Kyle Phillips, a 33 year-old ana­lyst, was kind enough to pro­vide his response to our ques­tions. He is run­ning for Knox County Com­mis­sioner 5C.

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

Kyle Phillips I am Kyle Phillips and I am run­ning because I believe I have the abil­ity, skills and pas­sion to do the job. Its not enough for us to com­plain about the sys­tem but not do any­thing about it. As an elec­torate we must do a bet­ter job stay­ing infor­maed and mak­ing edu­cated vot­ing deci­sions. Once we elect peo­ple we have to stay involved not check out til the next elec­tion cycle. As for me, I feel I have some­thing to offer beyond an intel­li­gent vote and there­fore am honor bound to give it a shot. I can either fight the fight, even if I lose, or sit at home and do nothing.

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?

I really like this ques­tion since I’m very much in favor of smaller gov­ern­ment and more fis­cal respon­si­bil­ity. I don’t think local gov­ern­ment should be involved in much more than law enforce­ment, fire pro­tec­tion, roads and infra­struc­ture. But, to answer your ques­tion, the num­ber one thing I think local gov­ern­ment needs to get out of is fund­ing pri­vate devel­op­ment. Develop a good growth plan, yes. Cre­ate a pro busi­ness tax struc­ture, yes. Make sure our edu­ca­tion sys­tem is cre­at­ing a world class labor force, yes. But actu­ally get­ting into devel­op­ment, absolutely not!

3. What 5 things could you not live without?

5 things I can’t live with­out. I’m really pretty sim­ple and my first thought is a air, water, and food. How­ever, I know thats not what your look­ing for so…

Fam­ily is very impor­tant

Faith is a must and Free­dom

The 3 F’s I guess you could say.