Avondale Estates Mayor Jonathan Elmore announced Monday he’s running for re-election this November.
Two other commission seats, held by Adela Yelton and Mayor Pro Tem Brian Fisher, are also up for re-election. Yelton said Monday she’s undecided about running while Fisher anticipates making his decision in June.
Elmore was initially elected when he beat four other candidates in a March 2015, special election to fill the vacancy left by Ed Rieker’s resignation. The following November he ran in the regular election unopposed.
During their tenure, Elmore-Fisher-Yelton have consistently voted in a consensus block on major issues, which has drawn some community rebuke. Last August the commission approved a 270-apartment project by a 4-1 vote (Lisa Shortell opposed) despite the city’s Planning & Zoning Board and Architectural Review Board not recommending the development. Further, 20 percent of the city’s population signed a petition opposing the project.
In Feb. 2018, longtime City Manager Clai Brown resigned amidst hints that for months some commissioners interfered in the city’s day-to-day business, including giving work assignments to staff (Brown never stated why he resigned while Elmore emphatically denied any wrongdoing).
But Elmore has possibly been the most aggressive pro-growth mayor in city history. The 270-apartment project will get built on U.S. 278 next to a development now finishing up that includes 197 apartment and 8,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space and a gateway park that’ll be approximately one acre.
Arguably Elmore’s most significant achievement to date is pushing to fund the city’s Downtown Development Authority through an intergovernmental agreement, which happened in 2016. For the first time that board is invested with power, among others, to buy property, take out a bond, develop property and market the city’s downtown.
He is unabashedly pro-annexation with the city’s commercial tax base at only 10 percent. He and Yelton also helped launch an education committee to attempt closing the gap between the city and the DeKalb County school system.
In a symbolically significant move Elmore spearheaded the removal of the “restricted use premises” and “exclusive use” language on the rules markers posted at Lake Avondale and Willis Park.
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