What exciting things are in store for the City of Jackson? From revitalizing downtown to developing a Great Wolf Lodge, hear what the city has to look forward to from the City of Jackson's Mayor, Scott Conger, on the newest episode of the Pocket Change Podcast. Also, listen in to hear about his journey into politics, what challenges he's faced in his role as mayor, and his best financial advice.
"We deserve good growth," said Mayor Conger. "We deserve good things that come to our community."
Stay updated about upcoming events in the city of Jackson by visiting jacksontn.gov.
The Pocket Change Podcast is presented by Leaders Credit Union. To learn more about Leaders, visit leaderscu.com.
Shea:
Hey, this is Shea.
Carrie:
And this is Carrie.
Shea:
Welcome to the Pocket Change Podcast.
Carrie:
Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest, and take control of your financial journey.
Shea:
So, Carrie, you know, Leaders, we were founded in 1957, right here in Jackson, Tennessee. It's been our home. It's our headquarters. We love Jackson.
Carrie:
Absolutely.
Shea:
Jackson is experiencing a lot of growth and a lot of positive things that are coming to our city, so we're excited for our guest today.
Carrie:
Did you know that our guest's family history dates all the way back to the 1800s?
Shea:
I did not know that. That's It's quite a long time.
Carrie:
I know. It's impressive. I'm excited to talk to him today and learn more about what's coming up with Jackson this year. We're excited to welcome our guest, Scott Conger, Mayor of the City of Jackson. Welcome to Pocket Change, Scott.
Scott Conger:
Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Carrie:
Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey to politics?
Scott Conger:
Oh my gosh, yeah. My family came here in 1832, and so we've been in Jackson a little while. I graduated high school from South Side High School. I graduated College from Lane. I got my Master's in Business Administration administration from Bethel. Was going to be a teacher. Thank goodness, thank God that I did not get hired. Those two teachers did not retire. Taught Sunday school for a little while, and I was not good. I would not have been a great teacher. Got involved, the local level, Neighborhood Association first, and then started serving on the city council in 2011. My granddad served as mayor from 1967 to '89. I remember I talked to him. He was very on in his dementia, and so I had moments of lucidity. I talked to him about running for City Council. He said, I'll help you do anything you need me to do to run if you do it for the right reasons. If you're doing it to get your name in the paper or your face on TV, then I'm not helping you. I remember that, it sticks with me, of doing it for the right reasons. If you're doing it to serve people and help Jackson, help your community, then I'm all there.
Scott Conger:
Served on the council for a term and a half. My wife and I got pregnant with our second child, and our house could not fit more than one child. I had to move, and unfortunately, I had to move out of the district. That gave us an opportunity to reset and talk about how we wanted to serve. At that time, I was at United Way West Tennessee, and wanted to continue and work on building the Jackson where our kids, when they grow up, want to stay. We saw that brain drain happening from high school to college students leaving because opportunities were elsewhere. She was still pregnant with our son, and so we did a lot of conversations, a lot of prayer about what we wanted to do and decided that now is the time to start building that foundation in our city so that we can start seeing people stay in Jackson and remain in Jackson and call Jackson home.
Shea:
Yeah, that's so important. What a great opportunity and just the way you've gone about that to have that impact behind you. Appreciate your leadership.
Scott Conger:
Oh, thank you. My son was five months old, and my daughter was two when I announced. It was an interesting journey, to say the least.
Shea:
That's the same age my kids are right now. Big time.
Scott Conger:
They say it's the best part of your years. They keep telling you that.
Carrie:
It just keeps getting better.
Shea:
Every year it gets better. That's right. You're serving your second term as mayor now. What are you most proud of as mayor?
