DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — Incumbent City Councilman Carlton McMasters is no stranger to the Decatur citizens in District 3.
“I was born and raised in Decatur and have been a District 3 resident my whole life, and I’m proud to call it home,” McMasters said. “My wife and I met in middle school.”
The incumbent councilman said it was an easy decision five years ago to run for the seat in his home district. He’s learned a lot from his citizens since taking office, and he’s looking forward to continuing at the helm.
“A lot of the role at city council is serving your residents, and the amount of emails and phone calls and opportunities you get to help people on a daily basis,” McMasters explained.
McMasters will face Decatur citizen and U.S. military veteran Mike Faruqui.
Faruqui has rarely missed a city council meeting or work session, and the opportunity to call out city leaders on nearly every item on the agenda. If elected, Faruqui says number one on his list is to advocate for good legislation through community involvement.
“That requires involvement from everybody; from city departments and from citizens on the street and collaboration from all various disciplines,” Faruqui said. “Integrating all the staff functions; police department, fire department and public safety. We need all of that together to come up with a cohesive plan.”
McMasters told News 19 that he wants to see his district continue to grow, including new quality of life projects and road resurfacing projects that the council has allocated $6 million above budget for.
“There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t always catch the headlines that this council has been hyper-focused on for the residents,” McMasters said.
Faruqui says the growth of Decatur is great, but the council’s temporary decision to bar its citizens from public comments at city council meetings limits that growth.
“You can’t be afraid to have protesters come and do their thing of validating that there was an issue, at least in their opinion and then the city cannot be afraid to put barriers across the board to keep people from coming to city council and bringing those issues up,” said Faruqui.
The municipal elections are set for August 26.
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