By Graham Sweeney
Municipalities throughout Shelby County will be filling positions for aldermen, mayor and school board members on Nov. 8, and Collierville is no different.
There are six candidates competing for two open seats on the Collierville Board of Education. Incumbent Wanda Chism is being challenged by Alissa Fowler for School Board seat Pos. 2. Keri Blair, Chelsea Glass, Heath Hudspeth and Jeremy Smith are all vying for School Board seat Pos. 4.
Early voting begins on Oct. 19 and election day is Nov. 8.
Incumbent Maureen Fraser is being challenged by William Boone for Alderman Pos. 1, while incumbent Billy Patton will face Jewel Jordan for Alderman Pos. 2.
Incumbent Missy Marshall will be challenged by Emily Fulmer for Alderman Pos. 4.
The aldermen candidates were recently asked to complete an election questionnaire supplied by the Collierville Herald – Independent. One candidate from each open alderman position (1, 2 and 4) will run in this week’s edition. Their opponents will run in next week’s edition.
• Maureen Fraser – Incumbent and candidate for Alderman Pos. 1
Age: 59
Current Occupation:
Alderman/Vice Mayor, Town of Collierville and Affiliate Broker, John Green and Co. Realtors
Education:
Graduated with Bachelor of Science, 1985, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.
Family:
Married, 1985, to David. Three children: Brittany, Andrew and Abby. All attended Collierville Elementary, Collierville Middle, and graduated from Collierville High.
Brittany attended Tulane University in New Orleans, earning her Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Neuroscience, and then graduated UTHSC College of Medicine.
She is currently at UAMS (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) in Little Rock completing her Residency in Vascular Surgery.
Andrew graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and is currently working on his MBA through Purdue, while working for Stratas Foods as National Account Manager in Food Service Sales.
Abby graduated from the University of South Carolina, Columbia S.C. She is a second grade teacher at Chapin Elementary, Chapin, S.C.
Organizations/Groups/Activities:
I currently serve on the Town of Collierville’s Parks Advisory Board and Tourism Board, as well as on Main Street Collierville.
I am a member of Collierville Rotary, Board member of the Collierville Balloon Festival and a member of the Church of the Incarnation.
• 1. List three significant issues in this election.
Committed to Our Safety
Collierville’s Police, Fire and new EMS Departments are top-notch. Recruitment and retention are key to their success, along with the best equipment, resources, training and competitive wages.
Committed to Our Schools
Our Collierville School System is the most sought after in the area. Our facilities and teachers are the best of the best. Our Collierville students deserve the finest education and experiences possible.
Committed to Our Fiscal Responsibility
Collierville is one of only 12 communities in Tennessee with a Moody’s AAA bond rating.
The town’s $110.7 million budget is carefully vetted each year, prioritizing the needs and wants of our citizens and staff to achieve a State-required balanced budget.
• 2. Specifically, how do you plan to deal with each of these issues, if re-elected?
I’ll continue to work in the best interest of every citizen of Collierville. I listen to all sides of an issue, gather all the information possible, then make the most considered, financially sound decisions.
• 3. What do you think is the biggest concern facing our community at this time, and why?
Public Safety — With the ever-increasing, and seemingly out of control, crime in Memphis, we need to understand we are not immune from spillover. We have to ensure our police and all first responders have all the necessary equipment and training they need to keep us safe. We need to continue to actively recruit officers and firemen and ensure that our salaries are competitive and attractive compared to other municipalities. We have the best police officers, firefighters, and EMTs in the Mid-South, and they always need to know we support them.
• 4. What specifically makes you best qualified for the position you are seeking?
I love Collierville. It’s been our home for 27 years. I live, work, and play here just like all my neighbors. I pay the same taxes, enjoy the same wonderful amenities and everything Collierville has to offer. And, I abide by all the same rules and regulations we make as elected officials. I will always do what is right by everyone in Collierville. I am so proud of what Collierville has grown from, to where we are now, and where we are going. I have always given my all to everything I do, I don’t intend to slow down anytime soon.
