In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, Rico Figliolini meets with Curt Thompson who is currently running for Gwinnett County Commission Chair. Listen in and get an in-depth look at Curt’s views regarding public safety, smart-city technology, affordable housing and much more.
“Job one is working on a transit plan and either implementing it and getting it passed. I also think that we need to seriously look at our County planning infrastructure in general. I think if you’re going to have half a million people move here over the next 10 years, you’d better plan well for that. I think that especially in places like West Gwinnett and South Gwinnett, you’re going to have to look at trying to incentivize a lot of mixed use developments that are more vertical where you’ve got the residential above and the retail at street level.”
Curt thompson
Timestamp:
[00:00:30] – Intro [00:02:04] – About Curt [00:03:27] – Defining CIDs [00:07:26] – Public Transit [00:13:51] – Running a Campaign Amidst COVID-19 [00:20:23] – Affordable Housing [00:25:45] – County Makeup before and after election [00:26:53] – Criminal Justice Reform [00:28:28] – Economics and Supporting Families [00:30:39] – Technology in Gwinnett County [00:34:59] – Public Safety [00:38:08] – Closing
Podcast transcript
Rico: [00:00:30] Hi, this is Rico Figliolini host of Peachtree Corners Life the podcast, one of several that we do here in the city of Peachtree Corners, and I appreciate everyone showing up, either live to this Facebook live stream, or if you’re seeing this on demand on iHeart radio, Spotify, you’re listening to it later, please put a review on the podcast or wherever you are and share it to people that you like. Peachtree Corners Life, Facebook pages, where this originally is streaming from. And I have a guest tonight that’s involved in politics. We’ll get into that in a couple of minutes and I just want to mention our main sponsor, Hargray Fiber. They are a fiber company here in not only in the Southeast and Georgia, and they’ve been working really close here in Peachtree corners as well as Southeast, but this whole Metro area, they’ve come into over the past few months working with companies and they have fiber optics to be able to peak at companies online fast. Provide bandwidth, provide great customer service, a lot different than the cable guy, let’s call it. They’re really involved in the community, and you’ll see them more involved in the community as they grow in this area. So find out a little bit more about them and their, I think it’s 90 day internet free if you sign up with them you can do that at HargrayFiber.com. So now let’s cut to the chase and let’s talk to our guest tonight. Curt Thompson, who’s a Democrat running for Gwinnett County commission chair. Hey Curt, how are you?
Curt: [00:02:03] Good. How are you?
Rico: [00:02:04] Good, thank you. So tell us a little bit about yourself and, and how, you know, how you got into this. What would you expect from doing this?
Curt: [00:02:13] Sure. Well, I’m a lifelong Gwinnett resident. I was born in Decatur, but that’s just where the hospital was. I started at Camp Creek elementary and I graduated from Shiloh high school. So I grew up in sort of in South Gwinnett for the last, well, for 16 years I was in the state legislature representing parts of Gwinnett County. Two of those I was in the general, state house member. 14 of those I was a state Senator. And then starting last February, I announced I was running for Gwinnett County commission chair and of course I’ve been running hard ever since. I am a lawyer by education and trade, went to Georgia state university law school college of law and I have two law offices. One’s in Norcross in the historic district and one is in Duluth, in an office building near Gwinnett mall.
Rico: [00:02:57] Oh wow. Okay. So you’ve been, you’ve been involved in a lot of different things actually being in the legislator session for 16 years, I think it was.
Curt: [00:03:06] That was, yeah 16.
Rico: [00:03:07] As a house rep. You’ve helped pass legislation to deal with CIDs, which. If you want to explain that you were actually head of one in West Gwinnett I think, correct?
Curt: [00:03:17] What’s now called Gateway 85 it was called Gwinnett village when we founded it, and I helped get the statute pass that actually allowed for CIDs to even happen in Gwinnett County.
Rico: [00:03:27] And CIDs are what?
Curt: [00:03:29] A community improvement districts are sort of, it’s a commercial property organization where commercial properties band together, and it’s, I guess either a quasi governmental organization, if you’re trying to be real lawyerly sounding about it. Where they have the power to tax and the power to offer essentially some municipal services, like especially a lot of it goes into planning and streetscaping and traffic planning is one of the primary things as well as clean up. But they can also spend money on security. I know that the Gwinnett village, which I was a part of, or gateway 85 is now, it had paid security cars and things like that going through the district and you’ll see that as a common thing and other community improvement districts as well.
Rico: [00:04:14] So if most people don’t understand that’s actually a self taxing district. So they help themselves.
Curt: [00:04:19] They add money to the millage rate, and then that money gets spent in that district’s area. Similar to the way a township would, but it’s just, or a city would, but it’s just for commercial properties.
Rico: [00:04:30] So being, so being head of that, you actually had to handle similar, some of the similar things that you, that you possibly would, as a County commissioner would?
Curt: [00:04:38] You do, you handle municipal service issues just like you would. I mean, obviously at the County Commission level, it’s a much bigger issue. And it’s a much bigger budget. But it’s similar issues, municipal services, yes. You have to work with the County when you’re doing, when if you’re a CID, just like a city, you have to work with the counties. And if the CID, like the Gwinnett village is partly in the city of Norcross. So you also have to work with that city as well. They get a board member on the, on the board of the community improvement district actually.
Rico: [00:05:11] All right, so you get, you have to deal with different levels of government to, to do what you need to do there. The reason I pointed that out first is because that is a big deal in Gwinnett County when it first came here and because it was the first, because of what Gwinnett Place mall in that whole area was like some years ago. This was, how long has it been now?
Curt: [00:05:34] That CIDs have been in existence? Probably about, I want to say about 12 years. I have to go back and look. But I would say.
Rico: [00:05:43] So, it’s been a while. I mean, and that whole area has changed. In fact, the Gwinnett place mall, I think is all, it’s being sold or there’s some…
Curt: [00:05:51] Gwinnett Place CID is a, is a different CID from Gateway 85. But yeah, that, that property is currently on the market. And obviously that has changed. And that’s probably one of the things that has to be, forgetting CIDs, you know, dealing with the Gwinnett Place mall areas, probably one of the top priorities that at any County commission chair is going to want to address when they’re, when elected. Certainly it’s one of my top priorities.
Rico: [00:06:19] Because the, that’s a huge expansive land right there. That’s not going to remain that way. Right?
Curt: [00:06:26] I would hope not. You know, I, I would hope that being a dead mall is not something that you really want at, in the Gateway to West Gwinnett.
Rico: [00:06:36] Yeah. I mean, I, it’s been talked about as a multi, multi-use development, maybe something similar to the maybe not quite similar, but like the infinity. The way that area in Duluth is being developed with the convention center, hotels, retail and all that.
Curt: [00:06:53] Yeah. There’s been different talk. I mean, over the years you’ve heard everything from a cricket stadium to youth development to building a shopping center area similar to Avalon just over in the Alpharetta area. I think that the, the main thing you need is, is actual leadership in the area to make sure that something actually happens. Otherwise we’ll be talking about it for the next, you know, we’ve talked about it for six years. 10 years, we could be talking about it and another six to 10 years if we’re just right.
Rico: [00:07:26] For sure. And, well part of that too, I would think is the idea, and we’re going to jump a little bit around here a little bit, but the idea of transportation also coming because that was going to be the first footprint of Marta, or if not Marta…
Curt: [00:07:43] Some regional transit, whether that’s, or something…
Rico: [00:07:46] Or maybe Marta Manage, but whatever it is. But it’d be the first entry to Gwinnett County of mass transit of that nature. Which in the vicinity of that would likely make sense, I guess, but that failed twice, I think already.
Curt: [00:08:00] It failed once in 92 I guess it actually, I think. There was some initial failing vote back in the early seventies, like when Marta was created. Then in 92, it went down hard in a vote. I remember, cause that was one of the first elections I voted in. And then, and of course recently just failed in a special election ballot. I think that you know, one of the lessons from that is to not put something like that on a special election ballot.
Rico: [00:08:27] Yeah. It was the only item on the ballot, which really to me, made no sense. I mean, spent money for no reason and it actually could have…
Curt: [00:08:34] Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it’s one of those things, if you plan to fail, you’ll fail.
Rico: [00:08:38] Yes, and not for anything it probably could have passed maybe if it went to a general election, but.
Curt: [00:08:44] I think if you had had high turnout, it would’ve passed just because of the nature of Gwinnett County voters. If you’d had a full turnout election, not a special election, I sincerely believe it would pass now, hopefully, you know, it’s a blessing in disguise. It’s hard to think of it that way as someone who supports mass transit. But hopefully we will get a better transit plan. And get a better transit plan passed, you know, soon.
Rico: [00:09:08] And, and it may, I mean, I come from New York and, you know, brand it was on the subways and stuff. I can see the use of mass transit makes a lot of sense, although in a suburb area, people don’t look at it that way. They look at it as just more traffic, more money. It’s billion dollars being spent just to put one station somewhere. And I can understand that versus let’s say light rail or other forms of transportation that’s less expensive.
