An Interview with Suffolk, VA Mayoral Candidate Mike Debranski

Mr. Debranski and I were originally supposed to meet at Java 149, but at the last minute I realized that Java closed too early, so we switched the meet to Starbucks. The music was so loud inside Starbucks that we moved outside, where we were greeted by the roaring motor of a of pressure-washer. A normal person may have been rattled by this chain of events, but Mr. Debranski has been a High School Principal before. He doesn't get rattled.

Of all the interviews I've done so far, I felt the most immediately comfortable with Mr. Debranski. He was easy to talk with. This was much more like an informative conversation between peers than a question and answer session, and I really liked that. Mike was raised by his Polish parents; a dad who worked in the Pennsylvania railroad industry and a mom who worked in the cafeteria. A football scholarship opened the door for Mike's college degree, where he discovered his calling was educational leadership.

He continued his own education, eventually earning a Doctorate.
"The unique benefit of higher education is it provides a new way of thinking, a focus on complexity, on philosophical background."
He credits the support of his wife for the completion of his dissertation. Dr. Debranski, or Dr. Mike as I call him in my head, was elected to the School Board in 2006 and will serve there until 2010. He has been active in the Suffolk educational system for over 20 years.

Since I now know that the position of "Mayor" is largely an honorary one, I wanted to know how Dr. Mike was going to effect the kind of change his campaign platform embraces. While he agrees that the Mayoral position is a first among equals role, he also feels that the "Mayor should exert positive leadership. Just because the Mayor is ceremonial doesn't mean he or she cannot influence council."
He adds that "The Mayor is as strong as his or her support from the constituents."
And Mike has a lot of constituent support. In fact, it was a group of constituents who encouraged him to run for Mayor. Why? Because they liked his vision for what the Mayor should do for Suffolk.
"I've contributed my energy to the betterment of the school systems. I think our City needs help and I've got the necessary skills and experience."

Of course, the issue of transparency came up. Does he feel the current administration is transparent?
"Please. It's so opaque you can cut it with a knife."
His suggestion for increasing transparency is founded in the scientific method: have a management model. Instead of hiring and firing people based on touchy-feely things like popularity or political connections, Dr. Debranski thinks these decisions should be based on a tried and true management model. His preference is for the Management by Objective model. Dr. Debranski likes this model because it emphasises the need to create measurement criteria at the start of a project, and because it values a strict alignment between organizational goals and the goals of individual employees. By relying on this objective system, our City operations will be guided by transparent and public goals; not by personality clashes and personal relationships.

At this point in our conversation it became very clear to me why Dr. Mike spoke over his 60 second time limit at the forum last week: his answers aren't dumbed down to 60 second sound bites. He is willing to address the complexity of our systems, and unwilling to spit out simplified answers.

"One goal is to improve and promote citizen involvement," he tells me, referring to his desire to re-instate the Village Initiative Plans. These plans were developed by citizen steering committees; an effective and inclusive way of empowering local neighborhoods to define their own solutions to their specific problems. These programs are currently on indefinite hold and many of Debranski's supporters would like to see them reinstated. Another goal for Dr. Debranski is recycling and green development.
"We've only got one planet. It is the right thing to do to take care of it."

But his major focus, his primary concern, is with economic development for our City.
"Economic Development is at the top of my chain. Everything flows from that."
Mike points out that personal property tax will never be enough to fund our City's needs. The revenue has to come from businesses. Suffolk businesses. Personal property tax is a small income stream and expecting personal property tax to fund the City puts an undo burden on individuals. Businesses, on the other hand, provide three revenue streams for the City: real estate taxes, sales taxes, and business licensing fees. With the revenue from those three streams issues like recreation and public services can be addressed.
"And business generate jobs. Jobs for the people of Suffolk," he adds.

When considering his economic development plans, Mike takes into account not just how many jobs businesses create, but what kind of jobs. What kind of wages.
"Businesses that create a need for a skilled labor force are better for Suffolk. We need to coordinate our economic development with our education system to create excellent jobs for our citizens." As both a successful Suffolk business owner and a successful educational leader, Mike Debranski is in the perfect position to oversee coordination between development and education.

Debranski feels very strongly that Suffolk has all the necessary ingredients to be a leader in Hampton Roads.
"We are not taking advantage of our unique resources."
He feels he is the right person to bring together the various elements of Suffolk under one comprehensive business model. But he does not feel the need to treat all parts of Suffolk the same. Debranski is not interested in a homogenized Suffolk; he feels that the individual personality of villages and neighborhoods is a prime example of what Suffolk has to offer.

Mike has the full support of Cypress Borough Councilman Charles Brown. This was not, in itself, particularly important to me. But the fact that Mr. Debranski mentioned it was very important to me. Unlike other candidates who left out their political connections during our interviews (and I had to "discover" those connections during my own research), Mike was right out there with his relationship with Charles Brown. He isn't just paying lip service to transparency. His actions back up his words.

I cannot overemphasize how comfortable I was with Dr. Mike. His way of speaking and listening engenders trust. He feels sincere, real, calm. He didn't act like he was doing me a favor by speaking with me, didn't talk down to me or over me, and took the time to craft thoughtful answers to my thoughtful questions. And he brought me a bumper sticker.

You can read more about Dr. Mike Debranski at his new and expanded website, Debranksi for Mayor. Look for him and the other candidates on Joel Reuben's On the Record interview aired by WVEC on Sunday mornings.