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DEL.ICIO.USAuld wins Snellville City Council seat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Snellville voters elevated Warren Auld back to the City Council with 60.8 percent of the vote Tuesday.
Auld had previously served on the council before leaving it for an unsuccessful state House representative run last year.
“I’m just honored that they gave me this opportunity to serve the city again, and humbled by the turnout of the vote,” said Auld from his Snellville law office, where he was celebrating with supporters and some homemade vanilla ice cream.
Auld’s closest competitor in the five-candidate race was Terri Dippel, a schoolteacher. She received 21.4 percent of the 1,519 votes.
It was the second time in nine months that she fell short in her bid for the Post 5 seat. She lost in November to Mike Smith, but Smith resigned in January over his indictment on felony charges of illegal telemarketing. Smith, named mayor pro tem in January 2005, denies the charges. Councilman Robert Jenkins replaced Smith as mayor pro tem.
The victory preserves a council voting bloc for allies Jenkins, Auld and Bruce Garraway that was imperiled by Smith’s resignation. They have oft butted heads with Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer and his supporters. Dippel had the endorsement of the mayor.
“I think Warren will do an excellent job,” said Kelly Kautz, who finished third in balloting with 14.2 percent in her first campaign. “I think the council will be better united now.”
The results were delayed because of a problem with the vote-reading machine. The tally was read around 8 p.m., an hour after the polls had closed.
Characteristic of the divisions that sometimes marks Snellville politics, Dippel and Auld both made small talk with Kautz, but not with each other, as they waited out the results.
“There are always personality issues, but my training as an attorney is that you don’t deal with personalities, you deal with issues,” Auld said. “We ought to be recognize we’re still neighbors, we go to the same stores, we eat at the same restaurants. Our purpose, at the end, is bringing a stronger, safer Snellville.”
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