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Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. This is Woodstock proud, spotlighting the individuals, businesses and organizations that make Woodstock one of the premiere destinations in metro Atlanta to live, work and play. Now here’s your host.

Jim Bulger: [00:00:28] Hello, and welcome back once again to Woodstock, proud here on Business RadioX, I’m your host, Jim Bulger. You know, when we started this program about a year ago, we promised that in each episode we would spend a few minutes just to get better acquainted with and to celebrate some of the individuals that are really making a difference here in the Woodstock community. And our guest today definitely fits that bill. Having already had a huge impact on Woodstock and someone who is now poised to make an even bigger difference in our future business leader, philanthropist, a lifelong resident of Woodstock, four-term state representative and the newly elected mayor of Woodstock, Georgia, Michael Caldwell, Mr. Mayor. And it feels so good to say that, Mr. Mayor, it is our privilege to welcome you to Woodstock.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:01:20] Proud. Oh, thank you, my friend. I’m I’m proud to be here, and I’m glad it feels good for you to say it still feels completely bizarre to hear so

Jim Bulger: [00:01:29] You’ll get used to it quickly now. This past Monday, you were officially sworn in as mayor. Yes, sir. And due to some unfortunate scheduling, that ceremony took place at exactly the same time that the Georgia Bulldogs were getting ready to take the field against Alabama in the National Football Championship.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:01:49] They heard something about that football game. I’ll tell you, I’m a I’ll kick this interview off by turning off all your listeners by telling them I’m a Michigan fan. So for me, I it was funny because the half the council was messaging me going, Hey, we’re going to be fast tonight, right? And I went, You know, the shame for you is all the incentive for the guy with the gavel to finish this thing up just disappeared as well.

Jim Bulger: [00:02:11] What I found interesting was, despite that competition, you packed them in.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:02:16] We did. We yeah, we slammed that room. I don’t know what the total count on people in that room was, but I did see that. I did see the police chief counting to try to make sure we were meeting code. I’ll tell you, I’m grateful there was a game because I think we might have had a problem. So I’m the my my honest answer in that is just thank you to everybody who came out and for those who couldn’t because they were in Indy or just watching the game on their couch. Thank you all for not drinking and driving, but it was it was an absolute honor to get to see everybody.

Jim Bulger: [00:02:45] Well, it had to feel great. And as someone who’s lived in Woodstock their entire life and has been so involved in the community for all these years, that ceremony had to have a real emotional impact on you. Now, as someone who grew up here in town now in a position to lead this town, what kind of feelings went through your head on Monday?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:03:08] Yeah, it’s tough to. It’s tough to wrap all that into a couple of words. It is an incredible town. I mean, your intro called it called it a premier destination, right? It’s pretty incredible what this place has become. It is a different place than I grew up in, and it’ll be a different place for my kids to continue to grow up in the one constant we’re going to continue to have is change. The question is, does it continue to feel like the community it is? What I love about this place is, you know, I’ve heard it called Mayberry. I’ve heard it called, you know, people say there’s something in the air. It’s a city unexpected. At the end of the day, it’s a it is a community. I don’t I think we don’t believe in strangers. It’s a place. I trust that when I walk down the street, somebody will pick my kid up when he falls over and scrapes his knee and and they don’t ask questions, right? And it’s it’s a place I’m so proud to be from, and I’m so proud to get to see where we get to go and to to get to get to help lead and set that direction is, yeah, it’s just it’s something special that night. I think I said, I said I used to. I used to finish all my articles in the State House when I did a monthly article for the local magazines and that I used to finish with. It’s the honor of my lifetime to serve our families in the house. Oh, and it was. But this is this is just something special. This is home. It is a whole different level of of humbling to to get to lead this community.

Jim Bulger: [00:04:26] Well, before we talk about your plans as mayor, let’s give people a little history if they don’t already know. As I mentioned, you served four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives. God help us. Initially elected in twenty thirteen, in that time you were the youngest state legislator in the entire U.S.. So tell us how you first came to seek public office at such a young age and was that always a dream of yours?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:04:53] Yeah. So no, I was I. So I was born to a father who was born in England. He was born to an English mother and a U.S. Air Force chief master sergeant. And that means by technicality. I’m a British citizen. I have a British passport, and every time I say it out loud, George Washington rolls over in his grave. But I I was born. I wasn’t born to the county commissioners kid. I wasn’t. I didn’t grow up in a government family. I just I fell in love with the Great American experiment. And when I say that, I know how cliche and cheesy it sounds. But I grew up with two passports. And so when when my dad would say or when teachers would say, Hey, this is the greatest place in the world, you kind of went, well, why right? And so I went back and I for me, I answered that question in the document that started it all. I go back to the declaration. So the declaration says we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, pursuit. We have argued for a quarter of a millennium now about life, liberty, pursuit. What belongs in that list? Did we hit it all? What we missed the most important sentence in in the document, which is early important, most important part of the sentence we are endowed by our creator with.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:06:05] We are the only nation in the history of the world to recognize rights come from God and not government. And whatever you believe about divinity, it’s not important. It is important, but not for this. We are the only nation in the history of the world to recognize in our founding documents. Your rights are inherent to you as a human being. They are not granted to you by those in power. You have them and you grant the powerful power. And that concept is unique to us, not just in human history, but in the world today. And if we disappear from the Earth, when we talk about being the beacon of liberty in the world. That’s what we’re talking about. And as a kid, I fell in love with that story, and so I I was that nerd through high school and college who would go sit in the gallery of the State House and watch because it was drivable, it was accessible. And I would sit down there because our General Assembly is older than the United States Congress. It’s been meeting continuously since the revolution, and it was amazing. I felt like I was watching history unfold in front of us, right? And so as as I watched that, I learned very quickly. I am a weird Republican in that I believe in. I buy into the conservative agenda, and I also thought lobbyists had too much financial interests at the Capitol, and that meant neither side wanted to sit at my lunch table.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:07:12] And so I I decided I ran for the first time in 2010. I was actually a college student. At the time, I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn’t a political volunteer. I’d never been part of the party. I was just a I was a guy who knew what he believed and felt like. We needed a better standard on campaign finance reform. And so I started running that year having no idea what I was doing. And one of the party elders here in Cherokee County sat down with me. It was very nice. I asked him for coffee, gave me an hour of his time. We got to the end of it and I said, Well, what do you think? He goes, Can I be honest with you? I said, Yeah, don’t. I mean, I think it’d be a waste of both of our time if you weren’t. He goes, Look, you sound like good conservative. If at your age you take 10 percent of the vote, you’re going to change the way I look at Georgia politics. Now, in hindsight, I know he was exaggerating at the time. I didn’t know enough to know that. And so I walked out and you walk out of that with one or two responses, right? Either.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:08:01] Oh, forget that I’ll prove him wrong or you do what I did, which was crap. What have I done? And so I went and sat with my my college roommate, now my business partner, my my girlfriend, now my wife. And the three of us had a big whiteboard on the wall. And I’m I’m one for drama, so I turned an hour long egg timer over and I said, OK, here’s we’re going to do. We got an hour. Let’s write up on the whiteboard with a perfect campaign in office would look like to us, it sounds like we’re going to lose either way. But if we don’t, we’ll have really changed the game. If we do. Maybe we’ll change the conversation. And so it was a we sat down and we wrote up things like I filed the first bill for legislative term limits anywhere in America in 25 years. I don’t believe in War Chest, so I send all my money back to my donors at the end of every election cycle because if you donate $100 to the campaign, I spend seventy five and then I break every promise I made to you. I shouldn’t get reelected on your twenty five bucks. It should be your choice. We wrote up things like the state will tell you how I voted on every measure. We cast thousands of votes over the course of that eight years. It’ll tell you if I voted yes or no, I won’t tell you why.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:09:02] So I did it right up on every single vote I ever cast from the floor as we were voting. So you could always see what was Caldwell thinking. Maybe he was wrong, but at least I know where his head was at the time. And so we wrote all this stuff up. It’ll tell you the state will tell you how much we campaign with a couple of times a year. I do a disclosure every single day updated on my website, and I still do that in the mayor’s office. Now you can go on my campaign site, see where all our money came from, where it went. You can see the refunds on there that went out, and the goal was to figure out, look, before we ever even have the opportunity to touch legislation, how do we start trying to change the game by leading by example? And so we did all this stuff. It was 2010. Spoiler. We didn’t win, but but I didn’t take 10 percent. I took 46 percent of the vote that year. If we could have swayed another 200 people, we’d have won the. It race, we were done, I thought it, I thought, cool, what a fun game this was in college to go, try to try to see if we couldn’t make an impact when got my career started, got married and then turned out two years later, I was just as frustrated about the issue as I was two years before, and so I ran again.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:10:01] My opponent spent 100 hours, said high six figures. I spent $16000 and we won with fifty five percent of the vote. We knocked on 17000 doors that year and we just worked it. And so the that was 2012 January of 13. I swore into the State House as the youngest state legislator in America, and the voters of the 20th sent me back three more times after that. And so I’m I was a tremendous guy. I said I wasn’t going to run for the State House more than four terms in a row and we held to it and it was I I mean, it genuinely it was the honor of a lifetime to get to go down there. There is something about the. It was fun that I remember very well, and it was only about a year and a half ago, but I remember very well the last time I ever stood on that floor and I got butterflies the same way I did the first time you walk on because there’s just there is a there is a history to that building in that room that is just palpable and and it was incredible getting to serve that way and to get to try to do it, do it to the best I could.

