Columbia mayor candidate profiles

Nov. 8, is Election Day. The candidates for Columbia’s next mayor are challenger Debbie Matthews and incumbent Chaz Molder. They were asked questions about why they would be the best candidate for the job. As Maury County grabs the top spot in the state as the fastest growing county, the candidates state the best path forward in smart growth.

Debbie Matthews

Question: What specific experience and qualifications do you have that make you the ideal candidate for this position?

I proudly served on the Columbia City Council from January 2008 to January 2017. At the beginning of my council term in 2008, this country was hit with the worst recession since the Great Depression. As a city, we were faced with impossible challenges....no building permits for over a year, a completely vacant downtown, and unemployment hitting 25%. We, which was a Republican majority of a Council at the time, worked to make sure not one single employee was laid off. We didn’t raise taxes but made significant strategic long-term investment decisions. We were dedicated to turning our empty historic downtown into a vital economic engine. Growth plans and strategic long-term plans were laid out and adopted. We also made the hard decisions to fund Ridley Field, the new city hall, moving the police downtown, Riverfront Park, and a great economic-engine-based arts district. By the time I left my seat in 2017, the city was on autopilot. Columbia was the greatest city in which to live and work. Nine years of smart conservative decisions for investment and growth had become a reality. Downtown was booming, and jobs and property values were going up. In addition, I am a business owner and a realtor. I am also currently the Chair of the Maury County Republican Party where we work to make sure conservative leaders are elected. I know those folks and believe that I could bridge the gap between the city and county that has been lacking for years.

Question: What do you see as the top three priorities for your district, and specifically Maury County, and how do you plan to contribute to accomplishing those priorities?

No. 1: We need to work with the county to coordinate a new strategic plan for Growth. Controlling growth and making growth pay for itself is the top priority.

No. 2: Safety for our citizens…. currently Columbia is rated an F. There are 89% of other cities in Tennessee safer with less crime than Columbia. (Google data). We have tremendous drug issues that are also facing our community.

No. 3: Which is a part of No. 2, we have to hold on to our first responders. I believe we are set to lose 14 of our firefighters this month.…we are constantly training and then losing our police and fire. We have to change this. Our city’s safety requires a new policy. All other aspects of our city depend on these three things.

Question: What does thoughtful and sustainable growth in Maury County look like to you?

In 2008, during the last housing crisis, we didn’t have a building permit for almost two years. We as a council did some things to help speed up the process to help during that horrible economic time, but now, we need to unwind those things and slow the pace to be able to thoughtfully grown. Again, we need a comprehensive growth plan with the county. We need impact fees.

Chaz Molder

Question: What specific experience and qualifications do you have that make you the ideal candidate for this position?

I had the high honor of being elected in 2018 with 65% of the vote. I learned during that campaign that voters just want a Mayor that will shoot them straight, represent them well, and oversee a community that is moving forward, not backward. During my time as Mayor, I have strived to do just that—focus on the positives, while addressing the negatives. I’ve tried to lead in a reasonable, responsible way, even during what was a very difficult period for our community, and indeed our country over the last four years as we suffered through a global pandemic and a time of extreme divisiveness in national politics. I know that every decision I make, or that we make as a local government, will receive ridicule and disagreement, and that goes with the territory. But I try to lead in a way that folks can at least understand my position and respect the way it is delivered. And, if they’ll wait around on me, I feel certain that my next decision, or the one after that, will be one that they will agree. It is this approach to leadership, and responsible governance which I feel provides the experience and qualifications to be the ideal candidate for the position; however, I also believe I have two even more important qualifications. First, is the fact that I am a husband to my wife of 16 years, and she’s been such a great representative for our community. I value her perspective and how she helps work through complicated issues. I am proud when she is visible in the community and beyond representing our city. We are a team, and I am better off having her on my side. And perhaps my greatest qualification is the fact that I am a dad to three young children. I wake up each and every day wanting my kids to live in a community in which they can be proud, and I carry that same approach for all kids in Columbia. I want them to come back here one day. I want them to be leaders one day. I want them to be proud of where they are from and prepared for where they are going.

Question: What do you see as the top three priorities for your district, and specifically Maury County, and how do you plan to contribute to accomplishing those priorities?

Public Safety. Public Education. Public Well-Being.

Public Safety: We are fortunate to live in a community with such sophisticated Police and Fire Departments. These departments make our community a better and safer place to live. Over the last four years we have equipped them to continue with a level of professionalism and exceptionalism that is truly unmatched compared to other communities our size. And they comprise the most significant piece of our city budget, as they should. In short, we will continue to lead with public safety at the forefront, just as we have done over the last four years.

Public Education: Columbia must continue to provide a voice of support of Maury County Public Schools. While we do not have any jurisdictional oversight over our public education system, we do have a voice, an influential voice—Columbia residents comprise over 50% of the total student, faculty, and staff population, and the Columbia resident contributes the greatest share of county tax dollars which are dedicated to public education.

I am a firm believer that so goes our public education system, so goes our community. I am a product of public education. A proud product. And I am a proud parent of three children in the public education system now. I understand firsthand how critical public education is not just to my own children, but to all children and to our community as a whole. We must find ways to partner with our school system, to promote our school system, and to encourage our school system to be the best it can be. The school system has had its share of leadership issues over the last decade or so, but I firmly believe in the current Superintendent and her mission. If we work together for the betterment of our school system, the betterment of our community will result.

Public Well-Being: This is a broad subject matter and an important one. We must continue our focus on responsible growth as a community. I am proud of our recently adopted zoning ordinance overhaul. This ordinance overhaul, which included significant community input, will lead to enhanced designed standards in our community, and a better overall housing product. We are in a position now to be more selective to developments than we were a decade ago, and this is a good thing. We should use this position wisely not to cut-off growth, but to continue growth in a way that moves the community forward.

We must also continue our focus on publicly accessed parks and community spaces, indoor and outdoor, recreational, and the like. People want to be entertained. They want to get outdoors. They want to gather. City government should lead the way in this regard.

And public access to the arts. I am proud of the commitment we’ve made to the arts over the last four years, but we must double down. One would be hard-pressed to find a vibrant community that did not also have a vibrant arts community, I feel sure of that.

Question: What does thoughtful and sustainable growth in Maury County look like to you?

In order for growth to be sustainable, it must be thoughtful.

We must first recognize that growth can be a very divisive issue. There are those who want to cut off all growth, at all costs. I am not one of those. There are those that the market should dictate all growth and the city should not get in the way at all. I am not one of those. There are those that recognize that a growing community is better than a dying community; and that we can work together to come up with the best possible growth outcome. I am one of those.

Over the last 12-18 months, we’ve really started to see a change in our growth trajectory, not necessarily in the speed and pace, but in the quality of the product and, most importantly, the amount of public input. 10 years ago, we were a community that was not growing. Developments would be more likely to garner approval just because we were excited to see some form of growth. Now, that’s not the case. Developments are under greater scrutiny through our staff, our planning commission, and members of the community. This is a good thing. This is leading to better growth products, and better growth products will lead to a better community as a whole.

I want to be a community that people see as a great place to want to invest and develop, and as a great place to want to live. I do not think those two things are mutually exclusive if we work together and remember our end goal here is the same: wanting our community to be the best it can be.

Editor's Note: These candidates profiles are compiled in partnership with Maury County Chamber & Economic Alliance.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Columbia's Mayoral candidates talk about why they are best for the job