Owensboro mayor, Daviess Co. judge-executive say city & county excelling

DAVIESS CO., Ky. (WFIE) - City and county leaders will give updates on the state of Owensboro and Daviess County.

The updates will come Thursday morning from Mayor Tom Watson and Judge-Executive Al Mattingly at the monthly Rooster Booster Breakfast.

Mayor Watson and Judge-Executive Mattingly told 14 News ahead of the speech the state of the city and county are good. They say both the count and city are excelling financially.

Watson says the city’s finances are better than they were two years ago, and continued economic development will be what he wants to focus on in 2020.

“When I got here at the beginning of this second term, he said they had money in the bank and they were paying their bills. Guess what! Now we’ve got money in the bank and we are paying out bills. That’s a big deal," Mayor Watson said.

“Continue the progress. You can’t stop," Watson said. "Stay connected to state and government officials because they’re still printing money in Washington so those are things that you have to look forward to. And how do you want to grow your community.”

Judge-Executive Mattingly said that there are a few big issues and projects that he expects the county to look at in the coming year, such as a new non-discrimination ordinance, and possibly replacing the first-responders radio system.

“I can’t legislate you to be fair," Mattingly said during his speech. "I can’t legislate you to not use racial slurs, to not use sexual slurs and those kinds of things. I mean you have freedom of speech. We’re not trying to do that. What we’re trying to do is legislate non-discrimination. We’re trying to legislate equal treatment.”

The Judge-Executive said that in order to continue to promote growth in the county, maintaining fiscal responsibility will be key.

“When we needed to make decisions we didn’t make those decisions based on cost or money," Mattingly said. “We’ve had the money. A lot of counties, if they want to buy a new dump truck they got to figure out how they’re going to get the cash or where they’re going to borrow the money. We do not do that. We make decisions based on fact, based on data.”

During 2019′s address, a major focus for both Mayor Watson and Judge-Executive Mattingly was getting more people to move downtown.

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