Hanceville City Council Place 4 debate

0:19 See, I'm not an awkward silence person. Hello and welcome to the beautiful

0:28 Bailey Center auditorium on the grounds of Wallace State College in Hansville. Thank you to our gracious host Wallace

0:35 State College and Dr. Vicky Carlos. The 2025 Tribune debate series and question and answer forums continues today with

0:45 municipal elections, more specifically the Hansel municipal election. These events are designed to give the public

0:52 more unfiltered answers without the questions ahead of time, direct comparisons, and meaningful conversation. Today, we continue our

1:01 focus on the candidates running for council place one, place three, place four, and mayor of Hville. We now move

1:10 on to place four with Cameron Row. Mr. Santiago had a conflicting schedule which would not allow him to be present.

1:19 He did express his willingness to answer questions and stated he truly wished he

1:24 could have been president. Quote, "I appreciate the invitation to the debate at Wallace State Community College.

1:32 However, I'll be in Chicago on business from August 14th to the 21st, so I won't

1:38 be able to participate on the 16th. I'm sure it will be a great event, and I'm

1:43 sorry to miss it. Thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to future

1:48 events. Warm regards Oscar Oscar Santiago Hansel City Council candidate seat 4. So we shall proceed with a

1:57 question and answer format but don't worry I will have some follow-ups. The Tribune works diligently to reach every

2:04 candidate but a c if a candidate declines to respond to emails or calls

2:10 there is only so much we can do. The invitation stands. The forum is open. If

2:14 candidates cannot attend or do not attend, an empty chair will sit beside those who do. This has been done at all

2:22 debates in the past and this year. With all of that being said, let's get on

2:27 with it. Now, for the rules for the candidate, no electronic devices permitted. Questions?

2:37 Uh since this is a question and answer format, it will just go back and forth

2:43 between us. >> Uh you will have a 60-second open opening statement. It can be prepared.

2:50 The time allotted for each question will be two to three minutes since this is a

2:54 question and answer. Uh your closing statement will be two minutes and uh without any notes. uh you won't

3:04 have to worry about rebuttals etc any questions I may have from your from your

3:08 answers facts only no accusations without proof uh as this will only allocate more time voters deserve

3:17 substance over slogans talking points will be enough so let's begin if you would like to uh opening statement

3:24 >> all right hey guys my name is Cameron um I am I've been living in Hville since uh

3:32 2021. Um I'm an active member in the community. I serve on the planning

3:38 board. Um I also have a local business that's downtown Hansville. Um my my personal look into this city is to

3:48 make it as great as it can possibly be. I'm have multiple conversations with a

3:53 lot of the locals in the town about building this community and making it

3:59 bigger than what it is. Besides everything that's happened over the last couple years, um I feel like we can we

4:07 can stand our ground and make it more presentable for more businesses to come

4:12 in. Um I wish he he could have been here because I think it would have been a lot more fun

4:19 debate. Um but just moving forward, I'm looking to build this community as much

4:26 as I can and with the help of everybody else. >> All right. Thank you. And we will get

4:32 started with the questions. Question number one is city specific concerns. What are three what are the three most

4:42 urgent needs in Hansville? >> Um in my personal opinion and views, I do stand on the statement that we do

4:51 need the police department. I do think it's going to take a little bit of time

4:54 to get that rebuilt in place to where we don't have any problems moving forward.

5:00 Um, second thing is aesthetically, I think coming from a graphics background and a marketing and visual appearance

5:11 background, I can tell you for a fact that Hansville needs some more publicity

5:15 visually other than just, you know, from the mail, from um the newspaper, from

5:24 Facebook. We need to get more standing out like they were trying to talk for um

5:29 group three was talk about. Um we need to have more signage directing traffic

5:36 from 31 into Hansville from the very beginning of Hansville at Johnson's Crossing all the way down to

5:43 Garden City and therefore from the interstate all the way to back towards Holly Pond. Um, aesthetically,

5:52 everything has kind of went down over time. No one's been doing a great job

5:57 getting everything rebuilt, but obviously things take money and it takes time. Um, looking at the proposal book that I

6:05 looked at from 2016, it hasn't moved as much as what I think it needed to be moved since that time.

