WARNER ROBINS – Clifford Holmes Jr. is looking for change and a continuation at City Hall.

The mayoral candidate said Friday he chose to run for the office to revive transparency in the workings of city government.

“While we on the council get good support from the citizens, many times they’ll tell us they’re not aware of issues we vote on, and there are many times we’ll just find out about an issue just before a meeting,” said Holmes.

The Post 5 city council member said as mayor he would make a practice of posting an agenda before the pre-council meeting, get together with department heads to gain their input on issues and invite them to the council meetings and get comments from the public at meetings.

As acting mayor in 2008, he said, he did most of the above and received favorable responses from other council members.

“It’s about educating and informing the public,” Holmes said. “When you incorporate that you’ll get the information you need.”

Experience in public service has been a foundation of his campaign, he said.

“It’s important in these times with the economy and job losses that you have someone who knows how to deal with people,” he said. “All three of us have some experience with that, but public service is different than business or military experience because it’s all about customer service.”

Holmes said what sets his experience apart from Chuck Shaheen and Chuck Chalk are his upbringing and four decades in education.

As a youngster in Jacksonville, Fla., Holmes said he worked at the family’s service station and learned the job “from pumping gas on up.”

“Educators are trained to teach and deliver service,” he said. “You’ve got to have an ear, listen to parents’ concerns or what’s bothering the students,” he said. “You have to deal with strife and know that most of them just want somebody to listen to them and focus on their concerns. Our citizens are our biggest customers, and it can be like a business: if your customers aren’t happy you won’t be in business very long.”

Residents need to feel that when they come to city hall there will be someone who can listen to their complaints, be it about water, sewer, trash, noise or animal issues, he said.

“I do want to see Warner Robins continue on the way set forth by Donald Walker and others,” he said. The late mayor did a lot of good things for the city, “and I don’t want to toss that away. Mr. Walker gave me the opportunity and told me he trusted me.”

But in a departure from Walker, Holmes said he would like to see term limits on elected officials.

“That’s one way to get new ideas, new approaches to solving issues,” he said, adding that he has polled other city council members and they seem to agree on limits. “You should learn what’s going on before you take a leadership role, similar to being a teacher before you become an administrator at schools. You have to learn the job.”

A statewide program Holmes feels the city should participate in is the “City of Ethics” designation. Next-door neighbor Centerville already has the designation.

“That issue would be so easy to resolve, and that label says so much about a city,” he said. “It says we are aboveboard and we have the public trust in our actions.”

Building a relationship with other governing entities is an all-important task for the next mayor, he said.

He’s already built a relationship with Centerville Mayor Harold “Bubba” Edwards through their time together training in government at UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government the past four years, he said.

“I’ve talked about building relationships early on because I feel that dialogue helps our citizens,” he said.

Holmes’ campaign slogan – One Community, One Warner Robins – is meant to take on the “unspoken problem” of disunity, he said.

“We are all from Warner Robins, not north, south east or west Warner Robins,” he said. “Our actions reflect on the city, not just a portion of it.”

He acknowledges the northern part of town has its issues with closed businesses, but added the city cannot dictate to businesses where they’ll be able to locate.

He said the first thing he wants to do after the election is take some time off and visit his daughter in California.

“I haven’t had much time off this year,” he said with a laugh.

Should he not win the election, Holmes said, he’s still going to stay in Warner Robins.

“I’m not going anywhere; I think it’s time to enjoy my grandchildren growing up,” he said.

He noted that when he first came here to teach industrial arts he told his principal he thought he would leave after one year, but stayed on because of the town’s positive atmosphere and its people. And that feeling has continued to grow through the decades.

“I have been at peace all through this campaign and have calmed others down when they got too excited,” he said. “I have worked with some great people like my biggest supporter, my wife Rosa.”