Meet Greenville City Council Candidates Matt Alexander, Tine Belge, Lillian Brock Flemming, and Mike Kilgore and Tine Belge. Your vote is so important for the 2025 election! Please take a listen and share with your neighbors.
How the interviews worked:
All candidates received the same question at the time of their invitation to join us, and they were given 10 minutes for their interview. Candidates were allowed to bring along a companion, such as a campaign manager, family member, or friend, and to record our session themselves. There were no edits made to the interview.
Candidate links:
Katy Smith: On Tuesday, November 4th, there are elections in all six cities within Greenville County, with early voting opening on October 20th. I'm Katy Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and we are pleased to bring you interviews with most every candidate in contested races. Today, we feature candidates for the city of Greenville.
An Overview of the Greenville City Council 2025 Election
Katy Smith: But first, a quick primer on elections in the city of Greenville. In odd-numbered years like this one, Greenville holds elections for half of its city council members, and in every four years, its mayor. Seats up in 2025 for Greenville City Council are for one of the two at-large seats, which all city residents vote for, and for Districts 2 and 4. For the at-large seat, currently held by Russell Stall, who is not seeking re-election, the candidates are Matt Alexander and Tina Belge. For District 2, the candidates are Lillian Brock Flemming and Mike Kilgore. In District 4, Wil Brasington is running unopposed.
Today, we're pleased to bring you interviews with Matt, Tina, Lillian, and Mike. All of the details on how these interviews worked are at the end of the show notes. But in short, know that each candidate had the same three questions and 10 timed minutes to respond. To find links to each candidate's campaign information, please check the show notes.
Meet the At-Large Candidate: Matt Alexander
Katy Smith: I'm pleased to be here with Matt Alexander, who is running for Greenville City Council at Large. Thanks so much for joining us, Matt.
Matt Alexander: Thank you for having me, Katy.
Katy Smith: Well, tell us about yourself and why you are running for this office.
Matt Alexander: Absolutely. I moved to Greenville exactly 20 years ago to attend Furman University on an Army ROTC scholarship. I had an incredible experience at Furman and then spent the first three and a half years after college as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the Army. I spent 2011 in Iraq flying medevac missions and then moved back to Greenville in 2012 to attend graduate school at Clemson.
Since then, I've been involved in the community in several different capacities to include a good commissioner at the Greenville Downtown Airport Commission for the past seven years. While chairman, we partnered with the city to create the airport district planning study. I was on the steering committee throughout that process, and it has been fun to already see tangible results as a result of that partnership.
I've also been involved in my church, Downtown Presbyterian Church, where I think we know some of the same people as a deacon and in the nonprofit space, focusing on affordable housing and workforce development for men overcoming addiction. Over the past several years, I've worked in various capacities within the business and real estate community. I currently work at the Parker Group, where we focus on work that brings neighborhoods and the community together. This includes small residential communities and adaptive reuse, which is just fancy industry jargon for renovating old, neglected buildings and revitalizing them as opposed to tearing them down so that they fit the demands and desires of today's community.
Some of the work that we've done includes the commons within Unity Park, which a lot of people are probably familiar with, and small residential projects at a wide range of price points to include rental, for sale, and affordable. I'm married to my beautiful wife, Virginia, and we have three young kids, ages six, four, and one and a half.
In terms of city council, my journey on this road started about two years ago with myself and other members of the community asking ourselves, what does the next generation of leadership look like in Greenville? As leadership turns over in our city, who's going to continue to advocate for the things that have made Greenville successful, but also understands the challenges Greenville faces in part due to its success?
I believe Greenville has always been at its best when Greenville and different stakeholders from around the community work together to dream big and also address its challenges. And I strongly believe that needs to continue going forward. I'm honored to have the support of Mayor Knox White and council members DeWorken and Brasington in this campaign. And what they say, if asked how the city does big things and how it addresses challenges, their answer is always partnerships.
And I'm running for this office to continue Greenville's legacy of convening all community stakeholders, whether it be the private sector or public sector and nonprofits, to do big things in our city and make a meaningful impact in the challenges our city faces, while also ensuring healthy growth is prioritized that ensures that neighborhoods and local small business owners have a seat at the table and that quality of life for city residents as well. As our city grows I not only want Greenville to be a place where my kids want to move back to but also where I want Greenville to be a place where its residents want to stay. And I think that's where we are in our growth cycle.
