Candidate for Knoxville Mayor Ivan Harmon, talked about himself, hard work, and the issues in a candid one on one interview with me, recently in the Bearden area of Knoxville. The results were interesting, surprising and pure Ivan.
We sat down together for breakfast and some fairly good coffee at the Food City deli on Kingston pike. I asked him to tell me a little about himself and what his goals would be as mayor.
“I’m originally from Greene County.” Ivan said. “ I moved here in 1977 to work for Giant Food Market on Merchants road, where the Outback Steak House is now. I’ve been here 40 years. I am 63 years old and I am not looking for another job after this. I just want to provide Knoxville with the best leadership I can.”
“I went to Chuckey- Doak high school in Greene County. The high school got its name because the community had two high schools. One was called Chuckey and the other was called Doak. People didn’t want to loose either of them, so when they combined the schools, they combined the names too.”
I asked.” Do you have family here?”
“ Yes I do. My wife’s name is Jane and I have three children. I have a daughter, Amy, and two sons, Scott Harmon and Steven Harmon. I also have 4 grand kids. Two grand sons and two grand daughters.”
Ivan said he has worked and lived in Knoxville most of his adult life.
“In 1971 I got discharged from the army after serving two years, got married and went to work in the grocery business for Giant Food Market. “ said Ivan. “I was in the grocery business for about 17 years. My company sold out to Food Lion and I worked for them for about a year and got a job with a cookie manufacturer. I worked for them for two years and for the next 8 years after that I worked for the City of Knoxville Engineering and Storm Water department.”
“ I have been interested in politics here for 22 years. I served two years on the School Board, 12 years on City Council, and 8 years on County Commission.” Said Ivan as we munched on bacon and eggs.
“What are your political leanings?” I asked. “ Do you consider yourself to be a conservative, liberal, or a moderate?”
“I am a conservative.” Said Ivan. “ I believe we need fewer taxes and less government on the people. People need to be allowed to manage their own lives. We need to keep our taxes low and city services high”
“Why do you want to be mayor?” I asked.
Ivan said he is in this race because he loves people and wants to serve the citizens of Knoxville. With the economy the way it is, people need help. People are becoming unemployed and food prices and fuel prices are up and wages are down. “ I know that government doesn’t create jobs, but I want to work with small businesses that need help because they do create the jobs.” Ivan thinks less government and more help and encouragement will cause small businesses to hire new people
When I asked him about his goals as mayor, Ivan said “My goals are to reduce unemployment as much as I can in Knoxville, and keep services high without raising taxes”. He said that he wants to make sure that people know that he is a “Listening Mayor” who will listen to what their concerns are and try to help them.
“What is your stand on the homeless housing issue? Do you think we should be involved with our tax dollars at all? Do you favor a centralized campus or spreading them out in everyone’s neighborhoods?” I asked as I sipped my coffee. Journalism 101. Put the politician at ease and then hit him with the heavy questions.
Ivan was unruffled.
“I feel that most of the people who are homeless choose to be homeless. They don’t want to put up with the rules when they are put in a homeless shelter. I am compassionate for homeless people and I do feel that you have got to help them. Some of them may even have families that might help them if they knew where they are. I don’t think that scattering them through the neighborhoods is the right answer to this and I don’t favor clustering them either”
Ivan thinks that a faith-based answer is best and favors an interfaith council to deal with the problem. He also wants to see a way to deal with the homeless on a case by case basis be created. “ I know that these people, many of which are addicted to alcohol and drugs, need help, but I don’t think it is the responsibility of the tax payers to buy them all a home.”
Ivan said that he thinks we need to hold the homeless accountable for themselves. “You and I are accountable for our selves. No one is out there helping us. We have to make a living for ourselves. I definitely think that we need to deal with this problem with an interfaith solution and I think we can do it without a tax increase or too much government involvement. Churches are trying to help the homeless right now. We just need to help them help the homeless.”
I tried another heavy question.
“Should the city refuse to do business with contractors that won’t use E Verify to make sure their workers are here legally?”
On the subject of illegal aliens working for contractors employed by the city, Ivan said that he feels that this is more of a state issue than a city one. “I think that the state is going to pass legislation requiring they do that. I do think that companies that deal with the city should check to see if they are employing illegals. We need to make sure that they are legally here, as much as possible.”
“What is your stand on the cities budget and spending? Should the city government be more conservative or do you favor a tax increase?” I asked.
Ivan said he is definitely against any tax increase. He praised the County Mayor, Tim Burchett for making non profits more accountable for the tax dollars they receive.” I think it is important that these non-profits are audited once a year to see where the funds go. We need to be more conservative. We need to cut spending as much as possible.”
I lobbed another hard ball at Ivan. Again he was unruffled.
“What do you think of the red light camera issue? Should we get rid of them? Hold a referendum and let the voters decide?”
“As mayor, the first thing I would do is issue an executive order to the Engineering department to require all lights with cameras on them to have the yellow light extended to 5 seconds. That would be my first order. After that, I want this issue to be put on a referendum to let the people decide if they want the cameras here or not.”
“Do you support a metro government?” I asked.
The attempt to start a metro government has been tried five times in the city and county. There are areas where we could unify some services to save the taxpayers money and I would work with the county mayor to do that. Fleet services, parks and recreation and tax collection are the areas that duplicate services and cost taxpayers extra money. I would support a referendum to let the voters decide what they want.”
“Outsourcing city services?”
“We have 1600 hundred employees in this city and they are doing a great service to the community. I don’t want to outsource jobs.” Said Ivan and he put down his fork for emphasis. “
“ We still have to pay to have the work done. The thing to do is to keep people working and concentrate on doing the best job we can at the lowest cost we can. I also think city employees should be paid a fair wage for the work they do for us. We have great employees. I use to be one of them so I know from personal experience.”
I tried a red hot one.
“You are familiar with the new code enforcement rules pushed by state legislature candidate Roddy and by city mayor candidate Rogero. Do you believe that a serial code enforcement fine of 50 dollars a day is really aimed at the poor and the elderly? Especially in black communities is east Knoxville?” I asked.
Ivan said he is against a one size fits all ordinance that lumps little old ladies in the same category with slumlords. He said that he favors fine tuning this ordinance to protect the poor and the elderly who can’t afford to clean up their property or pay a serial fine of 50 dollars a day.
“Some people may be too poor or handicapped to fix up their houses and they need help, not fines. Slum lords, on the other hand, need to be held accountable for their property.” Said Ivan.
“What do you see as the biggest issue facing the city in the next five years? “ I asked.
“The economy.” Said Ivan without hesitation. “The government doesn’t create jobs. It helps business create jobs. We need to work with our governor and county mayor to help business, especially small business create jobs. Much of the time we can help by just getting out of the way or by making it easier to do business here. Seventy percent of our jobs are created by small business.”
“Ivan, your detractors say you are too country and too old school for the mayor’s job and that you are not as good a speaker as your opponents. What do you say to that?” I asked.
“Speaking don’t get the job done. I would rather be a man of action than a man of words. Old school and country built this nation. We need more of it. I am proud of my Tennessee roots.”
Ivan Harmon concluded the interview by saying that he wants to be the working man’s mayor. He said that a lifetime of hard work puts him in touch with the working people in Knoxville more than anyone else in this race.
“I’ve had to work hard all my life. I have five sisters and three brothers. We were raised on a little farm in Greene County. We broke new ground for planting. We cut trees and burned off brush. My mom cooked on a wood burning stove. When we went to bed at night we slept good, because we worked hard. I am going to work as hard for the people of Knoxville.”
Comments