Jim Bulger: [00:10:59] Well, it’s a great story. And I mean, the fact that this was driven by issues that attracted you and you weren’t the eight year old who went to school with the briefcase and the necktie that was not campaigning for third grade president. You know, I mean, but this was really something that you saw things you wanted to be a part of changing.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:11:20] Yeah, I still don’t want to be an elected official when I grow up. I think for me, it was it’s public service, right? And so I’m sure we’ll talk today, too. I mean, I’ve got a private sector background and and the private sector has been really good to me and I find a lot of meaning in that and I enjoy building. But on the public service side, there are when there are moments that you can go make a difference, not just for yourself and not just for your neighbors, but for the next generation. I think that is the American calling. We’re all called to answer that when it presents itself. And if you want to fix the Republic, we need more good people running for office. And so I saw that calling back in 2012 and we answered and I hope that I hope that I was answering and calling for it again this year.

Jim Bulger: [00:12:02] Well, how do you think those terms in the house prepared you to be the mayor of Woodstock? I mean, what do you feel are the major differences between the two roles?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:12:11] Oh yeah, I we could fill a Mack truck with the differences between the roles, and I don’t mind spending some time doing it. I will tell you, I think it prepared me in a few ways it so one of the things that I did in the State House, I held more public meetings than any elected official in America. During that eight years, we did a weekly coffee every Saturday morning at Copper Coin down here. And we did it a 9:00 a.m. Every single Saturday. The only exceptions were when I was out of town with my family. And so we held something near 400 of these coffees, let alone the rest of the normal engagement you do in the public. But what I loved about that and the reason I used it as part of this example is it taught me that room held me so accountable. It was different people in the room almost every weekend. You had your regulars, but it was it was amazing. The filter through and out we probably had over the course of eight years, 1500 people come in and out of that room throughout that time period. And I used to tease it was the room that people knew that they could come yell at me and they did. But it was a great opportunity. I learned more in that room because it was that moment you got to know on a weekly basis, no matter who, no matter what happened in the week, no matter how proud and and and egotistical I’m feeling that week I get to sit in front of my neighbors and tell them about the week that I spent talking on their behalf.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:13:29] And you’ll never find a more higher moment of accountability than when you’re telling neighbors whose money you’ve spent and whose voices you’ve borrowed for a week, how you did it and why. And and I say all that the people I was going to say almost without exception, really at large part without exception came with grace. I mean, it was a it was a it was a civil wonderful experience and and we’ll do it again through the mayorship. But it was a it was an experience that taught me and reminded me on a regular basis over the course of the better part of a decade that the. It is so important to pause and listen to the people that you’re representing. And I’ll tell you, that loss in 2010 taught me early on, and I think everybody should lose their first race for office because it taught me it is an early, immediate reminder the seat is not yours. You don’t deserve it just because you put your name on a ballot. You have to earn it and you’ve got to and and you don’t earn it once and then get to hang on to it. You have to daily, get up and earn it and listen and understand and represent. The mayor’s role is different in it is similar to the representative’s role in all of those ways, and then I think it has an additional burden, say burden. That’s the wrong way and additional responsibility that comes with the fact that there’s a there’s a real leadership component that comes into this too. And so there’s that balance between, I guess, a good way to illustrate this in the State House, we used to talk about what do you do in situations where you think you know what you think? You know what’s right on a specific bill, but your district disagrees with you? And it was always fun.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:15:08] That was a really fun question to ask new candidates who thought they were going to run for State House and they come to you and ask, Hey, what do you think? Should I do this well? Ok, let’s talk about this situation. What do you do? And you always get one or two answers. It’s either the, well, you know, I’m a representative. It doesn’t really matter what I think. I’m there to represent the majority or the I get hired to use my judgment and that’s what I’m there for. And that’s if they don’t like my judgment, they’ll send somebody else. And I always I always thought both of those were answers that were missing the meat, right? And so for me, the threshold and it’s an imperfect threshold. But the the measuring rod I used to use was if I believe a majority of my district disagrees with me on an issue. I asked myself why if I. Is it because they don’t have the information I have? Meaning if I had ten minutes with the average voter, could I win them to my side? Then I’m going to go with what I what I believe is right on this issue. If it’s because we are principally opposed on a matter, then I’m going to go with the district because I’m here to represent the district’s principles in this in this body.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:16:02] As mayor, I think so often the goal is it’s a vision casting role. And so the job is to take the city in a direction. You need to do that in a way that represents the will of the people. And also in a way that is chasing after their good. And that is an interesting balancing act from issue to issue. And and so it’s different from the representative’s role where it is a it’s an idea in concept pitch and then you’re hoping your colleagues can rally around it and the mayor’s role. I’ve got a council I have to win over. I keep teasing. I have no power until I have lots of it because I can’t cast. I can’t vote, I can’t make a motion, but I have a huge soapbox and I do cast a vote if it’s a tie on the council and we’ve had more tie votes in the last two years than we did the prior 14 combined. But I think we’ve got a we’ve got an incredible alignment on our council right now. I think we all see the goals we’re chasing after. I think we’ve got a really neat chapter coming up here in Woodstock where we’ve all felt it. There’s been we’ve come through a great season here. The challenge now is is not building something great. We’ve built something great. Challenge now is building something that’ll last. And so doing that in a way that. That that brings not just a council, but brings brings our people along with us. I think it’s going to be the calling.

