Alexander City Mayor Woody Baird is seeking a second term in office to continue the work he began in 2020, aiming to save the city from financial ruin and prevent it from falling back into the hands of "rich, elitist, good old boys."
On a recent episode of "1819 News: The Podcast," Baird explained how his military background and experience as a small business owner have and will continue to help the city work toward a brighter future.
"We're running a three to five million dollar deficit every year for 20 years before I got in office. We were four audits behind," he said. "We didn't have a bond rating. It was absolute financial chaos in Alex City. Our infrastructure was failing. And so I got in there, I went to work."
Baird said, with the help of a new, "really good" financial officer and "the best staff in the world," he was able to "stop the bleeding."
"You use small business principles," he said. "[B]ut we went to work and we turned the city around. And when we hit fiscal year 2023, first of October, we had moved the city into the black. We had done away with the deficit, eliminated the deficit, and we had caught up for the audits, and we continue to move forward."
Without naming names, Baird criticized the large amount of money being "thrown" at his opponent, claiming he and his donors are trying to take the city back to the status quo before Baird took office.
"It's the rich, elitist, good old boys trying to take back our city. And the rich, elitist, good old boys ran Alex City forever," Baird said. "I mean, that's just the way it was. If you weren't in the clique, if you didn't know them and you didn't cater to them, you couldn't start a business. You couldn't borrow money. You couldn't do anything. So, what I've done now is level the playing field, and everybody is held to the same standard. That's what we've done for the last five years. And it has worked. Alex City has prospered. Developments come in. We're blowing up all over. And I'll make a prediction right now that in Alexander City and right there at the head of the lake where we're at, is fixing to be the next largest boom you're going to see in the southeast."
He continued, "We have so much coming. And what I'm trying to impress upon the population is I need four more years. Continuity. We haven't had the same two mayors in a row, you know, follow-on terms, for probably for 15 or 20 years. We need that. That continuity will allow us to maintain that growth, maintain that momentum, and we'll be able to make it if I get four more years. I promise the citizens that we'll see the prosperity that we haven't seen since Russell Corporation was at its heyday."
Baird has two opponents in Tuesday's mayoral race: Mike Densmore and Audrey Colvin.
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