• Billy Patton – Incumbent and candidate for Alderman Pos. 2
Age: 52
Current occupation:
Business Owner of Patton Computers & Patton CPU Post Office & Patton Pharmacy
Education:
Masters & Bachelors Degree in Computer Science Engineering
Family:
Dr. Amy Patton (PharmD) Wife of 31 years, two Children Emily (21) and William (19) whom both attend college. Emily is a senior at CBU, and William is a Sophomore at OleMiss.
Organizations/Groups/Activities:
Board of Mayor & Aldermen, Library Board (Aldermen Liaison)
• 1. List three significant issues in this election.
Public Safety, Schools, Infrastructure
• 2. Specifically, how do you plan to deal with each of these issues, if elected?
We must maintain a strong Police & Fire Department. We must continue hiring only the best and brightest officers with integrity and character. We must make sure that they are adequately funded to protect our neighborhoods and businesses.
With the increase in population density, we will need to increase the visibility and headcount of our Police Department particularly in patrol.
Our Schools must continue to excel as the leader in this area, both in education and advancement of our students. We must not allow too many instances of high density neighborhoods that will put a capacity strain on our school facilities.
We need to work with the School Board and determine which schools are near capacity and develop a plan to address it.
Our Infrastructure investment needs to continue as we must maintain a reasonable paving schedule each year.
We currently maintain 732 lane miles and pave approximately 25-30 lane miles each year, but this is increased on average by 5 miles with new development. Our current paving schedule is 24-26 years and this needs to be at 14 years. We must find areas that will allow us to increase our paving budget. This is a must.
Our drainage issues also must continue to be addressed as we have older areas of our town that are in need of new upgraded drainage infrastructure.
• 3. What do you think is the biggest concern facing Collierville at this time, and why?
I believe allowing too many high density development projects is a major concern.
It seems that every developer/builder comes with a request to the Town to increase their density, do a PUD overlay, or modify their bulk requirements regarding reduction of setbacks. By doing so, we increase the strain on all of the Town’s public infrastructure at a cost to the existing tax base.
Our roads are overcrowded, our streets need paving, our school are reaching capacity, and all these things lead to the need of an ever increasing of taxes on our citizens to subsidize the high density granted to the developers.
• 4. What specifically makes you best qualified for the position you are seeking?
With my background in Technology and current track record of being a fiscal conservative, I am prepared to work with the rest of the BMA to tackle the problems
I have mentioned above.
With my office location, I am one of the most accessible members of the BMA to the residents of Collierville.
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen must remain a diversified board not stacked too heavily in any one occupation or profession.
I believe that I will add value as we move forward adopting new technologies for a brighter future of Collierville.
• Emily Fulmer – Candidate for Alderman Pos. 4
Age: 40
Current Occupation:
Instructor of Political Science, University of Memphis
Education:
Bachelor’s Degree: Religious Studies Major & Music Performance Minor, Stetson University 2004
Masters of Theological Studies: Vanderbilt University Divinity School 2008
Masters of Art: Political Science, University of Memphis 2018
Family:
Emily and her husband have two children, three dogs, one guinea pig, a couple backyard chickens, and honeybees.
Organizations/Groups/Activities:
Emily is a founding member of Collierville Community Justice, a member of Collierville Branch of the NAACP, a Union Member (UCS-CWA 3865), and a 2021 graduate of Leadership Collierville. She is helping to produce a documentary film on the Collierville Rosenwald School which was the only public school for Black children in Collierville from 1921 until desegregation. She spends her free time researching, preserving, and elevating the Black history of Collierville, volunteering to help Collierville’s senior citizens on limited income, and working in her garden growing plants that are native to this area.
• 1. List three significant issues in this election.
1. Fair representation
2. Affordable housing
3. Civic engagement
• 2. Specifically, how do you plan to deal with each of these issues, if elected?
