Video: Tupelo Mayor Reed Won’t Seek Re-Election

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TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) –  With the Rose Garden at Tupelo City Hall as his backdrop, Mayor Reed made clear his intentions regarding a second term.

“I’m not going to run again,” Mayor Reed said.

Mayor Reed said he ran for office as a way to serve the city that has given so much to his family. In fact, when he leaves office, he will return full time to his family’s store. He has been working at Reed’s every weekend.

“That doesn’t leave enough time really for family, we’ve got grandchildren in Houston, Texas our son is in Atlanta, as I said in the paper I’m ready for a little more face to face time and little less Facetime,” he said.

The mayor paid for a full page ad in Sunday’s Daily Journal, announcing his decision and listing what he considers the greatest accomplishments of his term, so far.

Among those; The Mayor’s Task Force on Health, which has encouraged healthy selections in convenience stores. This summer, Tupelo was named healthiest city in Mississippi.

Promoting literacy through the Mayor’s Task Force on Life Long Learning also ranked high on the list. That task force is responsible for instituting the Tupelo Reads programs.

Mayor Reed is also proud that the city is on solid financial footing.

“Coming in tough economic times in 2009 and balancing the city’s budget and developing a 5 year capital plan that puts us on a path to be able to afford to do things that are important for the city to accomplish,” Reed said.

And through it all, the mayor says he has been guided by a simple principle.

“To myself what I’ve said is that I could leave for work with the idea that when I came home at night that I could look in the mirror and say my family would be proud of me and that I had acted in what I thought was the best thing for the citizens,” he said.

With primaries set for May and the general election in June, Mayor Reed compared the coming eight months to the fourth quarter of a football game. He plans to continue introducing new initiatives and ideas, including a comprehensive, pilot plan to revitalize neighborhoods.