Brooklyn Man Mayor of Savannah, GA

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Van Johnson: School was never really a problem for me. Focusing on it was a problem for me because I was involved. I became a 16 years old. I was the freshman class president. Savannah State.

Founded 1733. We had 24 squares. 22. The squares are still there. We are the oldest planned city, in America. DC is the second oldest. We have, one of the largest historic districts, in the country, but we have several of them.

We have the third busiest port in the nation. LA is one. New York is second. Savannah is third. So we know we punch bigger than our weight on. So many fronts.

I mean, people blame me for the weather. They blame me for this. They blame me for that. You know, I can’t fix everything wrong with everybody’s life.

David Martin: A guy from Brooklyn, New York. He’s the mayor of Savannah, Georgia. This is someone I wanted to talk to, and I did. Coming up, my conversation with Mayor Van Johnson, and it’s a lively one. Welcome to the good government show. I’m Dave Martin. First, help us show the message of good government by liking us and showing us where we are.

On Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram and Blue Sky. Please share a show with your friends and our viewers right here Real Estate and join our Good Government Show community. Check out our website for the link. I met Mayor Johnson early this year at the Conference of Mayors. It was actually our second meeting, as you’ll hear a few updates since our conversation and a recent state of the city address.

The mayor pointed to an overall drop in crime rates and violent crime. This comes after a mass shooting incident where three people were shot inside an area mall. In his address, he also noted that some 84 of the city’s most wanted felons have already been arrested. Mayor Johnson also cited budget growth and what he plans to do with the money.

Some of it includes recreational center upgrades, improving traffic safety, and garbage pickup. And he’s addressing homelessness. The added funding, he says, will allow the city to create 60 new apartments and 39 small cottages for the city’s homeless. He also talked about improving stormwater infrastructure. He has a lot of plans. We also talked about a regional Hyundai car manufacturing plant.

The plant was the scene of a large scale ice raid earlier this year. The mayor said Savannah law enforcement took no part in the raid as it’s outside of the city. But he said the city will do what it can to help the people and families that are affected by those Ice raids. If you haven’t been there, Savannah is consistently ranked as one of the best cities in America to visit.

Its historic, a very walkable city, and chances are you’ve seen Savannah already. It’s a very popular location for movies Forrest Gump, Civil War movies, glory, and the Conspirator, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil are just a few of the movies that have been filmed there. We also talked about being a Brooklyn man and living and working in Savannah, and I also got to talk about rugby, and you’ll hear me explain how being from Brooklyn actually helps him as mayor.

So coming up, my conversation with Mayor Van Johnson of Savannah, Georgia, you heard the Good Government show is sponsored by our that’s o you are for our community. Get involved. We hear that all the time from government leaders. Our co with your governments name and logo, your staff and the people you serve are connected and part of your community from any device your members provide reliable data and meaningful feedback.

Ask a question like do we want more parkland or better homeless services? More engage conversations come through the our app. Visit our co that’s ou rco.com and book a demonstration. It was called the War to End all Wars but it didn’t. Three royal cousins, all kings, one from England, one from Germany and one from Russia blundered their way into a war, a completely avoidable war that left millions dead in the trenches across Europe.

Good government show executive producer Jim Ludlow details the blunders, mistakes and bluster that started World War One that didn’t end all wars. The book The Royal Cousins details the events and creates an alternative history. Imagine if World War One never happened. It didn’t have to just read it yourself. Download the book today on Amazon. It’s just $0.99 and a timely look at history.

Welcome to the Good Government show. I’m very happy to have you back with me. Van Johnson, the barrow. Savannah. Welcome back. Thanks for coming.

Van Johnson: Again. Thank you. Is my honor. Everybody talks about this show, and I’m glad to have my shot.

David Martin: Thank you very much for that. I would just should explain to our audience here that this is our second interview, because we did. Why? That technology did not work for me. So.

Van Johnson: And it was a great interview. I mean, the stuff I said was profound. I have the conversation with deep. Oh, well, I mean, you were part of it. I mean, we were into this thing and, how was it just that that’s between us?

David Martin: We’re going to try to to capture the bottle the second time. Okay. So you are the bear of, Savannah, Georgia. And we just sort of. Before we turn the mics on, we are at the Conference of Mayors. It’s January, and you’re looking for snow, and your city’s not prepared for snow. How do you deal with that?

How do you manage that?