Curt: [00:09:36] But all of that, even when you say light rail I think that, yes, the heavy rail is expensive and I think that we need to seriously look at whether or not, you know, you were mentioning you’re from New York, so you, if you look at the long island rail. Going out, waiting on the suburbs. Cause if you go all the way out to Smithtown on the other end of the Island, which the long island rail does. You know, that that’s a pretty sizable distance. Or if you even look at the Boston area rapid transit or Washington DC’s transit, it goes way out into the suburbs. That doesn’t mean you have the heavy rail always going way out into the suburbs. That’s not how every system is designed. I do think that light rails and bus rapid transit are probably more cost effective, although, you know, when you’re committing to doing that instead of heavy rail, you’re also committing to having transfer stations every time you connect to the Marta system, it would have to be, because you’d be changing rail lines.
Rico: [00:10:26] Right. So transit hubs and, and maybe if the, I mean that’s almost scary to see. Cause if it’s just a transit hub and not development around it as part of that scheme, if you will?
Curt: [00:10:39] Well, I mean, I think it can be built. I think you just have to be very intentional about it. And, and every, every large transit metropolitan transit system has transfer stations. It just means that if you’re going to emphasize bus rapid transit or light rail when you connect to the, to the heavy rail system, those will always be a transfer station.
Rico: [00:11:00] So do you foresee yourself then as a proponent of this as a County commission chair to be able to like be an advocate for mass transit in Gwinnett County?
Curt: [00:11:10] I’ve been an advocate when I was a state Senator, I was an advocate when I was a state rep. Before that, I had been an advocate on the campaign trail. That would be my hope. It’s not my decision. It would be my hope that you know, I say, Lord willing and the Creek don’t rise, that this County commission would decide to put it on the November ballot so that when I’m running for office in November, assuming that, you know, if I win the primary running in November. That it’s on in the ballot and passes. And then it’s my job to do the best job possible of implementing that plan and updating it as soon as things change. And I think that, that, you know, these plans are living, breathing documents and I think that you will have to update them over the 10, 15, 20 years of their life span or whatever the life span of the agreement is. As you actually find the, as you know, the actual reality of the half million people that are going to move here in the next 10 years according to the ARC come in, where, where do they actually move and what are the actual traffic needs? So you’ll see some updating, but it would be my hope that I would be implementing something, if not one of, job one is to get something ready for a ballot initiative. I guess that would be 2022 if you’re trying to put it on the general election ballot, but, but getting something on the ballot. Well, that would be the earliest you could do it. I’ve heard arguments for and against that particular date, but that would be the earliest if you don’t do it this November.
Rico: [00:12:33] Yeah. So being able to do that now, whether, whether it gets on the ballot or not at this point is, is questionable right? I mean, our primary has moved from April to May to June. Hopefully it will happen in June. I mean, at some point they have to hold it, right?
Curt: [00:12:51] At some point they have to decide. I think that legally I think the chairman, the current chair, chairman Nash had wanted the decision made in April. That’s what I recall. I think that legally the lawyers have said you could wait as late as July or August and still get it on the November ballot in terms of meeting all the legal notice requirements. I don’t think, I guess, you know, one of the lessons from the last referendum was, is that it had a very short ramp window to run a campaign, and so I can understand why you wouldn’t want to do that at the last minute. But legal, you know, what is it, what’s legal and what’s advisable are not necessarily the same thing. April is better, especially if you’re trying to launch a significant campaign. Of course, doing something in the middle of a pandemic is, doing anything in the middle of a pandemic always sends a challenge, I would think. There wouldn’t be a lot of a campaign ramped up in April, I think, even if they voted on it at the next meeting.
Rico: [00:13:51] Yeah. So it may be a problem actually. So let’s, let’s segue right into that, because running a campaign is really difficult to begin with. When you have, how many candidates actually?
Curt: [00:14:03] I guess there’s eight total. There are five Democrats, and apologies if I miscounted someone, but five, and then there are three Republicans. Total of eight.
Rico: [00:14:14] Do you guys have a primary?
Curt: [00:14:15] We do. Yeah. It’s a partisan race, so there’ll be the June 9th primary will be the Republican, and it’s the general primary. It’s also the presidential primary on the democratic side.
Rico: [00:14:29] Whoever wins June 9th is the commissioner or the chair?
Curt: [00:14:32] No, whoever wins June 9th goes on, whichever Republican wins June 9th and whichever Democrat wins June 9th, go.
Rico: [00:14:40] Okay, that’s…
Curt: [00:14:41] November ballot, because it’s a partisan race. It’s not like a judgeship that’s said, we do have, you know, Georgia has the 50% plus one rule. So if no Democrat gets 50% plus one, it goes into I want to say it’s a July runoff, July runoff, and the same on the Republican side. They’ve got three candidates. They can…
Rico: [00:15:01] Well, that’d be, that’s easier for three, maybe five is a little bit more difficult to get the plurality. Right. How has it been running a campaign? I mean, what are you doing?
Curt: [00:15:15] You still go to events. There was a, I think there was about a week or two. We’re honestly, nothing was happening and I think most people weren’t. And so everyone was trying to adjust. Now instead of going to the Gwinnett NAACP meeting, you go to the Gwinnett NAACP zoom meeting. It’s a lot of zoom meetings. And so it’s not nearly as impressive to be checking in from your kitchen taking a picture of a computer screen where there’s a screen, you know, a grid of nine people on it or what, or however many people are there. That’s not nearly as impressive as checking in at an actual event with an actual selfie with actual people. But, but it’s a lot of zoom meetings. You can’t really canvas. So things shift to phone banking and you worry about the mail because you know, the postal service has been affected by the pandemic as well. And so you worry about campaign mail and whether that adjust, you have to adjust your schedule for campaign mail and things like that. Other than that, it stays the same. I will say that you also, you know, campaigns are not free. They cost money to run. I tell folks that any campaign, campaigns are not run on love and affection, you know, and so being in the middle of a pandemic with the economy shutdown is not a great time to be what we call dialing for dollars. You know, when you’re, especially because Democrats have a stereotypically, you know, if you look at say, whether that’s Bernie Sanders up to Joe Biden up to anybody. The Democrats are much more dependent on their small dollar donations from individuals because they don’t get, we don’t get as many of the big pack contributions, and those are definitely, it becomes harder to justify that. You know, you can’t go out and ask folks that don’t have a job to give a campaign contribution.
Rico: [00:16:59] No. And the primary is probably, it’s not as much of a problem because the, if you, if you win your primary income, the November election with Biden, likely the one that’s going to be on the ballot.
Curt: [00:17:10] And he is the presumptive nominee on the democratic side, and Trump is obviously going to be, it’s got to be Trump-Biden and…
Rico: [00:17:16] Right. Unless something further happens. I mean, right now.
Curt: [00:17:19] If something bizarre happens and you know, knock on wood, I don’t want to jinx it because we’ve had a lot of bizarre happen this year.
Rico: [00:17:27] Yes, we have. We have absolute power and we have all sorts of things going on.
Curt: [00:17:33] We have people that think they have absolute power. When they want credit for something and then suddenly it’s everybody else’s responsibility.
Rico: [00:17:40] Right? So you have a bit of that going on. Then we have 6 million absentee ballot applications going out for this one. Right. So lots of things going went on. And I know, I forget the percentage. It was a really small percentage of voters that voted absentee, I’d imagine this time around, and maybe way more.
Curt: [00:17:59] A lot higher, I would assume if they’d mailed out applications to everybody. You know, some percentage, it’ll be a much higher than it was now. They also moved the primary, my knowledge, I’ve never moved to primary in the middle of an election and we moved the presidential primary has been moved twice now. Right now, the presidential primary is not even competitive because Bernie Sanders has conceited and endorsed Biden, but that may be a wash on that side. But we’ve moved the general primary that all of us run in for the local races and state legislative and congressional races. But I still think that even with that being moved, there’ll be a lot more vote by mail, just because of what’s going on.
Rico: [00:18:39] Do you think that’s a detriment to Democrats?
Curt: [00:18:44] Well…
Rico: [00:18:45] In the primary, it doesn’t matter.
Curt: [00:18:46] In the primary it doesn’t matter. Because, I suppose if we had, you know, you saw what happened in Wisconsin where it was really about whether or not a conservative right wing judge on the Supreme court there would get reelected or not. And he did lose. For those that don’t know, they’re, he did lose in spite of the Republicans going to court to take, to, to force the election in the middle of the pandemic. But since our election, the general will not. Vote by mail increase, may increase the turnout in the primary on the Republican and the democratic side, I would assume. You know, it may, you know, we won’t know. We’ve never done it this way, so you don’t know till you get there. But that’s a working assumption, but we don’t know what, you know what we’re going to have in November. If you have a double dip of this pandemic, which there, the scientists are talking about the fact that it could, if it is seasonal. Remember the Spanish flu lasted three years. There wasn’t the 1918 flu that was just in 1918, it was still around for 1920.
Rico: [00:19:49] Well there were no vaccines.
