League of Women Voters of Blount County 2006 Candidate Survey
Name: Wendy Pitts Reeves,
L.C.S.W. Phone: 865-207-4305
Candidate for: Blount
I.
Qualifications
and experience
a. Please
list your diplomas and degrees, along with the areas of study
o
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology
o
Master of Science degree in Social Work with a
clinical concentration
o
Both from the
b.
What relevant experience do you have,
including previous public offices held?
Professional
Background
·
Private Practice since 1993
o
Founded
o
Founder: Wildish Women Adventures (offering backpacking
trips for beginners )
·
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Speaker,
Consultant, Author, Community Volunteer
·
Former Director of Family Therapy Services for
·
Former Rule 31
·
Have worked in mental health in
·
Graduate-level Field Instructor for UT’s
·
Former Adjunct Professor for
·
Columnist for the Daily Times and for Blount
·
Author of the booklet: “How to Love an Adolescent: 101 Tips for Parents of Teens”
·
Frequently requested speaker and workshop leader
on a variety of subjects
c.
Please
list local service and civic groups in which you have participate, including
when and for how long.
Board Member: Current
·
Cariten Health Behavioral Provider Advisory
Board, about 8 years.
·
Women’s Equity Foundation (Secretary and
founding Director), 2005-2007
·
o
East Tennessee Development District
Representative
o
Appointed by Speakers of State House and Senate
o
Currently developing 16-county regional advisory
council on economic issues impacting women in
Board Member: Past
·
Immediate past President,
·
·
·
Community Work
·
Initiated through AAUW the
o
Served over 300 girls, grades 7-12, in 11
schools, 2001-2005
o
Recognized by AAUW nationally as one of eight
groups in the nation for outstanding success
o
Presented paper on Sister to Sister at the
Seventh International Women’s Policy Research Conference in
·
Co-led through the Chamber the successful Career
Development Day for Women in 2002
·
Volunteer, ACSESS/Breakaway Juvenile Justice Intervention
Wilderness Program, Anderson Co.
·
Member, Leadership Blount Class of 2006
d.
Please
indicate any business activities that could constitute a conflict of interest
in the event you are elected.
None
that I’m aware of.
e.
Name three leadership
skills that you practice.
i.
Inclusion: I’ve always worked to listen to
and include different groups and points of view because I respect and value
diverse perspectives. As a commissioner, I’d like to find more ways to
encourage public input, and improve interaction between the public and the
county commission.
ii.
Collaboration: In my experience, working
together in collaboration rather than competition is infinitely more effective.
I want to use that experience to help
the county commission, and county government as a whole, function in a more
effective manner.
iii.
Communication: Stakeholders in any important
decision have a right to understand clearly how decisions are made, what their
choices are and the costs and benefits of those choices. As a therapist, I’m
generally known for being pretty straightforward and direct with others, even
when dealing with difficult issues. Those same communication skills can help
heal the existing breach in trust between our county’s legislative body and the
public, returning a sense of accountability to the commission.
f. What unique qualities, besides the above leadership skills, do you have to contribute to this office?
My professional training taught me to look at every problem from multiple angles, so I read voraciously, ask lots of questions, and constantly look for ways to make things better. In particular, I want to get out of crisis mode and develop long term solutions to issues we face every day. Those who’ve worked with me on other community projects often speak of my enthusiasm and belief in what can be accomplished when we work together.
II.
Questions
about your understanding of the office you are seeking:
a.
What do you
see as the three most important functions of this office?
i. Ensuring careful, effective and efficient stewardship of the people’s money.
ii. Working to improve the health, safety and general welfare of the community by building a local government that is responsive, respectful and resourceful.
iii. Offering a vision of the best community we could possibly be, then leading us through the steps needed to make that vision a reality.
b.
What would
you identify as the three most important issues facing
i. Rapid commercial and residential growth for which we are not adequately prepared. This one issue encompasses all the problems that come with such growth, including: lack of adequate funds to cover the costs of the infrastructure needed already, much less long term capital improvements; severely overcrowded schools; increased stress on social services, increased road congestion and hazards; increased air pollution; permanent loss of green space and increased urban sprawl; and more.
ii. Inadequate or inappropriate representation on key boards and committees. This issue includes the gross conflicts of interest and significant lack of diversity (by gender, race, profession, perspective, etc.) present among such groups as the Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals.
iii.
