Homewood Mayoral Candidate Jennifer Andress on Why She’s Running

Jennifer Andress, candidate for Mayor of Homewood, spoke with ALPolitics.com about her background, her experience, and why she’s running for Mayor:

“I am honored to be running for Mayor. I have served on the City Council for the last nine years. I have served Ward Five, and I've had a really fantastic experience,” Andress said. “It's been a huge honor, and I have a great relationship with my constituents. I'm extremely communicative with them, and I take what they say to me very, very seriously and work very hard for them. I want to take that same effort, that same energy and communication to the City.

“I am coming from the experience of having worked through the last year to put a referendum in front of the citizens of Homewood, to bring the council manager form of government to Homewood. We did have a successful outcome in September, where the majority of the citizens in Homewood voted to move to a council-manager form of government, which would bring a codified city manager to Homewood by state statute. In my opinion, and this is borne out by the courts—the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that this is the most transparent and the most non-political way—to have a city manager in a city.

“I was on the search committee that found Glen (Glen T. Adams), who was our City's very first city manager, a historic position. The first thing I will do is sign Glen up for four years to work with us. He has been amazing. He's already improved so much at the City already. We hired him at the first of March, and he started a day and a half after we officially hired him, and operations at the City are already so much improved. That's what I am looking to bridge is this government moving into the next form of government.

“I have the experience. This is not a job that you can show up and do on day one. You know? I know how to run meetings. I know Robert's Rules of Order. I know how to be a Committee Chair and President of the Council, which this Mayor will be. And you know, I've been on the dias for nine years, and I'm the person to continue moving forward into this next phase of government for Homewood,

“I have been sitting in committee meetings and sitting at City Hall several days a week for the last nine years, and serving my ward. And again, I'm really ready to bring that level of energy and commitment that I brought to my ward and communication out to the entire City. The one thing that I have found that's been successful for me for nine years is I've had a regular newsletter. It's been very, very impactful. You know, I feel like when my citizens, when my constituents, know you know why we're paving a road, or why we're not paving a road, or why this, or why that, or why I voted this on a zoning issue, or what are your opinions on that—this newsletter where I've directly hit people's inboxes at least a couple times a month, and opened up this line of communication, it has been really, really effective. I had somebody message me yesterday. We've got some, you know, road work going on in my ward. And somebody messaged me yesterday and said, ‘I'm really going to miss this newsletter when you're not our City Councilor anymore.’ And I said, ‘Well, hey, the good news for you is, you vote for me for Mayor, and I will do this on a city wide level.’ So that is really something I want to bring to the City and other areas, other ways that the citizens feel like they get the best communication. I'm ready to meet all of that head on.

“My experience in a professional capacity now, and for the last 10 years, or longer than 10 years, actually, as President of the Birmingham Track Club, has been sort of these quality of life issues—connectivity, safe pedestrian access. I've really worked hard to install sidewalks in my ward. We have three state roads that sort of encircle my area of the city, and I've worked with ALDOT to get safe passages across, to connect to our trails, to connect to other parts of the City. And, that's something again, I want to bring out city-wide, something we're already doing, and I want to continue and increase the pace of that, If you build a livable City where people want to visit and want to be, they're going to want to live there. They're going to want to put their business there. They're going to want to invest there. And so, those quality of life issues are really, really important to me, and I will continue on that path as well.

“And of course, you know our schools? I have two sons that have gone through the Homewood City School System, from pre-K all the way through graduation. My husband and I have lived in Homewood for 23 years. We raised both of our kids here, and they're both just doing amazingly well at Auburn. They're both on the Dean's list. It all came from the education that we received here in Homewood. That is just a huge priority of mine, to continue our successful relationship with Homewood City Schools. And of course, I love our Police and Fire Departments. I work very well with both Chiefs and the Departments there as well,” she concluded.

Andress will face Robin Litaker in the August 26th municipal election. For more information on the Homewood election, including instructions on registering to vote, see this link.

For more information on Jennifer Andress, follow her on social media or visit her campaign website, jen4hwd.com.