Hoping to be your mayor: Henry Jinnette
By Dennis Hill
Published in News on September 20, 2015 1:50 AM
Henry Jinnette
Henry Jinnette says he is running for mayor because he is concerned about the city of Goldsboro and the way it is being run.
There is too much wasteful spending, he said, and it needs to stop.
Jinnette said he first thought about running for the City Council seven years ago, when he stood up one night to make a comment at council meeting. He was cut short, he said, by a council member who told him that 'We don't care about the taxpayers here.'"
"My first thought was that we need a better City Council," Jinnette said.
Jinnette said first and foremost the City Council needs to develop a more conservative approach to spending money. The current council has spent money recklessly, he said, and new leaders need to be elected who will cut out the frills and waste.
"We need to eliminate the non-essentials," he said, adding that the local government's job is to provide essentials such as water and sewer and police protection. The current council has wasted a lot of money, he said, by taking on projects or giving money to groups that are non-essential. He said his philosophy of government is one that is a "lean, mean, green, efficient community machine."
"It's time to stop begging and borrowing," he said. "To decide to go into debt, that should be a vote of the people."
The city is not keeping enough money in reserve, Jinnette said. Its leaders have squandered money on unnecessary frills and not kept enough held back for a rainy day.
"I'm opposed to borrowing money for excess," he said. "We need to maintain a balanced budget."
Jinnette said that if the city took a more conservative approach to spending, taxes could be reduced and businesses and taxpayers would benefit.
Jinnette called for less regulation of business, saying he has listened to many merchants complain about the strict rules they have to deal with. Restaurants and other businesses hear about Goldsboro's tough business climate and look elsewhere, he said.
Jinnette also said the city's leaders need to do more to combat the blight that is rampant in some neighborhoods.
"I'm fed up with seeing slum landlords running around Goldsboro," he said. "It's time for something to be done."
A former member of the city's Appearance Commission, Jinnette said the city needs to improve the living conditions of its residents. That will help reduce crime, he said.
"It's time to put the crush on the landlord," he said, when asked what he would do to combat crime in the city.
He said the Streetscape project downtown should help bring that part of the city back to life, but that there needs to be better access to downtown.
"We need better signs to help people find downtown. It's easier to shop in Wilson than it is downtown Goldsboro," Jinnette said.
And there are other areas that need attention, he said. The work being done on Berkeley Boulevard is good, he said, but more needs to be done.
"We need some things done beyond Streetscape," Jinnette said. "I'd like to see South George Street four-laned."