Financial instability. It takes money to provide the kind of services
and protect the quality of life we all want for our children, but we can’t
spend money we don’t have. Getting us on firm financial footing will likely
require a variety of solutions, including a more accountable and conservative approach to spending, and a sufficient revenue stream that’s
adequate, balanced and fair.
c.
What can you
do in this office to impact these three most important issues?
i.
Immediately appoint the Growth Management
Coordinating Committee as described in the Hunter Interests’
ii. Create new and better ways of soliciting, evaluating and approving diverse candidates for open seats on these boards. This can be done in a variety of ways, all of which will require a new way of looking at political appointments in local government.
iii. Carefully examine the current budget with an eye towards saving money on everything from day to day operations to managing large expenditures. Evaluate the “pros and cons” of increasing revenues in several ways of and present these to the public for discussion and input. Look for ways to build up funds for long range planning, and especially for covering the cost of needed infrastructure.
(Under the current system, each new home results in a net loss to the county, because property taxes alone can not cover the infrastructure needed for that home.)
III.
Positions
on specific issues of importance in
a.
Means for
insuring the fair and respectful treatment of all
Last spring, I was one of several who spoke out at the press conference following the criminal vandalizing of La Lupita, a local Hispanic business. I said then that those of us who are white, in a majority white community, have a particular responsibility to speak out against racism, to stop it in its tracks, and to accept the risk that comes in doing so.
Since then, many of our citizens –
men and women of all races and religions— have met together in regular and
productive ways to find common ground. These groups are actively working to
make
b.
Promotion of
greater diversity in our hired and appointed government officials and
employees.
To improve diversity across our governing bodies, I will always push for a broader choice in candidates to fill open positions. One way to do this might be to set up representation based on certain criteria. Those could be geographic, personal interest, or skills based, with some seats going to developers, some to environmentalists, some to interested citizens, some to financial experts, etc.
A second way to do this would be to make sure the general public knew of impending vacancies and encouraging them to offer suggestions or nominations for the open slots.
There are many other ways to go about this, but planned
representation to better reflect the diverse constituencies of our county is
the key.
c.
Reconciling
the potentially competing interests of growth/development and adequate
infrastructure in our county, including the application of Hunter Interests’
We must find a way to balance what, on the surface at least, appear to be competing interests between those who want to preserve our county’s rural and scenic beauty and those who want to capitalize off of it before it’s gone. It seems to me that part of the challenge lies in finding a way to have both lively and manageable growth and timely, planned, and appropriately funded infrastructure.
The Hunter Growth Strategy really does provide a usable framework for working towards our infrastructure goals, if we have the courage, will power, patience and foresight to follow some of their recommendations. The success of these efforts, though, will depend on our willingness to work for what is good for all, not just for our own business.
Just as there will always be builders and developers who care for their financial bottom line and little else, there will also be builders and developers who care about the overall health of this county. We have several who are already engaging in what is called “green development.” This should be recognized, encouraged, and rewarded by local government.
It has been my experience that doing the right thing by your customers (that is, providing a quality product and exceptional service -- even when you don’t necessarily always make the profit you might want on a particular transaction) leads to better relationships and better business over the long haul, with significant long term gains. The same principles apply whether we’re talking about helping families, running a store, or building a subdivision.
d.
The environmental
impact of development and/or non-attainment status with the EPA.
State Commissioner of Tourism Susan Whittaker, who sits on the committee for clean air in East Tennessee, recently pointed out that we have a vested economic interest (much less a health and welfare interest) in cleaning up the air we breathe. Tourists, who make up one of the, if not the strongest, economic drivers of our state, will not come if the air is bad. The challenge for county commissioners, however, is finding ways to have an impact on this at the local level, since much of our pollution is carried in from other nearby areas.
It seems to me that the one thing we can do is, again, implement a recommendation of the Hunter Interests Growth Strategy. Among other things, they recommend planning now to ensure that new developments are pedestrian-friendly and mass-transit ready.
Encouraging visionary and creative developers to build within the urban growth boundaries of the cities will also meet many needs of our community, including the potential for more walking, less driving, and a little less pollution.
e.
Identifying
and resolving conflicts of interest of public officials.