Van Johnson: Well, the fact is that, you know, there are things that, you get good at. Snow in Savannah is so infrequent. Last time we had snow, any significant, accumulation was, eight years ago. 7 or 8 years ago. It was January 3rd, 2018. I show you how much I remember it. Okay. So seven years ago, I was not.

I was on council.

David Martin: Okay.

Van Johnson: But we were shut down for three days. However, in the last year, we had, two hurricanes and one tropical storm back to back to back. We’re prepared for that. We understand that, you know, we are able to to move water. We’re able.

David Martin: To do a hurricane.

Van Johnson: Outside. Right. And so you know, cities have to, you know, deal with what they have to deal with. And so for us, we rather put our money into the things that we know are more frequent than, you know, they have, basically eight years of, of, of salt and plows that we would never use.

David Martin: So what I mean, you’re the mayor, people are going to be annoyed. They their streets aren’t going to get plowed.

Van Johnson: There’s there’s they’re not going to be annoyed. They, they they’re so excited, at the thought of snow. You know, many folks have, you know, they’ve never seen snow. I’ve not seen it very frequently. So, you know, we know, what? I know other connections that, you know, snow at first is really wonderful. And then it’s all the problems from snow.

Yes. Out of precipitation, the black ice and those things. It causes headaches for for governments. But initially they’re they they’re they’re happy. They can’t wait. They want to be off from work.

David Martin: Yep.

Van Johnson: They want snow days or days. Yeah.

David Martin: And I should point out at this point that we are both from Brooklyn. You’re from Brooklyn, New York, born and raised. Yes. Right. And, what got you Savannah?

Van Johnson: Went to Savannah State, graduated. My father is was from, Savannah and through South Carolina. And I graduated high school at 16. Was quite young and I had some choices. And so the choice I chose was to go, to live with my grandmother in, in Savannah. I intend to keep an eye on me. Yes.

David Martin: A little too young to be in college.

Van Johnson: Right.

David Martin: So you’re you’re obviously a child prodigy.

Van Johnson: No. No, I don’t think so. But, you know, in New York at the time, and, you know, talk about education, the New York school system was actually pretty ahead of his time. A couple of on a couple of points. The first thing was.

David Martin: That where do you go to high school?

Van Johnson: Erasmus hall. Okay, the Erasmus Hall. So,

David Martin: What is the better high school? That’s right here at City Public School.

Van Johnson: Clive Davies, Barbra Streisand, Stephanie Mills.

David Martin: Henry Kissinger.

Van Johnson: Henry Kissinger. Right. You know, went to this school, which is the oldest high school, I believe, in North America, founded by the Dutch, in the 1700s.

David Martin: On Flatbush Avenue.

Van Johnson: And flat seven. So you’re very familiar. Yes, but at the time, they did a couple of things. First of all, New York had vocational education years ago. I mean, I think they realized very early on that everyone was not going to college. So, you know, remember they had automotive high school. Yes. You know, and you graduated with a GM certificate or you went to aviation school when you graduate with that, or you went to a Maxwell and you ended up with a cosmetology certificate, my mother would declare Barton and her sister, they became nurses.

Okay. So they were really on that, you know, vocational. Finally, the second thing was, is that if you had kids who read particularly well, and I did at the time, they accelerated us. So, they gave us seventh and eighth grade work in the seventh grade, and then we skipped the eighth grade and went to ninth grade.

Okay. And so I graduated a year early as a result.

David Martin: So how did you do it? Savannah state as a 60 year old freshman.

Van Johnson: I did well, I did all right. You know, school was never really a problem for me. Focusing often was a problem for me because I was involved. I became a 16 years old. I was the freshman class president. Savannah State. You were? Yes. So government was a it was in my blood.

David Martin: But government was in your blood. What are you dealing with now, other than, just waiting for the snow to to melt so that we could get back to life. What are you working on?

Van Johnson: Well, right now, I think top of mind for us is affordable housing and homelessness. So that a.

David Martin: Problem nationwide.

Van Johnson: It is a problem nationwide.

David Martin: Do we have the kids, Savannah?

Van Johnson: No. You know, Savannah has become wildly popular. We’re an international city. 17 million visitors come and people come, particularly from the north and the West. They fall in love. International visits. They fall in love. They will buy a house sight unseen. They’ll pay what the seller wants to, pay for it. And in economics, you know that that drives up prices.

David Martin: And, Savannah, if you haven’t been there, folks, is a beautiful city.

Van Johnson: It is.

David Martin: It is used countless times in movies.

Van Johnson: Yes, for.