Scott Conger:
Gosh, it's hard. I was thinking about that of looking back. I think there's so much to do. It's hard to look back and think, but I get to, probably the best thing is, work with great people. That's from employees to council members to community members and leaders. Then we're at the time now, we've done a lot of planning, we've done a lot of talking about things, and we're actually starting to see those things come to fruition. We're going to be opening our Senior Citizens Center later this year, be the first one in 30 years in Jackson. Working on major construction projects on Airways, opening up our Jackson Animal Care Center, sidewalks on North Parkway, and other sidewalk projects. We've done a lot of planning and a lot of strategic planning, and like I said, a lot of talking about a lot of these things. Now they're actually starting to happen, and you'll start to see the work of the conversation. That's really exciting. Frustrating for me because I'm very impatient. I want to see the things that, 'idea, let's go,' but it takes a lot of planning, a lot of conversation, and a lot of money to get those things done.
Scott Conger:
So I think we've worked with great people and got the plans right, and so now we're starting to actually implement those plans.
Carrie:
That's wonderful. It's also very rewarding to see it all come together, too.
Scott Conger:
Yes.
Carrie:
All that planning and preparation for it and to finally see it happen.
Scott Conger:
Probably my favorite is the Senior Citizens Center. During my time at United Way I got to travel around all our communities, and I got to hear the stories of how a Senior Citizen Center saved lives. That socialization, of people that actually opened up to me and told me, "Hey, I was planning on ending my life, but I came here and it saved my life." So, knowing that it saves lives, and it's also important to one in particular senior citizen, my grandmother, who got the land donated for the project. She'll be 95 in July and told me that I need to have this open before she leaves this Earth. Her words were, time's ticking. So you need to hurry up and get it done.
Carrie:
You better get to working.
Scott Conger:
I think as we've seen a lot of our private investment, I mean, over 700 million in the last five years. Our job as government is to create I think that environment where private investors, private developers, and businesses can be successful, and we just get out of the way. I think it's the best thing that we can do.
Carrie:
What do you see as the biggest challenge for the city of Jackson?
Scott Conger:
We have several challenges, but I think right now for us, we're in a growth period, and our growth is going to come whether we want it or not. The mindset, I think for so long, is that we've... I don't know where it came from. I think it's probably because we're West Tennessee, and for so long, we've been overlooked. Middle and East Tennessee has gotten so much, and so... There's a generation that's growing up going, "Well, we really don't get anything. Maybe we don't deserve it." We do. We deserve it. We deserve the growth. We deserve good growth. We deserve good things that come to our community. How we get around that growth mindset as opposed to the mindset of feeling left behind and that we're not going to get the things that we deserve. I don't know if its that we've been let down before, but we had those big announcements and big projects, those conversations that, "Well, we'll never see that happen in Jackson." Well, why not? Why can't we have these great things in Jackson? Why can't we have this growth and this good growth that we have coming our way?
Shea:
I think we've seen that growth. It's one of the new developments is we've got a new air service out of Jackson Regional Airport now, so that's exciting that we've got this new development.
Scott Conger:
We had announcement for that for Denver Air on Friday, and Then we all drove down, a group of us, drove down to meet with existing industry on the following Monday and got to speak with some of them. We got to tell them, "Hey, you're in Atlanta, you're going to get a flight to Jackson now on jet." It's going to be a 99 percent, plus takeoff rate as opposed to a 48 percent, and one of the execs there said, "This is a complete game changer. Now for me to visit the Jackson plant takes three days out of the week. I can do it now in one day." We're excited. I think the people who've ridden are excited. The companies that we have in Chicago and Atlanta are both are really excited about it.
Shea:
Then there's been even more revitalization downtown. Tell us why it's important to have a strong downtown and vibrant downtown.
