We con­tinue on with our Knox County inter­views with Steve Drevik who is up for County Com­mis­sioner Dis­trict 4, Seat B.

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

I’m Steve Drevik, can­di­date for County Com­mis­sion 4-B. I’m an engi­neer, a busi­ness owner, and a life­time res­i­dent of Knox County. I feel called to run. My pri­mary objec­tive is to put in place the reforms for all com­mis­sion­ers that would come after me– reforms that would make County Com­mis­sion an uncom­fort­able place for any­one who would mis­use the office for their own gains or for their cronies. I have a spe­cific and agres­sive 10-point plan to do this, which includes extend­ing the con­flict of inter­est rules to fam­ily mem­bers and major donors, and requir­ing Com­mis­sion­ers to report any con­ver­sa­tion they have (not just with other com­mis­sion­ers!) where County busi­ness is dis­cussed.

I also want to bring more scrutiny to our bud­get and pro­cure­ments, using my pri­vate busi­ness expe­ri­ence work­ing with 100+ other county and state agen­cies on large pro­cure­ments, con­tracts, etc. With that money, we can improve edu­ca­tion and the lives and oppor­tu­ni­ties for Knox County citizens.

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 County shouldn’t be in the busi­ness of using TIFs to decide where the next Lowe’s needs to go– the pri­vate mar­ket can do that just fine. TIFs should be reserved for “but for” devel­op­ment and bring­ing in *new* high-paying jobs to Knox County. I would also add that I don’t think God needs the approval of County Com­mis­sion to act within our lives. The last thing God needs is County Com­mis­sion get­ting involved!

3. What 5 things could you not live without?

My fam­ily, my friends, my incred­i­ble employ­ees, my cell­phone, a good sup­ply of books to read.