A second candidate has thrown his hat in the ring in the race for Covington council member Roger Tingler's old seat.

Geographic Information Systems Coordinator for Newton County Ernie Smith qualified Monday for Covington's municipal elections in November.

Smith will face off against former Oxford Police Chief Keith Dalton for the Post 3 East council seat. Tingler will vacate his seat at the end of the year in favor of running for mayor of Covington.

"My entire work history has focused on two things: working with people and technology," Smith said. "Those two together have been what got me interested in doing what I think I can do for the city council. The things that we need to do are going to require technology. We have to think differently. We have to be agile. We have to be opportunistic in seeing if we can do that with technology."

Additionally, Smith said it was his interest in maps, with which he works every day, which led him to run for office.

"Maps tell you things. Maps show you opportunities. Maps give you a pretty clear idea about some things," Smith said.

In particular, Smith said studying maps of the city for so long has given him some pretty strong opinions about the city's zoning ordinances and its transportation structure.

"One of the biggest concerns I think the community has is transportation," Smith said. "We've heard forever that we can't afford to do something. Well we cannot afford to wait for a number of things. We've got long term things that we need to fix and we've also got short term things that we need to fix."

Smith said it was reasonable to assume that Covington residents might have to pay higher taxes in order to get increased municipal services.

"As far as taxes are concerned, you don't do anything like raising taxes unless there's a dang good reason and you've exhausted every other possibility," Smith said.

 Smith said he would also like to see a stronger outreach program for welcoming new residents to the city of Covington.

"We've got new people coming in. We need to make them part of the community," Smith said. "That's something I'd like to see the city government take a little more initiative in."

Smith suggested having more packaged information available to new residents, such as information on where they need to go to get new car tags and where they need to go to pay their utility bills.

Smith said that he would also like to see more economic development in the city.

"We really need some serious economic development. We need to enhance that tremendously," Smith said.

A Covington native, Smith has worked for Newton County's GIS Department for the past eight years. Prior to that, he worked for the county's Tax Assessors Office. Smith said his years of working with the county would be an asset to the council.

"The job I do with the county, we combine our efforts with Covington personnel," Smith said. "I think that's a really good model for the way that we ought to approach things, together."

A 1973 graduate of Newton High School, Smith went on to study at Georgia Tech, University of Georgia and Emory University. Prior to his employment with the county, he worked for a facilities management software firm which had contracts with Georgia Pacific. He also was employed as a facilities manager for DeKalb Medical Center.

Smith and his wife of 30 years, Sharon, have two daughters and three grandsons.

"I don't think I know it all about government," Smith said. "I think there's going to be a huge learning curve but I think that I can represent the people of Covington very well and I think I can ask the questions that they would expect me to ask."