Scott Conger:
When we talk about those companies, one of the first things that they want to see is our downtown. So the downtown itself is the heartbeat of a city, no matter what area. If you look at any other area of a city, successful, it's good, but if a downtown is not thriving, then eventually that city is not going to thrive. So, I think it's important that we've seen that revitalization of retail, of commerce, of people living downtown and not just government buildings and attorney offices. You actually see people, you go out any time of day, there are people walking. Even today I saw people, 25 degrees this morning, there are people walking outside downtown. That's really great to see. Then the continued revitalization on the west side of downtown across Highland, and how do we get those people over on the east side of Highland and continue to see that growth and just see that vibrancy. We're a melting pot. We're the hub city. We have over 80 countries of people that live here. Jackson should be a place for everyone. You go down and see different shops and different things that cater to different taste and really expand on our arts as well, too.
Scott Conger:
We want Jackson to see downtown as an option to come see, visit, and shop. Then as people come from out of town, we want them to come downtown as well
Carrie:
That's right. It's very important, and it's been exciting to see the growth happen as being a West Tennessee native. We would love to ask about some other projects that we've heard about. One, I know everyone wants to know about, the Great Wolf Lodge. What? And also the new Convention Center that's coming to the old Service Merchandise building.
Scott Conger:
Yes, so Great Wolf Lodge. They purchased the property in November. November 15th is when they closed. You go out there now and there's a bunch of dirt work happening. They're still working on their construction funding, and so we're working on our funding to build the road coming off of F. E. Wright. So, I think if everything times out like it's supposed to, which, as we've seen with Great Wolf Lodge, nothing has timed out like it's supposed to. That was the first project I was ready on when I got elected in 2019. And so we're just now moving dirt. Dixie's built a half a billion dollar facility in the meantime. So now we're moving dirt. If everything time's out, then we'll be in construction of the road at the end of this year, and then they'll start construction of the facility at the end of this year. So hopefully that all works out. Then Jackson Plaza, our council, voted to approve a contract with JLL, which is out of Atlanta, and they're going to look at true economic market feasibility. Can we support an entertainment facility? Personally, I think we can, but we're data-driven in our approach, and so we want to make sure that we get that done.
Scott Conger:
Within a few months, they'll give us thumbs up, thumbs down. Can this property and can Jackson support that? If so, then we'll work on clearing the property, make it ready, and then hopefully have that as a part of an incentive package for a developer to come in and build an Arena Convention Center hotel because we don't need to be involved in that. We don't need to be hoteliers, and so we need to have private development come in and do that. If it's a thumbs down, then we're going to pivot and go, "Hey, what is the highest and best use of that property." Then from there, again, make the site ready and then go after the developer for that highest and best use.
Shea:
We love that area because Leaders has its first retail branch right at the corner of Highland & Old Hickory.
Scott Conger:
That's the geographic, you look at it now, center of our city. and so I look at that as dropping the pebble in the water. As we redevelop that spot, it just ripples out and impacts the entire city.
Shea:
Those are good updates. We're excited to hear that and see how it will move forward. There's even other initiatives that your council and group is passionate about with the city, like the Greater Jackson Financial Empowerment Center and those type of things. How are you serving our community through those initiatives?
Scott Conger:
It's part of working with great people. When I was at United Way, I applied for that same grant for a city's for financial empowerment and didn't get it. Then got into this office, and Lauren Kirk applied for the grant and got it immediately. I don't know if that's a testament to her ability to grant write or my inability to. We partnered with United Way of West Tennessee. Just in 2024, through our partnership with them and then extended partnership with leaders and all the other financial empowerment opportunities, our group helped over 150 families, I think right at 150. They paid down over 400,000 in consumer debt for those families. Then the average credit rating increased by 20 points. That benefits everybody. That increases buying power, that increases ability to get mortgages, to reduce those payday lending. Our goal, my personal goal, and it may make some people mad, but that's okay, I do that on occasion, is that we can't legislatively remove predatory lending, but we can through empowering people. Making them obsolete for the market. They can come to more conventional places to get loans as opposed to having to go to those places at charge 400, 500, 600% on the line.
Scott Conger:
We want to make sure we're empowering people to make those decisions and to get approved in those conventional places instead of having to go to depend on those predatory places.
