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Mayor Candidates Answer Questions at Forum...

                                                                           (photo by Bob Walter)

Mayoral candidates Bobbi Allison and Tommy Smallwood chat before the forum last week.

Learn Where the Candidates 
Stand on Selected Issues...

     October 17, 2005 

     The Greater Eatonville Chamber of Commerce sponsored a Candidate's Forum October 11 at the Community Center. Eileen Fox, current First Vice-President of the Tacoma/Pierce County League of Women Voters was the moderator. Questions were written on index cards and "chosen" by Fox. 

     Below is a transcription of the question and answer period between the two mayoral candidates. This part of the forum began with statements from mayor hopefuls Bobbi Allison and Tommy Smallwood.

     Allison: I’m campaigning for mayor because I care about Eatonville and its future. I want to see it flourish and prosper and keep that hometown feeling that we all love so much and which has drawn so many people to come and live here. Some have moved away and come back to retire here.

     There must also be accountability in local government and I will make sure that Eatonville is fiscally sound while controlling spending. I am willing, and able, to make tough decisions to make that happen.

    There will be an open government for all citizens to have a voice. As a councilmember I seek guidance from state agencies before making my decisions. We must be diligent in handling our precious resources with sensible stewardship so that as Eatonville grows, and it will grow, we will not lose our small town atmosphere.

     Eatonville is still not experiencing new business growth. We have strong housing growth but business is sorely lagging behind. We cannot attract new businesses without a sound economic plan for new business growth.

     My practical agenda, if I’m elected mayor, is to hold a Coffee with the Mayor weekly so citizens can chat about whatever is on their minds. I plan to install a map layout of the cemetery for people to find their loved ones. This project is currently underway with the American Legion.

     Thank you.

    Smallwood: I’m Tom Smallwood and I want to be your mayor. I feel I would be a good mayor because I have the skills and experience – I worked for over 23 years as a manager for Xerox. I have character, I’m honest, I’m dependable, I’m trustworthy. I have the desire, I’m a home town boy that wants to give back to the community. I was born here, I was raised here, I moved away and I came back here to retire.

      I’m a good communicator, and even listen better. I’m a leader, I’m a uniter, I’m a team player, I will bring people together and work together in both work and play. Let’s enjoy ourselves, life’s short. And I have the time, I’m retired and can devote myself to the job. The job is very important and needs full attention. It desires full attention from the mayor…

     The mayor of Eatonville is the town executive that manages a seven million dollar business. A seven million dollar business, that’s twenty-eight million dollars in four years. If I were managing the town business as mayor you would be my priority, I would be here to serve you and I would keep you informed.

     How would I do this? There is at least three areas. The first area is communication, the second area is customer service, the third area is a cost effective government.

     Let’s at those a little closer. Communication – I have a five-point program – the first point – I would have a Web site that would evolve over the next four years where people could find out what was going on in town. The second point on it is email. You email me and I will respond. I will work with the media, I have personal time and I have a phone.

     Customer service. What I would like to improve is the customer service throughout local government especially in the town hall. I will empower the front line people, I will provide training, I will lead by example and I’ll treat everyone fair and with respect.

      I’ve always had a motto to go by, be passionate about what you do and make what you do much better. I’m passionate about being your mayor, elect me, Tom Smallwood, and I will help you make Eatonville even a better place to live.

     Moderator: We only have two candidates up here, it’s inevitable that the questions will become a little more individual. This is for both of you. Tell us about your experience in government budgets and regulations.

     Allison: I currently have four years of hands-on experience with city/municipal government budgets and the current budget I handle is for one department of one point five million dollars. And before that I worked as staff on the state capital budget.

     Smallwood: I basically have very little experience in government budgets. I have a lot of experience with budgeting in a large corporation. I have budgeted up to, and controlled, over a thirteen million dollar budget at one time, averaging about seven to ten million.

       I set the budget, I planned the budget, I tracked the budget, I kept that budget consistently – our budget considered of a large revenue budget – required to make up to a forty-two percent profit…and actually the (unintelligible) budget was about thirteen million.  

