Concerned citizen, taxpayer, and former candidate for Mayor, Ken Hymes, speaks up at recent Smyrna City Council meeting

Viewers of a recent Smyrna City Council meeting saw former Mayoral Candidate Ken Hymes stepping up to the microphone during the public comment portion of the meeting as a concerned citizen and taxpayer to offer his comments.

As a resident of Smyrna, Hymes used the opportunity to address the Mayor and City council as he added his voice to concerns that other citizens have also raised about their government.

Recall that in last months’ General Election for Smyrna Mayor, incumbent Derek Norton received 55% of the votes, while first time candidate Hymes received 43%. Although he did not win, candidate Hymes believes his message resonated with a large percentage of voters in the city that cast their votes for him, especially as it relates to the subjects of transparency and ethics within their government.

During his time at the mic, Hymes raised various requests of the council, including addressing tangible projects like sewer maintenance and controlling train noise. He also emphasized the need for the council to take a stance on critical issues like the transit tax proposal and the Unified Development Code. In addition, Hymes raised concerns regarding non-transparency and potential ethics violations and urged the council to prioritize citizens’ concerns and enhance transparency in financial decisions, all part of his campaign platform.

Said Hymes, “Overall, the common theme to all of this, is that the citizens would like to see more transparency around a lot of major decisions on financial expenditures that the city is invested in. Our hope is that you will consider all these items as you prepare for the retreat, and prioritize them appropriately, and that way, I think that will be a strong signal that you all are, indeed, keeping the citizens interests first.”

Apparently angered by comments from citizen Hymes, Mayor Norton abandoned the typical policy of the governing body not commenting directly to public comments and responded to Hymes with a claim that the council is committed to transparency and citizen interests and expressed confidence in the council’s dedication to serving citizens. Some in attendance said it was apparent that Norton does not believe Hymes’ interests as a citizen qualifies as something Norton is interest in.

Not to be outdone, Hymes expressed skepticism about Norton’s comments from his seat in the audience, later saying, “Transparency is an area of improvement this administration needs to work on.”

Norton also went on to point out that Hymes did not win the race, which is true, but the first-time candidate – with limited funds – won the support of 3,421 voters to Norton’s 4,361, which suggests many of the citizens of Smyrna share the same concerns about their government.

As for Hymes, he says he plans to speak up at more meetings. So, should we prepare ourselves now for Norton to again break away from their typical policy each time Hymes speaks up?

As for Hymes’ political future in Smyrna, he has shown that he has the ability to garner votes and may just show up as a candidate in a future election.

We will be watching.