David Martin: Representing colonial times, Civil War times, antebellum times.

Van Johnson: And it looks like it looks, you know, downtown looks like it looked. Yeah. You know, when we were founded, you know, found in 1733, we had 24 squares. 22. The squares are still there. Yes. We are the oldest planned city, in America. DC is the second oldest. We have, one of the largest historic districts, in the country, but we have several of them.

David Martin: And it’s the home of the Girl Scouts.

Van Johnson: They had bombed it. It’s right. Julie got a load of found of the Girl Scouts.

David Martin: You can bake cookies.

Van Johnson: You’re ready to buy them? That’s right. You can drink and walk with your drinks. In Savannah.

David Martin: We like.

Van Johnson: That. Yeah. You’re literally 30, 45 minutes from Hilton Head, South Carolina. We right off of our 9095 corridor.

David Martin: And the forest ghost bed. Is that still.

Van Johnson: There? Yeah. Yes. And then, of course, we have the river and we have the beach. So, I mean, you know, we are in a in a really good geographic place.

David Martin: And I have to mention you have a huge rugby tournament, the Savannah Rugby. You heard of it, the Savannah Clovers. Yes. Saint Patrick’s Day weekend.

Van Johnson: I’m glad you mentioned that. We have a huge, Irish population. Glad I.

David Martin: Bring up rugby because.

Van Johnson: Well, what happens is, you know, we have, people who came directly here, from Ireland during the potato famine. People from Wexford, Ireland, people from Limerick, Ireland, from Dublin, Ireland. They came here. They could their descendants are in Savannah. They’ve done really, really well. But they came as poor folks and, we have great relationships now, there we have the second largest Saint Patrick’s celebration in the country.

New York is first, Savannah second. Chicago is third. Boston is fourth. We have the third busiest port in the nation. LA is one, new York is second, Savannah is third. So, you know, we punch bigger than our weight on so many fronts.

David Martin: What are the challenges of being a mayor of a huge port city? Because that brings lots of stuff and lots of commerce, lots of employees, lots of workers, but also lots of problems.

Van Johnson: Lots of trucks. Yes. Lots of trucks.

David Martin: Traffic.

Van Johnson: Pollution that is associated with it. We now have, host George’s two largest manufacturers, Gulfstream, which is a division of General Dynamics. They make, airplanes, they make luxury airplanes. Built from beginning to end in Savannah. And then right outside of Savannah. We just.

David Martin: Those are all street waiting for you whenever you need a.

Van Johnson: Plane. I wish, $65 million, three year, three year wait list for it. And then we have a Hyundai plant that just opened up. It is the largest, plant outside of, Korea in the world. We will ultimately, build 300,000, electric vehicles a year. The Ioniq nine and Ioniq five.

And.

David Martin: Was there a lot of lobbying by the mayor to bring those in?

Van Johnson: Well, it was a lot of lobbying to bring something out. We had some manufacturing land, and so did the governor. Governor Kemp in the state, I really, really pushed for that. You know, they they sealed the deal. We we are making it work.

David Martin: Savannah is in part, a very southern, you know, old city. How do they react to a guy from Brooklyn being their mayor? I mean, they they’ve elected you.

Van Johnson: So they were elected me six times, I believe. Okay. This is, I’ve been on I was on council for four terms. Okay. And now I’ve been mayor. This is my fifth. But I’m, you know, I’m concluding my term, my service this year. The reality was, is that, you know, they’ll remind me still, you know, you know, take your ass back to New York.

You know, you’re a New Yorker. You know, you don’t care nothing about us. It’s like, okay, fine, you know? And then they’ll vote for me. I think you know, the reality is people have to. And in the South, in Savannah in particular, people are very relational. They’re not transactional. It’s not. What can you do for me?

You know, we want, you know, date me, learn what I like, learn what’s important to be, learn. My favorite color is my favorite song. And so for me, you know, I when I decided to drop my anchor in Savannah, you know, and get involved in Savannah, I think Savannah wanted to test how much I love it.

And so, you know, over 16 years of being on council, they gave me the chance to be mayor.

David Martin: What made you get into government?

Van Johnson: I’ve always been in government again, I think.

David Martin: Well, president, if you’re a refresher class.

Van Johnson: In fifth grade, I was a student guy, but I was always this week I was president of the best, my freshman class in college. In my junior class in college, I ran for student government president, and I lost. And when you look at my yearbook, I’ve always said it, you know, I wanted to be a public administrator.

David Martin: Okay.

