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Article published Oct 20, 2004 Up to the challenge: White claims "analytical"" mind makes him the best candidate
Thomas Fraser
Alcoa City Commission candidate Ken White touts his analytical ability as a prime reason he could serve with distinction.
And his approach to campaigning for the Nov. 2 election has been just that -- analytical.
To better determine the parts of town and people he needs to hit with a personal visit or campaign literature, he extracted about 5,000 names and addresses from a Blount County Election Commission database of some 70,000 registered Blount County voters.
"I'm working pretty hard," he said. "I'm letting everyone know my positions by personal contact, or from the fliers I'm handing out."
He knows it's not going to be that simple to secure one of the two contested Alcoa Commission seats. His opponents, incumbents Clayton Bledsoe and George Williams, "get the opportunity to do the same thing."
School board history
The 66-year-old White is seeking to reclaim a spot in city government. He served on the Alcoa School Board from 1985 to 2000. He lost his seat to current board member Squirrel Cameron.
He maintains that experience, and the fact he worked as a computer systems engineer at ALCOA for 30 years, makes him a prime candidate for the City Commission.
"There has been a lot of encouragement from other people, and I also feel like, with my background, I can be an asset to the board of commissioners."
Not that he'd come in wielding an ax to grind. But he suggested he'd give a lot of thought to the issues and act independently.
"I would be analytical and try to educate myself on the issues," White said, "and not take someone's word for it."
While he agrees recent ordinances geared toward improving the aesthetics and public health of the city -- such as ordinances addressing removal of abandoned vehicles from private property and new requirements for property maintenance -- are necessary, he said they are worthless without enforcement.
"If they are not enforced, they should consider doing away with them."
Citizen concerns
There are other issues he has heard raised on the campaign trail: "I think the citizenry as a whole have a lot of questions in a lot of areas."
He cited recent concerns in the Green Meadow area about a planned extension of the greenway, and "issues with the police department."
He did not want to elaborate on the latter point, but he feels citizens should be heard when they voice concerns.
White said he bicycles some 35 miles a day on the greenway, and is a proponent of the system, "but there are some legitimate complaints as to the expansion of the trail system."
Williams and Bledsoe are both friends, he said, "and there are no personal digs here. It's just who has the most to offer."
Looking ahead
So what does White consider the keys to a prosperous Alcoa future?
* "Keeping a tax rate that's acceptable to both residents and business people," he said. While additional businesses can provide additional sales tax revenue to the city, "I'm not a proponent of making Alcoa a town just for business." While business recruitment to the town is adequate, he said, he warned claims of credit are not always accurate. "It's easy to say we went out and got Wal-Mart," he said, but many businesses will locate because of positive demographics and marketing reasons, not because of recruitment.
"That's part of the reason I'm running. Sometimes people aren't analytical enough in that position."
* Maintaining a solid school system. "The education system is the one thing anybody that moves into an area asks about first."
He said the relatively small size of the school system provides "a lot of pluses," such as low pupil-teacher ratio, and small high school. He also remarked upon the diverse nature of the system in which he taught math for six years. He wouldn't pursue changes in management, because "it's not the commission's place to change the education system," but to fund it. "The last 20 years there has been a reasonable and practical increase" of about 3 to 5 percent in funding each year.
He did indicate he was "concerned" about the fact "the school system consumes just over 50 percent of our tax money generated by property taxes."
* "Getting the traffic situation resolved."
He cited Alcoa Highway as an example of a traffic snafu, but also noted the state and city officials "have been working on it for six or eight years and we don't see anything as far as construction goes."
Even with the ultimate completion of the proposed Alcoa Parkway to bypass the Motor Mile, there are internal traffic problems, as well, with routes such as Hunt Road.
But, he conceded, city hands are often tied by state funding. "I think we've done as much as we can do because so much is tied into (the Tennessee Department of Transportation)."
* Maintaining city services. The city, he said, "is second to none in the services provided to its residents," in terms of garbage collection and water and electrical utilities.
He said his run for office is motivated by a desire to serve the city in which he has lived for 40 years.
"I've always felt if you're involved in something you ought to do something to support that," he said, citing church work and support of his children's athletic teams.
"I'm not running to fire anybody, because I don't like so-and-so. It's just because I feel like I can do as good a job as anyone else."