Tulsa mayoral candidate Brent VanNorman only moved to town a little over three years ago, but says that should in no way disqualify him to become the city’s next chief executive.

Indeed, he says, if one owned a billion dollar company with more than 3,500 employees, one would likely conduct a nationwide search to find the next CEO.

[Hear the KRMG In Depth Report on Brent VanNorman’s mayoral campaign]

“Look at the resumes of the candidates here,” VanNorman said Thursday. “I think I’m the only one that would get an interview here.”

He came to Tulsa to be near his son and his family.

His son, an ORU graduate, moved to Tulsa after enrolling in the Tulsa Remote program, which offers $10,000 to people willing to move here.

He told his dad he should enroll as well.

“I said ‘well, you know, I don’t want to take money from somebody else that might be more in need of it than me,’” VanNorman told KRMG. “And he said ‘no, you don’t understand. The Kaiser Foundation has plenty of money allocated to this program. They want people to move here that have discretionary income, and will spend it in the community.”

He says in just over three years, according to his wife, they’ve eaten at more than 160 restaurants - not including fast food - so, he jokes, “we have repaid that multiple times over.”

Asked what voters want to talk about when he’s knocking doors, he said the number one thing seems to be the condition of the city streets.

“Everyone complains about the roads,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what part of town they’re in, they all will tell you ‘the roads in our area are the worst,’ or ‘they’re bad for this reason, we’ve got more two-lane roads here than four-lane roads, and we’ve got the most miles of two-lane roads.’ So, roads are a huge issue for people.”

But of course voters have other topics on their minds as well.

“Homelessness is a huge issue for people, it’s just, you know, it’s exploded, 26-percent up in the last year, and so that’s on people’s minds all the time,” he said. “Crime’s on their minds. When I meet with contractors, it’s the permitting process.”

Asked what he’d tackle right out of the gate if elected, VanNorman said he’ll have to assess that when he gets the job.

“Thirty to sixty days is really assessment,” he replied. “You’ve made all these campaign promises, and you’ve made most of them with a straight face and believing that you could keep them. But I think you have to come in and you have to willing to adjust, because the lay of the land might be slightly different than what you anticipated.”

And his opponents, he believes, don’t really know the inner workings of City Hall either, though they’ve been in the city much longer than he.

“I just hope voters will one - be engaged. I hope they’ll study each candidate, look at their credentials, look at what they bring to the table, look at what Tulsa needs, and make a decision based on the qualifications of the candidate - not based on name recognition, not based on how long they’ve been in the community, but who will truly serve Tulsa best, and who will lead Tulsa to its best days.”

Early voting in the Tulsa municipal elections began Thursday and will continue through Saturday at the Tulsa County Election Board.

Polls open at precincts 7:00 a.m. Tuesday.