Van Johnson: A public administrator. And so my, my master’s degree is in public administration. I’ve, I’ve worked in government. I was a police officer. I was a human resources professional. So I’ve always, in Savannah. How long? Well, two, two years active and then 18 years as a sheriff’s reserve deputy.

David Martin: So would you have to go out, put the uniform on for big events, parades, all that sort of thing I have.

Van Johnson: Yeah. But.

David Martin: Never as mayor. Ever as mayor? No. Okay. No.

Van Johnson: But I’m also a certified trainer, so most of my time have been, actually in training. The training side of it.

David Martin: Was that was that, a good background for serving as.

Van Johnson: Mayor? Absolutely, absolutely. You understand law enforcement. But then, as a person of color, I also understand the perception, about, law enforcement and communities of color. The one of the first test I had in 2020, during the pandemic, was the issue of George Floyd and how they responded in, in communities. And I think in my experience as a law enforcement officer and as a person of color helped us to really, allay those fears.

And it makes them reforms that I think worked well, for our city.

David Martin: Do people expect you to sort of answer for the police when you’re in that role? Absolutely.

Van Johnson: Yeah, absolutely.

David Martin: How’s your relationship with your police chief? You hire him?

Van Johnson: He doesn’t work for me. Okay. Certainly. I’ve known him his entire career.

David Martin: Okay. Did you ever. Did you serve with him as police officer?

Van Johnson: No. He had no.

David Martin: Okay.

Van Johnson: No, I had not. But I think it’s important that, the police know that. You understand? And it’s easy for people to those shady police like those shady politicians, you know, but until you put a uniform, one until you run into trouble while people are running away from trouble, until you have to speak to a widow whose husband was killed in the line of duty.

You know, then you have understand why is so important that we have good law enforcement officers and we support them.

David Martin: Because of your background, were you able to do anything for the police that maybe another man might not have been able to do?

Van Johnson: Well, I started what was called CARES is a task force, citizen’s accountability, a review of emergency services. And this was a task force to be able to look at our police operation, particularly as it relates to his interactions with the public. To view internal affairs reports, to see if there were areas that we could improve and then that task force came up with 12 recommendations, I believe, we have adopted ten of them.

David Martin: Okay. All right. You said housing was something you were working on. What’s the other challenges?

Van Johnson: Well, housing a homeless.

David Martin: You bring a good government to Savannah. There’s the question.

Van Johnson: I think about showing up every day, showing up every day. Being accountable, by not dodging the hard issues, by facing it head on, by not being afraid to, admit where we could improve. And but yet being able to herald the things that we’re doing. Well, you know, people have this, this thought about politicians, but everybody wants to be in politics.

David Martin: Everybody wants to tell politicians how to do this is really what should be mean.

Van Johnson: I’m not a politician, but you know. Well, then why are you running?

David Martin: Are you a politician?

Van Johnson: I am, I am, I mean, in when you look at the term, politician is someone, that is, actively engaged, skilled in the field of politics. Right. If I, if I play the violin, I’m a violin violinist. Yes, I play cello. I’m a cellist. Piano. I’m a pianist. So I think that, you know, functionally, people have put a connotation on politician to me.

Now, that’s the political answer. No, I mean, the, you know, the right answer. And so I don’t run from people and, you know, people who are on my Facebook pages, you know, they come for me and I go right back at them. Brooklyn, to me will not let them just say what they want to say to me and think they going to get away.

David Martin: Is that a good skill to have in Savannah? Yes it is, yes.

Van Johnson: Because people don’t expect for you to come back for. I mean, and if you call my mama names you to get your mama names called as well, you know, again, I think you stand up to bullies.

David Martin: All right, all right, fair enough. Are you out of the community? Are you in the restaurants? Are you?

Van Johnson: I’m everywhere in, hardware store.

David Martin: The grocery store.

Van Johnson: You will see me in clubs. You’ll see me in churches. You’ll see me at funerals. You’ll see me. A mosque is see me as synagogues.

David Martin: Barber shop, the barber shop.

Van Johnson: Well, I don’t have any hair, but I do go to barber shops. You will see me on the street corner.

David Martin: Okay.

Van Johnson: You see, you see me downtown. I think, you know, part of good government is being present. You have to be present. I’m present. When they’re shootings. President, the hospitals and nursing homes. I’m where my people are.

David Martin: All right? And now we’re going to get your true thoughts on your philosophy of government. We’re going to do that just a minute.