Jim Bulger: [00:17:16] Well, and I would think I mean, when you were holding those Saturday morning face to face meetings, people had to appreciate to that. They could talk to you without filters, without go betweens, without interpretations.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:17:30] They’ll tell you there was no filter.

Jim Bulger: [00:17:33] And as mayor, you’re going to get that just walking around town.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:17:36] That’s exactly right. It’s well, my wife used to tease in the State House. She used to call it Woodstock famous, which meant it was famous enough that you didn’t get anything for it, but famous enough to ruin a trip to the grocery store. And and it’s a little bit on overdrive for that now, but it’s great. I honestly, I genuinely love that part of this job that we live in a city that is one of the largest cities in the state now where 35000 people in this city were top. I want to say top 30. It might be top 25 population cities in the state and I can walk down Main Street and people know who I am and same, vice versa. And what a cool dynamic for a city that we can have that kind of size and scale and impact in in not just a not just a region, but in a state. And yet we still have that that small town feel. And it’s so hard to put your finger on. But you know, you live here for any, any period of time and you know what we’re talking about and it’s just an incredible balance that we’ve struck in this place. And so we’re going to. Here’s the reality Cherokee County’s got 100000 people coming in the next 10 years. Woodstock’s going to pick up a lot of them. And so doing that in a way that continues to build doesn’t have the expectation that when we close our eyes and open them again in 10 years, that everything looks exactly the same because it won’t. But making sure that we still have that community focus and feel has to be the target. The the former is an unachievable goal. The latter is something we can do.

Jim Bulger: [00:18:58] Well, we’ve talked a number of times on this show about. How that makes Woodstock special. I mean, as we’ve grown that sense of community, that small town feel our appreciation for the history of what’s come before, right, that we haven’t lost that. And as we look at some other cities around us that have grown, they have become more homogenized in that and have become more big. City ized

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:19:25] Isn’t. Isn’t that so important to you, though? I feel like it’s something that we have to remind our eyes and say, remind each other, remind ourselves, is so I was born in Michigan. I lived in Michigan, California, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia. I was on for a not for the job I’m in today, but for a previous role. I was on nearly a thousand flights in seven and a half years. I have. I’m not great at a lot of things, but I’m well traveled. But I feel like we get so many people who who haven’t gotten that gotten that good fortune to go see, not not to go to Paris, but to go to the middle of nowhere Iowa and go see other small towns. And it is so important that when you say the words Woodstock special that that listeners, especially Woodstock, are listening, don’t hear, Hey, we live here and we’re biased and we like it special, meaning unique. This place is different and we take it for granted. I mean, we just absolutely as residents here completely take for granted how fundamentally unique and different this place is. And so protecting that and not just preserving it, you know, that’s that’s the you hear that word on the campaign trail for mayor a lot. How are we going to preserve? I want to capitalize on it. How do we build that and grow it and make sure that that the next generation not only has it like we have, but knows it uses it and pushes it forward? These these are attainable things that we can chase.

Jim Bulger: [00:20:51] Well, let’s talk about the decision to run for mayor. I mean, you announced your candidacy in early 2020. What brought that about?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:20:57] Yeah, I I started talking with our current or current or former mayor. Sorry, I’m the current mayor.

Speaker4: [00:21:06] Oh yeah.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:21:07] Hey, you know, it’s funny, actually, I come. So our charter says that I’m mayor as of January one, regardless of swearing, which led to me making all kinds of jokes about an ethics free pass for 10 days. But we for the first couple of days there, we had a power outage here in Woodstock the first weekend. So the day after I became mayor and it was a good hour and a half where the power cut through a large, large swath of the city. It was a bad luck storm hit right at the amphitheater took out one of the power lines. That, of course, is everything right? And so and it was so that everybody knows those power lines will be underground within six months. But I was texting the city manager because my coincidentally the water in my house cut off at the same time and I went, If this is a coup, it’s being done very well. So but I I think the world of our former mayor, Don Enriquez, served for 16 years. Our city will turn one hundred and twenty five years old this coming December. So when I say he’s the longest serving mayor in Woodstock history, that doesn’t mean like some of these North Fulton cities that have been around for three and a half months.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:22:12] He’s the longest serving mayor in a in an old city by by nearly all American terms. And he did a spectacular job for us, led us from a very different place in the early 2000s to where we are today. And Donny and I had coffee back in the in early 2020 like we did fairly often. And and I did, I told him, Look, if you ever think you’re not going to do this job again, let me know if you do, I’m charter team Donny. But if you ever decide you’re not going to. And we both kind of laughed about it. And he called me back later that week and said, You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about that. I’m going to put some more thought into that, and we’re great and we hung up and it was another one of those, OK, you know, I’m not going to put too much thought into that. I’ve come off of a Senate race that didn’t work out. I’m out of the House. I’m really am done like I’m going to go focus on private sector. And so to make a long story unbearable, over the course of a couple of months, Donny and I kept talking and and Donny decided that six years have been enough for him. And so he decided to step out and was a huge supporter of mine, and all six council members got on board right away.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:23:19] And you know, I think I mentioned to you the other day when we were talking, I for me, the deciding moment was was with my wife. Katie has been an incredible supporter through the State House. Days could not have done it had she not been, nor would I have I watched way too many families break apart down there. You don’t, you got to keep your priorities right. But it was never her thing, right? My wife is not a political nut. So but when when I went home and I said, Hey, what would you ever think about running for mayor? It was so much fun to watch my wife’s eyes light up like, Oh man, no, that’s something that actually matters. This is this is our home. And and that for me, was a huge differentiator. It was a moment where I went, You know this, this could be a thing where we really get to get to make a difference where not just that it matters for us, but we’re it matters so much for so many people who call this place home. So I’m proud of the place. If it’s not obvious, I love it.

