Show Up on Your Street
Regular town halls inside the district — not downtown, not at 10 a.m. on a workday. Block-by-block listening, because the people who live on a street know it better than any consultant.
The Platform
Common-Sense Plans, Not Slogans
Every plank below is specific to District 3 and grounded in how the city actually works — what the ordinances say, what projects cost, and who is accountable when something goes wrong.
Pillar One
Environmental Integrity
A Slope Ordinance With Real Teeth
Huntsville's Slope Development District rules exist for a reason: our mountainsides sit on loose, landslide-prone soils held together by mature tree roots. When a developer clear-cuts a protected slope to manufacture a bluff view, the hillside destabilizes, stormwater tears downhill into existing homes, and families who bought lots get stranded in permit freezes and lawsuits.
The state law behind our local fines hasn't moved since 1975 — a $500 maximum that a multi-million-dollar developer treats as a rounding error. John authored a bill to amend Alabama Code § 11-45-9 and raise that cap to $18,000 per violation, per day for slope and land-clearing violations, and he's recruiting a sponsor in our state legislative delegation to carry it.
The Full Slope Ordinance Plan
Stormwater & Flood Mitigation
Slope failures and flooding are the same problem wearing two hats. When vegetation is stripped off a hillside, the mountain stops absorbing rain — and the water, mud, and red clay end up in the living rooms below.
- Hold land-disturbing projects to their approved drainage plans — inspections during construction, not after the damage
- Make violators pay full remediation costs, separate from any fines — restoring the slope is non-negotiable
- Prioritize drainage upgrades in the neighborhoods that already flood, with the project list and costs published for everyone to see
Pillar Two
Smart & Safe Infrastructure
Speeding: Fix the Road, Not Just the Driver
Bailey Cove is the textbook case — five lanes wide, miles between signals, and built like a highway. A road that looks like a drag strip gets driven like one, no matter what the signs say. The fix is engineering that makes the safe speed the natural speed, without speed cameras and without pulling officers off real police work:
- Radar feedback signs — the "YOUR SPEED" displays that consistently knock 2–7 mph off average speeds
- Landscaped center medians where continuous turn lanes aren't needed — a visual cue that naturally slows traffic
- Signal timing that rewards the limit — drive the posted speed, catch the greens; speed, and you sit at the red
- Street trees and optical markings that give drivers an honest sense of how fast they're moving
- Speed cushions, not speed bumps, where calming is needed — designed so fire trucks and ambulances pass clean
Cecil Ashburn & the Daily Commute
Cecil Ashburn Drive is the district's lifeline over the mountain, and even at four lanes the volume keeps climbing with every rooftop added on either side. John will push for a serious, data-driven look at the corridor — signal coordination at the approaches, turn-lane capacity, and honest traffic counts published with every new development approval that feeds it. Growth that loads the road has to come with the improvements that carry it.
And one low-tech idea while we're at it: "Wave When You're Wrong." A community campaign to bring back a Southern tradition — when you cut somebody off or miss your blinker, raise a hand and own it. Costs nothing, lowers blood pressure district-wide. Engineering fixes the road; courtesy fixes the ride.
One more from John's notebook — call it the "Penalty Box." Intersections already have sensor loops in the pavement behind the stop bar. Add a second one past the white line: creep into the crosswalk, and the light simply takes a little longer for you. No ticket, no camera, no officer — just a quiet incentive to stop where people walk. It's a thought experiment for now, and worth finding out whether any city has tried it — but it's the kind of creative, self-enforcing thinking John wants the city's traffic engineers to bring to every problem.
Every Project, Priced in Public
The new pedestrian crossings on Bailey Cove — the push-button beacons with center refuge islands — are good engineering. They force a driver-facing turn mid-crossing and give people a protected place to stand. But residents shouldn't need a records request to learn what they cost or who approved them.
The corridor's path-and-safety program runs on a federal grant plus a city match — roughly a $1.8 million package. That's exactly the kind of math John believes belongs on a public dashboard: what we're building, what it costs, where the money comes from, and when it's done. As your council member, he'll publish it for every District 3 project, every time.
Pillar Three
Hyper-Local Governance
Plain-Language Transparency
A short, readable rundown after every council meeting: what was voted on, what it costs, and how it touches District 3. If you can't explain a spending item to a neighbor, you shouldn't be voting for it.
A Direct Line
"Ask John" isn't a campaign gimmick — it's how he intends to govern. Raise a concern, get an answer, and see it tracked until it's resolved. No black holes.
Smarter Systems, Less Waste
John has spent 17 years untangling enterprise IT systems for a living. He'll bring that eye to city hall: streamline overlapping systems, get departments and agencies actually sharing information, and treat every dollar of taxpayer software and process spend like it has to earn its keep — because it does.
Local government works best when it's boringly accountable: post the agenda, show the math, answer the email, fix the pothole. That's the job.
No Strings Attached
This campaign is neighbor-funded and accepts no PAC or developer money. When a slope-ordinance vote or a rezoning request comes before the council, you deserve a representative whose only obligation is to the people who live here.
Beyond the Pillars
More District 3 Priorities
The rest of the job, plainly stated — shaped by what neighbors raise most often, from ball fields to the riverfront.
Responsible Growth & Commercial Vitality
Growth is welcome; overdevelopment that erodes the district's charm is not. John supports ordinances that are objective instead of subjective — rules a builder can read and a neighbor can enforce — applied evenly, with real consequences for those who ignore them. And while new rooftops multiply, our empty commercial spaces sit idle: he'll work to recruit the businesses that fill them, so South Huntsville's dollars stay in South Huntsville.
Parks, Trails & the Riverfront
The green space is the draw — the mountain trails, the greenways, and a riverfront finally getting its due at Ditto Landing. John backs continued investment: finish and connect the Tennessee River greenway segments, keep the trail systems maintained and expanding, and treat vandalism and graffiti at our parks as the quality-of-life issue it is.
Education & Our Schools
Our schools are aging — Weatherly and Mountain Gap among them — and capacity is tight. The council doesn't run the schools, but it funds and partners with Huntsville City Schools, and John will push for the facility investment southeast Huntsville's students deserve, with the same cost transparency he demands everywhere else.
Public Safety & City Services
Huntsville is a safe city — keeping it that way through growth means sharp response times, proper staffing, and first responders equipped to do the job. A new South Precinct is welcome news; John's focus is making sure it opens fully staffed, because buildings don't answer calls — officers do. He'll champion community watch programs and neighborhood events that put residents, HPD community resource officers, and firefighters in the same room before there's ever a problem.