Curt: [00:19:51] If nothing, a vote by mail election in November, you know, or, or a, a significant absentee vote in November. We’ll see. We don’t know yet, but you, the, and I’m not sure in a state as narrowly divided as Georgia who that favors the betting money is that, you know, certainly the Republicans, they get favors the Democrats, by the way they talk about it. I’m not as certain of that, but I also don’t know if we’re going to have that happen in the general we’re, we’re dealing with it in a primary.
Rico: [00:20:23] Right. So let’s talk about as if, as if everything’s going to be fine and normal and we’re going to be just gung ho about this. And we’re gonna, you know, everyone’s going to be doing the right thing down the line. And elections come in November and we do the elections. But, so let’s talk about some of the other issues. We talked about transportation a little bit. We talked a little bit, we touched on development with the CID. Is there anything particularly you want to add to either one of those?
Curt: [00:20:56] Well, I mean, I think that, you know job one is working on a transit plan and either implementing it and getting it passed. I also think that we need to seriously look at our County planning infrastructure in general. I think if you’re going to have half a million people move here over the next 10 years, you’d better plan well for that. I think that especially in places like West Gwinnett and South Gwinnett, you’re going to have to look at trying to incentivize a lot of mixed use developments that are more vertical where you’ve got the residential above and the retail at street level. It doesn’t have to be high rise is like Midtown Atlanta, but at least you know, something that looks more like downtown Decatur or even Bindings areas.
Rico: [00:21:42] Like seven stories, six stories. Eight stories, something like that.
Curt: [00:21:45] Something like that.
Rico: [00:21:46] You also mentioned about affordable, affordable housing there’s some philosophies on that. How do you incentivize that? So then the developer will provide reasonable rental for people that, you know, they’re not on a living wage, but they have to live in the area maybe.
Curt: [00:22:03] Well to have, whether it’s affordable housing or workforce housing or senior housing, I think you do have to incentivize it at some level. Think of what you’re talking about. Some of that may be in speeding up the permitting process. Some of that might be you know, allowing people those height variances. It’s a lot harder to get a height variance in Gwinnett County than it is in Cobb or Dekalb or Fulton in terms of to go vertical. Because the only way you’re going to see the cost of land is only gonna go up. I mean, you may have this. The, the pandemic recession or whatever they’re going to call this is probably gonna flat, you know, flatten out some real estate costs. But in general, real estate’s going. You know, the days of having, if you’re looking for affordable housing, being everybody on a half acre or three quarter acre lot, that’s not going to happen. You’re talking about bringing condos in and tent more counterparts and things in the mixed use development, especially you would want that in the area where they’re going to build the Amazon plant in South Gwinnett because otherwise there’s folks who are just going to work in the Amazon plant and live in Dekalb County where the housing is cheaper and then they get all of the benefits of people living there and shopping there and, and you know, Dekalb gets all the benefits and we’ll just get the traffic in and out.
Rico: [00:23:12] So how do you force developers to do that? How do you?
Curt: [00:23:14] I don’t think you can force it. I think you have to incentivize it. You have to offer either speeding up the permitting process, speeding up rezoning process where necessary. And you probably have to give them, you may have to go to higher density, which means smaller square footage similar to what you have in the city of Atlanta or city of Decatur or some of these townhomes and condominium communities.
Rico: [00:23:38] Okay. All right.
Curt: [00:23:40] To allow for higher density cause once they can have higher density, once they can actually build something with higher density than they can you know, lower the price without necessarily lowering the quality. Cause I don’t necessarily want us to, you know, affordable housing needs to be quality affordable housing and not substandard affordable housing.
Rico: [00:23:58] Right. Because otherwise, I mean, I remember when I was on the planning commission some years back, I mean, you get developers coming in and they would build. High intensity properties, 13 units an acre, maybe, you know, we’re talking about town homes, and then people would just buy it up like 6, 12, 10 of them and then rent them.
Curt: [00:24:16] Rent them and then they bring them up. And that’s not what we’re trying to do, we’re wanting owner occupied stuff or long term renters, not folks that move every six months chasing a $15 rent discount kind of.
Rico: [00:24:28] Yes. And that’s 70…
Curt: [00:24:30] That you really have to look at that.
Rico: [00:24:32] Yeah. All right. So…
Curt: [00:24:35] But it’s really hard to mandate it. I mean, I’m not, there are places that haven’t had mandates like that. I don’t know if that would really work in Georgia’s construction environment. I think you have to look, you know, look at what other folks have done, whether that’s in the city of Atlanta or in Dekalb County or Cobb County.
Rico: [00:24:51] Okay. All right. Listen, it makes sense. And the problem with these things is always, whether you actually mandate it or if you incentivize it, can they get around that? This, there’s always a little give and take there.
Curt: [00:25:04] And you can use things like other areas like Chicago’s use tax increment financing, tax allocation districts. So you can give tax incentives also so that it makes it more affordable for folks to move in because then they have five years. You know, oftentimes it’s done as a, the property taxes phase in over five years so that people have time to essentially grow their income end of the property they’re living.
Rico: [00:25:27] All right. So there are ways to do it and we just need the courage to be able to do that, right?
Curt: [00:25:32] You need courage and leadership and focus. You’ve got to actually be willing to say this is a priority. Make it a priority. Tell your planning commissioners, it’s a priority. Tell your planning department it’s a priority.
Rico: [00:25:45] Do you think the County makeup right now, as far as who’s commissioners right now will be, have the same mindset as you? If you became County chair.
Curt: [00:25:53] You’ve got three seats up for, they’re going to be three new commissioners and every time I think you have an election, like every time you have an appointment to the Supreme court, it changes the makeup of the court entirely. Because it changes how the interpersonal reactions are, so I think that broadly, yes, I would expect there to be more of a focus on affordable quality, affordable housing, and more of a focus on mass transit. You won’t have Tommy Hunter’s leaving, you know, the, I guess, you know, this is the, you know, he’s the NIMBYs NIMBY kind of guy. I mean, there are things I could say, but they’re not sort of, you know, they’re, they’re definitely PG-13, at the very least, you know, but the, but you know, that type of commissioner is going to be gone, you know? That’s not an offense to him necessarily. It’s just saying that no one running for, you know, the current set of seats is going, is of that mindset that I’m aware of.
Rico: [00:26:53] More moderate. As far as justice, criminal justice reform, 287G is, is a big deal with what’s going on now. I know several of the sheriff candidates have said that they, one, they will, they’ll just disregard that because it’s a voluntary thing anyway. What’s your feeling?
Curt: [00:27:14] I think it needs to be abandoned. I think it costs the County money. And you’ll have people say, Oh, well there’s a, you know, the County gets a grant for it but the County is going to get that grant, regardless of whether they, from the federal government, whether they do 287G or not, it’s costing us money that we’re not getting reimbursed for, because that’s an additional expense that that same federal grant could be, could be used for something else. And so, you know I, you know, it’s my hope that whoever’s the next sheriff ends that program because it’s ultimately the Sheriff’s call. If the sheriff doesn’t want to do that I think the County commission needs to look at cutting the sheriff’s, you know, we have the ultimate power of the purse spring, on the purse strings on the County commission side, and they need to take a serious look at either cutting the Sheriff’s department budget or restricting County funds to not be used from that. Make them go get it from Brooke forfeiture money or actually get it from the feds and not get it from the County budget.
Rico: [00:28:13] And from some people that don’t know, 287G is, is the regulation to work with ice detention program right? To that the sheriff actually, his team acts as if they’re ice agents almost.
Curt: [00:28:27] Right.
Rico: [00:28:28] Okay. So as far as economics, supporting families. We’re gonna go through the list real quick, a little bit about middle class, lower middle class, working class. Are there certain policies that come to the forefront for you?
Curt: [00:28:45] I think that the, you know, we talked about, we touched on affordable housing, and that’s one. You know, I’ve, I’ve proposed that the County look at operating or contracting. We’re in some sort of public, private partnership to offer countywide wifi and come forward so that folks don’t have to take their kids to Chick-fil-A or McDonald’s to do their homework. Because nowadays, you know, that’s a real problem is that, you know, not everyone, especially at the lower income strata, can afford. My Comcast bill is 180 a month, and I do not have the premium channels. That’s Internet, TV. And, now granted I have the higher speed internet, but if they’re trying to do it to study, but I don’t have any premium channels. And that’s what it’s costing me. And so that’s the, you know, I can afford that. But that’s serious money for a lot of families. And I think that the County might be able to get a better price for folks and that, and definitely should look at offering that. And I think that we also need to look at our library system. There’s a program in the library system that allows folks to get a high school diploma who aren’t necessarily traditional students, but it’s an actual high school diploma, not a GED. And I think that we need to look at expanding programs like that where possible.
Rico: [00:30:02] Would that be expanded through the Gwinnett school system?
Curt: [00:30:06] No, that that’s through the public library system, which is part of the Gwinnett. The school system is part of the school board that I definitely would love for the school board and the County commission to coordinate better together. They almost act like they’re on different planets. They don’t talk to each other it seems. At least that’s how it appears. And I wish that there was more cooperation between the two, but ultimately the K-12 stuff is on them, you know. This is just a program that’s offered through the library system, which the Gwinnett County public library is about 80% funded by the County.
