Peachtree Corners Life

Community Leadership in Social and Racial Justice, Part Two

Published

5 years ago

July 26, 2020

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

City of Peachtree Corners, Georgia residents, and leaders speak out about change and actively becoming a more anti-racist community.

This second episode of this mini-part series includes Executive Pastor of Victory Church, Darius Dunson, GA House Representative (District 95) Beth Moore, and business owner and community leader Joe Sawyer. Join them along with Peachtree Corners Life podcast host Rico Figliolini and series co-host Karl Barham in this intensive discussion to try and solve these issues.

Timestamp:

[00:00:30] – Intro
[00:06:08] – Feelings About the Protests
[00:15:00] – Code Switching and the Commonality of Injustice
[00:24:37] – Bringing People to the Table
[00:30:07] – The Church’s Role
[00:35:38] – Drawing the Line
[00:43:43] – Equal Support
[00:49:25] – What Can People Do?
[00:52:23] – Policies and The Legal Side
[00:57:37] – Actionable Steps
[01:09:44] – Closing

Related Links:

Beth Moore: https://www.mooreforgeorgia.com
One Race: http://oneracemovement.com
Victory Church: https://victoryatl.com
Joe Sawyer: https://www.citizenjoesawyer.com

Recorded socially safe online and in the City of Peachtree Corners, Georgia

“But you know, we have to overcome. We have to be, we’re all in this together. You know, my daddy used to always say, everybody bleeds red. But we just gotta get past the color of the skin. And remember we were all made in God’s image. And that’s the thing. I think that’s the problem that people are having.”
JOE SAWYER

Podcast Transcript:

Rico: [00:00:30] Excellent. Hi everyone. This is Rico Figliolini host of Peachtree Corners Life here in the city of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, Gwinnett County. We’re doing a series of episodes, podcasts with my cohost for these episodes, Karl Barham who’s my cohost on Capitalist Sage. Hey, Karl.

Karl: [00:00:50] Hey, how you doing?

Rico: [00:00:51] Good. So we’re heading into these episodes, bringing in different leaders in the community to talk about social injustice and a topic that is, a topic difficult for some people to speak about, to talk about having that conversation. But we hope these series of podcasts will put out some good, honest commentary and interactions and information that we can all use and perhaps even give us some insight. So I’m going to let Karl go ahead and introduce our guests today. Thank you, Karl.

Karl: [00:01:25] Thank you Rico. I’m going to start with giving context to the conversation today. And for many of you have seen and know on May 26, 2020, there was a start of protests that was born out of an African American named George Floyd that was killed during a police arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Fast forward a few weeks later on June 12th a 27 year old African American father was shot and killed by Atlanta police department, after responding to a complaint that he was asleep in his car at a Wendy’s drive through. If you look we’re over a month later, and the protests have been happening, communities everywhere have been having discussions around racial, social justice, racial justice, and, and some of the things that are happening at local and national level. Well today on Peachtree Corners Life, we invited some local residents and leaders to start a discussion on community leadership and social and racial justice. What can individuals do, community leaders do to figure out where we are today in the community. And to simply offer an opportunity for citizen leaders to start the discussion that can lead to the changes that can help keep communities safe for all citizens. Whether it’s an encounter with law enforcement or what might be happening in the schools or in the health systems, we’re looking to have this discussion, maybe offer some ideas and, and really answer the question. What can citizens do? So let’s start that conversation by introducing you to our guests today. First I’d like to start, introduce, Joe Sawyer, who is a resident, a small business owner, as well as a community leader here in Peachtree Corners. We also have Beth Moore, who is a resident, Peachtree Corners longtime resident, as well as the Georgia house representative for district 19, 95, excuse me. and also a small business owner and attorney that lives here in Peachtree Corners. We also have Darius Dunson a staff member of Victory Church. He also owns a business and is a long time Atlanta native, born, raised and lived here for a long time. And I’d love to start off, maybe Darius, if you introduce yourself real quickly, supposed to learn a little bit about you and then we can have Beth and Joe follow after that, before we start our discussion.

