It's somewhat different than the private sector in that you're dealing with a lot of government agencies and bureaucracies of the federal government, state government and our own government. Falcioni has put economic development in the center of his sights for improvement, which he said hinges on education. Education is the most important thing to make the economy grow. Through training and education go out and find out what's out there that the nation needs and start now with training programs paralleling what that future is. The addition of higher paying jobs will not only provide newly employed Abilenians with a good job, but the salaries of others employed in the field will also rise, Falcioni said.
Competition is good for everybody.
If the funds can be used for tourism purposes, Falcioni said he'd also like to use DCOA funding to advertise Abilene to elderly residents in other states to draw them and their retirement money to the city. The 22-year city government employee, who himself retired last year, has been thinking about ways to improve city services for some time, Falcioni said. Parts of his platform came to him a decade ago while watching someone check his house's water meter the same day someone came out to check the electric meter, he said. That inefficiency can be changed to save costs, he said. If elected mayor, Falcioni said he'd recommend consolidating bill collection.