Katy Smith: Thank you. What do you believe are the biggest issues facing constituents?
Matt Alexander: Thank you. I think one wonderful thing about the at-large seat on City Council is that it advocates for every neighborhood and every resident within the city. It isn't confined to a single district. Every day through this campaign process, I get to see neighborhoods and listen to people in every corner of the city. And what everyone wants to talk about, believe it or not, is growth and everything that goes along with it.
They want to talk about how our city is going to continue to grow and, frankly, if it should grow at all. I strongly believe that healthy things grow, but it's how they grow that's important. Our small business owners need Greenville to grow, but we need to ensure it grows in a way that prioritizes quality of life, housing at various price points, especially affordable so that our seniors, service workers, and first responders are not left out. And also in a way that does not neglect public safety, infrastructure, and core city services.
Katy Smith: Thank you. What would be your priorities if elected?
Matt Alexander: Throughout my career, whether in the military or private sector, I have spent that time building and leading teams to accomplish a goal. We are blessed to live in a community where people want to live. But in order to keep it that way, we need to plan for the future and work together as a team to accomplish big things and address those challenges. If I'm elected on November 4th, my priority will be to utilize my experience in the private sector to deliver results for Greenville neighborhoods and all Greenville residents.
Another thing that excites me about the at-large seat is that it can shine a spotlight on initiatives in every neighborhood around the city so that they can be a part of that success. My priorities, if I'm elected, are first, responsible growth. What does that mean? This includes continuing to invest in our green space, our neighborhoods, and housing affordability. We need to address our infrastructure needs within the city from the busiest commercial corridors all the way down to the most quaint city street. Our transportation system is also a mess, which I think everyone can agree on. And we need a collaborative effort with our county, city, state, and even federal colleagues to address it in a meaningful way.
A strong community is a safe community, and that needs to always be front of mind for families in our community in order to support our small business owners, some of which have invested their entire life savings to operate a business in our city. And we need to be mindful of that and respect that. To each resident and visitor that passes through our city limits also, we need to prioritize it for them.
As we saw in Hurricane Helene, it is also critical that our city is prepared for the unexpected. I think that's a big role of city leaders. Our city leadership did a wonderful job ensuring Greenville was prepared to respond to that event when it happened almost a year ago. This topic is near and dear to me because I spent eight years of my career planning for and responding to emergencies. And if I'm elected in November, I want to always ensure our city is prepared for that unexpected event.
We can all remember when we woke up that morning almost a year ago and how many power lines were down, how many trees were down all over our city and to think that our city didn't miss a single day of trash pickup and had a plan in place to address it. That is what a good city does. It has a plan in place for the unexpected things. And if I'm elected, I want to use my background experience to assure that that continues through the next generation of leadership in our city.
Homelessness is also a critical issue that needs to be addressed in a meaningful and compassionate way that incentivizes people to seek available resources. I'm glad our city leadership is prioritizing it and talking about it. And all this can't be possible without a strong budget, low taxes, and economic development where people are investing in our community for the right reasons. This is how I think we keep Greenville uniquely Greenville as our city grows to ensure people are investing in the city for the right reasons and supporting our small business and residents that live here.
Katy Smith: Thank you. We have a little bit of time left. Is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners?
Matt Alexander: Sure. First of all, I'm very grateful to live in this city. And to everyone listening, thank you for tuning in. I would be grateful for your vote on November 4th. If you have any questions for me, would like to meet, or would like to get involved in my campaign, my contact information is on my website at alexanderforgvl.com.
And just lastly, in these campaigns, it's easy to get lost in stuff that's going wrong and stuff that needs to be fixed and improved. And I want to close on a positive note by saying that there's a lot of good happening in Greenville. We are blessed to live in a city where people want to live. We have our own unique challenges. We also have an engaged and passionate community that enjoys being involved. And thank you, Katy, for what you guys do here at Greater Good Greenville, too. Encourage that involvement.
If I'm elected in November, it excites me to think about using my background and experience to deliver results for every Greenville resident and every neighborhood and ensure that Greenville is a place where people want to live for future generations.