Jim Bulger: [00:24:13] Well, and it ended up that you ended up running for mayor unopposed when when you consider, I mean, these days, elections sometimes deteriorate into political attacks, professional attacks, even personal attacks. You were able to avoid all that by running unopposed. And we’re really able to focus on getting ready to take office.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:24:37] Yeah, I’ll tell you to. I have to say thank you to a gentleman named Chuck Sanger as well who who initially had planned to run for mayor, and Chuck and I had both separate from one another, didn’t know each other, hadn’t decided to run because of the other, had both started running for mayor. And when when we both realized we both were, we both decided, let’s start. Let’s start getting a beer. And so we went four months and sat at Reformation Brewery and just started talking, What do you believe? Why are you running? What do you think? And and I’m extremely grateful to Chuck because he through that process told me he thought that I was going to do a great job and decided to become a supporter instead of an opponent. And so it did to to exactly where you’re going. The biggest benefit in that was not was not not having to run a race because if I’m being honest, over the course of a decade, I’ve run plenty of races, we can do that. The biggest benefit was after 16 years of Donny’s mayorship. There’s a lot of institutional knowledge there, and there are a lot of things that just the people who work around the city manager and every council member came after Donnie. And so there are a lot there’s we haven’t had a single person there right now who experienced a change over in mayorship yet.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:25:48] And so there’s just. Things that we take for granted. Well, had I gone through a normal election in November, you get about a month, month and a half to try to onboard into that after that kind of tenure. That’s a that’s a tough lift because it because Chuck was gracious and because we came to that agreement together, I got from August 18th till January 1st and I got to tell you guys that was that was a genuine gift from God. I mean, just an unbelievable blessing to get to spend that kind of time where I had a literal key. I was going to say key to the key card to the city like it was. I was able to go into the annex and sit with city staff and meet with department heads and get to know the city before I was responsible for the city, and that was just a massive advantage that had to be huge. Oh man, I am, I am I. I am still learning that I don’t know what I don’t know. Like, I have been learning for the entirety of my life and every facet of my life, but I am so much better in the role right now today. What a week and a half, two weeks into exactly two weeks today into the role than I would have been had I not had that four months of onboarding.

Jim Bulger: [00:26:58] And besides giving you that time to really focus and get acclimated and get assimilated into the role. Running unopposed had some real financial benefit for the city, too, right?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:27:09] Absolutely, yeah, there is a I mean, this is money that we all, as citizens should be willing to spend because it’s the bedrock of the Republic. But there are costs to elections. And so the city, it costs the city about $30000 every time we hold a municipal election. And so not just that I ran unopposed, but the three returning council members who I think are absolute rock stars, each ran unopposed as well. And because of that, state law allows us to outright waive the election because the assumption legally is that all four of us would have voted for ourselves. I tried to tell the clerk I was undecided. But but the the the savings to the taxpayer in that are substantial. I mean, the city, if and so what I kept trying to tell everybody through the qualifying period was, look, if, if you think you’re going to be better in this role than me, you you should run. But if you’re if you’re running for a joyride, don’t, don’t run. There’s a real cost that comes along with this, and there was a savings for I mean, as silly as it sounds, the voters shouldn’t care about this, but my supporters sure do. There was a savings for my campaign supporters, too, because we don’t keep war chests. I was able to send checks back to all my donors. And so it’s a there are there are downstream impacts of that. I think the elections are the bedrock of a republic. They are fundamentally important. And when we have a genuine discrepancy and battle of ideas, we we absolutely should always have them. But if if, if you don’t have candidates who are competing because of a difference in direction and ideas, when you can come to an agreement, we can come to consensus. Rather, that’s so much better for not just the candidates, but for the taxpayer too.

Jim Bulger: [00:28:43] Well, I don’t want to pass over that too quickly because those war chests you talk about, I mean, they’re a real thing. And for a lot of candidates, the donations they get in that go unused are held for future campaigns, future elections. In your case, you had a lot of early support when you first announced your candidacy. There were a lot of donations that came in to

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:29:06] Show off for a second, the most that’s ever been raised in a Woodstock City election. Oh, is that right? $10000 and I raised twenty seven without an opponent so well, and I don’t take lobbyist money

Jim Bulger: [00:29:17] And whatever and whatever was left. You wrote checks back to those people and it’s interesting on your website. You show what each of those donations were, who it came from and you show the check going back to them.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:29:30] Yes, sir. You can see every dime and I’m grateful to a large portion of those people sent them right back to me again and said, Nope, I want you to count it toward the next one. But it was their choice, not mine, and it should have been theirs. It should always be the donor’s choice for that, and it should be your call to re-up.

Jim Bulger: [00:29:46] Well, you mentioned Donnie before, and as you said, I mean four terms six years a great run. And I know we all owe him a lot of gratitude and a lot of respect and a lot of thanks for his service to this city. But as the new mayor coming in after that kind of tenure, what challenges does that pose for you regarding the balance between respecting what was already in progress and new agendas, new ideas that you want to propose?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:30:18] Yeah, it’s a great question without a clean answer. I think the simple answer is we’re going to chase good ideas wherever we find them. So the the you run for office for one or two reasons, you either want to turn the card over, you want to make sure no idiot comes in and does. And I was in the latter camp this time. So so I’m I’m really proud of the city. I think we’ve done a spectacular job. We are in a year, so I’ll I’ll pause to make a quick plug. I have a state of the city address coming up next Friday, so you get some spoilers in this in this interview today because I’ve got a lot of those talking points fresh on my mind, but would love to see you all in Woodstock will be hosting it. 7:45 a.m. on Friday, the 21st. But we. At a time when states across the unions businesses are shuttered at a time when businesses and cities all over the country are seeking help in trying to figure out what’s next still coming out of this pandemic in our city, our unemployment rates at two point eight percent. I mean, things are going well here. And so making sure that we don’t break what isn’t broken but there were also leaning in and making sure we’re looking forward to because the honest truth is the American, the North American pattern. Forget the American powder. The North American pattern is to treat suburban cities like consumables. We use them up. We move on to the next one, and cities have a 10 to 15 year lifespan of being a really neat place to be. And then they get priced out or they fundamentally forget who they are and they become a place nobody wants to be anymore.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:31:51] And you can watch in metro Atlanta as it continues to sort of shift north and east and west and south as these places that 15 years ago were where you wanted to own a business and you wanted to live. And now I don’t, I don’t know. That’s where I’ll move up a little bit further. If I’m accept that as the premise, that means my kids won’t want to live here and I refuse to accept that, that’s that’s that’s unavoidable. And so it means in order to do that in order to break that right, if you want atypical results, you’ve got to have atypical behavior. And so we’re going to have to do some things that feel a little bit weird when you compare us to the American normal. And so if, if, if everything about my mayorship looks like a normal mayorship, I’ve done it wrong. At least I haven’t thought through whether or not my kids are going to want to live here. Or maybe I did, and I just didn’t care. I care desperately. I don’t. If Ali gets into MIT, God bless him. I hope he goes, and I hope he has a great life wherever he decides to be. But I don’t want my kids hitting senior year going. I cannot wait to get the hell out of this place, and that is the American pattern. And it’s just not OK. I want my kids to feel roots. I want them to look around and love the place they grew up and recognize how special and unique it is because it is. And so we’re going to have to we’re going to have to be willing to look around and find good ideas and break the mold a little bit.