Darius: [00:03:49] Yes, thanks Karl. And, thank, thanks Rico. Again, Darius Dunson. I get the privilege of serving with the pastoral team at Victory Church in Norcross. And, from my experience, it’s just so good to be a part of this community, a vibrant community, really growing.
I have a wife and four children. I’ve been married for 24 years now and counting. But I really appreciate being on the call because I believe this is a very important issue. And I also love the fact that we are having this conversation.

Karl: [00:04:29] Thank you. Beth?

Beth: [00:04:32] Hi everyone. This is your state representative, Beth Moore. Thank you, Karl and Rico for inviting me into this conversation. Hopefully I can provide some insights as to how we are addressing the issue of racial injustice from a legislative perspective. Of course I am a resident of Peachtree Corners by way of Dunwoody originally just a, a couple of miles down the road. And I’m very grateful for this panel today to have this conversation. Not only is it front and center on most American’s minds right now, but it’s a conversation that is long overdue. I’ve certainly learned a lot from just being a listener over the past couple of weeks, and I’m here to both listen and offer what I can to the conversation. So thanks again for having us.

Karl: [00:05:21] Thank you. Hey Joe.

Joe: [00:05:24] How are you doing? I’m Joe Sawyer, I’ve been a resident of Peachtree Corners since, well about the last 25 years. I own a business in Peachtree Corners, a carpet cleaning business. Been in business for 21 years now. Me and my wife we’ve been together, close to 31 years. And, we have two beautiful children and five grandchildren, and I’m also the president and cofounder of Bridges Peachtree Corners. And I do like the fact, I just want to thank Karl and Rico for inviting me to be on the show, the podcast, because I think it’s a very important thing that we’re going to be talking about.

Karl: [00:06:08] Thank you. Well, I’d like to start by maybe getting some insight in how each of you have been feeling about the protest at large and, and the racial injustice that people are talking about currently in this country. I’m just wondering, how is it striking you? Maybe Beth, if you could start.

Beth: [00:06:30] Sure. Well, you know, I think like a lot of Americans, it was, you know, an uncomfortable feeling watching this, you know, all of these events unfold, you know, from, you know, understanding what happened to Ahmaud Arbery down in Brunswick, Georgia, too, watching those excruciating, you know, eight and a half minutes of the George Floyd video. You know, to learning about Brianna Taylor in Louisville. I mean, this is not the type of country that I want to live in. You know, even if my particular racial demographic is not the target of the police brutality that we’re discussing now. You know, that’s, I don’t feel safe in a world that operates like that either. You know, and then came the protests and to a certain extent some of the destruction that happened as an outcry of these events. And, you know, I, I, I learned early on that sometimes instead of having an opinion, you just gotta sit back and just watch and listen and understand, you know, not just what’s happening in real time, but the causes for what’s happening right now, because we can’t address the symptoms if we don’t address the underlying disease. And I think a lot of us have ignored this underlying disease of racism and
racial inequality in our country. You know, it’s maybe something that folks who were old enough to live through the civil rights movements in the sixties, you know, are maybe more acutely aware of, but we have, you know, two or three entire generations of people who have not had that conversation. And it’s, it’s remarkable to me to think about my own parents. You know, I’m, I’m an elder millennial, to think about my own parents having been born around the year 1950, that they grew up with segregated fountains and bathrooms. I mean, it’s a, it’s almost like history is in fact repeating itself just in different ways. And, it’s, it’s been jarring to watch, but also, you know, the silver lining is I think that people are motivated and encouraged to speak out, to get politically engaged and to move the conversation forward. Because we can’t have a conversation if we don’t, if we don’t acknowledge that the conversation needs to happen.

Karl: [00:08:52] I’m curious, Darius your thoughts on it. You speak to a lot of people through, through your role at Victory. How was, how did it take you personally as well?

