Goldsboro Mayor Charles Gaylor recently sat down with Goldsborodailynews.com to reflect on his first two-and-a-half months in office.

Gaylor also took time to look ahead to the future and the goals he hopes to accomplish while working together with the Goldsboro City Council. 

During Gaylor’s time in office, the Goldsboro City Council has approved pay raises for the Goldsboro Police Department, adopted a policy to address adjustments to water bills, begun to foster conversations towards addressing Goldsboro’s sewer infrastructure, and the council has taken initial steps to alleviate parking issues downtown. 

“First off the response to the big elephant in the room, of course, the Office of State Auditor’s performance audit identifying policies and things that are weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement, and right off the bat, (Feb. 12) at our City Council meeting, like seven different policies and procedures that had been updated, and approved by council last night. So, the response from staff and the response from the council to really be energized to make the city a better place, a more transparent, a more efficient government unit, that is obviously always the goal.”

As Mayor Gaylor and the City Council look ahead issues including education, economic development, Goldsboro Parks & Recreation, continuing to find solutions to the downtown parking issues, and other topics remain priorities. 

“The downside of the last 71 days is that we’ve had to focus on these necessity issues, we haven’t been able to focus on some of the longer-term economic development things that I want to do. We haven’t really been able to talk about trying to do any sort of partnership with the schools or do any growth with our Parks & Recreation programming. There’s just a lot. There’s a lot of things that we want to do, and we will get there. We’re currently trying to readdress and hone some of the previous council’s decisions, and some challenges, like (downtown) parking for example. We’re trying to make sure to figure out the right way to do that. There’s plenty of challenges, but I am excited because the council is intimately engaged, and if you have a council that is focused and is genuinely paying attention I always think you get a better outcome.”