1. To ensure that everyone has fair representation on the Board of Alderman, we need to update the election rules we set for ourselves. We need to draw voting districts so that every community has a chance to elect someone from their neighborhood who understands their specific needs and concerns. The current rules were established when Collierville had just a few thousand people, but now we are over 50,000 residents and the town limits have expanded geographically as well. Electing aldermen to the board from individual districts ensures that we have diverse viewpoints and areas of expertise on the board. And, since the Board of Mayor and Aldermen hand-select volunteer members to serve on the numerous town boards and commissions, we will also be able to have more racial and ethnic diversity as well as thought diversity at all levels. I will fight for voting districts in Collierville.
2. I believe that everyone who works in Collierville should be able to afford to live here if they would like. I also want our elders to be able to age in place in their current homes as long as they can, and be able to afford to move into assisted living when they need it. Affordable housing generally means that housing costs make up no more than 30 percent of your income.
Our leaders need to work together with residents and builders to create affordable solutions to our current housing crisis. Unfortunately, our current leaders have voted against developers who want to invest in housing for working families and limited-income seniors, and they continue to approve the demolition of smaller more affordable homes to make way for subdivisions that are out of range for most people. I will fight for housing that is affordable in Collierville.
3. Civic engagement is very important to me, and it’s a phrase you will hear candidates repeat a lot. But, civic engagement is not just telling people to get out and vote, or pointing out that anyone can run for office or serve on a town board. If we really want to encourage civic engagement then we have to remove the barriers that make it difficult for people to engage.
When people feel like their vote doesn’t matter then they are not as inclined to get out and vote. Drawing voting districts helps to reverse voter apathy because with districts, voters who have not had any representation could finally see that happen, and they will feel like their vote truly matters. Beyond voting districts, we also need leaders who listen to constituents.
For several years now, Collierville high schoolers and others have come to the Board of Alderman meetings requesting that they establish a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion town board as well as a Youth Advisory Council to help the board address growing concerns from our diverse communities. and emerging leaders. Instead of responding to those requests, the board asked the young people to stop speaking about it. Then they passed a resolution to limit who is allowed to speak during citizen comments.
Over and over we see residents coming to the board meetings begging the mayor and aldermen to help with stormwater runoff and flooding in their neighborhoods, but the issues are never addressed. I will fight to remove barriers to civic engagement. I will actually listen and respond to the citizens so that everyone who wants to get engaged feels encouraged to do so.
• 3. What do you think is the biggest concern facing our community at this time, and why?
We cannot build a strong future for Collierville on a shaky foundation. Fair representation is a foundational principle of democracy and without that, we will always be held back from being as strong as we can be as a community.
While this is my number one campaign issue, I am not the first person to bring this up.
For nearly 40 years, groups like the Collierville Civic Club, the Collierville Branch of the NAACP, and many life-long residents of Collierville have been asking for the town to draw voting districts.
When our board members are elected “at-large” (like we have it now), we end up with aldermen that are carbon copies of each other. The fact that they vote unanimously 99.5 percent of the time shows us that they all have the same point of view. But, when everyone has the same point of view, then they also have the same blind spots.
We need our board to have 360 degree vision so that we can be prepared for an uncertain future. When our board is strong, then we have smart growth, we can boost civic engagement, we can build a Collierville that is ready for anything!
• 4. What specifically makes you best qualified for the position you are seeking?
What makes me best qualified for Alderman, Pos. 2 is that I have concrete ideas and policy proposals that are based on the needs and concerns of the segments of our community that have been ignored for too long.
I have listened to them, educated myself about their issues, and we have brainstormed policy solutions together. Every part of my platform is built around an issue that I have brought to the board members directly, or have assisted others in bringing to their attention.
If the aldermen had shown any interest in listening to their constituents on these issues, I probably would not be running for alderman right now! I will listen to voters. I will not brush them off if they bring a concern to me.
When a voter shares their concerns, I will not dismiss their feelings and lived experiences. I know what it feels like to have our leaders sweep problems under the rug, and I will never do that to constituents if I am elected to serve.
