BRYAN, Texas — Mike Southerland, a veteran and former member of the Bryan City Council, said that he has the position of Mayor comes down to knowing the details.
Southerland is up against Bobby Gutierrez and Brent Hairston for the Bryan Mayor's race.
We caught up with Southerland at POV Coffee in Bryan where he said that the current city leadership isn't doing enough to help their departments, and that he knows the rules that will help steer the council in the right direction.
Question:
"You have politicians who run who have their own agenda, wanting to see certain things accomplished. Some run because they want to be seen as a leader in the eyes of the people and others run because they truly want to serve. Where do you line up with that?"
Answer:
"My wife asked me that. I'm 76 and she says, 'What's the matter with you? Why are you running again?' I couldn't answer her at first and so I thought about it a little bit. The next day I said, 'You know we had our first date in December of 1963. We've been married a long time. We got married two or three years later...I had been elected to the student council for the third time. I had been elected the State President of the Baptist High School Union in Louisiana, and I had been elected Drum Major. I didn't think there was anything else besides serve your family man, and I did that in the Army as well."
Question:
"How long did you serve in the military as Fire Chief?"
Answer:
"About three years. No, it was two years. I was Fire Chief of the Post. Fire Marshall is what they called it, and I ran the Fire School for the Army. In my squadron, I had 400 firefighters and 60 fire trucks."
Question:
"What years was that from?"
Answer:
"That was a long time ago...I came back from Vietnam in '70, so it was like the summer of '70 to '73."
Question:
"Have you run for office before?"
Answer:
"I have served in an office for 12 years on the Bryan City Council and for 18 years I've stayed involved learning the process, helping other people run. I've ran 6 times."
Question:
"So what made you decide to run for the Mayor's office?"
Answer:
"Again? Well, I mean run again. The thing is I'm retired, and I have a ton of experience. Not only do I have a lot of experience, but I know a lot about the city government and before you really know the game you got to play the rules and it's a difficult process to learn what's going on. There's no school to learn how the cities do their business."
Question:
"Well, if you had to put it in the simplest of terms, what would be your goals you'd want to see if you were elected Mayor?"
Answer:
"The goals...the top 3 are the fire and safety. The police department is under tremendous stress now. The fire people, they get a lot of money, they've been funded over the years and they're pretty well off. They're still not safe, it's a pretty dangerous job. They're taken care of a lot more than the police are."
Question:
"What are some of the accomplishments you've made at the city level that you'd want to expand on if you were elected Mayor?"
Answer:
"When I got elected in '06, we were permitting 125 homes, single family homes. Now, it's up to about 1,000 a year. The process was, I tried to seek ways to make it more enticing for the builders to build here. We waved a lot of permits, it's a lot cheaper to build here than it is in College Station."
Question:
"What makes you stand out as a candidate, specifically?"
Answer:
"Well because I know the rules. I know the system and if you know the system you play the game better and it's been my observation that my opponents don't really get into the details. They stay at the 1,000 foot level whereas I'm in the details because if you know the details, you can be more impactful to the system."
Question:
"What are some of those details that you think are crucial to understand?"
Answer:
"Well, about the tax rate.... The argument is we can't reduce the tax rate because it's going to impact our ability to do projects. Well if you look at the budget, the money for the projects come from a whole different source."
Question:
"So you want to see the people put before the profit?'
Answer:
"Oh yes, exactly. The people come first. My philosophy has been if you listen to the people, understand what they're talking about, and then take action, this is a wonderful place."
If you'd like to learn more about Southerland, you can visit his campaign page here.