6:13 um there's a lot more improvements that could happen a whole lot faster than

6:17 what has appeared so far. Um my personal opinion, the third thing um would be

6:27 most of the businesses that are in Hansville need to have more circulation of people coming into the community. um

6:40 which I know falls a lot more back onto the whole digital the visual side of

6:44 things. Um like pushing like these events. We need a better idea in place to basically get people to

6:54 want to come down here because right now most people see the stuff going on and

6:58 then they don't even though it's believe it or not our events are like half the

7:03 cost of most places from Cullman or even down in Gardenale or Fultonale. So, I mean, you would think it would be

7:11 a plea pleasing to have lower fees for potentially making more money, at least

7:18 in my opinion. So, >> all right. And uh I know you mentioned signage and uh redirecting traffic. So,

7:28 uh my followup would be how would you go about that? And would you want to put a

7:34 board together with uh businesses and residents to help strategically place those or just with the council?

7:42 >> Um we could do it but with just the council. Um we can put a board together

7:47 but personally I think that's kind of funds that have kind of already been

7:51 allocated. That would be a lot easier to have the council just manage that. Um

7:56 obviously with the elected mayor on that approval. Um, aesthetically it's not as expensive as what most people think.

8:06 Now, when you get into bigger like monument signs, that's when stuff starts getting more expensive, but we only need

8:12 something like that in the main part of downtown. Like entry signs and stuff

8:18 like that for the uh the DOT signs, they direct traffic better than most people

8:24 think. Um, but it's more of a consistent thing. People don't pay attention going

8:29 down 31. They put blinders on and don't look left and right. That's from my point of view of being a

8:36 business for two and a half years. So, thank you for that. And we'll move on to

8:43 question number two. And this involves public works projects. Which infrastructure project in Hansville

8:51 should be addressed immediately and why? Um, for first off, in my opinion, I

8:58 personally think that the road systems need to be fixed first. Um, because it's

9:03 goes back to the appealing side of things. When you're looking at roads that have potholes, they have dent, they

9:08 have cracks, people are feeling this. They're they're focused on what the road is doing instead of what's around them.

9:16 Visually, people can pay attention to more than just the road if they're not

9:20 having to deal with problems. All right. And uh we'll move on to question number three.

9:32 Community services. What additional programs or services would you advocate for in Hanswater? There's in my opinion from what I've

9:47 heard and what I've seen there is a little bit of a drug epidemic that's in

9:51 Cole or in Hansville more than a lot of places. Personally, I think I know we

9:57 already have a company that's in Hansville for like um women for pregnancies and stuff like that. So, if

10:04 we could get more on the other end of the spectrum of people that have

10:08 problems that need assistance and taking care of to better themsel and the community, it would potentially lean

10:17 more to pour to pour more back into the citizens and take care of our community.

10:22 >> So, follow up to that would be how would you go about uh paying for that?

10:29 >> There's a lot of ways to do that. Uh grants are definitely one of them

10:33 because it goes back into a governmental disability. Um you can you can kind of push more of

10:40 the lead with that. Um if we look back more into like I mean I

10:47 know it's kind of hard to say this but like more back into the arrest of the

10:52 population of our community that's had those problems. you can kind of guide the government and guide the ability to

10:59 add those grants by seeing a need for the help. >> Okay, thank you for that.

11:07 >> Um, we'll move on to question number four, which is residential quality of

11:12 life. How would you ensure new development does not does not negatively affect existing neighborhoods?

11:23 I think it's more of a perspective. So when you're looking at a new

11:28 development, yes, in one side of the of the story, you're looking at it as well,

11:33 this is impeding on in my property and causing problems in my property. But

11:38 being on the planning board, when we developed when we agreed to help the

11:43 reszoning for the 76 houses that are going up behind Dollar General, we tried

11:49 to account with the six people that were in the planning board to try to figure

11:52 out a way to get them to force the help infrastructure. So from the plumbing,

11:58 the sewage, the roads, the lighting, um directing traffic where lights needed to be, the developers had to help fix those

12:08 situations and not let the city just rely on the situation. >> Yeah. And so if someone,

12:19 since you said you're on planning committee, uh if you had a uh new

12:25 development that came in, let's say a strip mall or shopping center or small

12:29 shopping center and it was trying to or it was trying to reszone from

12:35 residential to business, what would be the steps that you would take with the neighbors?

