Why are you running for Brentwood Commissioner? How does your background and experience qualify you to hold this position? *

My life spent in Brentwood and my love for and years of service to Brentwood’s Citizens, there was a distinct calling to serve Brentwood as a Commissioner and all the many avenues of service that are possible in that role. My great desire to be a leader with a servant's heart, owner/operator of Rhea Little Tire & Auto Repair, Graduated Franklin High School and Belmont University. Serving Brentwood through work, church, schools, many civic organizations; such as, Brentwood Rotary, the YMCA, Williamson Chamber, etc. Served as a Commissioner for twelve years, Mayor, Vice-Mayor, Planning Commission, Park Board, Tree Board, Environmental Advisory Board, Regional Transportation Authority Board, WCCVB, and numerous other local, regional, state and national boards.

What should be the top priorities for Brentwood over the next four years? How would you address and fund these priorities?

Brentwood is a unique and wonderful City! I think it is the greatest community in the world! Our biggest challenge continues to be growth - especially in how to deal with the growth of communities surrounding us.  I would continue to address this challenge by:

1. Maintaining prudent, thoughtful and methodical growth, and continuing our strict requirements of one acre density and having high development standards. With communities around us rapidly growing, it is vital we continue with experienced leadership that understands Brentwood’s past, the present challenges and with the seasoned vision to see that Brentwood’s future will be even better.

2. Continuing with strict attention to wise budgeting to keep us financially strong which helps to combat the challenges of pass-through traffic of communities around us.  We will continue to carry out projects, such as the Sunset Road widening, working with the State to get Franklin Rd widened as soon as possible, moving forward with the McEwen Dr. extension, etc. to help with this. 

3. Supporting the work to keep our City secure.  It has always been very important to the citizens of Brentwood and there has always been great support for our first responders. It is through determined leadership that our Police and Fire Departments are internationally accredited.  We will continue and build on that tradition with our new Police Headquarters and fire Station # 5.

4. Promoting our quality of life and health through our world class Library, tremendous parks and trails systems and community events, such as the Independence Day celebration, Crockett Park concerts, Movies in the Park!

As a Brentwood City Commissioner, I have always been dedicated to a strict budgeting process and faithful stewardship to our citizen's tax dollars. We have gone 31 years without a property tax increase, we have a tremendous diversity of revenue sources, our staff is dedicated to achieving the most efficiency and effectiveness to every dollar we spend, looking for the best value in whatever activity we undertake. Due to diligence in budgeting, we will end up with at least 5 million dollars above budget in revenue, which allows us to do things like build Fire Station number 5 in a more rapid fashion because of wise planning. Even during a pandemic, for us to have budget surplus is a testimony to our excellent staff and the Commission's attention to being good stewards.