Wednesday, Feb. 01 2012 9:51AM
Greenwood mayor faces challenger
By Miranda Wycoff
mwycoff@lsjournal.com
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ReprintGreenwood Mayor Marvin Megee says the 2012 campaign for his seat will definitely be unlike the 2010 campaign.
And that’s partially because in 2010, he ran against a write-in candidate - although that write-in candidate did come within a few votes of him.
This time Megee’s got a bonafied opponent on the ballot - Scott Lamaster.
But having his name on the ballot isn’t the only thing that separates the incumbent and his challenger, Megee says.
“I’m excited about this campaign,” he said. “When Leah (Foster) and I ran against each other we both had a similar vision and we both ran clean campaigns. With this election there is definitely a difference in the two candidates to our personalities, vision and approaches. The residents of Greenwood are going to have two distinct choices to run the city.”
Lamaster, who is new to both politics and the city of Greenwood - he’s only lived at his residence on Doc Henry Road for two years - says he’s got a plan to help Greenwood grow “geographically and numerically” and improving the city’s commercial tax base. But at the same time he wants Greenwood to “grow smaller,” so that it keeps it’s “small town, neighbors-helping-neighbors atmosphere.”
He wants to add more community events to Greenwood, and as the current vice president of the Parks Board, he says he supports a strong parks system.
He said under his term on the Parks Board, another major event was added to the city - the Fall Festival - and it was considered a huge success.
He also says he has plans to not only keep the city finances in order, he also wants to help residents keep their personal finances in order.
“As mayor I want to bring in small seminars to help our residents on budgeting and other things. I want to bring in my CPA friends to help citizens and residents help manage their finances,” Lamaster said.
As far as helping the city’s finances, Lamaster says he has created what he calls the “Main Street Development Plan,” which would create a task force to find out what residents want in terms of retail business in Greenwood and “start bringing in those businesses.”
He also wants to implement a neighborhood patrol group to help the Greenwood Police Department.
“I would bring vision, leadership and passion to Greenwood,” Lamaster said.
Megee on the other hand said he plans on simply finishing what he started.
“I’m not done yet,” he said. “When I originally ran, I knew the city had a lot of problems, but I didn’t know the extent of those. We have made a huge dent in the challenges, but I want to finish what I started.”
Megee said when he first came to office in 2010, the city had just $187,000 in the bank and was $8.2 million in debt. Today, he said, the city of Greenwood has $1.5 million in cash available, $1.6 million in savings earning interest and an additional $2.8 million set aside for special projects.
“And we have paid off and settled all of our debt except for the bond issues, which can’t be paid in advance,” he said.
He said under his direction, the city has also brought several public works projects in-house, completed two major street overlays and 149 small-scale street and sidewalk projects throughout the city.
But he said he’s not done.
“I want to continue working toward the stability of the city. We are not where we need to be yet financially. We need to continue building our cash reserves and savings,” Megee said.
He said the city needs to continue to resist investing in the “risky big ideas” and continue focusing on the smaller projects that continue to need to be addressed.
“My two predecessors had what I call big ideas. They had vision, but they were sizable projects and bigger projects are a bigger risk. Even though the city has $5 million, that is not enough stability to take on those bigger projects.
“I call it a ‘Keep it Simple’ form of government.”
As far as campaigning goes, both candidates have promised to not play into the “dirty politics.”
“I know a lot of old dirty politics used to be played in Greenwood. But I tell people, I’m not running against Marvin Megee, I’m running with a vision for Greenwood,” Lamaster said.
Megee also promised he will “not participate,” in the dirty politics. Although a resident recently brought up the issue of Magee’s personal property tax records through both an email chain and a public Facebook page.
The issue the resident had was with a vehicle registered in Megee’s wife’s name. The property taxes on that vehicle were not paid until Jan. 24, 2012. Under state law, those wishing to run for an elected office must have paid property taxes on time in order to appear on the ballot. But since the vehicle was registered in Megee’s wife’s name and it is her vehicle, Megee is still eligible to run as a certified candidate.
Megee said regarding he’s wife’s taxes that “it is her choice” when she chooses to pay her taxes and is upset that someone would use his wife against him.
