Name: Bradley S. Staton
Age: 48
Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting/Finance, USI
Professional Experience: Gibbs Die Casting (1999-2006), held positions in/as Marketing, Logistics, Purchasing, Environmental Management Systems Coordinator, Process Engineer; graduated from Lean Manufacturing College, as a Shainin Problem-Solving Master, from Dale Carnegie Training.
Applebee’s (2004-2006), server.
Edward Jones (2006-2011), Financial Advisor.
Current Occupation: Staton Investment Management (2011-present), Owner, Financial Advisor; Henderson Mayor (2023-present).
Family: Kristie Staton (wife for nearly 22 of the best years of my life); Two Amazing Kids–Marley Staton (15, sophomore, HCHS) and Davis Staton (11, Fifth Grade, Bend Gate Elementary).
Why did you decide to run for re-election?
I love Henderson so incredibly much! I’ve committed myself to a lifetime of service to our community. My wife and I bought our first house together on the corner of Thornton Place and Porter Drive over twenty years ago as we decided to plant our roots in Henderson. We’ve raised our family here. The people of Henderson and the direction of our city mean so much to me.
More than anything, I want to play a role alongside so many other leaders throughout our community to help turn our already great city into something even more exceptional. I want my kids, and your kids, and people considering moving to Henderson, and people who have lived here for generations to look at Henderson as a place where opportunity exists, where continuous improvement is part of our culture, and where as we grow and welcome new things, we never lose our charm and warm-hearted nature.
I still wake up everyday with the drive and determination to help make our city better. As long as that passion still exists, God has blessed me with the right mix of compassion, leadership experience, financial background, temperament, and a big ol’ servant’s heart. If you’ll have me, I want to continue working as hard as I possibly can alongside you to address concerns, solve problems, and to help see our suggestions and dreams for a better city come to life.
Why do you believe you are the best choice for this seat?
My personal journey has prepared me very well to serve in this role. While at Gibbs Die Casting, I received formal training in problem solving, leadership, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and process engineering. I also attended USI at night after putting in over 50 hours most weeks at Gibbs. When I graduated, I took a second job moonlighting as a server at Applebee’s. Although it might sound silly to some, I probably learned more about conflict resolution from a few years of serving than at any other single stretch of my life. I learned a strong work ethic, too, as my wife and I both worked multiple jobs for multiple years to pay off student loans so that we could start life off on better financial footing.
When you couple my early-life work experience with nearly twenty years of financial advising experience along with the experience I’ve obtained by being a part of our city government, it really starts to add up. I can offer our city someone equipped to solve problems, to make strong and sound financial decisions, and to provide continuity during a time when so much change is happening all around us. The relationships we’ve worked to build and strengthen across our region and state will pay dividends when really important decisions that will have such a profound effect on all of us are made in the not too distant future.
What are your top priorities for the next term, if elected?
The most important priority facing our city over the next decade is the status of the twin bridges after the new I-69 bridge is complete. I have spent countless hours alongside many others from our area meeting with governors from Kentucky and Indiana, both states’ Secretaries of Transportation, state legislators from both sides of the river, federal legislators, members of the US Department of Transportation (across two presidential administrations), and so many others letting them know that we must keep both twin bridges open and free after the new toll bridge is open. If we lose one of the twin bridges, it will cause a permanent traffic jam on our North-End Strip, forcing people onto the new toll bridge and taking hundreds of thousands of our citizens’ dollars out of our local economy each year. I’m more confident than ever we will be able to save both bridges but not without continuous and effective advocacy.
I want to see improved traffic safety throughout Henderson. Included in this, I’ve asked for us to examine our top-20 highest-incident areas this year for improvements like better striping, signage, and visibility. We are heading into year three of a five-year, 10% annual increase in our roads budget so we can better keep up with inflation and more quickly address the state of our streets. I’d like to collaborate with the county and our school system to bring back Drivers Education to our high school. In the wake of the most recent snowstorm, we are set to discuss ways to provide additional contracted response and snow-clearing for any time we have more than five inches of snow with a low-temperature forecast to follow.
Other goals I’ve discussed with our team this year include working on issues like updating our building requirements to improve our business development environment, expanding our affordable housing inventory, securing two significant retail opportunities currently progressing through the pre-planning process, continuing to work on inner-city needs, breaking ground on a new conference center at Audubon State Park, implementing items identified through our most recent Parks Master Plan study to provide more things for our kids (both young and old) to do, working closely with those developing transitional housing and programs for folks who are experiencing homelessness and/or drug addiction, and so much more.
A final brief statement to support your candidacy.
Since I took over as mayor, we’ve been blessed to collaborate with folks across our community to see some very tangible results in a short amount of time: we cut a ribbon on Pratt Paper; we welcomed a new 300-house development; we worked closely with a group that will very soon open a new bourbon distillery on the river; we opened a new sports complex that will host north of 25 tournaments this year while accommodating the needs of many of our local children at the same time; we are going to break ground on a new conference/events center at Audubon State Park in the not-too-distant future; we have more dollars flowing into our community for infrastructure than at any time in our history; we continue to boost our police and fire wages in significant ways while providing them with one of the state’s best health insurance packages; we’ve voted to lower property taxes while keeping our payroll, net profits, and insurance tax rates unchanged; we’ve nearly doubled our reserves and are in the best financial position we’ve ever been in.
We have had our challenges, too. No matter who the mayor is, we will always have challenges. The one thing I pledge above all else is that during good times and challenging times, I will never disappear on you. I work hard to make myself available no matter what we’re going through because I truly care about all of us and about the potential of Henderson, Kentucky. I would greatly appreciate your vote and support for re-election. Thank you.