Darius: [00:09:03] Personally, just again, being a black man and growing up in the South, you know, one of the things that was just crucial for me, or excruciating I’ll rephrase that, is watching those eight minutes and 46 seconds. Even though these incidents aren’t new. We just have cell phones. So we’re able to see them. Watching those eight minutes and 46 seconds was, it was like I had the air knocked out of me again. And it made me think, it made me reconsider, the small things that I do to try to survive and protect myself as a black male. My neighborhood is predominantly white. And I think about the things like, and I’m talking from a very personal perspective. I think about the times that I would decide not to run down certain streets, because a black man running down this certain street, could be seen as a criminal first. But then the other part of it is, from a personal standpoint, I feel like, I’ve been having more conversations about this issue with people who don’t think like me, people who don’t look like me, more than ever. And what I’m finding is, is that there is, a heart to understand. But I think the challenge is, is that I think we were talking a little earlier. The challenge is, is that we have to be able to have grace because we’re not going to say things the right way. Everyone is not going to be able to dot their I’s and cross their T’s when we’re having this conversation. So I think the most important thing in this time is the conversation has to be had. We all have to swallow our pride and understand that there’s two views of America when it concerns blacks and white. There, it’s the same America, but we’ve all seen it differently. I didn’t grow up, seeing America the same way my white counterparts have seen America. I didn’t see it that way. I can appreciate however, I can appreciate the fact that in these conversations I’m seeing the light bulb come on. For the people who, the people who answer the call to come to the table. For those that don’t want to answer the call for whatever reason, I have great concerns. I have great concerns that because of political reasons or because of whatever reasons, I feel like some people just don’t want to come to the table and those people will be a, will be left behind in the future of what America is to be.

Karl: [00:11:46] Very well stated. And I can tell you, identify. Joe, you’ve been working in this space and, and, and working in the community. I’m curious how you’ve seen it from, from the history of that you’ve seen and experienced.

Joe: [00:12:04] Yeah. It’s a touchy subject for me, to be honest with you. You know, I’ve had some of my friends call me, some of my white friends and they called to check on me to see how I’m doing. And you know, it, it’s hard because you know, case in point a year and a half ago, I got me and my wife who is a white woman. We got pulled over in, Duluth. And the young officer, he took it upon himself to tell me, how to dress, what to look like in court and just to downgrade me and my wife kept saying, Joe, don’t say nothing. Don’t say nothing. And I didn’t say anything. I just laughed at him. And he, I finally went ahead and told him, I said, are you finished? And he said, yes. I said, number one, I’m a 53 year old, man. I don’t need you to tell me how to dress going to court. Number two, I’m a preacher. So I know how to dress. So, you know, being born and raised, Darius I’m from Atlanta too. From Shambley Georgia, Brookhaven now. I, you know, I watched my parents go through it. My dad was born in 1917 and I’ve seen some of the stuff that he had to go through. And I’m, you know, I said, you know, I would tell him sometime he would go around and say yes or no, sir. And I’m like, dad, why did you do that? And he said, you know, this is just a respect thing. And you know, and it’s always been hard being a big person like I am, because you know, I’ve been told I’m a threat. As soon as I, if I get out of the car, the police see me, I’m a threat to them because. You know, I’m just so big. I’m what six, four, 280. So, you know, they’re scared of me already and I don’t even do anything, but it is, it’s very hard because I look at what happened to Joe in Florida. And one of my friends are very good friend of mine. Who’s been on your show. He told me, he said, you know, Joe, my biggest fear is something like that can happen to you. And I said, yeah, and that’s the truth. And I tell people now I was talking to a client this morning and I said, you know, I tell people all the time, there’s a 50/50 chance when I walk out of the door of my house that I’m coming back and they’re like, what do you mean by that? I said, well, you know, you don’t know who you’re going to run into in a police car, they can be having a bad day. They can be black or white, but the problem is being seen as a threat is always going to be a problem for me. I mean, I can’t shrink. So, you know, I am who I am, but you know, I’m always respectful to the police. You know, I, you know, you respect me, I respect you. And it’s just, it’s just been hard for me because it’s, people are opening their eyes, but how long are they eyes going to be open? Because they can open, but they can shut also and pretend like we’re right back in the, like it was two, three years ago before any of this stuff ever happened.

