Taylor Mayor November 2 Election Candidate Guide

Voters head to the polls on November 2 to cast their votes for local leaders, ballot proposals and more. 

Get to know the candidates running for local office in your community with 101.9 FM WDET’s Candidate Guides. Surveys were distributed to candidates to complete and you can see the responses for candidates for Taylor Mayor below.

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Alex Garza

Age: 27

Current job: State Representative – Michigan’s 12th House District

Education: Bachelors degree – Political Science – U of M Dearborn, Associates degree – Business Management – Baker College 

About Alex Garza: I am a husband, I am a son, I am a brother, and I am someone that believes in Taylor’s potential. I genuinely care about the community that raised me. I’ve dedicated my life to helping those in need, as shown from my time on the City Council and as State Representative. I am someone that has shown up everyday to work hard for our community. 

Why are you running for Taylor Mayor? I am running because I can do the most good for our community from the Mayor’s Office. Taylor has so much potential and yet we are struggling to address basic community needs like trash pick-up, flooding, public safety, and road repair. If elected, I will work to bring Taylor into a bright future where we can look beyond just repairing what we have.

What is the most important issue facing Taylor? The most important issue is accountability and transparency at City Hall. So many members of our community have lost faith in the City. We should be able to trust that our money is being spent the way it is supposed to and that no area of Taylor is being neglected due to favoritism or negligence of city responsibilities.

How would you address that issue? If elected, I would start by initiating an audit on day one to look at city finances. The audit would ease concerns about misappropriation of city resources and create a snapshot of city revenue and spending. I would follow up on the audit by working with our city council to ensure that safeguards are in place and that we work to limit the transparency and trust issues down the line. 

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? Our tax rate is as high as other cities and yet we are seeing comparatively little bang for our buck. Taylor is currently leaving federal and state money on the table by not submitting proposals for available grants. These are missed opportunities to fund infrastructure projects, public safety, and more. If elected, I will not let these potential resources disappear. There is so much more that could be done for our city if only we put in the effort to make sure spending is efficient and money is not slipping through the cracks. 

Folks regularly tell me that they have trouble getting a hold of the mayor’s office when they have input or questions. Accessibility and constituent services are a huge part of the value of having a mayor’s office. During the unemployment crisis at the start of COVID-19 my legislative office ran a state of the art unemployment response team. I would bring the same energy and commitment that allowed us to quickly address hundreds of issues with the unemployment system to City Hall.

Tim Woolley

Candidate did not respond to survey request. View campaign website.