Rico: [00:30:39] You were talking about wifi before. What about, 4G networking, there’s a lot of talk about 4G being used. I mean, you know, if you’re talking down the line future, I’m sorry, 5G. The next one will be 6G, but 5G, yes. And that’s what we have in Peachtree Corners on the Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners. It’s one and a half mile track that’s supposed to work. With IOT with, you know, self driving cars and all that.
Curt: [00:31:15] My Rotary club meets over there at the Peachtree Corners City Hall. So I see the track every day or at least once a week.
Rico: [00:31:22] So the, does the, does any, you know, 5G is one thing that’s sort of, let’s call it sexy and stuff, it’s great to have 5G because you need that for self driving cars, IOT. But what, what smart city. Because even counties plan these things out, right? Whether it’s water, whether it’s energy, whether it’s having charging stations for cars, whether it should, using solar, anything. Any ideas that you want to, that you’d like to see planned out over the next decade, let’s say, that would work in that realm?
Curt: [00:31:55] In the technology realm, specifically?
Rico: [00:31:58] Technology, energy.
Curt: [00:32:01] You know, I don’t know if this is where you were going. I mean, I do think that, you know, the countywide wifi that I was talking about would be part of that. I think if we want to ever, you know, we occasionally talk about creating a high tech corridor along 316. It might be nice to actually do more than talk about it and put it as a, you know, a paragraph in a blurb about things we’d like to do but we never actually get around to doing. At least around the Gwinnett Georgia college area. We ought to really look at it and actually trying to implement that. And then you know, I don’t know if this is, you know, what you meant from long range planning, but eventually we’re going to have to address the issue of water, you know, I mean and possibly upgrading the yellow river plant. I mean, the White Hill water treatment plant is sort of worldwide state of the art. There’s not a lot higher you could go with that. But you’ve got the two other, the, the substation down close to where, close to the, to where, Gwinnett, Fulton and Dekab come together. And then you’ve got the yellow river treatment plant that may, you may want to look at upgrading, depending on what the technology available is, you know, and now those are expensive projects that are done through the water department. But, but it took, you know, the reason that things called the Wayne Hill water treatment plan is because Wayne Hill took lead in that area. And I think that someone may have to take you know, in the next 10 to 15 years. And it’s, it’s always cheaper if you can do it sooner than if you do it later. We’re going to have to address the issue of water and simply asking the courts to let us take more out of the Chattahoochee river is not really a solution because there’s only so much water in the Chattahoochee and eventually that like getting credit for putting water back in the Chattahoochee doesn’t put, it doesn’t put more water actually in the universe. It just gives us more credit for what we’ve done, but it doesn’t put more water in the universe. Or potable water in the universe.
Rico: [00:33:58] Right. But even so, let’s take it a step away for a second. Let’s go back to quickly to development for a second. You were talking about maybe doing six, seven story mid rises to be able to park, you know, the development that’s going to be coming up 85. You know, should they be LED buildings, should they be, you know, you know, should we move towards a more.
Curt: [00:34:23] We’re going to have to move towards a more energy efficient type of construction definitely. And some of that’s going to be market-driven. Some of that’s going to have to be driven by the government. But, it has to happen. I mean, whether you’re looking at it from a global climate change perspective and doing our part to not contribute more to that. To just how do we get the most bang for our buck when it comes to things like water and electricity and land use.
Rico: [00:34:59] Public safety. There’s a lot of security.
Curt: [00:35:03] What the County, you know, that’s the most important thing the County really does, but yes.
Rico: [00:35:07] So do you think that needs to be strengthened a little bit? Where are we with that?
Curt: [00:35:11] You know, the way I’ve usually talked about that is that, you know, we have one of the largest police forces, but we don’t have one of the best response times. And I think that at some point we need to take a look at that and figure out what’s going on. If you just look at it and compare our police force to the only comparable one of it’s size, which is the city of Atlanta. We have a very top heavy police force. We have far fewer people on patrol and a lot more people in headquarters than say the city of Atlanta does, which is the only comparably sized thing. And the only way you’re going to increase response times on calls is if you have more street-level cops. And so I think that we need to look at not just necessarily increasing the size of the force. We have one of the largest forces in the state, but, but how has that force allocated?
Rico: [00:36:08] What about technology? Right now? I know, for example, the city of Peachtree Corners is, is putting out through Georgia Power 15 cameras to, plate recognition cameras and actually to some degree, facial recognition cameras as well within some of the city, the city, a town center. That recognizes faces and I think they’d be able to count the size of the crowd, if you will. Do you see more technology needs to be rolled out into Gwinnett Police?
Curt: [00:36:39] You know, that runs into a civil liberties issue to be honest. And so you’re always a little bit cautious about that. You know, we had the issue of, first there were traffic light cameras, and then suddenly there weren’t because you couldn’t cross examine a traffic light camera if you wanted to protest your ticket kind of thing. And I think that then it’s, it requires a lot of balancing. I mean, I think that. You know, it’s, it’s wrong for us to say, Oh, well, you can’t do any of that. You know, in a culture where we’re, we always click agree to the terms and conditions without ever reading them, whether it’s Amazon or anything else. We apparently have no problem with sharing our data with corporate America. I think that, that inevitably, some of that’s gonna come. But I don’t know how much of that’s a priority in terms of, you know, and I would have to look at, talk with our police chief, really and see what is really the best, highest, best use of our dollars. I would rather have more street level cops than more cameras taking photographs of people because the idea is to deter crime. All the camera does is catch the criminal, which is, you know, that’s great, but I would like to deter the crime so that it doesn’t happen. And I think that, you do more of that if you have more street-level cops, if you have more patrols, if you even have, depending on the density of the area, you know, foot patrols even.
Rico: [00:38:08] Probably the last question then I’m going to ask you to give, let me know if we’ve missed anything, but just because it’s on your website, it’s last thing on there and I’m wondering how our County commission may be able to help this, and that’s decriminalizing marijuana.
Curt: [00:38:21] Right. So you know, our solicitor’s already decided he’s not going to prosecute it because he says the current hemp statute makes it hard to tell what’s hemp versus marijuana. I think that the city of Atlanta, the city of Atlanta, Clark County. I think city of Clarkston, Dekalb County, several places have decriminalized it to the sense that if you’re a cop for simple possession. Which is, you know, possession of less than an ounce. That they just get, they will issue you a ticket. You don’t go to jail, because to be quite honest, it’s very disparate how this law is enforced. And you know, you, the majority of folks that get arrested and sent to jail, in Gwinnett County on marijuana possession are, the vast majority are people of color. You can’t tell me that, that the vast majority of people smoking marijuana are people of color. It’s just being selectively, like, that’s not how that works. There’s nothing about marijuana that has that, that says a particular race is more likely to use it than other. That’s not how that works.
Rico: [00:39:26] I’m sure if you go to Johns Creek, or other places it’s used a lot.
Curt: [00:39:29] Yeah. So I think that if you gave a, because you know what currently happens could change the moment, either the state legislature changes the hap statute or the, if you ever get a different solicitor that has a different view. And I think that one thing that you should do is just, you know, put that out there, have that be an ordinance so that it can be. Have that be an ordinance so that they can write a ticket. You still get to have to pay a fine, but you’re not going to go to jail. You’re not going to have to try and figure out what, how to make a thousand dollar bond and it’s not going to disproportionately impact minorities.
Rico: [00:40:02] I think the ticket in city of Atlanta is only 75 or something. It’s a minimal amount.
Curt: [00:40:06] Yeah. I would say something like that. But a lot of cities have gone to that, even in Georgia. And I think that that’s what Gwinnett County should do too, cause it will also save money at the jail, you know. Because to be quite honest, no one who says when they’re a kid, they said, I want to be a cop it’s because they want to go arrest people for smoking weed at fraternity parties. That’s not, what people want to go, that’s not why anyone wanted to become a cop. And then they can focus on human trafficking. They could focus on domestic violence, they could focus on the actual crimes against people, crimes against persons, crimes against property. And so that we actually have violent people in the jails and not folks taking up space in the jail who are there on small drug or small level marijuana offenses.
Rico: [00:40:49] For sure, especially our jails, which I think is somewhat overcrowded as is. All right, so we’ve come.
Curt: [00:40:56] … Bail money and allow the police to focus on more serious crime.
Rico: [00:41:01] Yeah. The violent crime, that makes more sense to me. We’ve come to the end of our time together. So let me ask you, was there anything that we didn’t cover that you’d like to share first?
Curt: [00:41:10] Well just, you know, I got into this race, basically saying, you know, I’m here to ask for your vote, and if you honor me with your vote on election day, if you honor me with your vote on election day. I promise you that I, the one thing I can promise you is that I will fight for you every day in Lawrenceville, just as I fought for you every day in Atlanta in the general assembly. And for those that want to, you know, find out more about the campaign or volunteer for the campaign, they can go to CurtForGwinnett.com.
Rico: [00:41:45] Right, right. Thank you, Curt. I appreciate you coming on the show with me. Everyone, if you need that information, just remember also you should have gotten the mail in ballot application probably a week, week and a half ago,
Curt: [00:42:04] And they should be mailing them out starting the 20th to 24th of April, they should go.
