by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
John Peyton excused himself early from the breakfast meeting.
“I have to go to City Hall to find $40 million,” he said. “I’ve got one week to find it.”
Peyton and his team are in the hunt daily, trying to produce a balanced budget to take to City Council Tuesday evening.
“We have a deep hole to fill due to a fall off in revenues,” Peyton said during a visit to the Chamber’s Government Affairs Committee at the Chamber offices downtown. “We’re meeting every day, and we’ll get there.”
The meetings usually include the top players on the mayor’s new team: Walt Bussells, Sam Mousa, Steve Diebenow and Scott Teagle. Others are brought in as needed.
“They’re working hard on it,” said Brad Thoburn, who directs the legislative affairs area. “Night and day.”
Peyton said that the job was challenging, but not daunting.
“One big benefit is that we’re coming in after an excellent mayor [John Delaney,]” he said. “I’m not inheriting a mess.”
And, Peyton added a frequent theme from his two-year campaign to win the job.
“Government is a monopoly,” he said. “It has no competition. So, if we are to put the business practices that we, as business people, are used to, then we have to be aware of where we are.
“Government needs the perspective of business.”
He told the 60 people attending the meeting — the average monthly attendance is half that — that he will push his two main campaign themes: economic development and education.
“We must raise the per capita income, and we must provide our citizens with a toolbox that will help them move up,” he said.
“We have to do whatever we can to facilitate companies relocating here. There is a perspective that government is the largest barrier to a company’s move. We have to overcome that. We have to streamline the way we approach this issue, and we have to provide consistent answers.”
On education: “Our government structure does not have the mayor directly in the education system, and I’m not proposing any big changes. But, I feel the mayor’s office can help, and I’ve reached out. I went to the School Board and met with them and the superintendent, and I was amazed that I was the first mayor-elect ever to do that.
“I’ll continue to do everything I can.”