Residents of Peachtree Corners, soon to be incorporated as Gwinnett County’s largest and most populous city, will get their first chance to weigh City Council contenders in a series of candidate forums this week.
Nineteen candidates are vying for six seats, with contestants ranging from longtime government insiders, recent transplants and residents who voted against the city’s incorporation. They’ll finally have an opportunity to share their visions for the new city — and almost equally important — publicly subject their opponents’ visions to scrutiny, at forums on Monday, Tuesday and Feb. 6.
The United Peachtree Corners Civic Association, a powerful homeowner’s organization that pushed hard for incorporation, will host each event at Christ the King Lutheran Church at 5575 Peachtree Parkway.
In an area that experienced the heaviest voter turnout in Gwinnett during November elections, local leaders and candidates expect plenty of interest in sizing up the city’s first crop of prospective officeholders.
“We’re just as interested to find out what’s on our residents’ mind as well as the candidates,” said Pat Bruschini, new president of the UPCCA. “It’s going to be a great way to reach the people.”
Candidates for Post 1, Post 2 and Post 3 will be elected by voters from specific districts; Post 4, Post 5 and Post 6 are at-large seats and will be chosen by residents across the city.
The candidates include several residents who played major roles in the campaign for cityhood, among them Jeanne Aulbach, Robert Byars, Scott Ehrlich and Alex Wright. Few opponents of the incorporation effort chose to run for office, indicating they preferred to operate as watchdogs of the new government.
“We’re keeping a neutral stance on the candidates,” said Ali Stinson, one of the leaders of the formerly anti-city Peachtree Corners Ballot Committee. “But there’s a pretty large group of skeptical people out there.”
The elections will be March 6.
Mike Mason, who emerged as the sole candidate to qualify for the mayoral race in November, would join the winners on the City Council.
Mason is also one of the founders of UPCCA and is its most recent president.
Once they are all in office, the officials will face the sobering task of building a government from scratch for Gwinnett County’s first new city in 56 years, when it begins operation on July 1.
Peachtree Corners initially will operate in a scaled-down version — or “city-lite” model — and provide limited services in planning and zoning, code enforcement and garbage collection. Gwinnett will be responsible for more costly services such as public safety.
But the new council members still face some daunting tasks. They will have to negotiate important service contracts that have left the county embroiled in a lawsuit with some of its other cities. They must choose a spot for government offices — likely in one of the many vacant office complexes around town.
They will need a robust code-enforcement department to handle an area affected by one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates.
Perhaps most importantly, the new council will have to allay the concerns of cityhood opponents and heal divisions within the community following the closest incorporation vote in metro Atlanta over the past six years. Other referendums were approved by at least 81 percent of the vote; Peachtree Corners claimed just 57 percent.
“It’s no longer a question of whether we’re going to be a city or not,” Ehrlich said. “Now we’re trying to make sure that people are involved.”
A study by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia estimated that Peachtree Corners, using the city-lite platform, could exist on general fees and low property taxes of 1 mill per household, or $120 on a $300,000 home.
The study assumed the city would raise money from planning and zoning fees, utility franchise fees and property taxes. Based on the cost of services for similar cities around the region, the study concluded Peachtree Corners could run a surplus of about $2.3 million annually.
Aulbach said most candidates and residents share a belief that the city should contain its growth as much as possible. There’s little appetite for big government or more taxes in the mostly conservative area.
“When you talk to people, they’re really concerned about taxes,” Aulbach said. “That’s why most of us have pledged to support the lowest tax rate possible.”
Most Peachtree Corners residents agree on one issue: They’re uncertain what their city will look like in a few years; their unique city-lite model makes comparisons difficult with other new cities such as Sandy Springs and Dunwoody.
“We’re more worried about what [the city] is going to look like 10 years from now,” Stinson said. “These [first group of council members] are going to be the precedent-setters. How they get this thing started is going to have implications on how this city runs for the long and short term.”
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Peachtree Corners council candidates
Post 1: Nneka Chukwu, Phil Sadd, Joe Sawyer
Post 2: Jay Lowe, Stephen Peet
Post 3: Scott Ehrlich, David Proud, Alex Wright
Post 4: Jeanne Aulbach, Robert Byars, Robert Indech, Gloria Gore Rucks
Post 5: Lorri Christopher, Brent Johnson, Gray Terry
Post 6: Raymond Cobb, Weare Gratwick, David Leader, Brian Stickney
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