David Martin: Once you wrap up this episode of The Good Government Show, give a listen to our friends over at Good News for lefties. This daily podcast highlights news stories that show there’s more good news out there. Other people in government are really trying to do the right thing. That’s good news for lefties. Listen, we’re listening now.

After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City for mayors Kasim Reid of Atlanta and Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen.

Dot org slash podcasts. So we have the Good Government Show questionnaire. You’re cheating a little bit because you’ve heard all these questions before. But I’m going to ask you again.

Van Johnson: I promise you, I do remember.

David Martin: All right. Good city council and mayor define good government.

Van Johnson: Good and good government. Working together, having an agreed set of goals. Vibrant debate, on the issues and not on personalities.

David Martin: Not on personalities.

Van Johnson: Down on personalities.

David Martin: All right. How do you judge your success other than elections? How do you know at the end of the week, if you did a good job, what do you use as your personal yardstick?

Van Johnson: My personal yardstick is that I don’t go to jail. I don’t go to hell. You know, that’s to go.

David Martin: All right. Well, that’s a go. A bit of a low bar there, Mr. Barry.

Van Johnson: Well, well, no, no, actually, nowadays, no, I mean, you look at your mayors being, indicted and, you know, I mean, I don’t think it’s particularly a low bar. The other thing is that you set goals and expectations. The very beginning, the Bible says you write the vision, you make it plain. So you you have an idea of where it is you want to go.

Either you do it or you have not done it. And then secondly, I think you have to be able to create a data informed, electorate and let them hold you to the data.

David Martin: How should people hold you to the data and how should people hold you accountable if they don’t like what you’re doing?

Van Johnson: Then to be able to say that in, in a, in a way that is respectful. And if you have, suggestions and you’ll be able to do that, the reality is that I was elected.

David Martin: Yeah.

Van Johnson: So therefore, people agreed with at least my vision for how we will move our city forward. So we we create that list. We we and and for us, the list was also created with extensive public input. And you know, that public input is changed a little bit.

David Martin: If people don’t like the way governments working, what should they do.

Van Johnson: After they contact their council members or you contact their mayor? But, you know, again, when you talk about government, government is often times multilayered. And so people will, blame things on local government that has nothing to do with local government. It has to do with the state government, the federal government. In Savannah, there are, big entities that do not pay, property taxes.

They don’t pay it because state and federal law says that as nonprofits or religious entities or as, education entities, they don’t pay taxes. Well, people will say, well, yeah, make them pay taxes. Well, by law we can. Period. Okay. So then hold those levels of government accountable.

David Martin: What would you like people to know? You know, you’re you’re you’re a politician. You’re a government insider. What would you like people to know about government?

Van Johnson: That it’s an imperfect practice. It derives its, ability to govern from the consent of the government, the individuals running it, in our case, local government, our part time, we do the best we can. It takes a lot out of your life. It probably takes years off of your life. And, you know, give us some grace.

Well, no one would say that we’re perfect. I think people just try the best they can. And I think hopefully people will recognize that when they interacted with their city officials.

David Martin: You’re a nuisance.

Van Johnson: I can’t fix everything wrong in their life because I’m the mayor. I mean, people blame me for the weather. They blame me for this. They blame me for that. You know I can’t fix everything wrong. What? Everybody’s life.

David Martin: Is this. No. Your fault.

Van Johnson: I will be blamed for it. Now. When it comes, you’ll be fine. When businesses are closed, people will love it the first day. The second day will be my fault because we’re not getting the snow up. We should have known that we would have snow once every eight years, and so therefore we should have had plows would be able to do that, but nobody wants to pay the taxes that it would take to have plows just sitting there.

So, you know, it just it always becomes this. They, they know some conspiracy because Democrats, you know, we, you know, we waste money. So we wasted money to have the plows there. So it’s, you know, just becomes, you know, never ending.

David Martin: How do you manage that?

Van Johnson: Stay focus on the main thing. Keep the main thing, the main thing. And remember, my Northstar.

David Martin: And that is service. Okay. You make news. Do you read about yourself? Where do you get your news from?

Van Johnson: Everywhere. I look to to see the things that people say, I’m doing great. And then I look at stuff. What people say that, you know, I’m. I’m a blockhead. One of the things that somebody told me once when I got into office is that you’re never as good as your fans say you are, and you never as bad as your critics say you are.

David Martin: All right. We’ve talked about this a little bit. You. You know, this was always in your blood. Did you think, the mayor of Savannah was where you’d wind up?