Jim Bulger: [00:33:07] Well, and I think for the kids growing up in Woodstock now, like your children, I mean, they have that picture of Woodstock indelibly, you know, etched in their minds. My kids grew up in Woodstock. They left now when they come back, Woodstock is a totally different city than it was when they left.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:33:30] It’s fun. Having grown up, I grew up in Town Lake and so I grew up in really the the part of Woodstock that was populated back when I was growing up. And and it’s funny when kids come back from from wherever they’ve moved off to now and they go, What? What happened here? I know it really came around, but you know, that’s the beauty is that it’s it’s it is such a it is a destination. It’s the right word. If you look at if you look at the amount of people who come here on a on a daily and weekly basis, as tourists, as people coming to spend to to shopping or retail, to drink beer in our breweries to to play, it is astounding. We had 100000 bike trips on the bike trail at Old Road Mill Park alone, let alone you get up to Blanket’s Creek when it starts to look like it is a just an insane level of participation that we have here from not just our citizens, but the people all around who know this is a place to be.

Jim Bulger: [00:34:27] Let’s go a little bit deeper into that because I mean, as as the 31st mayor of Woodstock, you’re coming into your initial term with a situation that nobody has ever had before, and part of it is being that destination city. So how does that change the expectations for you as mayor, not only from the residents, but from visitors, from other cities that look as a look at us as kind of a role model? I mean, that has to completely change the expectations on you.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:34:54] As Mayor Jim, you’ve taken a lot of private sector leadership roles. You ever taken one where things were going really well and you go, Yeah, see, that’s not the role you want to take, right? That’s it’s when the bar is way up here. You’ve got to make sure to bump that sucker up. And so that’s it’s I. I see it as a challenge, and I think it’s a it’s a really spectacular change. It is the job you want to take is the you don’t want to inherit a mess. And I’m very fortunate in that I get to come into this role with a counsel who has let you know it’s Donnie deserves incredible respect and and and I, I try to give it to him regularly because he deserves it. Donnie would be the first to tell you that as much as big personalities and mayors get recognized for this stuff, at the end of the day, you got to have a council who’s aligned and working it, and you’ve got to have a city staff who understands what they’re doing. We got 200 employees who are, I mean, world class, top notch and and so we’ve just got an awesome team who gets this. But then above and beyond that, the government doesn’t create this feeling right. We the government can help facilitate things like parks it can facilitate. We can make sure that our roadways make sense and that we’re investing in grid streets and walkability and those are important. But if the community is not bought in, you don’t have anything. And so it’s not just even the government team, it’s this incredible place of people, you know, it’s a sense of belonging we have.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:36:14] And so that’s that’s the part we’ve got to make sure we’re still investing in and that what we’re doing as a government is dealing so at a state level. We used to talk about if you wanted to predict prison populations in 15 years, you look at third grade reading level. And that wrap your head around that right, but it was a great example of a leading indicator, and if we can improve that leading indicator, we fix the actual problem, not the symptom. The prison sentence is a symptom of underlying problems. How do we go fix the underlying problems? Fact check me on that because I know they used to talk about it in the State House all the time. I have yet to find the source, but it’s a really good thought process, right? So if we can fix the leading indicator, how we actually solve the underlying problem, that’s for me here in Woodstock. I want to start looking at, OK, what are the what are the the policy objectives we’re chasing? What’s the leading metric we can start going after? That isn’t the symptom based metric, but the actual leading metric we can chase. I’ll give you an example. I think the number one thing I’m a conservative as conservatives. Far too often when it comes to local government, we treat the word density like it’s a bad word, OK, because it causes traffic, because it whatever right for me. I think if we want a long term, sustainable city, we have got to stop paying attention to single family versus multifamily is the metric.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:37:30] We’ve got to start paying attention to ownership versus mentorship as the metric. If you want a long term city, if you want to set a population of people who think long term about your city, you build a population of owners. That’s common sense. That makes sense. The bigger reason this matters. You have an entire population of millennials right now who are objectively making more than their parents made and are objectively poorer than their parents were. They’re all complaining about it. You know, they are because they’re loud. But the problem is, all of Gen X is looking at them saying, Well, you should have saved more like we did. Here’s the reality Gen X, I hear you. You are full of crap. They were not better savers than their kids are. What they did is they got out of college and they bought a house. Their kids got out of college. They were 15 years into their career now, and they have yet to buy anything. And so where their kids are paying rental payments every month, their parents paid mortgage payments and they built nest eggs and they built wealth. We built the American middle class on an ownership model. Look at California. Look at England. Both are 80 percent renters, and both have a massive disparity between the haves and the have nots. If you want wealth classes in this country, if you want wealth classes in Woodstock, you do it by getting out of the ownership model. If you want to build a strong middle class here and more importantly, a strong, financially stable city in the long term, you build a financially stable people.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:38:48] We can go on savings or good campaigns. All we want, I promise you, we’re all bad at it. What forces saving and what generates individual American wealth is home ownership. The challenge is when prices start to look like they do. The millennial buying their first home probably doesn’t start with a picket fence, but it might be a townhouse. It might be a condo, but it gives a route through which we can achieve ownership and we can build an actual wealth model for not not just the city, but for the individual citizens and families. They turn that nest egg. They build up in that condo into a home, and then they pass that nest egg on to the next generation. You continue to build wealth that way. This is how we did it. As a country, we are abandoning that concept and mentorship rates are growing at a massive rate in this country. Sister cities nearby have recently announced they are majority renter. Now, if we follow that pattern here, we will not have a place we want to live in 30 years. We’ve got that is a leading metric that isn’t sexy on the campaign trail. It is really easy to say no condos and you’ll hear me say no apartments because it follows that rental ship model, right? It’s not. The renting is bad. My wife and I rent it for the large part of the start of our marriage. It’s that when your community becomes a majority of that ownership model, it changes the face of the community. It changes the wealth pattern of the community.

Jim Bulger: [00:40:08] I can almost hear the cheers of realtors all over our city.

Speaker4: [00:40:11] That’s true.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:40:14] I I think that if we get that metric right, we fix fifty five symptoms down the way. And so those are the kinds of metrics is not the silver bullet. There is no silver bullet to make a great city. But if we can find those kinds of leading metrics and chase them and chase them unapologetically, then we are going to build a city that is unlike any other city because I don’t know another city chasing that metric right now. If we become the one setting that pattern, not only do we make this a healthier place, we set the example for how to bring the American Republic back. So I think we’ve we’ve got to decide we’re going to lead and lead on things that are going to matter for the people who are going to call this home.