Katy Smith: Well, thank you so much for joining us and thank you so much for your willingness to serve.
Matt Alexander: Yeah, thank you.
Meet the At-Large Candidate: Tina Belge
Katy Smith: I'm pleased to be here with Tina Belge, who is running for Greenville City Council at large. Thanks so much for joining me.
Tina Belge: Thank you for having me.
Katy Smith: Well, tell us about yourself and why you're running for this seat.
Tina Belge: Sure. So I am a third generation of my family to live in the upstate and a city planner by trade. So that is really what drives me to run for this office. I work in a lot of cities all over the country and I can see where we're heading. I can see the next five, seven, ten years being pretty important to our city growth. And so as a planner, I always have that hat on. How can we manage growth? How can we provide economic mobility for people, affordability within our city as we're dealing with the growth and all the symptoms of that growth?
So that was really what brought me into it. I love Greenville. It's been such a huge part of raising my family here. And then my mom grew up in the upstate as well, and my papa before that. So, I think it's just somewhere I want to remain special and quality for as many people as possible, as long as we can. Make sure that Greenville is somewhere everyone can thrive.
Katy Smith: Thank you. What do you believe are the biggest issues facing constituents?
Tina Belge: Oh, that's a good one. Actually, the four priorities and issues we have on our campaign are not Tina issues, not Tina priorities, but they actually come out of the GVL2040 plan, which I remember you were a stakeholder way back in the day.
The main issues out of that were affordable housing, of course, transportation and green space. So land use and making sure we manage that and save the green space that we have and trees we have. I'd say the fourth one that we've added to our campaign, which is not on the 2040 priorities, is child care, just because that's super near and dear to my heart.
So as we know, affordable housing is a major issue. We have $3,600 as an average mortgage if you wanted to enter the market here in the city currently. So who can afford that? Not a lot of people. Not to mention the folks who have been here, who have been longtime residents, and our restaurant retail workers, all the way up to nurses, doctors. Everyone really is struggling with housing costs. And I think that's been pervasive over the past 10 years or so. So that's my background. That's my bread and butter. So I can help bring my experience in affordable housing planning to our city and bring that expertise.
Transportation. That is straight up economic mobility through mobility. Can you get to work? 20 percent of folks on the west side of Greenville do not have access to a car. So whether that's the trail, that's the bus, that is our trolley system, that is really a critical need that we are not meeting. I see Columbia, Charleston, they invest in it. We don't. The numbers don't stack up in terms of what we invest. And it is really just something I think that makes a vibrant community. More thriving economic city. People are able to enter the job market, which they might not have had before, but also just better planned. Like walking, pedestrian safety, more bikeability, taking cars off the road. Our air quality is not getting any better in the upstate. We're actually getting this push from down from Charlotte coming down here. And our air quality is, different parts of the air really suffering. So that's a huge piece.
Our trees, of course, taking down all of the trees, oh my gosh, through all the development. I used to chair, I was director of Keep Greenville County Beautiful, so that's something that's near and dear to my heart, making sure that we protect our trees as much as possible. And of course, child care. 4,500 kids are on a wait list right now throughout our entire county. And it's uniquely harder to find within the city limits. So access and affordability for child care is actually something I'd love to work on.
Katy Smith: Great. Thank you. What would be your priorities if elected?
Tina Belge: Sure. Well, answering those four issues would be my priority. So housing affordability. I would love to see some community land trust or mixed income neighborhood trust that I've worked on in different communities. It basically takes the land out of the equation of that mortgage. It's held in perpetuity to be affordable so that way you have a more affordable mortgage for folks and their taxes are assessed more based on their income versus the whole cost of the land included. That's affordable homeownership. We've gone from 60 percent homeowner to nearly 40 percent in our city. That's huge in 10 years. So bringing affordable homeownership especially back to neighborhoods that are lost at and make them more balanced.
But also mixed income neighborhood trust could help provide rental equity. So you're actually building equity while you rent. Of course, more mapping and missing middle. We created new districts during the zoning code, but I think actually putting them on the map would be great. Accessory dwelling units. I would love to see a tiny home subdivision.
