Former Vestavia council member considering run for governor

From City Hall to the county courthouse, David Carrington says he has never wanted re-election to be the driver of his decisions.

Carrington served on the Vestavia Hills City Council from 2004 to 2010, when he resigned to run for his seat on the County Commission. And after two terms as a Jefferson County Commissioner, Carrington said he is not seeking a third term.

But that doesn't mean his public service days are over.

On Nov. 29, when he announced he would not run for a third term, Carrington said he is "seriously considering" running for governor in the 2018 election.

Carrington came into his first term as commissioner and service as commission president at the height of Jefferson County's bankruptcy problems.

At the time, Carrington blamed politicians of the 1990s and early 2000s for the crisis, indicating that bad deals and decisions were made, and that facing the problem was punted until after they left office, which left the commission that took over in a tough spot.

But despite the challenges, Carrington said he thinks the county has made significant strides forward over the last six years.

"Let's be honest," Carrington said in his statement, "not many citizens gave me and my fellow commissioners a prayer of ever turning around Jefferson County, and it was accomplished in less than four years."

Now that the "mess" in Jefferson County is under control, Carrington said he is considering putting his skills to make the difficult decisions to another major "mess" in the state: Montgomery.

"I think we've proven that we've been willing to make the hard decisions, despite the political implications," Carrington said in an interview with Vestavia Voice a few days after his announcement.

That willingness to make "unpopular" choices for the sake of the people, he said, along with his experience in business, are what he said really makes his case for a potential run for governor.

That perspective, Carrington said, comes from what he considers a defining day in his life, April 22, 1999: the day he was diagnosed with cancer.

“It gave me an opportunity to sit back and see what was important,” he said.

At that time, he was running five businesses, but decided to liquidate and reduce his portfolio to just one.

By 2002, he had beaten cancer and was running one of the first e-commerce businesses in the area.

Having reduced his business commitments, Carrington joked that he “had a lot more free time,” and decided to get involved in the community.

After helping with Vestavia Mayor Scotty McCallum’s campaign, he decided to run for council in 2004.

Carrington was a member of the Vestavia Hills City Council along with Jim Sharp, who stepped down this year.

“I hated to lose him to the county commission,” Sharp said, “but I was excited for him, and he’s done a terrific job down there.”

Sharp said Carrington was instrumental in bringing to fruition several major economic development initiatives, and that he thinks those skills transferred to his work with the county, and could transfer to service as governor.

“He brings in a lot of good financial experience,” Sharp said.

In addition to bringing the city into solid financial footing, Sharp said Carrington helped bring about the city’s form of government change, working to bring the issue to the state legislature and eventually to a special election.

Sharp said he thinks Carrington’s ability to work with individuals and find compromise has helped him during his time as a county commissioner.

“He’s a good leader, and he’s good at getting consensus on issues,” he said.

Over the years, Carrington has been involved with Leadership Vestavia Hills, serving a term as president, and has been actively involved with the Chamber of Commerce and his church, Shades Mountain Baptist Church.

“I’m a big believer in leadership groups,” Carrington said of his time with Leadership Vestavia Hills, and said that he is proud the group has a list of alumni that have gone on to serve in many prominent state government positions.

If he decides to run for governor, Carrington said he would focus on fixing many of the things he sees wrong with the way things are currently run in Montgomery.

First, he said he would appoint cabinet members that are “outsiders,” not life-long bureaucrats.

“We would get an outside perspective at things,” he said.

Second, he said the main focus would be to create a strategic plan for the state economically--to identify what the state is currently doing, and identify what is truly needed, and what the state could do without.

In his time as commissioner, Carrington listed as his major accomplishments the reduction of government-provided services to the private business sector, including the county in-patient hospital and nursing home.

If he were to move to the state level, one of the things he said he would attempt to move into the private sector is the work of the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC).

“For the life of me, I don’t know why the government is in the liquor business,” he said.

As far as the budget goes, he said his goal would be to combine the revenue sources for the general fund and the education trust fund. Though the revenue sources would be combined, he stressed that he would not attempt to combine the budgets for the two.

He did say he wanted to move the state to a “zero-based” budget, where expenses must be justified for each period – meaning each new period starts at “zero,” and every function is evaluated on its needs and costs.

He said this will be a challenge, but that it is needed, and that he thinks he and his team could do it.

“We know how to squeeze a nickel, and we’ll squeeze every nickel we can get,” he said.

He said he’s had people ask if he would want to “run the state like a business,” but doesn’t think that is a “yes” or “no” concept.

“There are business principles that need to be applied to government,” he said, such as budgeting, but that there are good things a state does that don’t make a profit – like providing libraries and state parks.

With regard to the major buzzwords within state politics over the last few months, from prison overcrowding to Medicaid funding and state poverty levels, Carrington said he thinks the problem is much bigger.

“All those problems are symptoms of broader issues,” he said.

The biggest, to him, is education.

He said he thinks that many of the state’s problems could be solved if the education in the state was more efficient and effective.

“It’s very simple to say, but very difficult to implement,” he said.

Carrington described what he considers to be important “macro trends,” looking at the unemployed and underemployed, and figuring out “why.”

He said only 32 percent of the jobs in the state require a four-year college degree, but yet he sees schools pushing more and more students away from trade skills and into degrees that are not leading to jobs.

He said the focus for education in the state should be “in and out,” with all students getting their high school diploma or GED. That way, the focus on jobs can be “in and up,” with workers moving up into careers, rather than languishing in minimum wage positions that he said should be reserved for high school and college students.

Looking at those “macro trends,” is something Carrington says he thinks politicians are afraid of, but Sharp says isn’t a problem for the commissioner.

“The big picture doesn’t bother him. He’s able to look at the big picture on whatever he’s on, and he’s able to assimilate that in his mind,” Sharp said. “He’s just good at that.”

Carrington said that over the next few months, he will work to get to know more citizens in different parts of the state to “better understand the challenges specific to their community,” and that he would likely make a decision about running for governor in the late spring or early summer.

But for Sharp, he thinks it’s a promising idea.

“That would not be a stretch for him at all,” he said.