Rico: [00:42:09] Yeah, I know. We got it last week and it’s really easy. There’s three things you have to do on it. Just check the information, sign it, and either mail it back or you literally can take a picture of it and email it from your phone. So it’s, you know, and then you get the ballot. Then you got to fill out the ballot. So don’t forget that.
Curt: [00:42:26] Pick whether you want a Democrat or Republican or a nonpartisan ballot.
Rico: [00:42:29] That’s right. That too. All right, cool. So appreciate you coming on, Curt. Thank you for, you know, sharing the issues of, where you believe in what you, what you want people to know about you. And everyone just remember June 9th is the election day, so pay attention to what’s going out there.
Curt: [00:42:49] If you’re mailing in your ballot. It has to be received by June 9th. Don’t be mailing a ballot on June 9th that won’t.
Rico: [00:42:54] No. Yes, it has to be postmarked or received?
Curt: [00:42:57] Received June 9th. So that means, you know, I wouldn’t be mailing it. Please don’t mail the ballot after June 1st cause we don’t know how slow the. Mail is sometimes quick, mail is sometimes not. I would be mailing it earlier not later.
Rico: [00:43:08] It’s good that you said that, cause most people might think it has to be postmarked that.
Curt: [00:43:11] In some States it is. So if you’ve moved here from somewhere else, postmark governs in places like Arizona and California. It doesn’t govern here.
Rico: [00:43:20] Okay. So make sure you mail it a week ahead at least.
Curt: [00:43:22] Yes.
Rico: [00:43:24] All right, good. Thank you, Curt. I appreciate you. Hang in there with me for a minute and then we’ll just sign off right now. We’re going, you know, if you’re getting this on the feed later, just leave a comment in the box if you’d like. If you’re getting this on podcast, iHeartRadio, Spotify, leave a review, LivingInPeachtreeCorners.com is where you can find more information. Thank you.
On this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, Diane Fisher, a representative from the League of Women Voters Gwinnett chapter, delves into the world of voter registration and municipal elections in Georgia. With the implementation of automatic voter registration and the upcoming municipal elections in Peachtree Corners, Fisher sheds light on the importance of informed voting and active participation. From understanding address updates to exploring the power of thoughtful voting, listeners will gain valuable insights on enhancing voter engagement in their community. This podcast serves as a guide for residents to make their voices heard and shape the future of Peachtree Corners, Georgia.
“Being a prepared voter means being an informed voter. It’s not just about the presidential election, but about all the congressional seats, the House and Senate seats, and county positions. So, there will be an awful lot on that ballot. Knowing when and who is on the ballot is crucial for an informed vote.”
Diane Fisher
Time Stamp
0:00:00 – Introduction 0:01:54 – Voter registration process and information for new residents in Georgia 0:05:13 – Voter maintenance and the importance of updating voter registration 0:08:34 – Absentee voting process and how to request an absentee ballot 0:10:52 – Municipal elections in Peachtree Corners, Georgia 0:17:18 – Being a prepared voter for the 2024 elections 0:20:37 – The need to know who’s on the ballot 0:21:31 – Sharing personal experience about involvement in politics 0:23:02 – Misleading information and the importance of understanding the ballot 0:23:45 – Lesser-known positions on the ballot and the impact of voters’ knowledge 0:25:42 – Thoughtful voting and participation in local elections 0:28:04 – Encouraging voters to engage with candidates and attend events 0:29:39 – The process for third-party and write-in candidates in Georgia for the 2024 elections 0:31:25 – Seeking additional information that Georgia voters should know 0:33:28 – Advising voters to verify their voting location due to possible changes 0:34:17 – Closing
Podcast Transcript
Rico Figliolini 0:00:00
Hi, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. Appreciate everyone joining us. We have a special guest today from the League of Women Voters, Diane Fisher. Hey, Diane, thanks for joining me.
Diane Fisher 0:00:11
Nice to be here.
Rico Figliolini 0:00:13
Yeah, this is going to be a good educational podcast. We’re going to be discussing how to be a prepared voter and everything that comes with that for 2024 and municipal elections. But before we get to that, I just want to thank our sponsors, Clearwave Fiber, our corporate sponsor. They’re an internet providing business here in Peachtree Corners, serving over a thousand businesses. Peachtree Corners Life, they’re actually based in the Southeast, and they provide better than what you would expect from a cable provider. Fast Internet connection, great support, especially to businesses and residents. So check them out. Clearwave Fiber also check out EV Remodeling, Inc. Eli, who is the owner of the company. Him and his family live here in Peachtree Corners. It’s a great business. They do design to build renovation work. Lots of good activity out there, lots of good references for them. So check them out, Evremodelinginc.com, and you’ll be able to find out a little bit more about our two supporters that way. So let’s get right into the show. Diane, I appreciate you joining us. League of Women Voters, it’s been around for quite a while. You are the Gwinnett chapter of the organization, correct?
Diane Fisher 0:01:28
We are the Gwinnett chapter. The national organization has been around since 1920, founded out of the movement for women’s suffrage. And we in Gwinnett in this iteration, have been around since 2019. Comes and goes. And so it is relatively new coming back. And so that’s where we are now.
Rico Figliolini 0:01:54
Excellent. So I saw you, I met you at the Peachtree Corners Festival, which is part of what you all do, outreach to the community. And you were out there, I think, at the time when I passed, you were registering a new voter that came on and she was asking questions so similar to what we’re going to do here. We want to know a little bit about how if you’re a new voter and you haven’t voted yet, or if you just moved to the state of Georgia and you have to register here to vote. Because obviously, from where someone comes from, you have to register in the state that you’re going to be voting in at the residence that you’re going to be voting in. So tell us a little bit about what would be needed for someone to register new here in the state of Georgia and Gwinnett County.
Diane Fisher 0:02:40
Sure. So in Georgia, we have automatic voter registration through the DDS, through driver services. And so when anyone gets a new license or changes an address on a license or does anything with DDS, they actually are automatically registered to vote. So we actually have very high voter registration in Georgia because of that. What doesn’t happen, though, is sometimes people you know move down the street, sometimes they move across town, sometimes they move within a county, sometimes they move out of the county. And you do, as you mentioned, need to be registered to vote at your current address. And so it’s important for everyone to make sure that they take care of making sure that that happens. Because sometimes people don’t always update a license in a timely fashion, but they actually move. And the reason why it’s linked to where you live is because who you vote for is determined by where you live, what precincts, and so it is important that you are registered your current address so you can always check. One of the best resources for checking the status of your registration is the Secretary of State has their website which is MVP, SOS ga gov and if you put in your name and birth date and county you can find out where you’re registered to, if you’re registered, where you’re registered, what precincts you vote for, where you vote. All of that information is available on that site. And so we encourage every voter before every election to check the status of their registration, to make sure that everything is above board, that it’s where you need it to be and that nothing happened. Because there is a list maintenance that happens as a regular part of the process and sometimes people are put moved to inactive status if they miss a notice or something like that. So we just always want to make sure that everybody checks their status, which makes sense.
Rico Figliolini 0:04:55
I just did that for two of my kids, I showed them how to do it because they hadn’t voted since they hadn’t voted. So I think one of them, in a decade maybe voted once and I said there’s maintenance, they could purge you from the list and they were still on the list, right?
Diane Fisher 0:05:13
So if you don’t vote in two federal election cycles, then you are moved to inactive status and that starts a process of eventually dropping you off the roll. So you’re not obligated to vote in elections. But obviously we encourage everyone to vote, but it is important to respond to those kinds of requests that you get because they probably did get some kind of notice in the mail indicating that, questioning if they are still at address, that they live, that they were registered, right, no doubt.
Rico Figliolini 0:05:48
And I think younger people have a bit more of a problem following that up because it’s not on their to do list, obviously. I think the demographics show that older people more regularly, younger people less regularly, unless it’s a presidential race and even still sometimes it just depends. And COVID hasn’t helped either, people moving back home with their parents, whether they moved in from out of state, maybe they still wanted to vote for if they were living in New York, maybe they still wanted to do an absentee ballot back up there, and that’s possible, but they wouldn’t be able to vote down, right, right.
Diane Fisher 0:06:26
You can only be registered to vote in one location. And quite honestly, one thing that people don’t know is that if you register so say you move I’ll use your example from New York and you move to Georgia and you register to vote in Georgia. There is not a process like an automatic unregistering. You from New York, you actually have to request that. My daughter, when she moved out of state, it took us a long time to get her off of the voter rolls, know, because you actually have to request that to happen. Most people do not think that that’s something that they have to do. And that’s why sometimes the roles are not updated or updated. You might show up on a place where you have no intention of voting and never voted because you’ve moved and you just didn’t think that you need to do anything about it.
Rico Figliolini 0:07:17
Sure, I think you’re right. Most of my friends would not even think about, oh, I need to know if someone know. Technically, you could end up doing a mail in ballot to New York, let’s say, and vote here, and no one would know the difference, apparently. Obviously we don’t want that happening.