Activating incentivizing use of vacant parcels would also be a great thing. As far as transit, I would love our buses to go out to our municipalities. Each municipality should definitely have their own route. And our largest employment centers. My husband goes on 385 every day. It might be the end of our marriage because it's so bad. He's like, if you can fix anything, please fix this. So, 20,000 people go out there every day to carpool and go, BMW, he works at a supplier for them. That's a no-brainer for a park and ride situation, taking cars off 385. And our trolley system, I love to come back into our neighborhoods. People don't go downtown anymore because of the parking. And if you live downtown, you shouldn't need to own a car.
As for trees, I would love the city to use the $3 million tree fees we are sitting on, which is an ordinance I helped make some changes to a few years ago in order to replant, get with homeowners who lost theirs during Helene, go ahead and get rid of some of the dead ones that are going to be potentially issues. We have 100-year-old oaks that are dying all over the city. So getting ahead of that, but also replanting what we've lost in public areas too. The west side of town, the tree canopy is rough. And I don't think people realize it because we're Greenville and we're known for our trees. But Atlanta's canopy is denser. Charlotte's canopy is denser. We can do a lot better.
And that's utility bills also. That's all directly related to cost. And then, of course, child care. Some zoning changes, I think, would go a long way in providing more access and affordability to folks. Also, the summer camp and after-school program we have in the city now is actually very heavily subsidized, which is great. But why am I paying the same as somebody who makes $20,000 a year? I can pay more of my fair share. We can open more spots that we used to have pre-COVID. And then even take some of that gap funding to invest in under for care because a lot of the centers are empty during the day. So I think just creative solutions, that's also a fiscal responsibility, I think, with the funds that we do have.
And these are things that we don't have to raise taxes to do. Affordable housing, using incentivizing some of those vacant land parcels, use it or that's one of the few taxes we can actually work on and change some things. Transit, let's charge speeders, red light runners, work with the state to make some changes on that, actually enforce it so we can pay for good transit. If I see someone run a red light again in this city, I might have to do a citizen's arrest. It's bad.
The child care, again, that's just another fix and we already have some funds for the trees. So I think being creative and a last tool I would say is supporting, but strategically in places we can manage growth. The 2040 plan had nodes of growth. These are the areas we actually seek capacity where we could take it on. I would love to see a more walkable, well-planned city where these little nodes are just as well-planned as downtown. They're walkable, they're ped-friendly. This is where the density can grow. But we can't do that if we don't incentivize in those areas. And so one strategy I use in smaller towns is an overlay district where we split those property taxes with the county. They are receiving more dollars because there's more development happening in the area. And we take those services costs that the county is bleeding from. The city manages those instead. We can then take our portion of the taxes and incentivize small businesses, incentivize affordable housing, incentivize improved infrastructure, whatever that be. There are unique tools out there that we can do to address those areas.
Katy Smith: Great. Well, we have another minute. Is there anything else you'd like to share with voters?
Tina Belge: Yeah. Gosh. For me... I just want people to realize that we are a great city. We really are. There's a lot of people who have not benefited from our growth. And growth is good. And growth is coming. And I'm not against growth. But I'm for very well-planned strategic growth that's going to actually lead to people being more economically mobile within our community. That's going to reduce homelessness. That's going to reduce crime. That's going to add housing affordability so that everybody's prospering in our city. And that's what I can bring to the table. That's my background in every day. I get hired by cities across the country to do this exact work and I hope you get involved and read about me. It's tinabelge.com. You can get a yard sign, you can help out and just tell your neighbor, come out and vote because as we've said before on this podcast, turnout is low. So tell your friends, civic engagement is very important.
Katy Smith: Great, well, thank you so much for joining me and thank you so much for your willingness to serve.
Tina Belge: Thank you. I appreciate you.
Meet the District 2 Candidate: Lillian Brock Flemming
Katy Smith: I'm pleased to be here with Lillian Brock Flemming, who is running for Greenville City Council District 2. Thank you so much for joining me.
Lillian Brock Flemming: Thank you so much for the invitation.
Katy Smith: Well, tell us about yourself and why you're running for re-election.
Lillian Brock Flemming: Well, Katy, I'm a native Greenvillian. I was born here and raised here in Greenville. And I've lived here all of my life. So it's just a part of my life and my area. And I'm quite concerned. I became very active in the community when I graduated from college. And so I got on city council, I guess, through happenstance, working in other organizations and doing some things.