Please see II. b, II. c. and III. b. In addition to those comments I would add that elected officials should be required to recuse themselves from any vote in which they have a personal financial interest, and systems should be put in place, if they don’t exist already, to enforce that requirement.
f.
The consolidation
of:
i.
city and
county schools
ii.
city and
county government
iii.
or a
feasibility study on consolidation
At first glance, logic would suggest that consolidation of
schools and/or government would automatically reduce costs and must therefore,
of course, be a good thing. Many things that appear logical on the surface,
however, turn out to be otherwise upon closer inspection, so one must be
careful. I also suspect that consolidation is unlikely given the current community
and culture of
That said, I would be interested in considering a feasibility study on consolidation if the timing were right. That means (1) if adequate funds were available for conducting such a study with a suitable researcher and (2) political and community will were such that we would be ready to implement some measure of consolidation if that’s what the results indicated.
g.
Health care
This is an area in which, to my knowledge, county commissioners have little or no influence. The one suggestion I can make is that long term solutions such as planned communities that encourage walking would also improve the health of their citizens, and improved education for both youth and adults would lead them to better paying jobs with better benefits. There are, of course, many, many other issues out there worthy of discussion, but most seem to be outside the scope of a commissioner’s influence.
IV.
Questions
for CANDIDATES FOR
a.
How can you
communicate effectively with your constituents?
Those familiar with my campaign
will know that I’m already hosting monthly Community Listening Forums in which
citizens share with me their ideas about how we can do better as a
county. (The next couple of forums are set for late March at the
b.
Which
recommendations of the Growth Strategy do you support, and why?
I am very much in favor of implementing several of the Hunter Growth Strategy recommendations. Some of those include: proper placement of commercial and industrial enterprises along our 4-lane corridors, green space preservation, implementing and enforcing better subdivision regulations, strengthening building codes and inspection practices, requiring developers to provide accurate information on the infrastructure impact of their projects, and building in design elements to offset some of that impact. Our rudimentary zoning laws can be strengthened in ways that will protect community-desired green space without hurting the families who may own that land. Creating the recommended Growth Management Coordinating Committee as well as citizen advisory committees that provide ongoing input into each of Blount Counties Growth Policies will significantly improve our overall communication and citizen buy in.
There’s much more there, but this is a start.
c.
How do you propose
to fund infrastructure growth & improvements?
i. Wheel tax
ii. Adequate facilities tax
iii. Other?
The wheel tax is already on the ballot for inclusion in the
August election as a referendum. My understanding is that funds from that tax,
if passed by the voters and by
As far as adequate funding for infrastructure and growth is concerned, the choices are more complex. I am in favor of an Adequate Facilities Tax (AFT) as long as it is based on lot size rather than square footage. However, I know that such a tax will help— not solve—our long term infrastructure needs. Because of that, we probably need to evaluate the benefits
and costs of other revenue sources as well in order to find a fair, suitable, and effective
mix. Simply continuing to increase the property tax is not a fair method of covering the cost of growth
Other such sources may or
may not include impact fees (which are different in scope than the AFT),
real estate transfer fees, license and permit or inspection fees. A careful
analysis of the impact, positive and negative, of each of these options will
help us make better decisions about what will work best for
d.
How can the
county address the needs of the senior population?
One suggestion has been to offer property tax relief to seniors who meet a certain means test, and I would certainly be willing to take a close look at that idea.
e.
What is your
position on hiring a county law director vs. the current practice of retaining
an attorney for the Mayor?
I would be in favor of hiring a county law director whose primary responsibility was to provide legal guidance protecting the welfare of the county as a whole rather than one person or office.
f.
Concisely
describe your vision for
If we handle our own success the right way, I believe
If we do things right, we can be:
· A welcoming county whose government reflects and respects the diverse nature of her people and seeks their input at all levels.
· A creative and collaborative county that finds ways to successfully blend “urban spice” with rural tranquility, that finds ways to profit fairly from development without spoiling the scenic beauty of fields, forests and foothills, ways to work through competing interests and needs.
· A smart, beautiful and profitable county filled with well-planned residential and commercial developments that are pedestrian-efficient, visually attractive, environmentally sound and fiscally supported.
· A strong county that knows how to seize opportunities when they come, but also knows how to live within it’s means, with adequate reserves and income, low debt service, and capital planning in place for future needs.
###