Your Voice Matters! I am at your Service.

As our next Mayor, my number one priority will be to serve you. To ensure that your needs and concerns are met, I need to listen to your input. I will be available and accessible to you as your elected representative. I will attend your meetings and hold meetings for the community to keep you involved and informed about what is going on in City Hall.

There are many present and future issues we need to discuss, and I am looking forward to working with you as our next Mayor to advance our goals for a better quality of life in our great city.

Serving with Principle and Honesty   

We all know that the brand of our City has been tarnished recently. Trust in the city and its officials is at an all-time low. We can and will do better. When serving as the District 5 Council Member, I sounded the alarm on basic processes and procedures that the city was not following. I also called for a separate Board of Ethics to investigate and release findings to hold elected officials, employees, and others accountable for their actions and following the law.

As our next Mayor, I will work with you and the Council to ensure that the Board of Ethics is established and up and running. We must do all we can to ensure that we don’t repeat the past, and progress to a city that we all can trust.

Transparency is a word that is often used in political campaigns, and there is little explanation as to what it means to you. As our next Mayor, transparency will be the foundation of my service. In the current political environment, transparency is critical to regain the public trust.

• “Show me the Money”, many of you ask where is it, or where did it go. As Mayor, I will work with the Council and City Staff to develop a “Transparent Stonecrest” website. It will host current expenditure and revenue information for anyone who wants to track our money.
• “Where have we been? What do we need to do”, as I have done previously as Councilmember, I will work with the Council to authorize needed audits focusing on a variety of financial and performance issues. In order to progress to success, we need a firm understanding of where we are, address any deficiencies, and move us to where we want to be.
• “We can accomplish all we desire. We are Better Together” As our next Mayor I will be open, speak honestly, disclose needed information, be accessible, share our progress and our pitfalls with you – every step of the way. I will open lines of communication with you to keep you in the loop for a free flow of information.

Getting the services we deserve!

As our next Mayor, two of my first tasks will be to meet individually with Council Members, host a number of Listening Sessions with you, and talk with City staff. The goal will be to hear your concerns and what services you want enhanced or created. Together, we will develop a list of needs, prioritize them, and create strategies to meet our goals. We will have open discussions and share information freely.

The main ingredients in effective service delivery include:

• Ongoing communication with you, the people we serve. You know best what is or is not going on. I will reach out to you to see what works, and what needs improvement. Together, we will work with the Council and the City staff to set priorities and reach our goals.
• Getting everyone on the same page. We need to set performance measures to ensure we all know what we expect (or not). And, we need to have and open and honest discussion on what our services encompass, potential limitations, costs, staffing, how to get assistance when needed, and more. This includes communication and buy-in from the City Council and City Manager.
• We need to automate when possible! As a new city we are uniquely positioned to employ state-of-the art, best in class service delivery. This includes all departments of the city utilizing technology for efficiency and reduced costs.
• Tracking progress with benchmarking and performance measures will inform us as to how we are doing in reaching our desired goal. It will also let us know if we are using our available resources wisely.
• After we establish our service deliver goals, we must look at the culture of the city. Working with you, the Council, and the City Manager we should work to get city employees aligned with our vision and goals. As much as possible, frontline employees should be a part of our discussions.

Economic Development is the life blood of our city.

Without the tax base and revenue from taxes, licensing, and fees we will not be able to meet your needs. We all want an affordable and vibrate community. So, to keep our residential property taxes low we need to grow our business community. As a successful business leader and trainer, I have the “know how” and energy to get it done.

I will be in the right rooms and at the right tables to ensure that Stonecrest is represented and gets the resources it needs. As Mayor, it will afford me the opportunity to sit on various statewide and regional boards where decisions are being made (like: Atlanta Regional Commission, Georgia Municipal Association, National League of Cities, Metro Atlanta Mayors Association, etc.) To reach our goals we will need infrastructure, transit, and funding.

 Plan to increase our Tax base

• As Mayor, I will meet with you, to hear your ideas on what development you would like to see, and not see, in our city. And, I will seek out those establishments to see if they have a desire to locate in our great city.
• We will focus on business retention. We have a lot of great businesses that are here to serve us in the community. In my first 100 days, I will reach out to them to listen to what they need to be successful and stay in our city. As Mayor, I will work with the Council and the City Manager to get our licensing and permitting back on track. Time is money to businesses, and the city should be a help and not a barrier. Also, I will seek federal, state, and other funding mechanisms to help our businesses thrive.
• We need to maximize our resources! The City of Stonecrest is home to Arabia Mountain, it is a tourist destination, but we are not putting this resource to use as an economic development engine. As Mayor, I will seek partnerships and assistance from civic, non-profit, and governmental organizations to raise awareness and drive people to Stonecrest. Working with Discover DeKalb, we can see additional revenue from visitors to this great resource. In addition, we have Flat Rock Archives and Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area.
• We need to attract new businesses. To do that, we need to have community conversations on what you want to see. Invite those who can build our vision to talk with us. And, after careful vetting and review, work to get them established in our city. This will require that we audit and get our Stonecrest Development Authority operational.