Decatur’s commission unanimously voted Patti Garrett as mayor for her fifth consecutive one-year year term. Meantime commissioners voted Tony Powers as mayor pro tem for the third straight year while new commissioners George Dusenbury and Lesa Mayer were sworn in.
Although a commission vote is far more common in the Midwest and California, Decatur is the only Atlanta-area municipality that doesn’t hold a citywide election to choose its mayor. Only a handful of Georgia cities follow this practice including Griffin, Rome, Toccoa and Dalton.
Garrett begins her 11th year overall, heading up one of the least experienced Decatur commissions in recent years (Powers begins his fifth year and Kelly Walsh her third, while Mayer and Dusenbury are first timers).
Like outgoing Commissioners Scott Drake and Brian Smith, Garrett agrees the job’s gotten progressively more demanding, particularly when it comes to communicating with constituents.
“I think it’s reflective of our lives,” Garrett said recently. “People not only email more frequently, they want to be answered in a short period. I can’t say that there’s one specific issue I get contacted about more than any other. I get asked about everything from who to contact about a pothole, to when is the city going to add more bike lanes to requests asking me to attend or speak at some upcoming event.
“For the most part,” she added, “I find [the emails] informative, it helps me figure out what people have concerns about. It just takes up a lot more time than it used too.”
In 2017 Decatur’s commission voted itself a compensation raise, with the mayor’s annual salary jumping from $6,000 to $15,000 while remaining commissioners went from $4,800 to $12,000. It was the board’s first raise since Jan. 1, 1994.
Garrett serves on the Federal Policy Committee for the Georgia Municipal Association; she’s active with the DeKalb Municipal Association and on the board of the National Civic League.
She is retired from Georgia State University where she counseled graduate students in the nutrition program. Before that she worked 18 years at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga as program director for nutrition and dietetics.
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