Ward 4 resident announces council candidacy

Wayne Qualls, a 25-year Homewood resident, is challenging Ward 4 Place 1 Representative Barry Smith for her spot on the city council.

Qualls is the owner of Qualls Business Group, a business broker firm, and lives on Edgewood Boulevard. He has a 22-year-old son, Matt, and helped form the Homewood Youth Football League and has coached several youth sports in Homewood. Qualls is a member of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

While he has thought of running for council before, this will be his first time attempting to win an elected office. What prompted Qualls to run, he said, is the current state of the city's streets, particularly due to paving cuts and patches made by utility work.

"There's such disrepair right now and I don't see anything getting done," Qualls said.

Though the city council approved a city-wide paving schedule at its June 27 meeting and also approved stricter rules earlier this year for utility companies doing work in the streets, Qualls said the plans are "too little too late."

"Although this is great news to see, the current repaving plan to me is just a patch job and will not resolve the issue that our streets currently need and that is the need to repave all of them," Qualls said in a Facebook post announcing his candidacy.

If elected, Qualls said he also wants stronger enforcement of city ordinances regarding where contractors can place their dumpsters while doing construction. He would like to work with the police department to set up official neighborhood watch groups, and support for the Homewood school system is another one of his key issues.

Qualls has set up a Facebook page for his campaign and said he plans to spread the word by knocking on doors in Ward 4 and attending community events.

Smith, who is Qualls' opponent, was appointed to replace Jenifer Champ Wallis in 2014, and has stated that she intends to run for re-election.