Sandy Stimpson

William S. "Sandy" Stimpson (born April 4, 1952) is an American politician who serves as the current mayor of Mobile, Alabama. He was elected August 27, 2013, with 54% of the vote, defeating incumbent Mayor Sam Jones.^[1] He ran on a platform of making Mobile the safest, most business and family-friendly city in America by 2020. ^[2]

Early life and education

Born (April 4, 1952) and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Stimpson is a 1970 graduate of the University Military School, now known as UMS-Wright and received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Alabama in 1975.^[3]

Career

Upon graduating from the University of Alabama, Stimpson began a 37-year career with Gulf Lumber Company, his father's company, and its successor, Scotch & Gulf Lumber. He worked his way up through the family business to become the Chief Financial Officer prior to leaving the company to run for office in 2012.^[4]

One Mobile

Stimpson developed the concept of "One Mobile" on the campaign trail and has carried it into office. A non-profit organization "OneMobile.org" was stood up in April 2014.^[5]

"The concept of “One Mobile” is that everyone wants a seat at the table, everyone wants to have a voice, so that as you make your plans to go forward that they feel like they’ve been heard. People recognize that we can’t capitalize on every single idea, but if they’re part of the process they’ll “buy-in.” The way to succeed is to get “buy-in” – you set a high vision, high goals, and then you get buy-in and then you work as a team, and when you do that, you get One Mobile."^[6]

In the news

In August 2013, the final month of the mayoral campaign, Stimpson announced that he would contribute $200,000 of his salary over four years to a bonus pool for employees who submit cost-saving or revenue-enhancing ideas implemented by the city.^[7]

On May 30, 2014, Stimpson advocated for the appointment of his former opponent and predecessor Sam Jones to the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System (MAWSS) board.^[8] In addition, he called for a "Community Conversation on Race" which occurred on August 18, 2014.^[9]

In August 2014, Mayor Stimson announced the first of three pay raises for city of Mobile employees. Stimpson wrote in a memo to city workers, "By making the welfare of our city employees a high priority, we built the budget to allow for these increases."^[10]

In June 2017, Mayor Stimpson announced the building of a $30 million distribution center by Amazon in Mobile. The facility will occupy over 350,000 square feet located in the Port City Commerce Park, and create, "hundreds of new jobs" according to Stimpson.^[11]

Mayor Stimpson was one of forty mayors chosen and invited to Harvard University's Bloomberg City Leadership Initiative. Thanks to a $32m charitable gift by Bloomberg Philanthropies, along with partnerships with Harvard’s Business and Kennedy Schools, the year-long program was created to serve innovative mayors. The inaugural cohort began with forty mayors, 30 of them from American cities, including the mayors of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Phoenix and Mobile.^[12]

In August 2017, the Mobile Police and Firefighters Associations endorsed Mayor Stimpson for the second time.^[13] This followed the additional endorsements of the Mobile County Wildlife and Conservation Association, the oldest wildlife and conservation organization in Alabama, and the International Chemical Workers Union.^[14]

Personal life

Stimpson is married to the former Jean Miller of Brewton, Alabama.^[15] They have four grown children (Billy, Virginia, Sands, Nancy), nine grandchildren and reside in Mobile, Alabama.

References

External links

• Sandy Stimpson profile at the City of Mobile official website
• Media related to Sandy_Stimpson at Wikimedia Commons