Gene Clark, 47, resides on Brookberry Road. He grew up in Bassett, Va., and moved here in 1991. He attended Patrick Henry Community College and went to work in the furniture industry in 1982 with Bassett Furniture Industries, remaining for 10 years. He then joined Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co. for 12 years and for the last three years has been with Ligna Furniture, a company based in Indonesia. He is now president of Ligna USA. He and his wife Becky have two sons.

Here are Clark’s responses to a series of questions posed to all four mayoral candidates in Mount Airy to allow voters to learn about their positions in preparation for Tuesday’s primary:

Question: Why do you want to hold the office of mayor?

Answer: If somebody sat down and said, “You know, I want to be mayor because of the pay,” they’d have to be absolutely crazy. And if they wanted to be mayor because of the ceremonial duties, they’d probably be crazy, too.

The reason I’m running is that from what I’ve been hearing over the past 12 months, there’s obviously some friction between the council and the city manager. My belief is that right now we have kind of deferred our leadership to the city manager. Whether it’s by choice, or whether he’s taken that authority, it’s happened. That’s the way it appears. It’s time for the “stockholders of the company” to take back control. The board is the one who has to answer to the people.

And I think we need a mayor who is going to build a consensus where he can, but also to say, “this is not what is in the best interest of the city,” and work with the commissioners to come up with a better solution.

I think an example is the city manager’s contract. I think my approach would have been to go and sit down with the city manager and say, “Look, how can we come to some type of understanding on this without it being the public issue that it was?”

I want to step up and say, “Look, I’m willing to identify the problem and I’m willing to solve it.” But as long as we’re in this cycle we’re in, we’re not going to get anywhere.

Question: With economic development a top priority today, what would you specifically do as mayor to try to recruit new industry to Mount Airy?

Answer: That’s a good question. Specifically, economic development is kind of a two-part issue for the city of Mount Airy. We have to do it in concert with what the county does; that gives us a stronger voice in the state. As far as incentives and that type of thing, I think that’s crucial to bringing companies to Mount Airy, with the incentives based on what a company brings to the city: the amount of investment and the amount of revenues generated while here.

I think we have to develop what the goals are for the city of Mount Airy, and try to make use of the existing buildings we have.

We’ve also got to sell the industries on Mount Airy. We can’t offer what Charlotte or Greensboro does as far as incentives. What I do think we have to do is sell the quality of life we have here, the good schools and other qualities. I think those are the intangibles we have to offer.

We have to have somebody to go out and sell. In my experience over the past 27 years, I’ve sold a lot. I’ve learned to identify the needs of my customers and sell them on what I can do for them. On that, I think I have the strongest experience among the four candidates.

We also have to educate the community on why we have to do what we do. With the three recent companies, secrecy was a concern and we must do a better job in advance of explaining that as the issue comes up. We have to be better at communicating, and that’s where I think we do a poor job right now.

Question: With many state and local governments downsizing these days to balance budgets, would you support a comprehensive study or some other method aimed at analyzing city government personnel and possibly trimming its labor force?

Answer: The short answer is yes. I think we need to handle our budget process in a different fashion. We need to have a zero-based budget that addresses personnel and other needs on a line-item-by-line-item basis. I think it needs to begin in January, starting at the very bottom with a zero-based process. Then all the commissioners sit down and review the proposed expenditures. I do think one thing that needs to be analyzed in our budget is the non-essential services.

From that standpoint as far as the personnel goes, we’re probably at the level we should be based on the state guidelines. I’m in favor of making cuts through attrition.

Question: What would you specifically do to get more citizens involved, or give them a greater voice, in city government?

Answer: Number one is, I want to start having forums before the board meetings, where the commissioners are there and where the public is invited to come in an informal, town-hall manner, not with the board sitting on their perches at City Hall. Maybe go to a conference room or some other facility we’ve got in town, where everybody is on an equal footing.

I think we really have to encourage citizen input, because that’s what we need to get things done. You’re only going to run over people for so long, and that’s kind of where we’re at now. We’ve just got to communicate better, and it seems like we communicate less with the people who are paying the bills than we do anybody.

Whoever takes Jack Loftis’ place is going to have to deal with the same kinds of things and criticisms; I’m not picking on him, but citizens have the right to do that. I just want to include them.

Question: Other than new jobs for citizens, what are a couple of other priorities you have for city government?

Answer: I think the budget process is one of them. I think that has to be addressed right away.

I think we need to formulate some short- and long-term goals to accomplish over the next four years.

I think we need to work to get the debt down, and just make sure we communicate and get on the right track again.

Question: Feel free to make any other statements that haven’t been covered in previous questions.

Answer: I think there are distinct differences between the four candidates running, and what voters are going to have to do is look for somebody who’s got common sense who has the desire to do what it takes to get the job done. I think I have that ability, and what you see is what you get for the most part.

I have no agenda — any agenda should be determined by the citizens of Mount Airy and the mayor and council should deal with whatever comes our way based on that agenda, even if it means changes in city government.

They are there to execute what the people want and I’d work with the city council to make sure we’re held accountable for what we do. The blame should fall on the mayor and council, because that’s the only way you’re going to build trust back up in the city government and the people who are spending our money.