Karl: [00:15:00] I think I can, appreciate, being a taller, bigger black man as well. It’s always in the back of your mind to appear small and to be non-threatening as a default. There’s a term that people may or may not have heard of code switching, and it’s something that, you learn to do. And I don’t think about it. To make folks feel comfortable I could present one face or one way. And, and other times I’m a different way. Same person inside, but you learn how to do this. I don’t know if everybody else had the same experience of having to do that everyday till, so it becomes practice. And so as you, as you see what’s happening overall, I noticed it, but the call that I got in a conversation I’ve had with people, they were mentioning how terrible this was. And I would share with them just the past 10 years history and the number that would fill up a page, of people, including family members that I have that have been, subject of excessive abuse by police. Women, men. And so it happens so often. It’s sad to say that you almost get used to
seeing it, but today I noticed there were more people that are seeing it and noticing it, and there’s more people that are probably struggling with what can be done. And there’s some that say it’s happening over there, but not here. And so I’m curious, you know, have you seen other instances where, racial injustice may be happening in the communities in smaller ways or people before three weeks ago or four weeks ago may not have noticed, but it’s happening. And now with an open eye, they can see it. I’m curious if folks can describe scenarios like that, that’s happening here locally.

Joe: [00:17:02] Well Karl I was at, the forum probably about two years ago and I was outside playing outside of Bath and Body Works, playing with my grandson. And my grandson, my daughter married a white male and I was outside playing my grandson. And this lady walked up to me and she asked me, she said, who is that to you? I said, what are you talking about? She said, who is that boy to you? And I’m like lady get out of my face, you know? Take a chill pill now before you get ugly. And she just kept on and a crowd came and they were like, why did you mess with this man lady? She was like, well, I want to know who this boy is because he’s a white boy with this big old black man. And it just got to the point and this was at the forum. So it’s a couple of minutes away from your house. And so it went on and on. And probably about 10 minutes a policemen came by and he’s got, he stopped the car and he asked what was going on. And I said, well, man, I’m sitting here playing with my grandson and this lady is harassing me and he said, that’s your grandson? And I said, yeah. And he said, okay. And he asked the lady what was going on. And she said, well, I just wanted to make sure he didn’t kidnap that boy. And now I’m just, you know, I started laughing and, you know, and he told the lady to go on and leave me alone. It is stuff like that, that we have to deal with every day. I mean, it happens and people want to turn a blind eye, but they’re not doing that anymore. And, you know, and I treat everybody the same, but you know, it happens all the time. I mean, it happens in restaurants, drive through and, you know, I tell people, I get it from the best of both worlds. You know, I get racism from black people and I get it from white people and they don’t understand it. Because the black people look at me as a sellout because my wife is white. Hey man, it’s my wife. I don’t look at her as a white woman. I look at her as my wife, you know, so, you know, and I love her more now than I ever did. So, you know, it’s out there and you see it every day, but you know, it’s in the community. So, you know, you just gotta be aware of it. I mean, I see it everyday.

Rico: [00:19:11] Joe, you can’t excuse stupidity. Someone comes up and says that to you. It’s just simply stupid. And callous, I just don’t understand why it would be their business to even get in your face like that? I’m sorry to put it that way, but it’s just like, you know, some people think they’re doing the right thing. And like we talked about before, right? You have to be careful what you say sometimes and stuff. They kept it to herself if she felt that way. I mean, obviously you were playing with the kid, right? I mean.

Joe: [00:19:47] Yeah, I wouldn’t just kiss on any other baby.

Beth: [00:19:50] Well, it’s, it’s stupid, but it’s also dangerous because, you know, look at what happens up in New York city, you know, the same week as the George Floyd killing, you know, with that lady in the park, you know, threatened to call the police against the black man. Because she knew that that would potentially cause him danger in any number of ways that he could be shot and killed. He could be arrested. You know, when you get arrested, you potentially lose your job. I mean, there’s just all kinds of dangerous things that could come up with that. And that’s exactly what this woman was inching towards when she, she decided to insert herself into Joe’s personal business. Maybe in her mind it was coming from a good place, but I think deep down it was coming from a place of racism.