Jim Bulger: [00:40:48] That’s great. Now, I suspect there are some misconceptions about the mayor’s office, and I

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:40:57] Suspect that

Jim Bulger: [00:40:58] One of them is this is a part time position. Yes, sir. I mean, you’re also the managing partner of Black Airplane, which is an award winning digital agency located here in Woodstock. How did you get involved in that business?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:41:12] Yeah. Speaking of misconceptions, with office, I will never forget in a past life, I used to travel a lot for work, and I’ll talk about that in a second too. I was in. I was outside of Baltimore for work on a Wednesday afternoon and I got a call from a constituent back in the State House days and he said, I need to meet with you this afternoon. Oh no, sir, I’m up in Baltimore right now. I’m here for work. I can meet with you on Saturday. And he goes, I don’t care what side gig job you’ve got. We’re paying you one hundred and eighty grand a year. You’re going to get back here. Oh, oh sir. I don’t know how to tell you this. I’m not your congressman. I make $17000 a year and we work for 40 days out of the year. And it was, but it was, and I felt bad for the guy because it’s those moments where you realize we just, you know, the number of doors I knocked on and running for State House and said, I want to be your state representative and they go, How are you going to change? Washington set a good example.

Speaker4: [00:42:02] I got to.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:42:04] And so for the for the mayorship, it is a part time job. I have a real job. That’s where I make my money. My my former State House buddies all tease me. I found the one job in government that pays less than the State House did we. I own Black Airplane. We we employ just shy of 30 full time developers and designers, building custom software for some of the largest companies in the world. For the DOD, for Coca-Cola, for some really fun companies and and also for a whole lot of companies. Here in North Georgia, there are mid-market, just great brands that are trying to build a living for themselves in their communities. I started my career way back when in recruiting and then in software and then got out of that. My dad, my neighbor, my college roommate and I started a safety equipment business back in 2011 that we we built up to about 30. Yeah, about 30 people. Maybe a little bit more than that. We sold it to 3M in twenty fifteen. I got locked in at 3M for two years. During that time period, from 2011 to 17, I was on just shy of a thousand flights. I flew. I averaged a flight every other day, including holidays and weekends, and that didn’t include the time that I was grounded because I was in the legislative session. So for the first three months of the year, I couldn’t fly and I traveled all over the world. I wrote the the the dropped object policy that has since large portions have been adopted into OSHA policy.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:43:31] But I traveled the world talking on that topic and we sold that company. 3m did really well. After two years, I left 3M and David Leggett, the one of those one of the four of us and I. He has always been a tremendously talented software developer, knew he wanted to get back into that and start an agency. So in Twenty Seventeen, we started Black Airplane. We actually bought the brand off of a gentleman who was using it for his design shop. We hired him in as our first designer and we relaunched the company and we’ve built it up since. We’re cash flow positive, profitable all those fun words, no debt, no outside investment and built it up to just shy of 30 full time. Now here in downtown Woodstock and I walked to work most days. My office is 2600 feet from my house. I walk or a golf cart and and it’s a I will tell you as mayor, this is we’re all biased in that we know the things that we know, right? But I’m a firm believer. If we’re going to build a long term sustainable city, we need to have more people who live and work in that city, right? We we lose our sense of roots, unlike we had three generations ago because three generations go and for the five thousand years in human civilization, prior to it, you lived and worked in the same city and then the automobile through everything on its head because we all accepted I can work forty miles away.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:44:43] The problem is then when the place you live starts to feel off, you don’t think about how to fix it. You think about how to get out of it. When the place you work starts to feel off, you don’t think about how to fix it. You think about how to get out of it. When you work and live in the same place, you feel a responsibility to make sure that that place continues. And so if we can get more people who are living and working here at the same time right now, we call it a great place to live, work and play. The challenge is Pick two, you can live and play here, or you can afford to work here, but you can’t do both. And so we’ve got to get more high paying jobs. The challenge is, I don’t want Microsoft. I’m not looking to attract the next Amazon campus into our 13 square mile city. I want I want fifty twenty five employee companies locating in downtown Woodstock who are paying six figures and allow their people to walk or take a short under ten minute drive to work every day. I will tell you I employ a whole team of people who we’ve got two or three exceptions because they wanted land in North Georgia. But outside of those, I think our average commute is like seven or eight minutes. And I can’t tell you the quality of life improvement. You give somebody with that.

Jim Bulger: [00:45:50] Well, and there’s a whole different office dynamic that comes with that, too, when you’re employing your neighbors. That’s exactly right. I mean, you’re not the faceless leader of the organization because you’re going to see them at the grocery store, you’re going to see them at the restaurant. You are living with them outside of work, too. And I think that brings another level of responsibility to that leadership as well.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:46:16] Absolutely. Well, you know, I’m really proud of Black Airplane. We’ve built an incredible team of people and we’ve got we’ve got our five values like everybody. But the the one that always means the most to me is we invest in each other personally and professionally, and I have a team of people who really buy into that and have shown us that over and over again. And it is so much fun to watch the team as you’ll have someone. We have an employee who who took on foster kids and one of the foster kids got really sick, and David and I own the company were both 50 50 partners, and we had no idea this was happening. One of our one of our employees walked around the company collecting money for these guys, and I think they raised them like $2200 or something. I mean, just silly stuff that is just leaning into each other in moments where it’s not a yeah, sure. Here’s five bucks. It’s a no. What do they need, OK? How do I meet that need? And I love that we’ve built a family there. And I think a large part to your point is that it’s a family of people who consider our community home. And so you already have a tie together.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:47:11] It’s not your tie isn’t just the logo that you’re wearing, right? It’s the it is everything I know. I’m going to see you again. I know you probably won’t retire here. When you leave, I’m likely to see you again. This is not a, you know, this isn’t a this isn’t a limited season in our in our relationship together. It’s just a it’s a season we work together. And so having that relationship, I think you’re right. As a leader, it adds a sense of responsibility. I hope and I believe my team shows it. It adds a sense of responsibility to them as well. They perform for the company because they recognize not just that the company matters for them and the families it feeds, but that our company, our company, does a lot in the community too. And so I think our employees rally around that and really believe in it. And we we do it. I might just be terrible at taxes, but I don’t see a whole lot of tax benefit out of it. But we do it because it’s the right thing for Woodstock and for Cherokee County. And if it’s good for Woodstock and Cherokee County, it’s going to be good for us.

Jim Bulger: [00:48:03] So let me just recap a minute. Sorry, I’m doing a lot. No, no, no, no. Well, you’re

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:48:07] Here.

Jim Bulger: [00:48:08] But in addition to being the owner and managing partner of Black Airplane. Devoted family man, you and your wife, Katie, have two small children, Oliver and Elizabeth, with a third on the way in

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:48:21] March and in March, yeah, we’re going to have a busy Q one.

