Office of the Mayor

Mayor Mike Schmitz

Video Welcome From The Mayor

What an honor to serve as your Mayor in this great community of Dothan, Alabama.  Dothan is ranked as having one of the lowest costs of living in the country for a city our size. And we enjoy a great quality of life in Dothan that other cities in our state and region only wish for!  But we also face some short-and long-term issues--such as sewage and our future water supply—that I wanted to be a part of solving.  That is why, after over 30 years as a businessman and community leader, I ran for Mayor, my first campaign for elected office.  I was deeply humbled by the overwhelming voter support on Election Day, July 14^th, 2009.  And before being sworn into office on September 29^th, 2009, I was chomping at the bit.  I just couldn’t wait to “Go! Go! Go!”--to roll up my sleeves and get to work for Dothan!

Working together as a team with Dothan’s six City Commissioners, I am excited to keep the promises of my 4-part campaign platform which I was grateful to see supported by an historic 86 percent of the voters.

Fiscal responsibility is number one.  As a successful businessman, I’ve learned to pay attention to the difference between wants and needs, and I believe in “pay as you go.”  As a proven manager of budgets and people, I bring my business common sense and efficiency to city government, which is what the citizens of Dothan deserve and expect me to do as Mayor.     

I am also committed to bringing jobs, jobs, and more high-paying jobs to Dothan.  As a former Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, I know how important this is to strengthening existing businesses and to recruiting new ones.  We want our children and other young people to make homes and raise their families here, not to have to leave our community in order to earn a decent living.  As part of this economic development, I support the continued revitalization of Downtown which is attracting new businesses, restaurants, shops, and visitors all the time.  I also want to recruit more retirees to Dothan who bring both financial resources and a great spirit of volunteering to our city.  

Even though it is not the direct responsibility of the Mayor’s office, I actively and enthusiastically support the progress being made by the “Yes We Can!” campaign to boost the quality of education in Dothan--from Head Start and kindergarten all the way through high school and college.  An unacceptably high dropout rate leads to crime and deprives the work force of future employees, so I am working cooperatively with the school board and others as we successfully reverse that trend.

Finally, I am putting into practice what I heard over and over from the citizens of Dothan during the campaign:  We want to see a spirit of cooperation at City Hall where everybody works together for the good of the city.  I truly believe that I was elected because consensus building was as important to the voters as it is to me.  My years of experience in business and in community involvement have taught me time and again that by working together, we do better.