12:44 The biggest thing is getting everybody's in the community's opinion. Um, kind of letting people see what the

12:51 potentials are of letting that growth happen. Um, personally, like if we let's just use an example. Let's just say

12:58 Costco, okay? Everybody around here, I know we go to DWG, we go to Walmart, we

13:05 go to Dollar General. If we were to get a Costco just revenue-wise into Hansville,

13:15 there's not a Costco besides Huntsville, Madison, and Birmingham. No point in doing the one that they're

13:24 about to put in Irondale because it's still just as far as Hoover. Um it would

13:31 draw everybody around our community all the way from Decatur to basically Birmingham. um which would lead more people into

13:39 shopping in Hansville, drawing more people to the little small town of downtown Hansville. um getting more

13:46 people and it gives more of an incentive to other companies like uh Home Depot

13:52 um more eating vicinity or more eating places um that are not just strictly

14:00 franchise places um more locally owned places. How was the phrase? So yeah. >> Okay.

14:12 All right. We'll move on to question number five. This is a fun one. Budget

14:16 responsibility. How will you review and analyze budget items before approving them? Coming from a business owner,

14:32 budgeting is not fun. There's so many things that you have to have a leeway with, like you have to

14:38 learn how to make one thing work and another one not for that situation.

14:43 Obviously, a budgeting plan for a four to five year window is going to be a lot

14:47 easier in my opinion to budget for instead of yearbyear. Um, I know we have

14:52 to go year by year for the most part. Um, I will be honest, I'm not personally a

14:59 good numbers guy when it comes to that. I'm good with numbers, just not on the

15:04 budgeting side of things. Personally, Nolan is the perfect person on council for that from everything that I've

15:12 talked to and deal with him as as a tenant. It he's great with numbers and

15:18 that's how I can go around. >> So, you would seek out as >> I would seek out personally.

15:22 >> Okay. >> All right. Well, that brings us to conflict resolution. How would you mediate disputes between

15:31 residents, developers, developers, and city departments and department heads? Personally, I think I'm pretty good at

15:42 conflict resolution. Um, I'm not a very hot-headed person. I I analytically analyze everything down

15:51 to a tea. So, I look at all the perspectives all the way to figure out

15:56 where the problem is and see if there's a resolution for that problem. Um,

16:02 going between our different departments, I know that would be great insight because I'm going to bring up different

16:08 conclusions that they're not thinking about or looking at. And they're also going to do the same thing for me.

16:13 They're going to show me different perspectives that how they're looking at doing their job versus me looking at it

16:20 as an outsider. >> So, would you keep an open line of communication or would it be difficult

16:27 to get in touch with you? >> I'm a business owner. My doors on my

16:31 numbers on the front door. Anybody can call me any day. I answers the phone 24

16:36 hours a day just about. >> All right. Thank you. And that will take

16:40 us to question number seven. Citywide policy impact. What is your stance on the absence of a

16:49 police department? Would you be for or against bringing back the Hansville Police Department? Please elaborate.

16:59 Yes, as an open-ended question, yes, I would bring back the Hansel Police Department. It makes it more a

17:08 communitydriven approach instead of having, you know, outsiders of Cullman Police Department down here 247. I do personally think

17:16 that it's not going to be uh we're going to push everything under the rug and

17:20 then it's just going to flip and the covers are going to be perfect. It's the

17:23 best way I can look at it. It's going to be more of like a two to threeyear plan.

17:28 Um, going back like the other candidates were talking about it, you're going to have to have a lot of

17:36 things in put in place to force the negativity and the problems out of

17:44 the situation before they ever start the situation. going through with a fine tooth comb of

17:52 what the background is, figuring out how to get them approved, get them their

17:56 qualifications correct, and making sure there is no way that there is a loophole

18:01 when you hire somebody for the div for the department for the for the town. So,

18:07 >> okay. >> And that takes us to question number eight, which is long-term city

18:16 development. What is your 5 to 10 year vision for Hsville and what first steps would you

18:24 take to get there? My five-year vision is to going back to aesthetically pleasing.