Van Johnson: No, no, and there’s been the honor of my life to, you know, a place where my father grew up, and had to ride in the back of a bus. Okay. Go to certain parts of town. Yeah. His son.

David Martin: Is your dad still around?

Van Johnson: He passed January 3rd of 2023.

David Martin: Oh, so he got to see you better.

Van Johnson: The day after, right? The day after my second inauguration. He passed away. And so, you know, to.

David Martin: Did he tell you early on, listen, son, you got to fix this. What are you. What are you thinking? Come on.

Van Johnson: Yeah, well, I think his thing was. Is you just so proud. Okay. You know, his thing was, you know, typical Brooklyn way. Don’t mess it up. You know, we have the same name, so don’t mess my name up.

David Martin: All right? We have talked about this. Savannah is home to some awesome food, some awesome barbecue. Right. Where are we going? Where are you taking me? In Savannah. What are we doing? Where are we going?

Van Johnson: Oh, man, I mean, we we can go from the gray, which is, Beard award winner with Shama Bailey. We can go to the pink house. We can go to the.

David Martin: This is that. Isn’t that haunted?

Van Johnson: Yeah, but they don’t mess with your food.

David Martin: Okay. Good.

Van Johnson: You know, we could go to a variety of places that are all over the place. Well, Savannah, cooking is respect as a sport. They take it seriously.

David Martin: Are you are you are you a cook yourself?

Van Johnson: No. No, not at all.

David Martin: Okay. The pirate house.

Van Johnson: Pirate house is another great, great place.

David Martin: That that’s haunted right.

Van Johnson: There. I mean, you know, I mean, I think there’s.

David Martin: A there’s a whole haunted house.

Van Johnson: There is. But that is one of the haunted, you know, most haunted places. I mean that for me, I think the issue is, you know, as long as they don’t bother me, you know, the, I guess the spirits kind of do their thing, you know, if you’re not looking for them, they’re not looking for you.

David Martin: All right. So you haven’t had any hauntings yourself?

Van Johnson: I’ve seen some things that have been kind of strange. All right, you know, but again, you know, I mean, they’re my constituents, too. Okay?

David Martin: Mean you’re the first person that’s ever said, we have ghosts as constituents. So this is a good government show. We always bring it back to good government. How are we doing on the good government show? Is my first question for you.

Van Johnson: You’re doing good. Very good interview.

David Martin: Are we spreading the word of good government?

Van Johnson: I think we have to, And where can, about my listeners and Savannah, cash to the government show good.

David Martin: Well, we’re we’re we’re on every podcast platform. So, again, we always bring it back to good government. Give me an example of a good government project you were able to shepherd through that. You’re proud.

Van Johnson: Of that? In the midst of of all we’ve been able to do, we’ve kept our millage rate, the same over the last three years of our administration is the lowest has been since 1987. We’ve been able to live off of our growth. And I think that is really important. It’s important for us to be, fiscally conservative where we can be, but yet be able to address the needs of a growing community.

David Martin: Mayor Van Johnson of Savannah, Georgia, thank you very much again for coming by. I think we have no technical issues today. It was great to talk to you again, and I will see you in Savannah or Brooklyn.

Van Johnson: Looking forward.

David Martin: To it. Very good.

Van Johnson: Thank you.

David Martin: And the city of Faith, Texas. They don’t leave good government up to, well, fate. Join me in for another show I host. As fate would have it, my co-host is David Billings, the former mayor of Faith, who shares his opinions and thoughts on what good government is and fate. As you’ll hear, they don’t leave it up to fate.

So listen right here we are listening now to as fate would have it. I always find something interesting when I get a chance to have a good conversation with the mayor. And I found it interesting that Mayor Johnson was a police officer for a short time before he ran for elective office. As he said, being an officer gave him insight into both how the city department is run and how the police are perceived.

And I liked his answer and how you can be effective, he says. Just showing up every day and being accountable. That sounds like good government in Savannah from Mayor Van Johnson, and I hope he stays out of jail. And I hope, well, that’s our show. Thanks for listening. Please like us and share this with your friends and review us right here where you’re listening, and check out our website.

Good Government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling stories of good government in action everywhere. Join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is the Good Government show.

The Good Government show is a Valley Park production. Jim Ludlow, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder are the executive producers. Our show is edited and produced by Jason Stershic. Please subscribe, then share and like us and review us. That’s the best way to make sure we’re able to keep telling these stories of our government working for all of us.

Then listen to the next episode of The Good Government Show.

**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.