Diane Fisher 0:07:39
There have been cases before the state election board that come, people being caught doing that, and it is not situation. So yes, that is illegal.
Rico Figliolini 0:07:50
It’s a federal offense.
Diane Fisher 0:07:51
It is a federal offense. That is certainly not something that we encourage. And most people who register, they move someplace, they register, they have no intention of voting elsewhere. But young people particularly, or people who are transient, it does mean that you have to pay a little bit more attention and make a plan to vote. I think it’s also important to think about not just being registered, it’s then knowing when elections are, knowing what your plan will be. Will you vote absentee, will you vote early advanced voting, will you vote on election day? What’s that plan? To make sure that you’re actually being able to vote.
Rico Figliolini 0:08:34
So in the state of Georgia, if I’m going on vacation or even an absentee, you don’t need an excuse for an absentee ballot. You can ask for that.
Diane Fisher 0:08:44
Right.
Rico Figliolini 0:08:45
So you could go online to one of the sites or which site to go to to get an absentee ballot.
Diane Fisher 0:08:51
Yes. So that depends on the election. And I will say, and I only raise that because we’re coming up on municipal elections here in Gwinnett County, actually statewide, but also specifically here in Peachtree Corners and in Gwinnett, the county does not run the municipal elections. Every city runs their own municipal election. So the answer for coming up for the November 7 election, which will be the municipal election here in Peachtree Corners, is that you need to request the absentee ballot from the county clerk in Peachtree Corners. And if you go to the website, you can get that information. There’s a form there that you can request the absentee ballot for the Peachtree Corners election. Typically for every other election, you would go to the county. Well, actually either the Secretary of state’s website or the county Board of elections office, and you can get the form there. One of the changes that happened in election forms is that you can’t register just on an online portal anymore. You have to print out the application because it has to have a wet signature. It has to actually have an actual signature on it. So you have to print off the form, fill it out, sign it, and then you can send it back digitally. But you can’t just I think there was a time when there was a portal where you could just go on and put in your information and request it. So now you have to print out the form and then return it to the county election office.
Rico Figliolini 0:10:29
But you can scan that form, return.
Diane Fisher 0:10:31
It digitally, scan it, or take a photo of it, and then email it back to the elections office and do it.
Rico Figliolini 0:10:40
So they’re just forcing you to print it out to do that website, which.
Diane Fisher 0:10:45
Means that you now have to have access to a printer, right?
Rico Figliolini 0:10:49
How many people do know?
Diane Fisher 0:10:52
And so that is the process now and where you go. And again, because Gwinnett is unusual, Gwinnett’s one of the few counties in Georgia that the municipalities run their own elections. Most other counties in the area, Fulton, Jacab, the counties run the municipal elections as well. And so what that means for us here in Gwinnett and in Peachtree Corners is that when you go to vote on election day for the municipal elections, you will not go to your regular location where you normally would are used to voting. So at Simpson elementary or at Peachtree Corners Baptist Church or any of the different locations where you always go to your regular precinct location, everybody in Peachtree Corners for the municipal election will vote at City Hall, down around in the room, around the bottom, the community trust room, around the left side of the building. That’s where elections are held for the county, for the city, I’m sorry, for the city.
Rico Figliolini 0:12:02
And there’s one open seat, one open contested seat, I should say.
Diane Fisher 0:12:09
Every other election cycle we would have. So in this case, on the ballot is the mayor, post one, post three, and post five. So the only contested seat is the post five. And post five is an at large seat. And so that means that everybody, Peachtree Corners will vote for that seat. Post one and three are geographically defined, so the first three posts are based on geography. So post one, I think, is the southern section. And then three is the sort of the northern part of Peachtree Corners. So Alex Wright, Is and Phil Sod are in those seats, and those are uncontested seats. And then, of course, the mayor’s race is also citywide, and that is uncontested as well.
Rico Figliolini 0:13:07
So people understand this, come November, you’re going to have to go to two different places to do this.
Diane Fisher 0:13:15
No, the only election in 2020, right. The only election in 2023 is the municipal election.
Rico Figliolini 0:13:23
That’s right.
Diane Fisher 0:13:23
There have been times when you’ve had to go to two places because there were simultaneous elections, but that is not the case now. So November 7 and actually early voting and early voting does start for the municipal election on Monday, October 16. So Monday through Friday from October 16 through November 3 and then October 21 and October 20 Eighth, which are Saturdays from nine to five, is early voting. So you can go for three weeks early voting, including two Saturdays. And then, of course, on Election Day is seven to 07:00 a.m. To 07:00 P.m., election Day, November 7, and that will be just at the City Hall. If you go to your regular polling location, there won’t be anything going on there other than school or church or whatever might be happening.
Rico Figliolini 0:14:19
So people should also be aware, I think, when they send in the absentee ballot, how long do they have? How does it get date stamped if it arrives three days later? I mean, how is that process explain?
Diane Fisher 0:14:32
So, legally, your absentee ballot needs to arrive, in this case, City Hall by 07:00 P.m. On Election day. If it gets there the next day, it’s not going to count. It has to arrive. So if you’re going to be voting with an absentee ballot, you need to make sure that you’ve planned ahead to request it. And I would say request it like today. When you hear this, make sure you request it, and then as soon as it comes, fill it out. And you can actually I mean, if you are local and you’re just going to be out of town, you can actually just bring it down to City Hall. Worry about the postal service. Obviously, if you’re a student who lives out of the area, needs to mail it again, do all of that life ASAP, because the time is a very limited window.
Rico Figliolini 0:15:31
Okay. And just because I’m thinking along this line, if someone was going to drop it off, like if I was going to drop off my son’s ballot, I could drop that off at City Hall. That’s okay.
Diane Fisher 0:15:42
Yes, you can drop off a ballot for immediate family, relatives, so your wife, your kids, a parent. You can’t, though, start collecting from people in your neighborhood and bringing those in, but for close family.
Rico Figliolini 0:16:00
Okay. All right, that sounds good. So the League of Women Voters is known for providing good nonpartisan information to get people to do to vote, to fulfill their civic responsibilities and all. And we talked a little bit about what it means to be a prepared voter before we started. So tell us a little bit, Diane, what does it mean to be a prepared voter going to 2024 into the presidential race, election year, where there’s going to be a lot on the ballot, I’m sure in a variety of states, but even here in Georgia, sure, because.
Diane Fisher 0:17:59
It’s not just about the presidential election. There will be all the congressional seats, there will be all of the House, the Georgia House seats and the Georgia Senate seats. There will be county positions, all of the county constitutional positions will be on the ballot. So there will be an awful lot on that ballot. And so being prepared voter means being an informed voter. So obviously, the first is to know when you need to be voting. And there are lots of elections in 2024, starting in March. The presidential preferential primary will be in March. Then we’ve got the regular primaries in May, and then we’ve got November elections and then any runoffs that may need to happen as well. So there will be a lot of elections. So it’s not just go in and vote once and be done with it. So that’s one thing knowing when all those different elections are. The second is knowing who’s on the ballot. And through that MVP site that I mentioned earlier, the MVP. SOS Ga gov, you can pull up it’s not available right now, but it will be available for 2024. All of who is on your ballot, you can pull up sample ballots. And so that will be really helpful to know ahead of time because I hear people all the time saying, like, I got into the polling booth and I had no idea that there were all of those things on the ballot. I wasn’t prepared. And so you can be prepared by pulling up the sample ballot and actually marking, doing your research. And there are lots of different ways to get information. There are candidate forums. Certainly the candidates themselves are out there putting information out. Will. The league is known for doing candidate information forums as well, and we likely will be doing particularly for our county races. The state may be doing some larger scale ones, but here in Gwinnett, the Gwinnett League focuses very much on what’s happening here in so, you know, doing your research in terms of getting information about not only what’s on the ballot, but then being able to check out the candidates so that you know who aligns with your values and with the things that are important to you. And so that becomes part of the conversation it’s important to have.
Rico Figliolini 0:20:37
Yeah. Coming from New York, I was involved quite a bit in political politics when I was younger, 1820. You see the things that go on, the amount of so doing it for such a long period of time to hear people say, I’m not prepared, or I don’t know who’s on the ballot. It gets really frustrating when there is a lot of information out there between news outlets. Granted, there’s a variety of news outlets, so some agendas on some of these outlets, but for the most part, you’ll be able to get the information out there. Candidates are especially local candidates are doing more door to door campaigning. You will get it inundated with mail, right? I mean, last year or the year before was just ridiculous. The amount of mail that was going out, literally three or four postcards a day coming in.
Diane Fisher 0:21:31
And you have to be careful about that mail because it’s not just the candidates who are sending out mail now. It’s all kinds of organizations, and some of the information is not always accurate or it’s political spin. And so I think if you’re looking to find out candidates positions on things, that’s where it’s important to look at various sorts. So the league does run nationally, a website called Vote Four One One, where we reach out to candidates to get their input so that you can hear from them what they believe about certain things. So we ask questions. There are other sort of neutral, if you will, sites. Alopecia has sort of a candidate profile site. So there are ways that you can get sort of just factual information candidates, as opposed to sort of the political spin that can sometimes make noise. And so we do encourage, but at the very least, pull up that ballot to say, this is what’s going to be on there. So you don’t get in and say, I didn’t know county, the clerk of the court, I don’t even know what that is. Those are the things that sort of sneak up on people.
