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

John Schoonmaker
Age 53

Life­long Repub­li­can

Res­i­dent and home­owner in the 5TH Dis­trict for 23 years

Occu­pa­tion: Regional Sales Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for an inter­na­tional man­u­fac­turer of sport optics, Opto­vi­sion U.S.A.

Pre­vi­ously: Part­ner in TN fur­ni­ture man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pany. Respon­si­ble for sales, mar­ket­ing, and man­age­ment of $5,000,000 national cor­po­rate account.

Mar­ried to Heather Schoon­maker for 28 years

Two chil­dren: Laura, 20, grad­u­ated from Far­ragut High School in 2005, attends Fur­man Uni­ver­sity; Justin, 17, is cur­rently a junior at Far­ragut High School

Coun­cil of West Knox County Home­own­ers, Inc. — 1995 to Present: Pres­i­dent since 1997. Ded­i­cated thou­sands of vol­un­teer hours rep­re­sent­ing neigh­bor­hoods located in the 4th, 5th and 6th County Com­mis­sion Dis­tricts

Knox County Stormwa­ter Advi­sory Board — 2006 — 2008 Appointed to rep­re­sent West Knox County and assist in devel­op­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for poli­cies to expand the exist­ing stormwa­ter man­age­ment pro­gram.

Co-Vice Pres­i­dent of the Far­ragut High School Foot­ball Booster Club (2007)

I want the job of rep­re­sent­ing you, the tax­payer. My pro­fes­sional career in busi­ness and sales man­age­ment has pre­pared me with many skills which I will bring to the job. I real­ize that no one per­son has all the answers so I believe in col­lect­ing all the facts and lis­ten­ing to all the stake­hold­ers. I have demon­strated this suc­cess­ful team approach in all my endeav­ors. I am a hard worker, and will be acces­si­ble to you. I will be an objec­tive deci­sion maker because I have no per­sonal or cor­po­rate ties to influ­ence my vote.

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?

Knox Co. should not let our fab­u­lous down­town area lan­guish.

Knox Co. should not have lit­ter along the road­ways (like you see in Mem­phis).

Knox Co. should not allow cell phone tow­ers in our parks.

Knox Co. should not loose its nat­ural scenic beauty from inad­e­quate ordi­nances regard­ing ridge­lines.

Knox Co. should not allow edu­ca­tional stan­dards in our schools to drop.

3. What 5 things could you not live without?

The love and encour­age­ment from my fam­ily and friends.

A good dog like our golden retriever, Chester, who is the most loyal com­pan­ion a guy could ever want.

Sweet tea, BBQ and foot­ball

A relax­ing vaca­tion spot

The Smoky Moun­tains, fresh water and clean air