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Roswell mayoral candidates on the issues: David Tolleson
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REVUE: The mayor's position is one mainly of leadership. How will you lead the City Council? What examples of leadership can you point to?
TOLLESON: To successfully lead Roswell forward, the City Council must operate as a team. The mayor must listen to and respect his team members and bring them together in a timely manner around common priorities. As a member of the City Council, I had a reputation for building consensus.
When the Centennial Walk project was defeated, I worked with neighborhood leaders and the developer to bring forward a community-led plan that was passed by City Council. When East Village came forward as a horrendous 1970s-style strip center, I once again gathered citizens and the developer together to produce a much better, final result.
I have a track record in my personal, public and professional lives of respectfully leading teams to successful outcomes.
REVUE: What are the areas that Roswell needs to work on most, and what are your solutions for them?
TOLLESON: The recession has given us an opportunity to rebrand Roswell, shedding our anti-business reputation. We need to immediately review our permitting processes and eliminate requirements and attitudes that hinder success.
We need to work with the small business development centers at our local universities, as well as local business leaders, to ensure that we encourage new companies to bring new jobs to Roswell.
We must seek non-retail businesses to establish entrepreneurial hubs in our aging strip centers. We must also establish the tools, such as Tax Allocation Districts, and zonings to encourage redevelopment of aging apartment complexes and other blighted areas, thereby reducing crime, increasing the tax base and improving property values.
We will work with citizens to ensure that new development is community-led so that it enhances, rather than detracts, from our quality of life. But, to do all this, we need a mayor who will bring the City Council, city staff and our citizens together. If we continue down the path of discord that we've been on for the last 12 years, we will be unable to compete in the new economy and our quality of life will slowly unravel.
REVUE: What qualities make you the best candidate for this job?
TOLLESON: I believe my temperament and skill set for building consensus and valuing the input of others makes me best suited for this position.
Additionally, I believe that public service is a chance to give back to your community and is not intended to be a lifetime position. Finally, character matters, and I will be the same mayor in private that you see in public.
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