        (Neither candidate answered the second part of the question regarding regulations.)

      Moderator: A couple of individual questions. Ms. Allison - As a woman do feel you would best represent the women of our town as mayor?

      Allison: As a woman I believe I will represent all the residents of the town.

      Moderator: Mr. Smallwood. Are you going to follow in Rath’s footsteps?

      Smallwood: I have my own agenda, I have my own plans and will run the city, or run the town, the way I want to run the town. I do appreciate some of the things that Bruce has done in the last couple years. But I have my own agenda and I have my own style of running the town which I’ll run like a business.

       I’ve already ran (sic) a business. I believe we need to have a vision. I believe everybody needs to have a mission. I believe we have to have some values. I believe we have to have goals. We’ve got to have strategy to make those goals. We’ve got to have measurements to make sure we’re making those goals and we’ve got to have a vital (unintelligible) so we know we’re going after the right thing. That’s the way I’ve always managed and that’s the way I believe the town should be managed.

     Moderator: For both of you. What do you see as your number one priority if elected as mayor?

     Allison: There are quite a few priorities, and it’s very difficult for me just to pick one. But I think as my number one priority the first thing I would do, if elected, would call for a complete financial audit for the last four years, to find our exactly where we are financially and we are we going in the future. That comes from a council member’s perspective I’ve been sitting on the council for the last two years, and I’m on the town council current expense committee. That would be my first goal.

     Smallwood:  My number one priority would be the infrastructure of the town…I believe that the town is basically (unintelligible), we have a new filtration coming online within the next year. But I think we have to look at everything we have in town, the buildings, the sewer treatment, the water department and everything else. We have to make sure we are maintaining that system in a pro-active way because it has to last us a long time.

     The number one thing I think we can do for the town is to basically look at the infrastructure, the sewer, the water, the electrical and everything else and make sure that we are ready for the present and ready for the future.

     Moderator: As mayor of Eatonville how would you approach open public records?

     Smallwood: I have proposed, and looked into, and actually worked with, and helped maintain a system before, it’s called document sharing. I believe we should have a Web site where anybody can come in and actually look at the documents on a read-only basis and find out the information they really need.

     This system would actually go back and archive over the years so we would have a good safe record of  all our records. But it would also be so we could basically, if anybody wanted to look at any records, they could look at it easily with quick access and actually different levels of the city, they could look at different levels. But any citizen could go in and look at what they wanted to look at and get that information very easily.

     I think getting information to people will make the town stronger. So I think that’s the best thing we can do.

    Allison:  We are required under public records to follow certain steps and regulations that we have to adhere to by Washington State law. So while it’s wonderful for all of us to say that all of the records are open and public there are certain measures put in place, and guidelines put upon all municipalities, that they must adhere to whether we like them or not.

     We must make sure that those steps are adhered too. So I have no problem with everything being open and above board, but I would assure that our steps and requirements as mandated are met.

    Moderator: As mayor of Eatonville what hours would you have available for the staff and the public and what about office hours?

    Allison: That’s come up, people have asked me, "You work a full time job what are you going to do if you become mayor?"

     Before I even started to file for mayor I sat down and had a long conversation with my employer. And they gave their full blessing because they encourage participation in their local government for all of their employees.

     Should I be elected Eatonville’s mayor I would sit down with my employer and work out different work schedules, so I would be available to all of Eatonville residents on a schedule as needed.

     Office hours. I would be here when I’m needed. I cannot sit here before you and tell you tonight that I will give you six hours a day, eight hours a day, four hours a day, two hours a day.

     I will sit here before you tonight and tell you if you need me, I will be here. I am a phone call away, I am  an email away. But if the citizens of this town need me as your mayor, I will be here.

    Smallwood: As everybody knows I’m basically retired except for a house I’m trying to finish. I will be available as much as I can be available. I actually plan to be able to be contacted in the city hall on a one to four hour a day basis, whatever the public requires. Also I would be able to be contacted by email, I’ll be able to be contacted by phone, and I’ll be able to be contacted through a Web site.

