District 3 Candidates

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1. Tell us about your political experience:   This is my first time running for political office. I have always followed national politics but I had never been involved with local politics until the last election cycle. During that campaign I actively campaigned and helped in two of our contested council races.  

2. Give us some information about your background:   The Lewallen side of my family was living in the Lula-Hickory Flat-Homer area for several generations before The City of Lula or Bellton were established. I have lived in Lula my entire life. Went to Lula Elementary and graduated from East Hall high school. I took some night classes at Gainesville College. I worked at several different jobs in and around Gainesville. For twenty years I worked in the breeder side of the poultry industry, the last thirteen years of that being as a breeder manager.
  My wife and I have raised our children in Lula. We have three sons and a granddaughter. My mother and one of my sisters live in Lula. 

3. What made you want to run for the City Council?      I went to a city council meeting about three years ago and realized that even though I had never left Lula, Lula had left me. There was a mean spiritedness and a desire to control the citizens and their property that I had never witnessed in Lula during my fifty three plus years of living here. I knew that if I continued to sit back and do nothing that this awful trend in Lula government would continue to grow. I started speaking out online and at the city council meetings. Running for council is just me taking one more step in trying to right what I see as wrong in Lula and to make my hometown a better place. We can’t physically go  back to the way things were thirty or more years ago, but we can foster the sense of community and duty to our neighbors that us old time residents remember.  

4. What are some things you like most about Lula today?      The fact that with all of our problems, the people are still engaged and actively trying to improve the community.
  I love the fact that we have a community elementary school, even if it is owned and run by the county. We have one of the best, if not the best, run pharmacies in North East Georgia.
  We are a safe community. There is some crime, but most of us feel safe getting out and walking around town.
   Our churches are strong and involved with helping the people physically as well as spiritually.  

5. What do you see are the biggest issues facing Lula in the next 5 years?    Every major issue that I see facing us in the next five to ten years all stem from the rapid growth that is occurring in the entire state of Georgia. Traffic, lack of housing, lack of affordable housing, demand for utilities, pressure on public parks and green space. Anything that I can think of as a challenge has it’s root in the rapid growth that we are experiencing. With this growth being not only statewide, but also occurring in most of the Southeast, we can’t stop the growth but we can manage our infrastructure in a way that has us prepared to deal with these challenges.  

6. What do you see are the biggest issues facing Lula in the next 10 years?   (Candidate did not respond to this question)

7. Would you support authorizing and funding the current Mayor as a “full time mayor”?       I would not support the funding for the current mayor or any mayor in the foreseeable future being made full time. What I do support and intend to push for is the council and mayor taking more control over the city manager. There appears to be too many decisions being made without the consent and direction of the council.
  I would also like to see the city manager held accountable to the council for the job performance or the lack of job performance that is being displayed by the city manager. Too many excuses have been allowed to stand in place of actual accomplishments. It’s past time to turn the page on eighteen years of mediocrity.
   With a good city manager that is being held accountable to the council and the citizens, I think that the outcry for a full time mayor goes away.  

8. Would you support establishing and funding a police department for the City?      I do not support a City of Lula police force. Not only do I feel that it would be cost prohibitive, but I also think that it could easily go down the path of corruption and could be used to strong arm the citizens, especially the citizens that were opposed to whichever political group has power. Look at all the issues and problems that came about from having a full time enforcement officer. I can only imagine how much worse this would have been had we have had a full time police force with the authority to arrest our citizens.  

9. What else would you like for the citizens of Lula to know about you?       Personal freedom and the protection of our private property rights will be at the core of my thinking about any ordinances and decisions that I must make as a member of the city council. I won’t promise that you will agree with me on everything, but I will promise that any decisions that I make will be well thought out and vetted for the impact to our personal freedoms and private property rights.
   I hope to receive your vote during this election and I plan to win your trust in the coming months.