To-do list: Graduate from Clark Atlanta, next be sworn in as mayor
Stockbridge voters elected the city’s youngest mayor last week after he ran an energetic campaign amid questions in the community about the city’s funding of its amphitheater.
Jayden Williams, 22, will graduate from Clark Atlanta University in December, then be sworn in to office in January as mayor of the city in Henry County. He beat incumbent Anthony Ford by 420 votes out of 5,398 cast.
Williams, a former chair of the city’s planning commission, said he knocked on 11,000 doors and focused his campaign heavily on millennial and Gen Z voters, including high school students old enough to vote.
“I truly think the people were just ready for change,” Williams said in an interview.
Williams said the city should prioritize spending taxpayer funds on basic needs, like infrastructure, over funding the city’s VyStar Amphitheater at The Bridge — a popular facility that has repeatedly been subsidized by the city since opening in 2021.
“What are our taxpayer dollars going to outside of concerts?” he asked. “I’m going to be a mayor that’s going to shift the narrative from Stockbridge being a party city and a concert city, to getting back to the focus of serving our people in government.”
Ford, 68, a retired Army colonel, speculated that he lost the election because of “misinformation” circulating about a $32.9 million amendment to the city’s fiscal 2024 budget. He says there is a misconception in the community that he and the council mismanaged that money, or that it was stolen.
“Funds were moved from one account to another account without asking or presenting to the council for their approval,” Ford said, adding, “The money is not missing. It’s accounted for.”
The budget amendment over the summer was to correct the mistake by city staff of transferring the funds without approval of the City Council, according to Ford.
But Ford said he did not know how much of the transfer covered amphitheater expenses.
Mayor Pro Tem LaKeisha Gantt acknowledged a portion of the $32.9 million covered facility operational expenses, but said she didn’t know exactly how much.
Both Ford and Gantt referred questions about the budget amendment to city treasurer Frank Milazi, who did not respond to questions sent to him through email this week.
According to city financial reports, the amphitheater had a total operating loss of about $12 million from 2022 through 2024, before the budget amendment.
The $22.5 million amphitheater opened in 2021, and Ford said the city paid off its construction loans in August of this year. The budget amendment transferring the funds was signed by the mayor two months earlier, on June 25.
Ford and Gantt emphasized the amphitheater in the city’s downtown draws big-name performers and is an economic driver.
Gantt, who easily won reelection to a fourth term on the City Council on Nov. 4, said city officials never expected the amphitheater to make money and would be glad if it broke even.
It was built to be an iconic entertainment venue in the southern part of metro Atlanta, and it has helped attract interest in development, she said.
“We’re providing a quality of life that the north side of town has had, and we want that same thing for the south side of town,” Gantt said. “And it’s coming.”
Henry County Commission Chair Carlotta Harrell speculated that controversy about the amphitheater and the budget amendment did affect the mayoral election. She also credited Williams for working hard during the campaign.
Harrell said she supported Ford, but described Williams as “a smart, capable, intelligent young man.”
With the right training, mentorship and guidance from people who know local government, Williams could be the next Andre Dickens, said Harrell, referring to Atlanta’s mayor.
“I want to see him succeed, and I wish him the very best,” she said.
Williams grew up in Henry County and graduated in 2021 from Dutchtown High School. He has served as a youth mayor for the city of Stockbridge and as chair of the city’s planning commission. He also is a former state conference president of the Georgia NAACP Youth & College Division.
He currently works in political consulting, and his grandmother, Vivian Thomas, is a former Henry County commissioner.
Williams, a political science major at Clark Atlanta, said he was freshman class president, a Student Government Association treasurer and participated twice in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Scholar Recognition Program.
Williams said he originally got into politics after seeing injustices in Black communities and because he was concerned about the safety risks faced daily by young Black men and boys.
He said he decided to run for mayor because he saw that elected leadership in Stockbridge was “dysfunctional,” and residents’ voices weren’t being heard.
Now that he’s won the election, Williams said he’ll be on a “listening tour” to hear what residents want done.
“I’m really going to be looking at the city’s finances and our infrastructure as we transition into this next administration,” he said.
Another concern: housing affordability.
“We’re building townhomes that are going on the market for $450,000,” he said. “I want to talk about affordable housing and seeing how we can equally lay out the ratio of houses, townhomes, apartments and condominiums. It needs to be a balance.”
Of the amphitheater, Williams said he’s disappointed because “it doesn’t bring any revenue.”
“I don’t really have too much else to say on the amphitheater,” he said. “But I can say, during my administration, we’ll be doing heavy oversight on the expenditures and revenue coming in.”
About the Author
Reed Williams is an enterprise reporter on the Local team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
