Sanford spoke with Community Impact Newspaper in late June about his new role. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
What brought you to Montgomery and caused you to run for mayor?
I always liked the small-town feel; I spent my whole life in small towns. I share that with my voters, that they know we’re growing, and I know we’re growing. We’re growing very fast, and we still [want to] keep small-town values and ... keep a historic district preserved like it ought to be. So those things are important to me. They always have been. ...
The Lord moved me in this direction [to Montgomery], and I pastored another church out here for about a year and a half and then [saw] the calling to run for mayor.
During your time as a city council member, what are you most proud of?
We’ve already established some organization that was lacking in our management. I would call it managerial structure.
Has your past experience as a pastor played into your role as a mayor?
No doubt about it. We pastors have been on high alert that we are losing a lot of our cultural identity—our liberties, our freedoms. ... There’s a need for Christian ideology and thought and practice to go into the political arena, which is often unpleasant, but we are called to be peacemakers, and that part I’m really trying to emphasize here in Montgomery.
What do you believe will be the biggest issues coming before council members in the short term?
Getting busy on the traffic [issues]. ... We do anticipate long awaited ... of [Texas Department of Transportation] promises, but those things tend to come slow. What we are trying to do and hope we can do is maximize the amount of money that we can put into solving our traffic woes without TxDOT. That’s going to be our biggest task.
Leading a city
Byron Sanford was sworn in as the new mayor of Montgomery in May. He will serve a two-year term.
Montgomery fast facts
- Population (2020): 1,948 residents
- Chartered as a city in 1837
- Mayoral term will expire May 2024
A mayor:
- is the city’s chief executive officer
- presides over city council meetings
- is an unpaid position in Montgomery
- is allowed to vote only to break a tie in a Type A general-law city, such as Montgomery
