THOMASVILLE- The first day of qualifying for the upcoming Municipal General election began on Monday, August 21, where three individuals qualified.

Incumbent John H. “Jay” Flowers re-qualified for the District 2, Post 1, seat on the Thomasville City Council.

He was joined by new-coming qualifier Royal O. Baker, III, for the District 2, Post 1 seat.

In an interview, Baker said he had not considered the position until the discussion about proposed property taxes arose.

“If you had asked me two months ago, I never would’ve thought I would be running,” he said.

With a background in business and finance, Baker’s main objective is to provide other financial options for the City of Thomasville that do not require a tax increase.

His displeasure in current operations began when the proposed property tax was announced, asking individuals to attend a public hearing.

“I didn’t like how it was rushed,” he said. “This isn’t a problem that happens overnight.”

Baker said he began skimming over the city’s budget at that point and re-reading some of their financial statements.

“It opened my eyes and aggravated me with how it was presented to us,” he recalled. “It really motivated me though, because it’s easy to criticize others and not have a solution.”

Baker realizes he is looking at the budget with a bird’s eye view, and knows it takes money to run a city like Thomasville, where people drive in day after day to visit and socialize.

He said he understands why pay increases were necessary this past year to attract quality employees to Thomasville, but has real concerns about the expenditures going up with no plans to mitigate them.

Baker said, if elected, he would like the opportunity to study each budget, especially the budget of the landfill, which should be generating money, instead of losing it. He also would like to take a closer look at the services the City provides, such as CNS, and see what the plans are for upgrades, as other providers move into town and look to take that established business and customer base.

Baker also voiced concerns about the projects the City has established as some of their most important, including the Remington streetscape project.

“We keep bringing up these projects,” Baker said. “Thomasville has always been beautiful and unique. We’ve done a great job making the entrances to our town beautiful and attractive to people, but what does spending $22 million on Remington do for our city?”

Baker said this is a project that can wait, as it does not bring in any additional revenue for the city, nor does the proposed public bathroom project.

Baker expressed that his top concern was the proposed property tax funds would be used as a bandaid to cover up other issues citizens weren’t yet aware of.

That is why he is making it his mission to run for City Council and use his voice as one of financial reason, introducing alternative measures that the current Council has possibly not considered.

“I want other options,” Baker concluded on his reasoning to qualify.

In addition to Baker and Flowers qualifying, Stephan Thompson qualified for the At-Large seat on the Thomasville City School Board of Education, currently held by Karen Kelso.

According to Qualifying Officer Felicia Brannen, qualifying for these posts, along with District 1, Post 1 and Thomasville City School Board’s District 1 and District’s 2’s seats, will conclude on Wednesday, August 23 at 4:30 p.m.