COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Come November, the Cities of Bryan and College Station will both have new Mayors serving in office for their respective areas.
One of the candidates for Mayor of College Station is John Nichols. Nichols has served on the College Station City Council for several years and has been highly involved in the community in several roles.
He is running against Jacob Randolph and Rick Robison in November.
We interviewed Nichols at Sweet Eugene's in College Station. Below are answers to some of the questions we had asked.
Question:
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you really want to build on what's pre-existing right now, is that correct?"
Answer:
"Well yeah, we're building on what previous councils have built. There’s another area for economic development that really is an important aspect of the city and that’s Northgate. If you take a look at Northgate, we’ve got a lot of high-rises, we’ve got an older culture in the bar business there…some of which is really good, some of which causes extensive problems for police and fire safety problems and it costs us a lot of money to manage that area.”
Question:
“I know that one area that’s been a big controversy for Northgate right now is putting the people’s safety first or putting the profit of the bars first. You know, you have bar-owners who want to keep their bars open until 2:00 a.m., but you also have police who want to make it a safer area. Which side do you stand on that issue?”
Answer:
“Well…the charter of the City of College Station says our primary responsibility is health, safety, and welfare of the City of College Station and that includes students and visitors. So health, safety, and welfare come first. Certainly we want any business to have that economic viability, but we’re not going to sacrifice health, safety, and welfare for that profit.”
Question:
"When you realized that Mayor Mooney wouldn't be the Mayor anymore, what made you decide to go from Place 5 to run for the Mayor's seat?
Answer:
"Well, for those that have been around a while, they may remember that I ran for Mayor in 2016, so I indicated an interest in that center seat. At that time, I lost that race by a few-hundred votes...didn't deter me particularly. I picked up my other pieces and the next seat that was open I ran for and got back on council...because I really enjoy being involved. I think it's an important public service."
Question:
“Can you walk me through some of what you've been able to accomplish on the council?”
Answer:
“I think the focal point of my involvement on the council has been on the budget. We've spent a lot of effort to manage the finances of the city in the face of rapid growth…have kept the tax rate among the lowest in the State which is great for a city of our size, which is something that I think is helpful to citizens and it positions us in a good place from a bond-rating point-of-view.”
Question:
“Since you mentioned taxes, you know, I think there are some that argue that taxes are a little high right now, would you say that that’s completely false?”
Answer:
“We lowered the tax-rate by a penny this year to offset some of that increase. Total taxes per average or median household will go up about $120 a year or about $10-$12 a month…that is necessary to meet inflationary costs….”
Question:
"If you were elected Mayor, what would be some of the goals you would want to see accomplished during your term?"
Answer:
"Well my first job, as I said before, my first job as Mayor, my primary goal would be to provide leadership and structure to the work of the city council, make sure the council is in harness with city management so that our policy-making and our budget-setting work that the council does is in line with the planning activities and the needs of the city."
If you'd like to learn more about Nichols' campaign, you can visit his campaign page on Facebook.