Leticia Cline, a councilperson for the city of Cave City, poses along steps near the Barren County Courthouse. She recently filed to run for Cave City mayor.
(PHOTO SUBMITTED BY LETICIA CLINE)
BY BRENNAN D. CRAIN, WCLU News
CAVE CITY — Leticia Cline, a councilperson for the city of Cave City, recently filed to run as the city’s mayor. The office is up for election this fall.
Cline was elected to the council in 2020. She serves as one of two women on the legislative body. The other woman is Beverly T. Ford.
“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. I had a goal for that,” she said. “I’m really glad that I chose to be on council first because there’s a lot of things to learn and be involved in. That just made more sense – for me to run for mayor.”
Throughout her professional life, Cline has worked as an entrepreneur, model, motorcycle racer, actress, journalist and public relations director.
“It isn’t the typical politician, but I feel like we’re in a time to not have typical politicians.”
Cline hails from Cave City. She was raised in the Barren County community but left to pursue other interests. She returned, opened a bar along Cave City’s main thoroughfare and started work to fulfill a promise she made as a girl, which was “to make Cave City amazing.”
While much of her council term has been impacted by the pandemic and its debilitation on communities like Cave City, she said her goals and plans for the city moving forward are positive. Among them is a commitment to strengthen local and state governmental ties.
“I feel like how to move us forward is a really strong leader that’s going to ask for the things that we need,” she said. “I definitely like to ask for things because we deserve it.”
Cline said government is much like a business.
After records requests and inspection of city documents, she discovered details about the city’s maintenance. Cline was displeased to learn of patterns of continued habits, she said.
“It’s suppression. We don’t really publicize or televise the meetings. We don’t have a social presence,” she said. “We don’t do anything to encourage involvement from the outside community.”
One of the first actions as mayor, she said, would be to encourage citizen involvement and shine light on some of the antiquated practices within Cave City’s government. Communications is one of the priorities on her list of mayoral desires.
Cline will face incumbent Mayor Dwayne Hatcher and J.R. Poynter.
WCLU News encourages candidates to submit information about their campaign or request an interview with the newsroom to detail their campaign. Contact the newsroom at wcluradio@gmail.com or (270) 651-9149.
