Justin Weil said he’s very much aware he’s not a Decatur native. He knows he will get some pushback, but he’s ready to earn the community's trust.
“Well, my hope is that over the next year, I'll earn that right. I feel like right now, with me being a property owner, I have a little bit of a skin in the game, but as I said, maybe I'll earn their trust over the next year. I mean, there's a lot going on,†said Weil.Â
Municipal budgeting, debt, crime, and of course the fallout from the deadly police shooting of Steve Perkins.
Weil said the community is divided between Black people and white people, all issues he says he's going to tackle if he becomes mayor.
“That's going to be a hard sell. It's going to be talking with a lot of people, you know, reaching out to the police department and dealing with the local community activists, as well as looking at other cities and seeing how they're handling it. You know, Mobile had a similar incidence, as many have pointed out, and they've created a police advisory board. Huntsville, not too long ago, during the George Floyd incidents, did the same thing."
Right now, he said he can be a much more productive mayor than Tab Bowling, who will not be running in next year’s election.
The 29-year-old said he has an advantage over Bowling.
“Well, youth is one, one key factor, but also a willingness to listen and work with everybody. You know, if we, if we don't work with everybody, we're going to get nowhere. We're just going to stay stagnant. To cater is stagnant,†said Weil.
Weil said he’s a Virgil Grissom High School graduate, studied at Calhoun Community College, and is working on his bachelor's degree at Alabama A&M University.
He said he officially filed his candidacy paperwork with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office.Â
He wants voters casting their ballots for him next year because as mayor, he is determined to fix many of the city's problems.Â
“That means finding solutions to our infrastructure issues, our public transportation, the clear divide between the white and black community, as well as finding a way to help our children stay out of criminal activities. You know, we see every day gun violence here in the city, and it's increasingly becoming 14-year-old's, 15-year-old's shooting and killing each other over petty stuff.,†said Weil.
We looked into the qualifications candidates must meet to run for local office.Â
Mayor and city council candidates must be 18 years of age, a U.S. citizen, and registered voter of the municipality at the time of qualification.
The election will be Aug. 26 of 2025.