18:35 Being a business owner for two years, we've got to get Hansville. you I know a lot of people go out and

18:42 they see all these things like up in Hansville you see these signs everywhere

18:45 that say beautifification all over the place. You got to make h we've got to make

18:51 Hansville more appealing to have people come in once they get past the stigma of

18:56 what all the problems that have happened over the past year and a half. It's

19:00 going to get people to not pay attention and look forward instead of behind at

19:04 the recent situations. Um, personally me to help move that forward is kind of

19:14 put put to help put together basically a new action of the proposed appearances of everything in Hansville

19:21 to basically give mockups to show what the buildings and what the places could

19:25 look like being brought back to life. Make them restored. make them help Nolan

19:31 restore most of these buildings downtown to where people actually can see them and we can actually see signage on them

19:37 and where we can like say like the the thrift store helping them get signage

19:42 back up to where people know that it's actually open instead of there's just

19:45 one sign up and there's like a half a sign. It's fixing problems that make our

19:51 town a lot more beautiful. Even though it's beautiful right now for the most

19:56 part, it just needs an uplift in my opinion. >> Okay. >> So, would you uh want to sit down with

20:06 the community members? Would you want to have a town hall to kind of see what

20:10 they want to to do? And >> would you be open to that type of forum?

20:15 >> I'm perfectly open with if we could we could have a an open debate. Now, I do

20:20 agree that I do think that our meeting times would need to be changed.

20:25 I don't I do kind of agree that we don't need to be at a 5:00 meeting because

20:30 most people get off at 5. So, how are you going to have the community there if

20:36 nobody can make it there? That kind of defeats the purpose of having an open

20:40 community conversation. >> And I'll ask one more on that. Um, since all council meetings have a pre-counsel

20:48 meeting, usually last about an hour, hour and a half, and then they go into

20:52 the meeting, what time would you what time would you be uh feel most

20:58 appropriate for the meeting to start? >> Personally, I think we could just push

21:02 it out one hour. That gives people because a lot of people in my that I think a lot of

21:08 people that are in Hansville, most of them don't work in Hansville. Most of

21:12 them are typically within 30 to 45 minutes of our building. That gives them

21:17 a 15 minute window to get everything ready and then a 30 to 45 minute drive

21:22 to the meeting if they want to attend the meeting. Okay. Thank you so much.

21:29 Now we're going to go to an audience question. This may sound familiar. Will you make a commitment to be at each

21:38 and every community event as a city council member from grand openings, business milestones, events, and so

21:46 forth? And if if you cannot make it, will you make a public statement as to

21:54 why you will not be there and follow up with a local business when you're

21:58 available? >> I'd be happy to either way. Um, personally, I know who asked this

22:05 question and he knows I'm all about helping everybody in our community as much as I possibly can and especially

22:12 the def the new businesses because it's it's what I do for a living. I mean,

22:20 I enjoy making businesses look better. So, if I can be at their meeting when

22:25 they grand opening, I'd be happy to be there to help to assist. >> All right. Thank you so much for

22:32 answering the questions. We, you know, it's kind of short, you know, a little

22:36 question to answer, but uh we're going to move on to your closing statement, so

22:42 >> feel free. Okay, >> just a couple more things that I would personally like to elaborate. I do think

22:48 we need to start looking at different zoning situations throughout our town. Um, there's a few things that I

22:55 personally think that Cullman and other cities throughout around Hansville are trying to approach into Hansville, which

23:03 is making us smaller. So, we need to figure out ways to annex more places in

23:08 to help situations. Um, it just brings more growth and then helps our community, helps our community

23:18 grow, make our, you know, housings more affordable, more houses in, bring more people in.

23:27 So, >> all right. Thank you so much for coming out today and uh being willing to uh

23:35 answer our questions. And uh we want to thank Wallace State College and Dr.

23:40 Vicki Carlos for allowing us to uh participate in this debate and forum here on the campus. Uh, I also want to

23:50 thank everyone who came out today that's in the audience and everyone who watched

23:54 at home. Um, and uh, we wish everyone the best. We thank y'all again and we'll

24:02 move on to the mayor debate next. Thank you.