Randy Taylor talks priorities for Salisbury's future, stressing fiscal responsibility
With his lead holding and growing through the first round of mail-in ballot counting, Randy Taylor is already preparing for the first months of his term as the next mayor of Salisbury.
The slim 65 votes that separated he and Megan Outten after the first canvass of mail-in ballots was enough for the lifelong businessman and real estate developer to set his mind to fulfilling campaign promises like prioritizing fiscal responsibility.
"I've been invested in all the things that were discussed in the City Council, so I came to the table with the largest depth of experience in all those areas," Taylor said. "I'm extremely happy to bring together my private interests and nonprofit involvement to the city level. We've got to check the box of fiscal responsibility and that's the baseline of our conversation. We need to move beyond that and start talking about conceptual goals."
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Financial responsibility, crime rate concerns and more top agenda
Among keys to long-term growth of the city, Taylor noted, are neighborhood improvements across the board as well as transitioning more residents to home ownership from simply renting.
Despite downtown being a largely divisive issue during the campaign, Taylor stopped short of saying its development needed to cease, saying only it would continue in a much more financially responsible way.
"The challenges in Salisbury have been relatively the same for the past 35 years. We've made incremental improvements on some things, and we can improve more as we go along. Financial responsibility, neighborhood improvements, downtown (development), and crime rate concerns are always at the top of the list," Taylor said.
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Economic issues like poverty are not new, Taylor noted, when he cited 25% of the city residents live below the poverty line. With a median household income of residents above the poverty line at about $48,000 a year, he argued the Office of the Mayor should be cognizant of the needs of the most vulnerable segments of the population.
For that reason, he would look to build a budget that includes initiatives like mental health care, homelessness, after-school programs to impact at-risk youth and crime prevention. He said his term would also include partnerships to improve the overall relations between the mayor's office and city organizations.
"I will be putting together a volunteer transition team and we'll discuss many of these topics. While I'm very optimistic about the people that work for the city, this team will help develop a platform and goals," Taylor said.
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The small 166-vote lead on election night Outten had over third place finisher Jermichael Mitchell in the mayoral race suggested voters were split on what they perhaps saw as ideologically similar candidates. Combined, the two totaled 1,786 votes in the unofficial results.
"I think my efforts in the community really resonated with voters. I was a very hands-on candidate, and we were knocking on doors daily. We really got a sense of the bigger concerns facing the city, and it helped I was already on the City Council," Outten said.
Taylor, who differentiated himself early in the race as a fiscal conservative, was perhaps the beneficiary of his distinctive platform for the city.
Outten noted she will continue to serve out the remainder of her term as the District 3 councilperson. She added she has not yet decided if another campaign for city mayor is in her future.
"Three-way municipal races are always interesting, but we had three very unique candidates with equally unique platforms. We saw a good draw of voters come out this year," Outten said.
The second canvass of all remaining mail-in ballots will take place on Friday, Nov. 17, at 9 a.m. as well as a count of the provisional ballots cast in this election.
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This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: What will Randy Taylor seek for early Salisbury goals? He lays it out.
