The Democratic Party of Knox County came together last night to celebrate the opportunity we have to transform our county and federal government in 2008.  Each county candidate received two minutes to present remarks to the crowd of nearly 200.  The following are my remarks:

My name is Cortney Piper. 

I’m running for Commission because I’m committed to transforming our county government into a truly citizen driven vehicle.

I see a need for Commissioners who are LEADERS, have INTEGRITY and can ENGAGE others to FOCUS on SOLUTIONS and move Knox County forward.

Continuing with initiatives like the Ethics Commission, conflict of
interest and nepotism policies have the ability to create a structure of government that meets the needs of our community first and foremost rather than catering to political cronyism.

I am committed to serving the Second District and Knox County residents by making myself 100% accessible for you to voice your concerns.

Let’s talk about education.  It makes up 2/3 of the county’s budget.
 
My commitment to education is clear.

I graduated from the University of Tennessee with honors both from the University and from the Southeastern Conference for academic excellence during my swimming career.  I continue my professional education with the Institute for Charitable Giving.

My experience as a fundraising professional taught me you can have the best plan for moving a vision forward.  But, if you don’t have the proper resources behind that vision, it will go nowhere.

Commission’s role in creating the best schools for our children begins with focusing resources on teacher and principal recruitment and retention, increasing accessibility to social services so our children can come to school and learn and allocating needed resources to our core city schools to alleviative overcrowding.

Lastly, Knox County has almost 360 miles of streams on the state’s list of most polluted and impaired waters. 

The city’s decision to sue the county over the stormwater ordinance is a good one.   The legal system is a good tool to remove politics from the decision making process and focus on what is right and what is just.  That’s protecting everyone’s right to clean water and property. 

My name is Cortney Piper.  I would appreciate your vote on February 5th. 

Most importantly, I encourage everyone to vote February 5th and be a part of transforming our county government into a citizen driven vehicle.
Thank you

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Citizen-Driven Government, Current Events, Education, Happenings, Land Use, Platform Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.