Two council seats are on the ballot in the Town of Smyrna’s election Tuesday.
Polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Town Hall on Market Street.
Three vie for the at-large seat
Incumbent Gerald Brown faces two challengers – Justin Capps and Dean Johnson.
Brown was first elected in 2021 and says Smyrna has a lot of infrastructure issues he wants to continue to address.
“There is a hodgepodge of various issues that you have to do piece by piece," Brown says. "Everybody wants it done yesterday, but you have to look at the whole structure of it, how do we accomplish it?”
Brown points to the town’s financial issues – noting things like water main breaks and other utility emergencies have required the town to seek state bonds to fix.
Brown also says he wants to see more community engagement with local government – noting he understands why residents are upset about council’s decision to double property taxes, but have not been involved enough to understand why it was needed.
“You have the assessments, you have the water and sewer that we had no control over, you have electric, all those things come together and when you don’t have an infrastructure that is up to par, and it’s nobody’s fault," he says.
Brown adds that the state is reviewing the town’s finances as well.
“The audit was decided about three or four months ago," Brown says. "They are only going to give us their observations of what we’ve done right, wrong, and different, so we can rectify it moving forward. But the challenges are that we have to be in pace with othe rmunicipalities that have various other issues.”
Capps is co-founder of the Ossuary, a nonprofit that “rescues” prior medical specimens.
"Everything I do is to give back to the community," Capps says. "I'm an odd fellow. Part of my creed is to care for society."
He ran for council unsuccessfully in 2019, and is running again this year because he says residents deserve better.
“If something isn’t changed, if something isn’t put to a stop and we don’t get to having a little bit more control over how our money is being used, we are about to find ourselves in some really, really bad situations," Capps says.
Capps says if elected, his first task will be a financial review, and potentially taking notes from Smyrna’s police department, which he says works to secure federal grants to operate and gives back some of its funding from the town.
Capps adds he was also troubled by the current council’s decision to double property taxes, noting the outcome of the state’s reassessment process is not yet known, and people living on fixed incomes will be negatively impacted.
“I’ve already said, if I’m elected, don’t cut me a check for a penny for these meetings. Donate it to a nonprofit, I don’t care, I don’t want a dime," he says. I’m not doing this because I need prestige, I’m not doing it because I need my picture on a wall, I’m doing it because I’m mad.”
Johnson is a firefighter and maintenance worker at Smryna School District. He did not respond to an interview request.
Two candidates for the 3rd District seat
Former city councilman Alvin Pope is vying to unseat the incumbent, Valerie Forbes in the Third District. Pope first served on council in 2016, filling the final year of District 2 Councilman Anthony DeFeo who stepped down.
Pope did not run for a second term due to illness, but is throwing his hat in the ring for the District 3 seat.
He says the town is experiencing infrastructure challenges to deal with growth, and it’s now a “heavy lift” due to some “unfortunate steps.”
“Whether it’s infrastructure or even making sure that the services and the things that are needed by the community are met, everything stems back to a fiscally balanced and transparent budget," Pope says.
Pope says council’s recent decision to double property taxes was “shocking” to residents, and suggests a gradual increase would have been better received.
Forbes declined an interview request.
