Anderson City Council Elections: Marshall Pickens

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

The City of Anderson will hold elections Tuesday, and The Anderson Observer is interviewing candidates on that ballot. Today, It’s Marshall Pickens, who is running for the vacant Seat 3 on council.

Marshall Pickens likes to talk about Anderson as a place that is being pulled, almost against its will, toward growth. The city needs better roads, more careful development, a more coordinated response to homelessness, and — farther down the line — a downtown fine-arts destination that could give the city something beyond the usual civic ingredients of meetings, zoning disputes, and forward-looking plans. He is running unopposed for Anderson City Council Seat 2, which gives his campaign the strange calm of a race that is less a contest than an introduction.

Anderson Observer: What made you decide to run for council?

Marshall Pickens: I’ve been on the Planning Commission for 10 years, and that’s part of it. Haven’t really been able to make policy. So, after being on the Planning Commission for 10 years and hearing that Luis Martinez was going to be resigning for family reasons, I’ve decided, now’s my time to kind of step up and be a policymaker. That was kind of my impetus. I liked how the city was going and having someone from outside. I hate missing out on Luis’ thoughtfulness. I didn’t see a reason to run until there wasn’t anyone there, if that makes sense. It’s not that I didn’t disagree or anything like that, but it was just a good time to move forward.

Anderson Observer: Okay. Well, how do you think your professional experience has prepared you for city council?

Marshall Pickens: I think I’ve done every kind of leadership program through every chamber — Pickens County, Anderson County, and everything in between. But I would say with the Planning Commission, the biggest leadership has been chairing that committee for about seven years. Just being able to watch everything going through has been fun, but also has made it so you really have to listen to every side of the story before you make a decision, if that makes any sense.

Anderson Observer: Oh, yeah. What do you think are the three biggest challenges facing your district in the next five years?

Marshall Pickens: Well, number one is roads. I think our infrastructure is truly lacking, and the lack of leadership to get things done is the main thing I’ve heard for the past several years, especially when talking about development and things like that. My main thing is, we’ve got all this great land and people are wanting to move here, but we don’t have the infrastructure. A lot of what I’ve heard is, “well, that’s not our problem,” that’s the county’s problem or the state’s problem, it’s a state road. But my deal is that these roads run through our city, and so it is our problem. We need to make sure we’re working with our state government to make sure the funds are coming back to Anderson to help fix these roads.

Two is careful development. One thing that I was a champion for on the Planning Commission was getting a comprehensive land plan. I worked on that for about seven years, and we finally got something about two years ago, a comprehensive land management plan where we really tried to set what kind of industries or homes or sites, anything like that, mapped out into what zone we want.

Those two things are probably the biggest issues facing my district as well as the city itself. Another one is trying to find some infill for development. You’ve seen a lot of things starting to move out 81 or out Clemson Boulevard, but we have a lot of beautiful locations that are in the city that can be redeveloped, and just trying to find somebody to develop those is going to be key as well.

Anderson Observer: How would you help the city manage growth while pushing more downtown investment and revitalization?

Marshall Pickens: I mean, the main thing is trying to work with these folks that come in and want to build. It’s going to be a two-sided sword. You’re going to have to manage people’s expectations as well as help guide them to better locations. The main thing is with the comprehensive land plan, if somebody comes in and wants to do something in a certain area, luckily we’ve already decided that is or is not going to fit with what we’re trying to do in that area. So, I would say having citizens comment on this and bring in their views, and really finding out what’s the best fit for our city.

Anderson Observer: You know, the city’s already got the Franklin Street development going on. Is there anything else you think the city could do to encourage affordable housing?

Marshall Pickens: That’s a good question. What we did with the Franklin, I was on the Planning Commission when we did that one, we started looking at some of these sites that could do some of these developments. But the problem was with our zoning and things like that, was you could not put something of that size. Basically, we needed more space to be able to do what we’re doing for the Franklin. We listened to what developers thought they could do as well as the citizens, and decided to change that planned development to make it fit on a smaller footprint. I think that’s probably what we’re going to have to do going forward — figure out how we can use the footprints we have to kind of have these affordable, attainable housing. It’s funny how that word has changed from affordable to attainable.

Greg Wilson: As downtown grows, so are the challenges that are facing all downtowns everywhere around the country, including homelessness. What can the city do to provide compassionate help for those in need and work with those who are already working with those individuals?

Marshall Pickens: I’ve started a conversation with my county councilman and just wanted to kind of find out. I think it’s going to be a three-pronged plan to try and fix this. I’ve looked at other communities that have been able to help this, such as in Greenville with “Greenville Together,” where things have worked really well. I’ve heard some good things coming out of Columbia. I really think it’s going to be a three-pronged approach where we’re going to have to have the local governments working together with for-profits and nonprofits to kind of figure out the way forward on this. I do feel like the city has done its best trying to negate any of the safety issues. But going forward, I don’t know if you saw that white paper that was done (on Homelessness), and that was just eye-opening to see how much Anderson is lacking and what is needed. So, I think it’s just really going to have to take a coalition of folks. We have the homeless coalition and things like that, and we just need to have a sit-down and figure out the best way forward. There’s a lot of money being thrown at the problem, but not really many solutions.

Greg Wilson: How would you describe your management style and how would you work with other council members and the city manager?

Marshall Pickens: My management style is really: you’ve got two ears and one mouth, so you listen twice as much as you speak. But also to speak when you have a solution. There’s a lot of folks that will speak just to make noise, if that makes sense. And I really want to just make sure that what I say matters, but then also working, coming up with the best ideas is another management solution. I’m not one who believes if I’m the smartest one in the room, If that’s the case, I’m in the wrong room. I don’t think I have every answer. And so, I do want to take in everybody’s thought processes. Another thing that I’ve found while being on the Planning Commission is sometimes, to manage results, as long as no one is happy, you’ve probably made the right decision. So that’s kind of my management style. And I’ve worked a lot with several of the council members already and in different organizations, and so I just feel like we’ve got a good core to make things run and to have that accountability.

Greg Wilson: Right. Are there any other priorities on your agenda that I haven’t asked you about if you’re elected to sit?

Marshall Pickens: Aanother thing that's a five to ten year plan is some kind of Downtown fine arts attraction. I’ve talked to some constituents, and you know, what we don’t have is a place that is a kind of a three-in-one combination of a black box for theater or, as I call it. kind of a baby Peace Center, where it’s something for local or upcoming artists that can have a concert inside, but that we can also, you know, partner with vendors to be able to have food, beverage, adult beverage. Because right now, the only places we really have that’s close to downtown are churches and the university where you can’t have alcohol sales. So, I mean, we’re going to have to figure something else out there, but I really want to work on the infrastructure for our roads and development and the homeless stuff right now. And then kind of a fine arts draw to downtown later on.

Greg Wilson: Is there anything else about you want people to know that they might not know?

Marshall Pickens: I've kind of put it out there. I haven’t been very good on social media, but my family is from around here, but each one of the last four generations of my family had married someone from out of town. And what those folks, including my wife, have added to our community has been great. So, I’m a big believer in people who want to live in Anderson. It’s a double-edged sword because people want to live here, so we need to give them an ability to do that, but with that comes the problems of growth, the congestion and things like that. So, I really feel like we need planned growth as well as working together on the state level for a lot of our roads being fixed.

So that’s kind of my main push for the first couple years (on city council).