      I believe also that we need to be able to make appointments for our constituents to meet us at different times because a lot of people in Eatonville work outside of town and will only be in town at certain times on certain days.

     I have the latitude to be available almost any time anybody wants. Basically I think that’s a real advantage that I have because I am available, I am retired. My only other outside interest is I do like to work in my shop, and I do like to take a couple weeks vacation every year…

    Moderator: I have a utility question for Ms. Allison Your campaign brochure states that you will ask the town council to vote on reducing the utility tax by 50 percent. How much money would this actually save the average user and how much impact would it have on the town budget slash citizens?

     Allison: Each individual utility tax is currently based on your entire utility bill. So with each household it really depends on how much your utility bill is. Some people pay eight dollars on utility tax, so you’re going to reduce that by half, it would be four dollars. It just really depends on what your entire utility bill is as to what you individually will experience as the reduction.

      How would it affect the budget? I believe there is quite a bit (unintelligible), there can be some belt tightening. I wouldn’t have proposed it if I didn’t think that Eatonville people are fiscally responsible. We are raising the rates across the board to the citizens to pay for the filtration plant, we need to give some of that back. And we need to be responsible, fiscally sound, for the money we spend.

     Smallwood:  I’m not against reducing the utility tax, but I would do it in maybe a little different way. I would make sure we had a savings within the town budget and then come back and look at reducing the utility tax. I think we have to make sure we can run the government and run the town and then if we have a savings we should go back and give some relief from taxes.  

       (Smallwood did not address the budget part of this question.)

     Moderator: As mayor of Eatonville what qualifications do you have to manage staff and departments? And relate that to your previous experience.

     Allison: I’ve been a department supervisor for an Internet company in Tacoma. My staff was not large. But to be quite honest with you the staff Eatonville currently has employed in the town hall know their jobs. They know what has to be done. You walk into town hall and they are doing what needs to be done.

     Together with the mayor, the town administrator takes care of the issues of the town staff.

    Smallwood: I’ve managed people for the last 24 years. I use a process called managing for results and that works to get the most out of everybody you have working for you. Basically in managing for results people have vision so they know where they’re going, they have a mission so they know why they’re there.

     They basically have strategies, goals and measures to make sure they are doing a good job. By managing this way you get the most out of your people. People are happier, they know what they are doing, they know what their goals are and basically they come up with more cost savings because of the way they’re managed.

     I believe everybody has to be managed including the city administrator, the staff supervisors and all the employees of the town.

     I think the mayor should start with the city manager of his staff and pass this through the town. I think we have the advantage of results, goals and objectives and then the whole town will know where they are going and basically know what has to be done.

    I generally post these on the wall so anybody walking in can see why they are there and what they’re to do everyday.

    Moderator:  Ms. Allison mentioned that this town runs by a hired administrator. How do you think that your role specifically affects that administrator or vice versa?

    Allison:  I was on the council when we approved hiring the administrator to help the mayor with the day-to-day operations. It’s integral for the mayor to have an administrator, so that the mayor, I feel, can go out and do the networking that a mayor does need to do to bring grants and resources into the town.

     It’s a team, the town administrator and the mayor. The mayor lets the town administrator know what his or her focus is, what the goals are and together the town administrator helps implement those goals through the staff and on down, to the day-to-day business. Likewise then the town administrator gives the mayor feedback on what is occurring with his staff and they can both work together cohesively.

     Smallwood:  I look at the mayor as the executive of the town and look at the administrator as a person that manages and runs the town. The executive of the town is the one that’s responsible for the way the town runs and what goes on in the town. The manager is the one that makes the town – makes a lot of it happen.

      I think it’s a dual role, I think the mayor and manager have to be hand-in-hand to make the town run very smoothly. I think the job is a large job, that’s why we have a manager to help the mayor run the town.

      I also feel that the town manager the way he (unintelligible) now, is also the public works director. And I think that is basically that a large part of the manager’s role at the present time is to be the public works director.

     I think the mayor has to control the town, the mayor is responsible for what happens in town and the mayor is the one where the final buck stops basically.