Ed Shouse con­tin­ues our County Com­mis­sion inter­view series. He is run­ning for Knox County Com­mis­sioner 4B.

1. Intro­duce your­self to Knoxville, who are you, and why are you running?

Ed Shouse I am 57 years old; I came to Knoxville (from Birm­ing­ham) in 1970 to attend UT, got a job, worked my way through school and never left. I worked over 18 years in the bank­ing indus­try and the last 16 years in the rail­road busi­ness. I recently retired as a Vice-President from Gulf & Ohio Rail­ways, a local com­pany that runs the Knoxville & Hol­ston River Rail­road, a 20 mile short­line rail­road here in Knoxville that deliv­ers over 6,000 car­loads a year. My pub­lic ser­vice includes being a mem­ber of the Knoxville City Coun­cil, where I chaired the Audit Com­mit­tee for 6 years and served on the City Invest­ment Com­mit­tee (which invests the City’s sur­plus funds). Like most Knoxvil­lians, I am tired of the self deal­ing actions of our County Com­mis­sion. I feel that there should be a strong ethics pol­icy that restricts nepo­tism and for­bids Knox County employ­ees from being mem­bers of the County Com­mis­sion. I have lived in the 4th dis­trict for over 30 years. I am mar­ried and my wife and I have a 10 year old son who attends Bear­den Ele­men­tary. Thanks for your inter­est in our com­mu­nity and in bet­ter government.

2. We think it’s bet­ter know­ing what not to do rather than hav­ing an exten­sive plan. What areas or inter­ests would ben­e­fit Knox County not to ven­ture into?

No more bonded indebt­ed­ness until the debt is paid down sig­nif­i­cantly. The debt ser­vice is becom­ing unmanageable.

3. What 5 things could you not live without?

My fam­ily
God and my faith.
The free­doms guar­an­teed me as an Amer­i­can.
My friends
Liv­ing in East Tennessee