An interview with Wayne Collins

Wayne Collins is running for the position of Lenoir City mayor against Mayor Tony Aikens in the Nov. 5 election. Collins spoke to The News-Herald by phone from his booth at the early voting location on Oct. 24. This interview has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.

YOU’RE FROM HARRIMAN. HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN LENOIR CITY AND WHAT BROUGHT YOU HERE?

I lived in Tennessee all my life. I’m originally from Roane County. Joined the military in 1985 under Ronald Reagan. Served four years active duty at Grissom Air Force Base, Indiana. … When I came out of the service in ‘89, I moved back to Roane County. When I hired on with the (Tennessee Air National Guard) I wanted to be halfway between Roane County and McGee-Tyson because my mom was still alive at the time, and if she needed anything, I didn’t want to have to drive for an hour to get there … and I wanted to be in a nice area and so forth. Back then, when you get off the I-40 interstate all the way into Lenoir City, it was all cow fields and pastures. And so it was a pleasant city. I’ve been here since 1993.

My favorite thing are the people, I mean, really is. I believe in God, family and country, in that order.

(My least favorite thing is) putting the cart before the horse. I’m all for growth, but you don’t grow the way we’ve been growing without putting the infrastructure in.

When you’ve got traffic — and people right now are facing the traffic from the tie-ups on the interstate, but that aside — you go down to Lenoir City and go through the traffic when it’s on a normal day, and it’s obnoxious.

Go to any of the schools here when the schools are open and traffic’s backed up. They’ve not addressed that problem since ‘93 and they still haven’t addressed it. They keep kicking that can down the road. Let’s fix these things. Let’s fix what is broken, and then worry about the rest of the stuff.

YOU SPENT 26 YEARS IN THE MILITARY, FIRST IN THE U.S. AIR FORCE AND THEN AS AN AIRCRAFT MECHANIC IN THE TENNESSEE AIR NATIONAL GUARD.

DESCRIBE YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE, AND HOW YOU WOULD WORK WITH ALL MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL AND OTHER COUNTY OFFICIALS.

First of all, I’ve had leadership training through the military. You don’t — and this is the wonderful thing — I don’t want people in government, especially City Council, that agree with me all the time.

I want people to say, “Hey, Wayne, you know, I think you got it wrong. You need to look at it this way.” And give me an opposing argument. Because I like to think I’m open-minded enough, and I know I am, to listen to the other side.

But in the end, very much in the end, whatever city council does, whatever any of the city workers do, they better be considering that their boss won’t be the mayor. The taxpayers are. And so any time that they address the public, it should be respectful. Even if the guy’s sitting there on a soapbox, ranting and raving, have the patience to listen to him.

And be professional. “Yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am” goes a long way everywhere, in every state and every country. People deserve that, at the minimum, that’s what they deserve.

But they also deserve ... everyone that is making the rules and the regulations, every time the city makes a rule, every time the city makes a code or whatever, somebody’s losing a right. So they need to really, when they start thinking about what they’re going to do, they need to understand how it’s going to affect not only that resident or residents, but how it’s going to affect everyone as a whole … Everybody should be on the same page as far as that’s concerned. And that’s all I want. Everybody has a different style the way they do things. That’s life.

And a true leader understands that. He understands that, not everybody’s going to see it my way. And sometimes I’m not going to see it their way.

But the mayor is supposed to be completely neutral in all this. And if it comes down to it, you’ve got a city council. They’re supposed to be the ones that independently make the rules and the regulations. And in case of a tie, they and I would step in and be the deciding factor. But to me, when city council makes a decision, when they decide that they’re going to make a code or even a city ordinance or whatever, they’re supposed to get up out of that seat, walk around that table, out of their chair, walk around that table, get themselves in front of that podium. And even though they’re a city council member, they’re supposed to address the city council and read every, not sit up there and read it, like they’re, you know — that’s an authoritative attitude.

But they’re supposed to get down that podium, just like any other citizen, and read whatever legislation they want to pass.

And even if I agree with it and the whole city council agrees with it, you’re supposed to let the people know what the pros and cons are of what you’re passing. And you’re supposed to even debate it.

The most important foundation of our government is debating. You’re supposed to debate why it’s a good proposal, or why the cons are so bad that you don’t want to pass it. And that’s the way government’s supposed to work.

It’s not supposed to be going in there and reading a code number or a legislation number, and then everybody throw their hands up. Nobody knows what they’re voting for when they throw their hands up. Transparency is huge to me. Everybody needs to know where their money’s going, why it’s going, and what legislation’s being passed and how it affects them.

Somebody’s got to say, “enough, let’s do it the right way,” let the people know what’s going on, and so forth. I’ll be 62, I hate to say it, but I’ll be 62 next month. I don’t want to do this for eight years. I think eight-year term limits should be a mandatory for anybody in government.

And, you know, if I can try to get some of this straightened out for the people, I would, I’d love to.

