East Point citizens have a lot riding on a runoff election Tuesday that could decide whether utility rates are cut and whether a new government center is built — all at the cost of millions of dollars.
The politics have been rough for the past couple of years as embattled Mayor Earnestine Pittman has fought a majority on the City Council she calls “the Gang of Five.”
One of the five was defeated in November and two more are in runoffs Tuesday.
“I’m thinking the incumbents will be gone, and I’m working to make sure that happens,” Pittman said. “I’ll be on the telephone all day Tuesday, reminding residents why they need to be at the polls.”
Pittman, who took office in 2010, has been fighting with the council majority over the south Fulton city’s skyrocketing utility rates and a proposal to build a $15 million government center. Both she and her opponents describe it as a battle for the future of the city.
In November, voters booted Mayor Pro Tem Clyde Mitchell, a Pittman antagonist, from the council and two more of the reputed gang — Lance Rhodes and Steve Bennett — are in runoffs with candidates who oppose the current council majority’s policies. The challengers say they expect to work more closely with Pittman.
Rhodes contends the city of 34,000 people — which has lost nearly 6,000 residents since 2000 — is on the verge of recasting its image with a new government center and says the increase in the utility rates, which jumped from a base rate of $19.50 to a subsidized base rate of $48, is necessary to keep the city financially sound.
An audit showed the once financially strapped city, which had a deficit of $11 million in 2004, finished in the black last spring.
During the past two years, the council implemented a financial recovery program that included laying off employees, eliminating unfilled positions, reorganizing departments and increasing employee contributions for health care.
“We have an awful lot that is going to be happening in the next few years but our biggest challenge is to keep our budget on track, and Mayor Pittman and her supporters don’t understand the importance of a balanced budget,” Rhodes said.
Resident Jean Wilson, an often vocal critic of the council majority, said the city needs to focus on fixing its water pipes and repairing streets rather than on mega projects.
Rhodes’ opponent, Karen Rene, said the issue was the timing of such projects as the new government center that she and the mayor believe necessitated the jump in utility rates.
Rhodes said the utility rates have nothing to do with the proposed complex.
Both Rene and Bennett challenger Alexander Gothard said they will vote to reverse the rate increases if elected. Threet Brown, who is facing LaTonya Martin in a runoff for Mitchell’s seat, said he also would reverse the increase.
“People are in an uproar about these utilities,” Gothard said.
The council majority was willing to take the heat on utility rates to get the city’s financial house in order and position it to move forward with developments such as the proposed government complex, said Councilwoman Sharonda Hubbard, one of the Gang of Five. “I like to call us the Progressive Five,” she said.
“This is a critical point in East Point’s future,” she said. “We have finally gotten to the point where we can do some things. We need to start investing in ourselves.”
Bennett noted that even if he and Rhodes survived the challenge next week, his side still would lose its majority when Mitchell exited. To avoid allowing Pittman to become the swing vote on critical issues, they would have to persuade another council member to join the two of them, Hubbard and Councilwoman Jacqueline Slaughter-Gibbons, he said. The mayor only votes in case of a tie.
Councilman Marcel Reed, who wasn’t up for re-election, said he doubted there would be any defections to the so-called gang’s side. “The residents have already told us that they don’t like what we’re doing,” he said.
Hubbard predicted the utility rates would not be so easily reduced.
“If we reduce utility rates, my question to residents is, what services do you want to give up, because the utilities were draining the general fund,” she said.
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