Jim Bulger: [00:48:24] You have all this community involvement with the different boards and charitable organizations and everything else. And I’ve always been as you and I have talked about, I’ve always been a huge admirer of the way you’re able to balance your time between family and work and community. How does adding the Office of Mayor bring an additional challenge to that?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:48:47] Well, thank you. You make me sound like a really good guy. I’m just a big jerk. But I. It adds complexity I used to get asked in the State House all the time, how do you do this and a real job? Oh, poorly

Speaker4: [00:48:59] Is

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:49:01] The the way I used to describe it was, you know, when you wear two hats, no matter how good each hat looks, you still look stupid. But I I don’t know. I there’s not one of those things, you name, that I don’t love doing. And so it makes it a lot easier. I think back to in sixth grade, my my teacher was complimenting my mom and I remember standing there sixth grade, right? I’m standing there in teacher. Oh yeah, Michael did great on this history piece, blah blah. I remember my mom just, I mean, totally deadpan. Look at her. She goes, Don’t kid yourself. Michael never does anything he doesn’t want to do. And and but it stuck with me because there’s there’s an element of you’ll always do really well in the stuff that you want to be doing. And so this is a for me. I’m fortunate in that. I mean, I tell my wife, every day you leave me, I’m going with you. She, my wife, has been a huge support in all of this and my wife’s the president of the board of directors for Woodstock Arts, formerly Elm Street. And and so I do my best to make sure I’m supporting her in that when I leave here, I’ll be picking up the kids from grandparents because she’s off at their retreat this weekend. And it’s we she and I have always recognized we’re a team and that means we’re going to each take one for the team every now and then and make sure we’re supporting so we can go get things done because we both value what we’re doing in the community.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:50:17] And then I’ve got a great business partner. David’s been incredibly understanding and supportive through the, you know, sometimes I’m gone at one o’clock for a ribbon cutting and I I don’t get to do that one o’clock meeting, so we’ve got to push it to two. But the the mayor’s office brings an easier balance than the State House did in that it is easily as much time as the State House took, but it is spread through the year. And unlike the State House, where if I had a Regulated Industries Committee meeting at 10:30 in the morning on a Tuesday, I got to drive down there two hours before. So I’m driving out at 8:30 in the morning meeting last two hours. Great. Now we’re at 12 30. I’m going to grab lunch down there. Grab lunch. Ok, now we’re at 1:30. Ok, I got another hour drive back. It’s 2:30 now. Well, my whole day, 8:30 to 2:30 shot right for a four one meeting here. If I catch a meeting for mayor, I’ve got a two minute walk or drive from my office. I have the meeting for forty five minutes or an hour and then I get back to the office and it’s a genuine hour going. And so it’s there is a it’s an added just not just a hey cool that feels more like it matters because I can see where I work and live from here, but also a a genuine value to I didn’t have to travel an hour and a half away to go do something that matters. We can do it right here at home.

Jim Bulger: [00:51:31] Absolutely. Well, and over the last couple of years, you and I have gotten better acquainted because we both have the privilege of serving with NAV, the North Atlanta venture program, where we operate as mentors to new emerging growth continuing growth companies. Yes, sir. So as a business leader and also a mentor to other businesses. Talk a little bit about your goals concerning business growth in Woodstock.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:52:00] Yeah, I think study after study shows that business recruitment is almost never the way to genuinely grow jobs in the community. The dramatic majority of additional jobs come from growing businesses that already exist there or getting people who live there to start their own business. I will tell you one of the one of the ways I really want to go after recruiting in Woodstock is a an atypical recruiting model, which is we have a we’ve got a seventy eight, somewhere between seventy eight and eighty two percent, depending on the year that you’re measuring out commute and Cherokee County. So we have a tremendous, tremendous talent base in Cherokee of people who are working jobs and commuting out to companies outside of this county. In addition to those employees commuting out, you have a ton of business owners commuting out. They live here and they own a business in Cobb or Fulton County. I’m going to take the list from the secretary of State of Businesses, who’s registered agent lives in Woodstock and whose business is located in Fulton County. And I want to lunch with every one of them because those are guys who 15 years ago, when they opened their business, of course, it made sense to open it out there. There was nothing here, but they all it’s time come home. And so that’s I’m having weekly meetings with developers talking about, Yeah, we want to build office space. We just need to justify the demand. They are waiting. They’re itching to build it. These business owners would love to come back, but there’s no office space. So you have this chicken or the egg. All we need is a matchmaker. And so I’m going to intentionally start having those meetings with those guys.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:53:26] And I think it’s a good complement to how do we continue programs like the North Atlanta venture mentor for anybody on here who doesn’t know about that program. By the way, we have the only MIT trained venture mentoring service in the state of Georgia here in downtown Woodstock. It is an awesome asset that we’ve got for this community, and if you have a business you’d like ongoing mentorship in from people who’ve been there done that, it is a free program to be a part of. And if you think that you could offer value to that as a mentor, we would love to talk to you. It is an awesome, awesome program here downtown, but more programs like that and then also making sure that we are continuing to add entry level office space here to for businesses that want to get off the ground, we need additional co-working options. We’ve got the circuit, which is a great option. It’s where I started Black Airplane, but encouraging as we continue to scale out that we’re bringing in more, more and better options for those kinds of how do we keep the overhead low, allow people not just to fail fast, but to succeed fast too, because they’re not trying to desperately make ends meet at every turn around. We’re sitting in the innovation spot, which is an awesome option for that kind of kind of launching point. And so how do we continue to build those options here in downtown Woodstock? I think the the small business infrastructure is going to have to be a big focus of the next two or three years.

Jim Bulger: [00:54:43] Well, we talked earlier about how the representative role in the mayoral role differ, and I think one of the other differences in that is the direct leadership role you have as mayor and obviously you’re a different person now than you were when you first entered the house. Yeah. You’ve had experiences as a business leader with Black Airplane. Talk a little bit about your management style and how those leadership experiences. You see those being put into play as mayor.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:55:15] Oh, that’s a good question. I think I’m a I like to believe I’m a lead by example guy. I am a. I am not afraid of confrontation, but I’m not a confrontational guy, I’m not an aggressive guy. I like to I like to win people over. I think you have more success that way if you can get them bought into your vision than the other way around. But at the end of the day, I think I mentioned our values at Black Airplane earlier. We’ve got our we invest in each other that matters desperately to me and I think hopefully speaks into what I’m trying to describe there through just sort of an authentic, genuine leadership by example style. But our first value is we have courage and that value. For me, it’s it’s the most important value we have, I think, and I hope that it leans into the mayorship as well. The way I try to teach it with our employees is it’s those moments. Having courage is more is less important in a moment where you feel you’re on the defensive than it is in a moment where you feel you need to provide feedback. So I find far too often people are willing to let someone else fail because they don’t want to say the mean thing or what they perceive is the main thing.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:56:24] And in reality, what you’re doing is being a coward because you’re letting someone else bear the burden of your discomfort in the form of failure. And so encouraging my team to show courage by not just correcting and not doing it maliciously, but showing the courage of correcting and grace. But then, as mayor, I hope that I can have the courage to do like we’ve been talking about through this interview, right? We’re going to have to lead in ways that look a little bit weird sometimes. And if we don’t, then we’re decimating our city to be a place we don’t want to be. And so I think courage is going to be a dramatically important piece moving forward. I have tons of examples through my time in public service where I think I did a good job of showing that, and I have tons of examples where I absolutely missed it. And so my hope is like, we all do. I hit more than I miss. What did? What’s Cinderella’s quote? Have courage and be kind? I hope I can be a lot like Cinderella here, so well.

