Meet Your Candidates for the 2025 Simpsonville City Council Election

Meet Simpsonville City Council Candidates Jared Fielding and Jerry Tuso. 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:

• Jared Fielding

• Jerry Tuso

Introduction

Katy Smith: On Tuesday, November 4th, there are elections in all six cities within Greenville County. 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 the city of Simpsonville.

An Overview of the Simpsonville City Council Election

But first, a quick primer on elections in Simpsonville. In odd-numbered years like this one, the city of Simpsonville holds elections for half of its city council members, and in every four years, its mayor. Seats that are up this year on Simpsonville City Council are for Ward 2, 4, and 6.

In Ward 2, Aaron Rupe has filed for re-election with no opposition. In Ward 4, Sherry Roche has filed for re-election without opposition. And in Ward 6, Lou Hutchings has also filed for re-election and he is opposed by Jared Fielding and Jerry Tuso. Today, you'll hear from Ward 6 candidates Jared Fielding and Jerry Tuso. Lou Hutchings did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him.

All of the details on how these interviews worked are at the end of the episode and in 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 Candidate: Jared Fielding

First up, alphabetically, is Jared Fielding. I'm pleased to be here with Jared Fielding, who is running for Simpsonville City Council. Thanks for joining us, Jared.

Jared Fielding: Thank you for having me.

Katy Smith: Well, tell us about yourself and why you're running for this office.

Jared Fielding: I'm actually local here to Simpsonville. I grew up here, went to Bryson Middle, went to Hillcrest High. I work local here at a company called Stäubli, an electric manufacturer, and so I felt the need to run for city council, just because I've lived here my whole life and I plan on staying here, so I wanted to get involved with something to help out the community, so to speak.

Katy Smith: Thank you. What do you believe are the biggest issues facing your constituents?

Jared Fielding: One of my concerns is the infrastructure that we have now. They're doing a fairly decent job. Simpsonville has grown tremendously since I was a kid, with more activities. But traffic seems to be a huge concern, is one of my main concerns, and just infrastructure.

I have younger kids who are in middle school and high school now. And it's we definitely seem to have an overcrowding issue. There's more and more, the sixth-grade population that went into Bryson this year was the largest they've ever had. And with COVID that happened and we had a lot of people moving from other places here, I felt the infrastructure's not keeping up with the demand of people that we have living here now.

Katy Smith: Thank you. What would be your priorities if elected?

Jared Fielding: Again, infrastructure would be something that I'd be concerned with. Some of the zoning that goes on. I know once somebody buys a piece of property, they can do with it what they please, as long as they stay within ordinance and what they're doing.

But I think we all see it. We ride around and see new housing popping up everywhere, typically in a spot that we all know is going to be terrible. West Georgia used to be able to drive down in the afternoon. Now it's five o'clock, you're in a parking lot. So things like that are mainly where my focus would be on.

Katy Smith: Thank you. We have a little bit of time left. Is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners?

Jared Fielding: I don't think so. Again, I feel everybody's in the same boat. A lot of people I've talked to are in the same way. They're very concerned about the infrastructure and how things are going to progress in the future. Again, if the roads aren't wide enough, you don't have sidewalks for people to walk on, and you're cramming houses in every corner of Simpsonville, it's going to cause a problem later on in the future.

Katy Smith: Well, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you so much for your willingness to serve.

Jared Fielding: Thank you.

Meet the Candidate: Jerry Tuso

Katy Smith: Next up is Jerry Tuso. I'm pleased to be here with Jerry Tuso, who is running for Simpsonville City Council Ward 6. Thanks for joining us.

Jerry Tuso: Thanks for having me today.

Katy Smith: Tell us about yourself and why you're running for this office.

Jerry Tuso: Since I am an Air Force veteran and served at Pope Air Force Base and Donaldson Air Force Base, I was an air traffic controller. And I have a history of working with and for people and will continue to do so. It's part of me.

Katy Smith: Thank you. What do you believe are the biggest issues facing your constituents?

Jerry Tuso: The issues right now is for responsible growth. We have a lot of new buildings going on, big condos next to two-lane roads. So what we need to do is to get together as a ward and approve an impact fee with the host homebuilders so we can do some road fix-ups. It's very bad now. As a matter of fact, South Carolina is number three in the nation with traffic problems. That's pretty serious. I'm not very proud of that.

Katy Smith: Thank you. What would be your priorities if elected?

Jerry Tuso: The more involvement play out of the people we represent. I would set up small groups of taxpayers and get their input on what they say, what they need, what they are happy with, what they are unhappy with, and get that to us. It's better than just having a meeting and saying you guys can all come here. This is going to be better. I'm going to improve it. We're face-to-face on how we can fix things up.

Traffic safety, of course, because of the large amount of traffic. And I think we need to improve the numbers of our law enforcement people. They're very good, but it looks like they're overstrapped. I think we need a bigger police force, and we need them to get on the fast lanes to be a protection for the people.

Katy Smith: Thank you. We have a couple more minutes. Is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners?

Jerry Tuso: The fact that I'm very responsible. My history is working for the people. I was not only an air traffic controller, I was also a human relations specialist. It was a large canning company in Fort Worth, Texas. And I also worked for contractors with weather service people at the 130 airports across the United States. I was their touch-and-go for their jobs.

So I appreciate everything that can be done. I really want to help our taxpayers. I want to do it immediately. I will not slow down. Thank you.

Katy Smith: Well, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for your willingness to serve.

Jerry Tuso: Thank you.

About the Candidate Interview Process

Katy Smith: Thanks for listening to the candidates. Here is more detail on our process. All candidates received the same three questions at the time of their invitation to join us shortly after the filing period closed and they were given 10 timed 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 interviews. We've put links to the participating candidates' preferred internet presence on the episode page.