Rico Figliolini 0:23:02
I mean, they’re lesser known positions. They get less exposure. People either tend to skip over them or they tend to, depending on the politics, tend to either vote for the incumbent because there’s an eye next to it, because that seems safer, or if they want to stir the pot, they’re voting for the other candidate to come in. It’s a variety of reasons, right, that people vote.
Diane Fisher 0:23:24
Right.
Rico Figliolini 0:23:24
And then there’s referendums on the ballot, and because they’re written in such legalese, sometimes you may be reading it in that moment at the ballot box and not realize really what it’s saying, because some of it’s written in such a way, you would think, oh, that’s easy, that’s what that means. And then you find out later, no, that’s not what that meant.
Diane Fisher 0:23:45
Right. If I vote yes, it’s actually voting against. That’s right, because of the way that it’s written. Right. And so I think that those referendum and those also those are available, you’ll be able to pull those up on your sample ballot at the MVP site so that you can actually see it and read it and do your research. I mean, I know that I sit down when my kids were first voting, we would sit down and literally go through the ballot and research candidates together. And the referendum questions, even life, talk about what they mean and what the pros and cons, and if we didn’t have an answer, we disagreed or whatever, we talk about it. Sometimes we disagreed and they would vote one way and I would vote a different way. But point being that having that conversation and being informed because that is how we citizens are being able to make sure that what we want is actually happening. I mean, you hear so often people saying like, it doesn’t really matter who I vote for if I vote, because it just doesn’t matter, my voice doesn’t matter. Well, it matters if you do it thoughtfully. And if everybody were to participate, then we’re all in a better place. Here in Peachtree Corners, just going back, we have 27,000 registered voters, and in the last six municipal elections, the most we’ve ever had is a 10% turnout. So like 2700 voters. So when people complaining about whatever they might be complaining about, about the city, you need to actually vote to have your perspective put forward.
Rico Figliolini 0:25:42
It’s the frustrating part. Yeah. When I read things on nextdoor and people say, these people, they have an agenda, this is what they want to do, and it’s like it doesn’t take much. You’re right. Sometimes there’s more than 2700 votes. Right. There’s more than that, depending on the year now, really.
Diane Fisher 0:26:05
More than 10% of the voting. I think that when we first became a city that was a higher turnout, but since then, yeah, it’s a very small and we know there are elections that have been won by 15 votes, there are elections that have been won by one vote. And so especially in these smaller elections, makes it more important to get out there and have your voice heard.
Rico Figliolini 0:26:39
Yeah, especially because, I mean, in small elections like this, it depends on how many friends you have. You’re right. There was one election, I think was the last election that we had, where it was a 14 vote difference or something along those lines. If you want to make change. You have to be involved. You have to knock doors. You can’t just send postcards. You have to meet your neighbors, your voters, and figure it out.
Diane Fisher 0:27:10
I will say, I think candidates these days are very open to certainly the local candidates, the county positions, the state House representatives, and so mean you can go onto their websites, know, ask for a meeting. They will meet with you. And I think that that is important. And it’s important to meet with not just the people who you think you might agree with, but also the other side to hear what they stand for and what they plan on doing. And I think that we are in a time when it is easy to access your candidates, particularly at the more local levels, and go to events that they’re having or send an email and say, I’d love to talk to you. Will you have coffee with me?
Rico Figliolini 0:28:04
Right. Yeah. Some of them will put out their cell phone numbers, and you can literally call them and talk to them because how many people in their district, how many people actually can actually call their representatives? And I think people should be aware that their representative is they’re there to be able to expedite things. The constituent service, if they have a problem with government that rep, that represents you, is there to help make things easier or to at least guide you into what you need to do. They’re there for a reason. They work for you. I know that’s, like everyone says, they work for me. But they do work for you, and you’re the one that votes them in, and you should be able to they’re there to represent you. So to fill a purpose that way.
Diane Fisher 0:28:52
Yeah. You have resources and access that we don’t have, and they’re happy to facilitate things for us. Yes.
Rico Figliolini 0:29:00
So let me ask you. I’m a bit of a political junkie, but you don’t know about Georgia politics as much as I probably should after being here since 95. But now that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. For example, decides he’s going to run as an independent candidate because the Democratic Party, according to him, has not given him the right for a debate or to run properly, they’ve changed the rules a bit, I guess. What happens with a third party candidate in 2024 when you live in the state of Georgia? Can you do a write in on a candidate like that?
Diane Fisher 0:29:39
So, two different things. There is a process for being put on the ballot as a third party candidate. And my presumption, I mean, we’ll often find a Green Party candidate on the ballot or things. So there is a process for that. Write ins are a whole nother story in Georgia. So I know a lot of people know, I’m going to write it in my husband, I’m going to write my neighbor, or I’m going to write in whatever you actually have to register to be a write in candidate. So only, the only write in votes that will count are people who have gone through the process of actually registering to be a writing candidate. If you don’t write in one of those people, it’s not going to count. So they don’t do a tally of all of those. Rico you couldn’t get 100 votes as a write in because unless you obviously go, yeah, so that notion of sort, I’m just going to write somebody in, in Georgia, it’s not possible. The different part, you do not have to be just a Republican or a Democrat to show up on ballot. There are processes for being a registered candidate from whatever party it happens to be.
Rico Figliolini 0:31:11
What should a Georgia voter know that we haven’t covered that may be trivial or not trivial, but detail that most people know that we should mean? Is there anything gone over?
Diane Fisher 0:31:25
So I will say that one of the things that I always say about voters is voters are creatures of habit. So if the last election I showed up and voted in this location, and I voted in that location for the past three elections or ten elections or 20 elections, don’t always presume that things stay the same. We know that we just had so, for example, we know that we just had redistricting with the census and numbers have shifted. And so there is a shifting of precincts and so on. And most of the time you’re going to stay in the same place, but always, again, check to make sure that you know where you’re voting. And just because you always voted at Simpson or New Age building or wherever it might be, don’t presume that that’s where you voted last time, that’s where you’re going to vote this time. Because sometimes because of the ways that the numbers have shifted, they shift. So again, I think it’s really important to always check, even if you think I’m pretty involved, and I check my voter page periodically and certainly before every election, just to make sure that, first of all, my precincts, not just the precinct is the same, but that I know who I’m voting for. Because we know that there were changes in congressional seats and House and Senate races and even County Commission seats. We have a new County Commission situation now from a couple of years ago. And so just knowing where the lines are, because the lines do sometimes change. So I think that that’s something that particularly coming right off of the redistricting situation that we had. If you haven’t voted recently since the last election, you may find that things have changed a little bit.
Rico Figliolini 0:33:28
Makes sense. I know that state House and Senate seats have changed. People have disappeared, or they’ve been drawn out of a district that they were in.
Diane Fisher 0:33:40
They may be running, and the lines have just changed. The numbers have changed. The lines have changed. Yeah, it’s.
Rico Figliolini 0:33:46
Amazing. So it really should go to that website that they have mentioned, MVP.
Diane Fisher 0:33:50
SOS ga gov, if you just remember MVP, if you start typing in MVP and in Georgia it’ll show up. And that really is if you remember one thing from this conversation, I would say remember that. And then the other piece is remember that for the upcoming election in Peachtree Corners, you’re going to be voting at City Hall right.
Rico Figliolini 0:34:17
For 2023. All right, cool. I think we covered quite a bit. We’ve given places that people can go. Is there anything else that you want to share, Diane?
Diane Fisher 0:34:31
I don’t think just I think if we want our government and our society to work for us and we need to be actively engaged with the process and the League of Women Voters is always happy to give information. I get calls all the time, emails from friends, neighbors, people across the county asking questions. So you can always call the county election office. But if you I’m a local Peachtree Corners gal, people are welcome to reach out to me. It’s Fisher@lwvga.org and I’m happy to answer any questions that you have.
Rico Figliolini 0:35:13
Cool. If anyone wants to volunteer for the League of Women Voters, they can reach out to you.
Diane Fisher 0:35:18
Absolutely. We are always looking for new members. As I said, we are relatively new in this iteration and we started right in 2019 and just as we got our feet wet and going COVID happened. And so we are eager to engage people who want to do voter education, voter registration work, helping people. We are nonpartisan. We do not support candidates or parties. So we really are just wanting to make sure that people have the information that they need to be able to exercise their rights.
Rico Figliolini 0:35:54
Excellent. Doing great work. I mean, that’s the biggest battle, getting people educated because walking into that booth, not knowing three quarters of that ballot would be the worst thing to be doing. So I appreciate, Diane, your time with us. We had a little power outage before so this recording took a little later than it was and there was not even a storm cloud in the sky and yet we had a power outage. So go figure. But appreciate you helping with educating our listeners on this. Thank you everyone for being with us. All these links will be in the show notes as well. But do remember MVP, I think if you put MVP elections, it’ll probably pop right up as the first thing on that page. But thanks again, Diane, and appreciate your time.
