan is to um, you know, and what's it's gonna require a lot of times is if I'm at the law office and I'm at five o'clock, at five o'clock doesn't mean I'm gonna be driving back to my house. It might be I need to go to see um Fred at his property because he's having an issue with the county and go out there and look at and talk to him about it. But and one of the things that I've realized is that you don't have to, people don't have you don't have to necessarily agree at the end of the day with the person. But if you take time to try to understand listen to them, but not only listen to understand the situation, then they have, they may not like it, but they'll at least respect it. Um and that's what I feel like um to a degree that people are saying they hear commission listens, but doesn't feel like they understand. So if you can do what you can to make sure that they understand the situation, then whether or not there's sufficient, let's be real, money to be able to do what they believe needs to be done, the county needs to do, then um, if there is, then it will be. If not, then it's there are things that the county commission has to do that are priority, any you have priority one all the way down to whatever it is, you know, to 2030. And based upon the emergency or necessity, that's how that's how they've ranked it. And um and so that might may not be a good system. I think if you just spent the time to try to explain it and help them people understand that I do hear you, and we got you there, we got you on the pipeline. We're gonna get to it, it's gonna take some time. And if you go past that time, yeah, they need to be calling you back and saying, Why aren't you doing this yet? Because if we tell them we're gonna do it, we need to do it.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

So, say someone in the public is really upset about something, they've reached out to the commission several times and haven't gotten emails back. I know that's happened to us quite a bit. Um, so then they go online and start tagging and getting upset online. How would you respond to a situation like that? What would your protocol be?

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Very rarely do I believe it's appropriate to respond to stuff online when people are on the are upset. I think whenever you read something, somebody's upset, you it can you need to make sure that it doesn't, it it does not have make you upset whatsoever. And if it does, then there needs to be a 24-hour cool uh time period where you take a step back and you say, look, let me let me make sure we're doing this the right way, we're approaching it the correct way. And um then I believe what you need to do is you need to have that conversation with that person. I think one of the things people are scared about now is is let's be real, is somebody recording what they're saying. Um and in Alabama, only one person has to know, and that's the person recording. So people are very hesitant to um to um now talk to people. But if you're honest, you shouldn't be afraid to talk to people. If you're being truly transparent, you shouldn't be afraid to talk to people. So what I would do is I would talk to, I would try to um have those people that are upset about certain things um to come set up a time in the office to meet. And um and the people that it really matters to, people that just want to vent, and they they may or may not show up, but the people it really matters to, I believe, will actually show up. And so I believe that that's one of the ways is if it if it really matters to that person where they're they're showing up, then it's in it matters enough to me. Now, if it's something we can talk discuss by phone, it doesn't mean a per face to face, then we can, but um I think things can get misinterpreted through text, through social media, because not all the information is always provided to give everybody the true background and aspect of everything. You want see, like again, I'm gonna go back to a lawyer. I want all the information, I want to digest everything that all the information. So it's hard to do that whenever if I'm gonna respond back on social media, unless it's gonna be paragraphs, paragraphs, paragraphs, paragraphs. And it's not, I mean, you're not gonna do that on social media Facebook. So I believe in situations you try to say do it by telephone or by in-person meetings whenever something you somebody in social media may or may not be blasting you or the commission for certain things. And um also sometimes it's good to use resource that we have within the county to reach out to those people. If, for example, if it's a road issue, we we can send send that to somebody from the department to make return that phone call to it, see if it can be addressed. And if it's not addressed or or they don't call back, then that's stuff the county commissioners need to know about.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

So say you're at a county commission meeting, people come from the audience, they exercise their three minutes, and they speak to the commission and they're angry and they're upset about things. After their three minutes is up, you tell them, okay, your time is up, they're still angry and they didn't really get to finish their statement. How would you respond to that person?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

And what would you do to help ensure that they are followed up with the individuals that come from the county commission, yeah, they they're limited to time. And um if they were so request me, I'm not so sure. I think you have to take it on a case-by-case basis on about what it is. If it's something that you can address um without having for them to come back and finish their statement, if they want to come back a different day and finish what they were talking about and ask to do so, then um, and they felt like that's what they needed to do, then we can make that platform um available to them for that. But um, but if not, then we need to make sure that we um if it's something the county can a lot of a lot of things that come up in front of the county commission is stuff the county commission really we can sympathize and and feel the pain of the families, and we can reach out to people and say, hey, these are the issues going on, but a lot of things, um well, a number of things recently in the past six months or stuff, stuff that the county Balmain County Commission has absolutely no control over. Now, some of the things the county commission can control related to there are I think 68 different, 48 maybe, I can't remember, but a lot of groups where Baldwin County Commission is responsible for point appointing somebody to the board. Now, that right there, I don't think that the job postings are very user-friendly to find it or know when the job postings come available, like appointed postings. Now, um yeah, let's be real, we're not gonna I don't know why somebody that would be a mechanic, the auto mechanic, would go on the health health advisory board or something like that, because you do need people in those health advisory fields to be in those appointments. But but if a person has certain knowledge or certain desire to be on some appointment, there are openings right now through planning and zoning in various areas where people possibly could fill in. Um, so that is that is one thing that I think we need to be more um open about is um making sure that those there are public notices um related to um the appointments that the county commission uh appoints to whenever those times come up. For example, there are appointments to um um Baldwin County DHRs one, um, and then you have the health advisory, then you have um you know the uh the the judiciary um the judiciary that has one related to appointments to the for judges, and then you have the courthouse for appointments to be on the board for the courthouse. And some of those are de facto, meaning the sheriff gets one, the presiding judge is already one, but the count and then the county commission can either appoint somebody themselves to be on it or somebody else to fill in for their shoes. So that is a thing that people don't really realize is that the appointments that the county commission actually has for various things in within Baldwin County. So it's important that we have somebody that does that is um qualified to um to go into those appointments. That was I missed what was the second part of your question. I answered part of, but not all of it.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

