On the ballot, District 1: Michael Headen
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on October 25, 2015 1:50 AM
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Michael Headen
Q: Why do you want to be on the Goldsboro City Council?
A: I have been on the council now for eight years, and one of the things I have is a passion for wanting to help people out. I have a passion for Goldsboro because I think Goldsboro is a city that is up and coming. We have come so far in the last eight years that I have been on the council. We have made tremendous strides. One of the things that I think has helped us is having Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and the relationship that we have with them.
But for me personally it is just that whole passion that I have for wanting to be a good citizen and to do my duty to help my community and my city as a whole.
Q: What government experience do you have? If you don't have government experience, what are your qualifications?
A: I don't have any real government experience. This has been a real learning curve for me over the last eight years. But I do think that my experience as a mental health official has come into play here in terms of being able to listen to people and understand and extend that level of compassion and seeing things from their perspective -- an everyday person trying to comprehend and come up with solutions to problems they may be dealing with on a day-to-day basis.
I think those skills I have acquired being in mental health have carried me a long way in terms of being on the City Council.
Q: The City Council has designated four major issues it intends to tackle in the coming years.
Where do you stand on these issues:
• Greenways and pathways around the city, both maintenance of existing systems and bringing new ones to Goldsboro.
Greenways, I think we need them. I think it says a lot to an outsider when they come into our city and see the greenways that we have available. I am a supporter of greenways because I think they add that aspect of beautification, but it is also an attractive feature to young people. I think it is critical as we continue to move forward in terms of making Goldsboro a better place.
I think we need to continue to look for funding sources to make this happen.
• Continue to invest in downtown.
I think that with the TIGER grant that we were so fortunate to get, I think that has been a tremendous help for us. I think it has helped promote what our vision for downtown should be. I am still in support of that, but I will say this, I know that some of the other outlying areas I am concerned about street pavings, sidewalks, curb raising and things like that.
But street pavings, I do think we do need to refocus our energies on that. There are a lot of streets that need to be paved. We put a lot of time into downtown. I am very thankful for it. I supported it along the way. I think we should continue what we started and finish what we started. But I think we need to refocus our energies on looking at some of the street resurfacing aspects.
• Develop the city's parks and recreation department.
I think we have been fortunate enough with Scott Barnard (Parks and Recreation director), I think he has brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm to parks and rec. He has brought in a lot of great ideas that we have looked at. Some we have dissected and taken a really critical look at and others we have felt as if they are a real shot in the arm for Goldsboro.
One of the things that I know is on the table right now is that multi-sports complex. I think he (Barnard) has brought a lot of good ideas and we are moving forward, and I like where we are going.
• Combat blight throughout the city.
I think we have a responsibility to reach out to the owners themselves and give them the opportunity to address the issues with the dilapidated housing and with also keeping the grounds up. If they are not responsive, we do have a process in place where we are able to take steps to address it and, if need be, we will tear the building down. We will clean up the lots and things like that.
Some of the problems we have are trying to track down people who actually own the properties and getting them to take responsibility.
But any of those properties related to the city, I think it is our responsibility to take care of those and do what we need to do.
Q: As for the budget, are there things you would like to see cut, increased or added?
A: I think this year, and in years past, we have done a good job in terms of trying to balance the budget. I am very happy to see that we have not had to raise any taxes. I would like to see more effort put toward some of our organizations, more money that we are able to donate to organizations who have programs set up for our youths. I'd like to see us move in that direction more.
The youth are our future, but they need programs that are beneficial to them and helpful to them. So it has been a real challenge trying to decide which organizations we can support and which of those that we would like to support but we don't have enough funds.
But I would like to see in the future move toward shifting some of the funding more toward organizations that are providing programs that are helping our youths.
Q: What do you think the city needs to do to help curb the violence, particularly shootings, that seems to be escalating?
A: Crime is down, but yet we still have a fairly high number of incidents of crime-related issues. I think again going back to that relationship between the police department and the citizens of the community -- I think that is critical. I think (interim) Chief (Mike) West is doing a very good job trying to make that bond between citizens and the Police Department.
As a city councilman I want to make sure that we give police what they need in terms of resources that will be effective in curbing some of the crime that is going on in our city.
But I do think the citizens play a role, too. They have to be willing to reach out and talk to our officers, just as our officers need to be willing to get out of their vehicles and interact with the citizens in the community.