I'm excited. I graduated from Sterling High School many years ago. And then my roommate and I were the first African-American women to graduate from Furman University. And so we have been in careers that are always doing something to help somebody else all the time. And as well as that, I also have been very active in the community in a whole lot of things. I'm excited about, actually this time, running for council again, even though I did it when I was pregnant. Eight months pregnant my first time, and I wasn't going to run, but my mother inspired me. She asked me a few questions. And I couldn't say no to anything she asked me. It was just common sense stuff. So she says, aren't we trying to help people with common sense and understanding what's going on in the community? So why can't you run? And so I couldn't answer her. So here I am.
Katy Smith: Thank you. What do you believe are the biggest issues facing constituents?
Lillian Brock Flemming: Well, I think in District 2 where I live, gentrification is a major problem. In that there are a lot of people who live out of town who are buying property, and they're normally buying rental property, redeveloping it, and that causes misplacement of a lot of people. But in the issue of gentrification, trying to replace them back into the district is a difficult thing because oftentimes the realtors are changing the scope of the situation. They're making the prices of the housing that they're buying twice as high. So therefore, for people who have low income or brand new people who are in the workforce, they don't have an opportunity to stay in the city, which is causing District 2 to be a little lopsided.
Katy Smith: Thank you. What would be your priorities if re-elected?
Lillian Brock Flemming: Well, one is to find houses that are not only workforce, but also that are comparable and livable so people can afford them. So that's one of the things that we'll be working with, as well as trying to continue to work with together on homelessness. We have a lot of people moving to the area, but they're homeless because of the statement I said is because they can't afford some of the property that's coming in. You go into a house that you're paying maybe $300 a month for. Now it's $1,700 or $1,800 a month, which is quite, quite difficult.
Katy Smith: Thank you. We have a little bit of time left. Is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners?
Lillian Brock Flemming: Well, in addition to that, I think we're still trying to work on making sure that our beautiful park is finished, Unity Park. We have a tower that's coming to help us to recognize those young men and women who serve in not only the services, but also who are our leaders. Community, great servants, men and women, nurses, doctors, those people in our community who really serve us a lot. So we're excited about that. And we just had the opening of Mayberry Park, which was actually a lot of people don't know that it was the first park given to African-Americans in the state of South Carolina about 90 years ago. And so it was taken. And so now the city of Greenville is trying to give it back to the community.
Katy Smith: Thank you. Thank you for joining us, and thank you so much for your willingness to continue to serve.
Lillian Brock Flemming: Thank you.
Meet the District 2 Candidate: Mike Kilgore
Katy Smith: I'm pleased to be here with Mike Kilgore, who is running for Greenville City Council District 2. Thanks so much for joining me, Mike.
Mike Kilgore: Yes.
Katy Smith: Well, tell me about yourself and why you're running for this office.
Mike Kilgore: Well, I am not a Greenville native. My parents moved here in 1956. I'm a local fellow. I went to Blythe Elementary for four years, and my parents moved to the wilderness on Parkins Mill, so I went to Sara Collins, J.L. Mann, attended Furman my senior year there. I am a South Carolina certified public accountant with emeritus status.
I returned to Greenville 20 years ago to care for my parents. Dad was a paraplegic. Mother had her problems, but I lived with him at Swansgate for quite a while. I have a house across from Augusta Circle Elementary. Been there since 2007. Locally, I'm known as the Sheltie guy because you'll see me walking three or four Shelties several times a day around the school.
My interest in community service is not new, but my first attempt in Greenville was to lead the petitioning to get speed humps around Augusta Circle, to repair the sidewalks, and to revamp the traffic circle on Westminster. I found it to be a duly bureaucratic process, which was hampered not because of the city council person that we had had, who was Will Brasington, but because of redistricting, we found ourselves with a new city council person, and we've had that person for three years. So I decided to run because I thought that I could be a better representative of neighborhood interest if I was somebody who was an elected official as opposed to just another guy trying to navigate the bureaucratic haze.