Darius: [00:20:35] I think the thing that I would just add to this is that when you talk about the instances of racism, people are not just out in the streets rioting. People are not just out protesting because of those two incidents or three incidents or ten incidents. It’s happening because every time we see something like that happen, it reminds us of the thousands of incidents that we process through on a yearly basis. And so when I see a George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery, I don’t only see that I see the incident that I just had at Kroger, or I see the incident that I had at Walmart or wherever I’m at. All of these small things that happen. And, and I love the fact that Karl brought out the code switching aspect of it. Because oftentimes, again, we are just as black men, we are, it’s ingrained in us a survival mechanism that we just tried to avoid being looked at as criminal. And so when we see these incidents happen, it just stirs up every single incident that has happened over our lives. And so it’s not just these one offs or two offs. These are thousands of thousands incidents. And here’s, here’s the thing that I was, I was speaking to a couple of my friends, and I was telling them, they’re white, and I was telling them, is that the, the beautiful thing that is happening now is that the things that I used to tell people that happened, that they would never believe happened. Now we’re beginning to see these things actually happen. So a lot of times I would withhold some of the incidents because I just didn’t believe that my friends of another color would believe that these things actually happen. And oftentimes when I would communicate it, they just, they just thought I was overly reacting. They thought, no, that doesn’t happen in my world. But now we’re beginning to see no, this does happen on a regular basis. And because we see the tide turning where it concerns social media and also technology. People are ready to document these actual experiences as they happen. For every one that we see, there’s probably 10 others that we don’t see. And so I just think that, I would say it’s on a regular basis. Sometimes it’s too many times to count. Honestly. I had an incident, not too long ago, at, Lake Lanier where I was out boating with a couple of friends and, they had docked at a certain spot. A number of times they had been there. A number of times, they docked at a spot and we decided to dock at the same spot with our families. They’re white, my kids are black and we get here to this spot. And, this time when we dock at a spot that they had stopped at a number of times, the ranger comes out and proceeds to tell us that we can’t dock at this spot because it’s private and my friend was completely puzzled and we had to tell him, Hey, you know why this happened, right? And we had to explain to them and they, they just couldn’t believe that it happened the same way we talked about. And also recently, this is kind of personal to me and my wife, because on the same weekend that, George Floyd, the protests happened, my wife’s cousin was killed by the police in Nassau County, Florida. And so this just
doesn’t happen to someone out there. This, this happens to, happen to us personally, our family. So, I would just say this is very real and for those people who are watching this, if you don’t believe it’s real, get some people who, who look like me in your circle so that they can talk to you about this.

Karl: [00:24:37] That that’s, a very good point. Like Joe, my wife is white and it’s been one of the best experiences of learning and understanding cultures. Because she, she sees the world through two lenses now. And she’s got a perspective that comes from watching it and seeing, experience there’s a movie, that folks may have saw called the Hate You Give that came out a few years ago. And if you haven’t seen the movie, which was well received when it came out, but most people didn’t see it. You would be frightened at how eerily similar to what’s happening today. Movie makers were making this story two, three years ago. And when we watched that film of the family. We have two young daughters. And even at the ages of less than five years old, we start the training of the talk. We start making them aware of how things may be responded to them because they’re both black and white at times. So it’s a conversation that we have within our family, but we’ve been really blessed here to meet people. That are reaching out to understand more, to have the discussion and in our church, small groups. And it’s just, we still know there are people out there that may not have access, may not feel comfortable talking to Joe about what it’s like to be black in this community. And the more people reach out and, and bill comfort. It’s probably awkward to do it, if you don’t know the right words to say. But admit it. If you, if you tell people that you may not be, you may, you may not use the right word. People are really forgiving and people are really understanding if you seek to understand. And so that’s been a journey that we’ve gone on and now our mission is to figure out a future where these two girls can grow up and they’re not concerned that when they don’t get into a school or get a job or their they’re turned down for service. It’s not because of the color of their skin and an even better world where they have allies that come to their defense and point it out if they see it. If people see it, even though it may not be happening to you, there’s a role you can play for a more just society. As if you help to, you know, address those things, when you’re seeing it happening. I reached out to all the leaders, business leaders out there it’s happening in your companies. It’s happening with your employees. It’s happening in the healthcare system. It’s happening with criminal justice. There are people that have influence have the ears of the leaders. And if you want to do something, I’d say you could always start by starting with these small, let me introduce you to Joe Sawyer. Let me let you hear his story that you heard. Let me, let me introduce you to Darius. I mean, let me introduce you to people that can maybe bring a different perspective before you make choices.