The city and the county should be working together for what’s best for both. And that’s not happening. There’s petty vendettas going on and so forth. It needs to stop. It really does.

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU WANT TO ADDRESS IF ELECTED, AND HOW WOULD YOU GO ABOUT ACCOMPLISHING IT?

One thing I want to change more than anything is to give the people back control of their own, their own destiny and their government. … If you go to a city council meeting, you’re lucky to have 10 people there at any time when they have a council meeting. I would like for the, once a month, for a neighborhood to get a hold of me and let me know where they would like to meet me at in their neighborhood and have town hall meetings at least once a month to find out, to find out what their concerns are. And whatever the mayor is making, I will not touch that money for a year. Not one year, I will not touch it. And at the end of the year, I’m going to ask every taxpayer and every voter that voted in the Lenoir City election to meet me over at the municipal building and tell me what charities they want that money to go to. I will not take a salary for a year. Sometimes you have to put country before self. And that’s what, if our government would actually understand that, that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. Country before self. Citizen before self.

HAVE YOU EVER HELD ANY TYPE OF OFFICE OR SERVED IN A SIMILAR ROLE? HOW DID YOU COME TO THE DECISION TO RUN?

That’s all I’ve served. I’ve dealt with politicians in the state and the federal level.

And also here in the local level. That’s one of the reasons I’m getting involved here, because this is not, to me, this is not what government is supposed to be.

I was at one of the meetings, and the mayor here decided he wanted to raise a food tax to build a sports complex. It wasn’t for a senior citizen complex.

And one of the council members said, “Well, what are we going to do with the rest of the money?” And they were like, “well, we might give some for the school, and we might give some to the park and rec.”

So when it came time, and I went up and had my say. I told them, I said, when you have a 40-year high of inflation, and people living paycheck to paycheck, credit card to credit card, government needs to cut down. They don’t need to be spending. And when Mayor Aikens looked me in the eye and he goes, “I want it.” I mean, he didn’t care. He didn’t care that people were suffering. “I want it.” That was exactly what he told me. “I want the sports complex.” The sports complex is not a necessity. The government is not to give luxuries.

They’re supposed to give you your necessity … I sat there, and I was just flabbergasted. And then I had a seat. My three minutes was up. He told me to have a seat. I had a seat.

And so I got up to rebut him. And he looked me in the eye and he goes, “You already had your three minutes.” That was it. That’s not government.

That’s what made me decide to run. You should never, nobody in government should ever talk over you that way.

AS A RETIREE, HOW DO YOU LIKE TO SPEND YOUR DAYS, AND WHO ARE THE PEOPLE YOU SURROUND YOURSELF WITH MOST?

My neighbors … A lot of family and stuff. I love to hunt and so forth. But, you know, I’m a disabled veteran. I don’t get around as much as I used to. Knees are gone and so forth and so on. But I like to get out and talk to people. Every day I wake up, look down, don’t see a toe tag’s a good day. But, you know, honestly, the people in my neighborhood … the people here are just so genuine. They go out of their way to help me.

I voted twice for a Democratic governor, which was Phil Bredesen, because Phil Bredesen was a businessman.

I look at who I think is best for the country, regardless of the political affiliation. You know, now I’ve got moral standards that I go by. As long as I think you’re the right person for the job, I’m going to vote for you.

Why would I want somebody that thinks exactly like me (on city council)? When you pick your mate in life, you don’t want to pick a clone. You don’t want somebody that doesn’t have their own mind.

Democrats and Republicans ... used to be civil, very civil to each other, and I’m that generation. I don’t go in that voting booth and say, “OK, straight Republican ticket” if I think somebody’s better.

They said, “Are you going to vote for Trump?” I said, “Yes, ma’am.” And she waved her hand, like, you know, I’m not going to vote for you. Well, and she has that prerogative. She really does.

Everything that I put out there has my name on it. I don’t back down from my beliefs, my core values. I don’t play both sides of the field. I tell people, if you want a politician, stick with the status quo. I will never be a politician. Don’t want to be, and I don’t strive to be. Politicians are just that. They don’t care about the people. They just want to stay in and make the money. I want to make a difference.

I want people to know that regardless of who they are, what their status is, whoever they vote for, they got just as much right and voice in this country, in this city, in this state, even on the federal level. They got just as much right as the next person. Period.

I never questioned in my military career who I was supposed to defend. I knew who I was supposed to defend. It didn’t matter who you were. As long as you had that American, you know, you were an American, that’s the bottom line. And that’s the way I look at Lenoir City.

You’re American citizens. I don’t care what your beliefs are. I don’t care what your religious affiliations and so forth. Governments should never care. They should just be concerned that you’re a taxpayer.

These people, when they get their paycheck, that’s your tax dollars. That’s not their paycheck. That’s your tax dollars. And they need to have that mentality.

Well, they’ve seen what they’ve got … You’ve got an unlimited resource when you’re in government. It’s called the taxpayer. But where’s the accountability? ... They do not control their spending. … They’ll pass another tax. It needs to stop.