Yes, I will be a Candidate for my old Ward C seat in the 2019 November City Election! I am a serious Candidate in this election. I can no longer hope to exert the needed influence or help the residents through Newsletters, emails, and Public Comments at Council Meetings. The residents in Ward C need a visionary and a strong voice on the Council who will speak to the issues and bring motions to the floor for a vote on important issues concerning the residents. All of the City’s residents are facing challenges that have worsen since I served as Mayor. Ward C residents have not had a Townhall Meeting with our Ward C Council Members in over five years. How can they represent us if they do not meet and speak with us?
The financial plight of all East Point residents have worsen and Ward C residents have been especially hard hit. Ward C easily has more women head-of-households as homeowners than any other Ward. The Greater Atlanta United Way 2019 quarterly census tract for the eleven metro counties that they serve stated that East Point has a total of:
- 33,365 residents.
- 6,793 families.
- 8,497 children.
- 15. 7 percent of the children do not have health insurance.
- 42.2 percent of the children are living in poverty.
- 49.1 percent of the families are not financially stable.
- 46 percent of the families have housing cost burdens.
- 22.8 percent are mothers without a high school diploma.
- 30.2 percent of the adults do not have health insurance and the
- Unemployment rate is 17.6 percent.
While East Point City government has bounced back from the 2008 Recession with increased property tax assessments; an expanded commercial tax base; increased private residential home renovations, building and refurbishing; the above data paint a different and dismal picture for the residents. Yes, some of us are doing fine but way too many residents are living quiet lives of desperation and they need HELP.
Mayor and Council did not hold a single Proposed FY 2020 Budget Townhall Meeting with the residents where residents could ask questions or make their case for financial assistance in the Budget. The City Manager Proposed FY 2020 Budget that was pushed by his Staff at three City Manager’s Budget Hearing was a joke. In the first place, the role of the residents is to petition and lobby their Elected Officials not the hired Staff of the City Manager. Again, Ward C Council Members were missing in action and failed to provide a single word at the second Budget Hearing on behalf of the residents. For the record, neither the Mayor nor any Council Member used the word “resident” during their discussion prior to adopting the Budget on June 3, 2019.
In the City Manager Proposed FY 2020 Budget, the City Manager wrote ON PAGE 11, the STRATEGIC GOALS: “Mayor and Council and senior staff identified strategic goals and priority areas for the next three years. These strategies will sharpen the City’s focus on issues that are critical to the orderly growth and prosperity of the employees, rate and tax payers and visitors”. I underlined focus and critical for emphasis because at no time during the Mayor and Council’s two public hearings at the Council Meetings; and no where in the adopted FY 2020 Budget was there any “focus” on the “ critical orderly growth and prosperity of… tax payers” as residents. There is a huge difference between the meaning of a tax payer and a resident. Tax payer is only one facet of a resident’s make-up. A resident has a family, rent to pay, food to buy, utility bills to pay, taxes to pay, etc. I hope that you see the difference. I can understand why the City Manager and his staff would have more “focus” on the tax payer than the resident, but where should Mayor and Council greater “focus” be?
Because I believe the “focus and critical orderly growth and prosperity” of residents should always be the top priority of Mayor and Council, I have decided to seriously campaign and run as a Candidate for Ward C local seat. I will be getting a Newsletter out to Ward C residents within the next several days with my vision for their “orderly growth and prosperity”. Since Ward C cannot be separated from the City, every resident will benefit from my vision and campaign platform.
Non-Ward C residents who would like copies of my Newsletter should call or email me.
NOTE: I discovered this 2006 Budget Newsletter while I was serving in my first term as Ward C Council Member. Check out the information that was provided and I was not even a member of the Budget Committe! What useful information was provided to the residents by Mayor or any Council Member on how they are spending tax payers money? CLICK HERE: 2006 Budget Analysis
