Patch Q&A: Northport Mayor-Elect Bobby Herndon

NORTHPORT, AL. — Former Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon is once again the city's mayor-elect after winning a runoff on Oct. 6 and plans to pick up where he left off four years ago following two terms in office.

Herndon, 67, has owned his own land surveying firm for the last 37 years and was first elected mayor of Northport in 2008, before securing a second term in 2012.

The two-term mayor, seeking a third term in 2016, made it to a runoff following a six-person race, but narrowly lost to current outgoing Mayor Donna Aaron, who chose to not seek re-election.

Tuscaloosa Patch sat down for an interview with Herndon Tuesday as he prepares for his third non-consecutive term in office, which will begin on Nov. 5. Here is a transcript of the full interview, with questions asked by Patch and answers from Herndon published verbatim.

Q: Any opening thoughts?

A: "I want to make Northport the preferred city anywhere to live, to work, to shop. I want Northport to make a name for itself. Everywhere I go across the country, to different conferences and things, we're looked at as either a little sister of Tuscaloosa or a suburb of Tuscaloosa. I love Tuscaloosa, that's where I was raised, but Northport needs to stand on its own two feet. It needs to have its own city school system. Right now, we're the 21st-largest city in the state and the third-largest city in the state without our own school system. It would promote a sense of community pride. We don't get a lot of businesses or new commercial businesses looking at us because our reputation is we can't take care of our own children — we can't take care of our own parks and recreation needs. We've got to. When my four years is up, I want to leave Northport a hundred-times better off than it is now."

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Q: What was your reaction to winning the election runoff?

A: "I'm happy. I have a business and being mayor of Northport, after they cut taxes, you don't hardly draw anything. The average part-time mayor's salary in cities our size across the state is $35,000. In Northport, it's $15,000. So after I provide my own vehicle, my own fuel and dry cleaning and stuff, you don't get paid anything. I just want to help my city."

Q: What's the first issue you want to tackle right out of the gate?

A: "City administrator. We're going to have to go after a professional city administrator. Judge [Hardy] McCollum has been here temporarily and has done a great job. Hardy is a good friend of mine, but we need to get someone on board that has several years experience being a city administrator."

Q: What will the search for a new city administrator look like? Will it be an appointed committee or a contracted search firm?

A: "What I'd like to do is get a combination of citizens and city employees — maybe a group of about five or six people — to do the search. That way, it takes the politics out of it. It's not going to be a good ol' boy thing or we're going to reward him for doing this. But to research it and come back with some references."

Q: How has City Hall and Northport changed since you were last in office?

A: "We've grown some, had a few new businesses come in. I know in the last four years there has been a lot of turnover in City Hall as far as even Council people, department heads, employees. I want to bring back a sense of stability and progress."

Q: The City Council will look completely different from those in office during your last term as mayor. What is your current read on the Council with respect to working together?

A: "The Council going in with me, none of them were on the council with me [during his first two terms]. They're all friends of mine. Most of them worked really hard to get me elected. They want to see a prosperous, progressive Northport. Don't get me wrong, we're going to have arguments, we're going to have bickering and we're going to have fussing. But if everybody got along all the time, you wouldn't need to have an administration. But it's going to be good."

Q: How have you changed personally since you were last in office?

A: "I used the analogy: I know I'm older, wiser, grayer and wider. But, sitting back and seeing there hasn't been much of anything happening over the last four years. The eight years I was in, we accomplished a whole lot more than in this past four years and I just want to get us back on track for doing stuff."

Q: Is there anything you plan to do differently during your new term as opposed to your first two in office?

A: "I worked hard the first two terms. I'll work hard this time. With the pandemic, with the masks and gloves we've been wearing, pretty soon we've got to take off these masks and gloves and put on new gloves and those are going to be boxing gloves. We're going to have to get in the ring with every other city our size across the country to recruit new businesses and try to get back some of the businesses we lost during the pandemic. But we're going to be in there punching it out and we've got to be ready to go. We've got to offer incentives and we've got to be partners with these people coming in. If we're not willing to give a little bit, then we're never going to get any new business."

Q: What are some challenges you expect in the next year?

A: "Getting the respect level back to the mayor's office. I know a mayor and a councilman (Aaron and outgoing Councilman Robby Davis) they're in the middle of a lawsuit with members of our fire department. When I was mayor, our relationship with Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, the state, federal congressional people — I'd be calling them, they'd be calling me. So I want to get the respect and cooperation back."

Q: Is there anything you're particularly optimistic about?

A: "I'm optimistic about working with the state highway department and getting traffic congestion issues [addressed], because we're growing. Any time you've got growth, you're going to have traffic congestion. Also, Councilman [Jeff] Hogg's idea of the water park and the sports complex. That's something that's very doable. I think that would be a plus for our city and I want to get to work on that."

Q: Any last thoughts before your term begins?

A: "This new mayor and Council, I see us working better together than any councils in the past. I'm very happy to have two women on the Council [District 1's Christy Bobo and District 4's Jamie Dykes] because this is not a male-dominated society and we need the voices and I'm looking forward to it."