I would emphasize that I am not running against Will Brasington, who I hope will be our new mayor to years from now. Will represents Alta Vista and the other side of Augusta Road, but this district now includes everything south of Augusta. That's around Augusta Circle, around Blythe Elementary. That's the district now. It also includes everything south of Interstate 85 all the way over to Laurens Road, St. Joseph's Catholic School.
Mike Kilgore: Why am I doing this? Again, I think that the city council has emphasized downtown unduly. It's all about that downtown area, but the neighborhoods are as important or more important than downtown. And I think for decades, we have neglected infrastructure within the city. We need to address things like stormwater drainage with all the new houses that are being built or added onto. We need to address sidewalks. We have huge gaps in the sidewalk grid. W. Faris, for instance, has a huge gap.
Another example is going to Augusta Circle. There's no direct way to get from Meyers Drive to Augusta Circle, where those kids attend. They have to walk in the roadway to get there. And right now, there's a 40-year wait to get a sidewalk built. But somehow, we can spend millions and millions of dollars building bridges, three and a half million over Laurens Road, five million over Haywood Road, and we're proposing to spend $7.5 million for a bridge over Verdae. That kind of money could have built a lot of sidewalks, but that's not the case.
Also, I have concerns that we are not spending wisely. The city budget, operating budget, is now $292 million. That's over $4,000 of government for each of 72,000 residents. I think that that is a surprisingly huge number compared to surrounding jurisdictions. Why do we have a budget like that? Well, it's because we are spending a lot of money on things which are not essential to public services.
Recently what has been in the news is we're just going to finally dedicate the Honor Tower at Unity Park. That started off as a $10 million project and is now slated finally to come in at $66 million. What I'm concerned about is that we're going to be doing the same thing with City Hall, the latest figure that's just come out recently, is we're planning on spending $40 million to revamp City Hall and end up with only six out of 10 floors of City Hall after all is said and done, as opposed to let's put City Hall in another place where the land is cheaper. Maybe we ought to consider Kmart Plaza over by Greenville Memorial Hospital, but we don't need to have trophy buildings when our taxpayers are just strained.
Katy Smith: What do you believe are the biggest issues facing your constituents?
Mike Kilgore: Well, the biggest issues that I see, again, is revamping and paying attention to neighborhood infrastructure. And it's not just the sidewalks, but stormwater. We build a lot of new houses, but the stormwater system is the responsibility of the residents. If a large house is built next door to you and the drainage pattern is changed, I've got a lot of people in older houses that have had dry basements for 40 years, and all of a sudden they have wet basements. And the city tells them, sorry, we don't concern ourselves with stormwater.
A situation I just saw recently where the city has stormwater directly from a street, dumping into a ditch, but the ditch has been silted up. Stormwater goes into this older lady's basement and the city's response is, well, it's your responsibility to dig out the ditch to take care of public water. I consider that to be a wrong answer.
I mentioned Unity Park. For $66 million, that's a lovely park. It ought to be because we paid so much for it. But I think the best parks in Greenville are those that are community-based, the little pocket parks that we have, I think, are the real gems in the city. And I would like to emphasize those more than we have been.
We need to address tree cover in a major way. We've lost a lot of tree cover because of residential construction, not to mention the contribution of Hurricane Helene. And I would like to subsidize, incentivize tree replacements, not only on public lands, but also to have that done on private properties.
Katy Smith: What would be your priorities if elected?
Mike Kilgore: My first priority is what I would call open government. We are doing things that I don't think citizens are aware of. The redistricting process three years ago, which gave us an unelected, an appointed representative on city council for three years, I think was profoundly wrong. I don't like the system where city council meetings are operated by consent agreement where everything or most everything is worked out in advance in closed sessions, closed work sessions before the meeting and then it's an amen course when it finally gets to the public meeting.
I am also would be an advocate for getting the elections of Greenville on a nonpartisan basis. I do not think that there is a Republican point of view for garbage pickup. I don't think there's a Democratic approach to stormwater containment. Fundamentally, these are municipal elections, and Greenville is one of only six municipalities in the entire state which still has partisan elections, and I would revise the 24, I would get the 24 proposal for nonpartisan elections and try to jam that thing through as fast as I could. Thank you for your time.
Katy Smith: Well, thank you so much for joining us and thank you so much for raising your hand to serve.
Mike Kilgore: Okay. Thank you.
Credits
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