It was about if people came in and their three minutes was up, and then they uh how would you ensure that they're following up with, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Oh well, like okay. I would yeah, address it, address it um if you can immediately. If not, then do it either, do it outside of it, whether it can be by phone or however, but you do need to address it and and be at the end of the day, be respectful. Be respectful for to the person. Do not take an adversarial stance because a lot of them are are um hurting and in pain and stressed and um and want to be just want to be heard a lot of times. So we have we need to listen and be respectful and do what we can.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Circling back, you said you wanted to have a debate with your opponent. What uh what topics would you like to cover other than the infrastructure and the planner and developer funding uh if you were to have a chance to do something like that? What would that look like?

SPEAKER_00 37:59

I believe that we have to look at everything. We have to look at whether, I mean, we whatever I look open open book. Any question, I mean, any question from the person out there that relates to county, anything they believe the county commissioners can and can't do or questions, I'm I'm open to it. You know, it if it matters to somebody to ask a question, but um other other things that matter to me are um to making sure that we have the person that's um the most qualified and the biggest represent the questions I believe that need to be asked is is um is um our ability to serve um as county commissioners and um what what our platforms are and if if we are well besides development um positions related to water um and then infrastructure and um and what are we gonna do to keep farmers farming? That's one of the things. And um what makes me why we need to have a discussion why do I believe that I'm more qualified and would do a better, I believe I'd do a better job than my opponent, and I believe he should have to answer why he believes he would do a better job um than me and um us have that debate uh about um who has the ability to best serve the citizens of Alma County.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

And what would you say delineates you from your opponent?

SPEAKER_00 39:47

I'm not going to go on there and uh address those certain issues. I believe that my opponent should have should address certain issues of why um I believe that my opponent should have to address that issue. Um why I believe it, um I know that I have the mental fitness, mental acuity, the stamina, and the right temperament to do this job. I know what it's like to be in high pressure situations where you have to think on your feet and where you have to stop sometimes and take a breath. And and when whenever you feel your face getting flush in court, whatever, because of it being a tense moment, you I know what it's like to have tense moments there where you just take a deep breath and you continue on on the case. Um I've I've had to be, I've had a trial that lasted two and a half weeks before where you had to, where you were mentally fatigued, physically fatigued, but you still came in there every day to do a job. And um I believe you had to have that mental toughness to be able to do your job. And um, and that's what I believe um I have to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Is there anything else you'd like people to know about your campaign in particular or you or your background or experience that you'd like to highlight?

SPEAKER_00 41:25

Yeah. Well, I would like to say this. 17 years ago, my wife and I moved from um, after law school, moved to Baldwin County. We started, we um I got my first job at the district attorney's office prosecuting misdemeanor and serious felony cases. For two years after that, I went into private practice. So the past 15 years, I've represented um citizens, both citizens um and industry throughout Baldwin County. It's been a pleasure and I have enjoyed it thoroughly. Um, and I believe that that skill set of being able to understand the law is valuable. Um I I want to like I said, people shape the community shapes their future. The county commission, you need a county commissioner that'll make sure that that happens. Um you know, I to really close out in this situation. Um there's so much to love about Baldwin County. There's so much, and I love it all. I love going down to the beaches, but I also love going all the way north into the Delta and cruising the Delta. I love driving through the farmlands that are being taken by high density developers, and it's just sad. And I don't like it. And I know the people here don't like it. Um but I believe anything you do, you have to do it with after prayer. Because everything I do, and and I can't sometimes when I realize I didn't pray about certain things, and it's not going the way I thought it was, it's going the way that God wanted it to go to go. So I trust him in his path related to this. Um, and and I'm going into this uh this county commission race to win. And and I'm gonna do everything I can to win because I I know without a shadow of a doubt I will be your voice. I will be the citizens of Balma County's voice. I I I can't I I cannot say the same. I just I can't say. The same for my opponent. I don't know him, but I know that I how I would stand, and it would be with you, the people. But you know, my children, they go to school here. We go to church here. Bowland County is my home. And I want to do everything I can to preserve that for you and the citizens. And I'm asking on May 19th for you to vote for me, Kyle Henderson, for County Commissioner in District 2, where your voice is my voice. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

All right. Thank you so much. And the election is May 19th. You can find more at Kyle Henderson.com. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Thank you. All right. Are we off? Are we still recording right now?