Lorri Christopher will remain active in the community but wants to pave the way for the next generation of local leadership.
When it comes to Peachtree Corners City Post 5 Councilmember Lorri Christopher, her actions speak for her. Not one to raise a ruckus, her four decades as a resident of the area before it became a city had been chock full of leadership in business, education, and community service.
With all she has accomplished, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this 80-year-old woman with the stamina of the Energizer Bunny has decided she won’t be running for re-election when her term expires in 2024.
“I’m not going to stop advocating for the city,” she said. “I’ll still be Lorri Christopher. I just won’t be a city council member.”
Lorri Christopher in 2021 received the “Rotarian of The Year Award” and within days she was one of seven winners (out of 90 finalists) named in Gwinnett Chamber’s annual Moxie Awards. Lorri received the “Greater Good Award” from the chamber in August 2021. (Top photo by George Hunter.)
A life filled with achievements and successes
Christopher’s bio on the Peachtree Corners website points to a career brimming with numerous titles. Here are a few:
Principal in CAP Associates, a human resources consulting firm
Computer Information Systems (CIS) Faculty Program and IA Director at Gwinnett Technical College
Trustee of the Gwinnett Senior Leadership program
Former IT Project Manager for the 1996 Olympics
High school Math and Science teacher,
Management Information System (MIS) Director and CIS Program Chair at Trident College
COO of Atlanta Desktop
Co-president of United Mortgage Company
Marketing Director of Right Associates
Vice President at Midland Associates
Vice President of Finance and Management Information System (MIS) for Edwards, Inc.
Marketing and technical leadership positions at DCA and Burroughs/Unisys, and
Founding Director of Paces Bank & Trust.
Christopher has been well-recognized through the years. She is a recipient of the 21st Century Award from The International Alliance,Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) award, and the Triumph Inspiration 21st Century Woman Award. Christopher is also a member of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Academy of Women Achievers.
Her accomplishments include service to the community, business, and charity organizations. Christopher served on the leadership committee for the Center for the Study of the Presidency, chaired the Gwinnett County March of Dimes, and served on the Georgia Alliance for Children Board.
She is a member of several chambers of commerce, including the Gwinnett, Hispanic, Southwest Gwinnett, and Atlanta chambers, as well as the Gwinnett Village Alliance Board. Christopher is a past officer of Fox Hill homeowners’ association and a member-volunteer for United Peachtree Corners Civic Association (UPCCA), Peachtree Corners Business Association (PCBA), and the Peachtree Corners Festival.
Then there’s her education. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in Information Systems at Nova Southeastern University, Christopher holds an MBA in Business and Finance from Emory University, an MBA in Global Ecommerce from Georgia State University, and a BA in Mathematics and Chemistry from the State University of New York. She has additional graduate studies in CIS at Georgia Tech and Education at Hofstra University — and she holds a number of professional certifications.
“I worked in Peachtree Corners in the 70s and 80s in the Summit Building. Our technology firm, Burroughs/Unisys, was located there where we developed financial applications for the world …we had over 400 people in that facility,” she told Peachtree Corners Magazine in a 2019 podcast. “So, I’ve seen Tech Park when it was in its heyday. I’ve seen it since, and it is so exciting with what’s happening now.”
She added that seeing the vision that she and several others had for the area during the cityhood movement more than a decade ago now coming to fruition makes the hard work worth it.
A vision that’s blossoming
Besides the business growth and economic development, Christopher said she is proud that the city has remained one of the few that doesn’t collect property taxes from its homeowners. And instead of building a city hall right off the bat, Peachtree Corners officials chose to turn the Town Center property into a place for people to gather and be together.
“We’ve worked really hard at keeping the millage zero and being fiscally responsible,” she said.
Christopher is a pioneer in her own right, blazing a path in Information Technology when women were often relegated to administrative support roles instead of heading departments.
After college, she’d gone back home to Charleston, S.C., and was offered a position as Chief Financial Officer and IT Director for a chain of stores where she’d worked as a cashier in her youth. Even back then, Christopher realized that she didn’t have to tell anyone what she could do — she just had to show them.
That’s what she hopes for the future of Peachtree Corners. She doesn’t want future leaders judged by anything more than their credentials.
It’s that kind of stewardship that Christopher said she’s looking for in her successor. She has someone in mind but insists that she’ll back anyone who has the knowledge, passion, and energy to continue the work that was begun more than a decade ago.
Christopher hopes someone will bring Peachtree Corners into its next phase with diversity and inclusion. “I’d like there to be more people who don’t look like me involved in city government,” she said. “I think it’s important that we do everything we can to make sure that we’re an inclusive city.”
Passing the baton
From the outside looking in, many people may not see the pockets of need in this seemingly affluent area.
Christopher would like the city to start receiving federal funds to pay for things like a homeless shelter. “We don’t have a plan for people that are indigent,” she said recalling a section of Spring Drive that had no streetlights for seven years. “It took too long to get lights there and that subdivision has over 200 homes,” she said.
Even though it’s impressive to gather a list of titles, Christopher stressed she does what she does because it’s the right thing to do — and she wants to see the city continue doing what’s right.
“I don’t want to be one of those people who die in office,” she said. “The City of Peachtree Corners is going to go on long, long after I’m gone. I see my decision as making room for another person.”
Before you head to the polls to vote, it’s a good idea to be aware of some of the questions you’ll face on the ballot. Peachtree Corners Councilman Eric Christ included the following information in his recent newsletter, along with his insights.
In addition to the Federal, State and County races on the ballot, there are also five questions for Gwinnett voters to decide. You will see these questions at the bottom on your ballot, so be sure to scroll all the way down.
Gwinnett SPLOST Renewal Referendum
Question: Shall the one percent sales tax in Gwinnett be renewed for a period of six years commencing on April 1, 2023 to raise an estimated amount of $1.35 billion to fund courthouse facility renovation, transportation (roads, streets, bridges, sidewalks and related facilities and equipment), public safety facilities and equipment, park, trail and recreational facilities and equipment, senior services facilities, animal welfare facility renovation, fleet management facility expansion, city administrative facilities and equipment, city water, sewer and utility capital improvements, etc.?
Christ explained, “If it passes, the existing 1% Gwinnett sales tax (in place since 1997) will be continued for another six years. The sales tax is charged on purchases within the county, and it is estimated that 30% to 40% of the taxes are collected from people residing outside of the county who shop in Gwinnett.
The taxes collected are split between the county and the 16 cities in Gwinnett. The City of Peachtree Corners is projected to receive $58 million over the six years and has allocated these funds as follows: 80% to Transportation (roads, streets, sidewalks, etc. and related equipment); 9% to Administrative Facilities; and 11% to other Capital Projects.”
On the other hand, if it doesn’t pass, “the county sales tax will end in March 2023 and Gwinnett County and its cities will have to make up a $225 million annual gap in revenues for each of the next six years by increasing other taxes and/or by cancelling projects,” Christ said.
Constitutional Amendment #1
Question: Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to suspend the compensation of the state-wide elected officials or any member of the General Assembly while such individual is suspended from office following an indictment for a felony?
Christ said that if it passes, Georgia will become the first state to stop paying the salary of an elected official immediately upon being indicted for a felony and prior to their trial. He noted that other states only do this if the official is found guilty after a trial.
“If the Georgia elected official is found not guilty or the charges are dismissed, the suspended pay will be reimbursed,” he added. “If it doesn’t pass, the current law that stops salary payments if the official is found guilty of a felony will continue.”
Constitutional Amendment #2
Question: Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so that the local governing authority can grant temporary tax relief to properties within its jurisdiction which are severely damaged or destroyed as a result of a disaster?
According to Christ, if it passes, counties, cities and school boards will be able to make temporary adjustments to property tax after a natural disaster so property owners whose property has been severely damaged or destroyed don’t have to pay some or all of the property tax.
“If it doesn’t pass, property owners will have to pay the full property tax [as valued at the start of the year] even if their property has been severely damaged or destroyed,” he said.
State Referendum A
Question: Shall the Act be approved which grants a state-wide exemption from all ad valorem taxes for certain equipment used by timber producers in the production or harvest of timber?
“If it passes, timber producers will be exempt from property (ad valorem) taxes on some of their equipment,” Christ noted. “If it doesn’t pass, timber producers will continue to pay the same taxes they do now.”
State Referendum B
Question: Shall the Act be approved which expands a state-wide exemption from ad valorem taxes for agricultural equipment and certain farm products held by certain entities to include entities comprising two or more family-owned farm entities, and which adds dairy products and unfertilized eggs of poultry as qualified farm products with respect to such exemption?
“If it passes, family-owned farms and dairy and egg farms will be exempt from property taxes on some of their equipment,” Christ said. “If it doesn’t pass family-owned farms and dairy and egg farms will continue to pay the same taxes they do now.”
A further explanation of this Referendum can be found here.
A sample ballot for Gwinnett voters can be found here.
Parks & Recreation1 week ago