Jim Bulger: [00:57:20] Now, anyone who’s ever entered a leadership role knows that initially they’re going to be seen as a new set of ears for people wanting to resurface discussions on old issues. How do you plan to handle that?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:57:36] I’d like to be a new set of ears, bring them. I think my my caution will be what we said earlier. Write good ideas will win out and bad ideas will continue to have to wait for the next new set of years. Let’s let’s hear round. I think I think that’s that’s a healthy occurrence, too. It’s part of why new sets of ears are good is because what what may have been, what may have been dismissed. Eight years ago might have been dismissed because it was a bad idea. Eight years ago, but you know what? Woodstock isn’t the city we were eight years ago, and so there are there are a lot of ideas that may have been left on the table that do deserve a rehearing. There are a lot of ideas that I’m confident got left on the table that belong under the table or in a trash can. So I fall back to I hope I have the courage. I hope I have the wisdom to see between the two and the courage to make it very clear where we’re going now.

Jim Bulger: [00:58:25] That’s great. And it’s obvious that all of these previous experiences you’ve had have brought you to this exciting new chapter. So. Let’s get out the crystal ball, let’s look into the future. Let’s look four years down the road, it’s now the end of your first term as mayor. How do you hope residents will then view their city? What words do you want to hear them use?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [00:58:51] Oh, that’s a great question. I hope the word community comes out a lot more often than the word city. I like the word vibrant. I like I like the word neighbor. And I know how cliche that sounds. But it’s an underused word and it’s a word that I think we are we’re becoming increasingly suspicious of. I hope that when people think about Woodstock, I hope that regardless of the fact that four years from now, we’re going to be an even larger city, we could be knocking on the door of 40000 people. And I hope they keep using the word small town because, you know, it’s amazing how often we use that word, and it’s just a really hard word to continue to justify. And yet I don’t see it going anywhere anytime soon because we’ve got that feel. I hope they, I hope they say walkable. I hope they say, as I say, vibrant again, because it’s an important one. I want that sense of life. I think the fact that I can go sit under the Elm Tree at Reformation on a Tuesday afternoon and it feels full is not an example of Woodstock being out of work because we’re again, that unemployment rate is real low. It’s that it’s that we’ve got a city of people who’d rather be together than apart. And at a time in this country where a division seems to, it just seems to be floating in the air. It sure seems to have missed us. And so I want I’d like people to use words like weird and different. I think we should. We should be striving to be different and unique, and I think that word special needs to keep coming out.

Jim Bulger: [01:00:23] So that’s a lot of words. Oh, that’s that’s great. We thank you for that. And obviously, we could talk for hours. Oh, yeah. But before we wrap up here, any any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [01:00:34] I want to say thank you. We I know it was unopposed, but it was unopposed because 35000 other people decided not to run. And I like to hope at least a part of that was that they thought I would do a good job for them. So I want I want the citizens of Woodstock to hear that I intend to earn that. I will not get everyone right. I know I didn’t in the State House and I won’t hear either. But it won’t be for lack of work and it won’t be for lack of trying to make sure I do. So my promise to everybody is I ran. I still believe I had the most accessible and transparent legislative office in America for the course of eight years. I intend to run the mayor’s office the same way if you ever need me. My personal cell phone is six seven eight five two three eight five seven zero. It is the same phone my wife calls me on, so don’t blow me up because she needs to get a hold of me to. But call me anytime you need me, shoot me a text message. I am around downtown. I live on Hubbard Road and I walk to the corner of Mill and Town Lake Parkway for work every day. You can catch me in between, probably at the brewery, so I would love to see you and hear from you. I am not the guy who has all of the ideas. I am the guy who’s going to try to aggregate them. I consider the mayor’s role a facilitator role. I get staff and the council, the information and the resources they need to get their jobs done and to execute. For the people who call this home, people who call this home use me as a facilitator. If you’ve got a good idea, I want it. I will run with it. If you’ve got a bad idea, I will be kind.

Jim Bulger: [01:01:59] Well, in communication and transparency have always been foundations of your public service and I think your private life as well. So that accessibility and I mean, obviously, you’re active on social media. You mentioned the phone number, you have websites and I mean, there are a lot of ways people can contact you if they want.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [01:02:21] If you’re not talking to me about something, that’s because you don’t want to.

Jim Bulger: [01:02:25] So help us help you. How do you feel that we, as residents here in Woodstock, can effectively assist you and the other elected officials?

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [01:02:35] Yeah, that’s a great question. Don’t be shy. And I mean that genuinely, I find I find so many people think their elected officials are going to get their idea through osmosis, and that’s just not going to happen. So if you’ve got one, don’t assume it has come across our desks already. And so don’t be shy. Please share ideas. Share thoughts. But also, I would ask. In the same way, I’m hoping to have courage, have courage, be willing to try some stuff out here. I think that I guess I’ll say it this way if we follow the American pattern, we’re doomed to failure. So trying out some new things can’t do anything worse than the than the regular pattern for a suburban city can do. So let’s let’s make sure we’re setting a path. Let’s we are. I would. There are two things we have to remember right now in order to do well in the long term, we’re going to need to do some things that feel a little bit weird and that’s good in order to do in order to remember and be grateful for what we have right now, we’ve got to remember that, yes, we have issues with traffic and parking and pedestrians are in the roadways.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [01:03:40] And you know what? Those are all problems that come with a city people want to be in as we complain about those problems and we should because we should be chasing solutions. Let’s remember almost every other community in America would kill to have those problems. We have problems people envy, enjoy the problems other people envy like. It is a good thing if it takes you a little bit longer to get through downtown because it means you have a downtown that’s worth something and is contributing your property value. You know, the people who really don’t like the traffic in downtown and are. And I understand why the people who do not live in our city and don’t work in it, but drive through the middle of it. You know what, I want them to stop doing driving through the middle of it. So it’s I’m OK with them hating that traffic. That’s fine with me. For those of us who call this home or work here, let’s remember those are good problems. Let’s lean into them, and let’s make sure that we’re thinking of solutions together.

Jim Bulger: [01:04:30] That’s great. And and the web address if people want to email you.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [01:04:33] Yeah, you can catch me at Michael at Mayor Caldwell or go to Mayor Caldwell dot com. Or you can always check out the city website at Woodstock, Ga. Gov.

Jim Bulger: [01:04:43] Well, Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for your time today. Sharing your goals, sharing your insights. We thank you for all of your past service and all your contributions to the city, and we thank you for your willingness to lead us into our future as our mayor. We wish you, your family, your entire city team, all the best in the future. Thank you once again.

Mayor Michael Caldwell: [01:05:07] Thank you, sir. It was an honor,

Jim Bulger: [01:05:09] And we thank you for listening to Woodstock. Proud. We hope you enjoyed getting to know new Woodstock Mayor Michael Caldwell a little bit better. Until next time, this is Jim Bulger saying Take good care of yourself. Please stay safe and we will talk with you again. Real soon.