Shea:
Yeah, we completely agree. Education is so important around those services or alternative services. When there's places like a credit union that are not-for-profit or other nonprofits that are able to help people with counseling and developing plans to not have to use those services, we really want to help people take advantage of that. Kudos to the city and United Way for supporting that in our community. Then leaders, we're trying to do that, too, for our members and potential members. Hopefully, we can also do that through this podcast by sharing helpful information for people, too.
Scott Conger:
I think just maximizing the effort. We can all row in the same direction and do the same thing and not be competing, but actually complement each other's efforts.
Carrie:
Absolutely. So many of us remember your Facebook lives in 2020.
Scott Conger:
I try to forget those.
Shea:
It's still happening. It's not as frequent.
Carrie:
They were so important to us. So would you mind giving a personal reflection of what it was like leading the city through a pandemic?
Scott Conger:
Well, that was not on my year one plan. That was more like year three, right? But those things come, and it was challenging. It was frustrating. It was mad, and it was sad, and it was scary. I think we were all just that fear of the unknown.
Shea:
Very uncertain.
Scott Conger:
Every day was uncertain, but I think what it did for us here is there were a lot of relationships that needed to be mended and a lot of relationships that needed to be built. I think that forced us to do that. We met every day City, County, Health Department, Hospital, Chamber, JEA, United Way, and the School System. I mean, sometimes we were meeting for three hours a day just talking about the numbers, talking about the efforts that we were doing, what we needed to do. That really created a bond between us. I think there were some more adversarial relationships with the city and county prior to that. It really forced us to work together. We actually got to like each other. I can call all those people that I work with now. We have a great relationship, and it allows us to do other things outside of just being forced to work together.
Scott Conger:
We actually want to work together now. It builds those relationships, and then it helps us as a community, as a city, and a county, so we can walk alongside each other as opposed to throwing stones at each other.
Shea:
One of the things I think was mentioned throughout that time was Snoop Dogg. We ever going to get a..?
Scott Conger:
Well, you know it's a feasibility study, right? It's a thumbs up, thumbs down. We need that arena. Arena Convention Center.
Shea:
There you go. All right. It may still happen. We just got to keep bringing it up.
Scott Conger:
I never get reminded about that whatsoever.
Shea:
Well, since this is a financial-related podcast, we wanted to ask you what's some of the best financial advice you've ever been given?
Scott Conger:
Oh, gosh. Plan, I think was a part of it. Then don't wait to invest. I wish I had to listen to that piece when I was younger instead of waiting a little bit. Starting young investing, it may not be everything you want to invest at that time, but just putting a little back in investing and saving, I think is really beneficial. Then living below your means I think a lot of us tend to look at what somebody else has and live with your needs and not wants. As a parent, I really drill that in now because my kids are like, I want this. Well, do you need it, though? We can balance that out. Let's focus on this first before we look at the wants.
Shea:
Don't spend your birthday money all in one place.
Scott Conger:
Yeah, they never want to spend their birthday money. It's always, "I'm going to save my money." They're really good. They have sound financial principles. They want to save their money and spend mine.
Carrie:
Hey, you can't blame them.
Shea:
Then our last question somewhat related, but since this is the Pocket Change podcast, if you just had a little bit of pocket change, what would you spend it on?
Scott Conger:
I don't know what you could buy with pocket change nowadays, but I think probably most of the time, if I had pocket change then and I have two little hands putting their hands out for the pocket change, it would be spent on them increasing their savings, probably.
Shea:
Throw it in that piggy bank. Save it up for the kids.
Scott Conger:
They have safes now that they have codes to. So sister and brother can't get in each other's money.
Carrie:
That's right. Smart. Well, thank you so much, Scott, for being with us today and sharing a little bit about what to look forward to this year for the city of Jackson.
Scott Conger:
Now, thanks for having me. I appreciate the educational piece of this and informing people on sound financial principles.