Darius: [00:27:44] Yes. One of the other things I’ll add is that, our church, our Victory church, we get, we kind of have a unique experience. When I say that, we all know that Gwinnett County is one of the most diverse counties in the country. And, our founding pastor, pastor Dennis Rouse, one of the things that was important for us, it’s one of our foundational pillars is racial reconciliation. Which means that our church, been going for 30 years, we have about 140 different nations. So one of the challenges is that, when these things happen, we’re forced into conversations because we do life together with different people. And so, I would just say that
one of the most important things for anyone who’s listening, take the initiative and be intentional about your circle. Don’t accept your circle for what’s around it, who’s around you now. Build your circle. Build your circle with people who are different than you, who think differently than you, not just white, black, but also, who are different political persuasions than you? Because I feel like oftentimes when we come across these issues, things get hijacked into the political persuasions when we’re talking about a black man’s life matter or black woman’s life matters. When we’re talking about that, we’re not talking about political persuasion. Even there,even though there’s a political organization, we’re saying that your friend matters. If they’re your friend, they matter. My son matters. My neighbor matters. We’re talking about unless, unless their life matters, if we don’t make that their life important, then we can’t say all lives matter until black lives matter also. So, we’re forced into a conversation and we’ve been doing some things with other churches, like Perimeter church and other churches in the neighborhoods, through one race. And so I would just encourage people to call other people to the table. It’s very important that we do that in this time and not just watch it from afar, but actually get involved by calling people to the table.

Karl: [00:30:07] I’m curious about the pulling on that thread about the church’s role in this. We know there’s a part of this that’s speaking to the heart and changing people’s hearts, not only their minds, but their hearts. And the church has a powerful platform to be able to do that through whatever faith people may believe in. I’m curious what people’s perception of, you know, church leadership in churches in this and this transformation that we need in the country. I’m just curious. Maybe Joe, you can start off?

Joe: [00:30:41] I think my opinion called, being a preacher’s kid. I personally, I don’t think the churches are doing enough. And the reason I say that we are so strong. But in times like that, it takes something like this to happen for the church to say, okay, let’s do this, but we have to do this as a church 365 days a year. Now I don’t know much about Victory and a lot of other churches, I’m just involved with the one that I’m with. But the, and as long as we are scared to. You know, now it’s go, go, go, rah, rah, rah. But what is it going to be six months from now? What is it going to be a year from now? Is it going to be, you know, going back to normal. Or I don’t think we ever going to go back to normal with COVID and everything, you know. But my thing is, you know, I heard, I understand that the other day, a couple of weeks ago, after the Floyd thing, he said, I was told by the elders not to say anything about this, but I’m going to say it’s wrong. And as a church, we need to get together and get behind, you know, the movement what’s going on. I respect him for that. Because he didn’t care what the elders or anyone else told him. He spoke from his heart. And I think if a lot of the pastors get together, like the one race. I’m not involved with one race, but I, I hear great things about it.

Darius: [00:32:07] Get involved.

Joe: [00:32:08] Yeah. I agree. But every time y’all do something I’m doing something else. We’re getting involved though. But you know, it’s, it’s, I think if you can take that movement of one race. It can always go bigger and people will draw to it. I mean, I got friends that is drawn to it
and their pastors and their friends, and, you know, and it’s like, Joe this is something that we all need. Like I said, I want to see what it’s going to be like six months from now and a year from now. We have to take a stand because you know, the church is more powerful than we think.

Darius: [00:32:44] I would definitely agree with, agree with you, Joe. I do think the church, has to do more, needs to do more. I also think along with that, one of the things that I’m saying is, the church, as far as the people, we all understand that the church is not a building. A lot of our representatives are in churches and a lot of our city leaders, they’re in churches. Yeah, there’s this aspect that, I was downtown during the one race and I walked, I was walking out and a lady stopped me because she had stopped a group of our members and they were having this discussion, pretty heated discussion. It wasn’t necessarily outlandish, but it was heated. And the lady was asking, where are the churches? Where are the people? And the people are trying to explain to her, we are the church, we’re out here. And she said well, I don’t see this name, preacher. I don’t see this, I don’t see this name preacher. And so the people called me over and they said, well, here’s our pastor and called me over. And she says, well, where are the other pastors? And I said, well, I’m one of the pastors I’m here. And she said, well, we need the church out here. And I said to her, the church is out here. And I, and one of the things that I would say is that we can’t despise small beginnings. I think that this is a small beginning to something that needs to happen. Black churches for hundreds of years, we’ve been on this issue and we have not been solid, so to speak, as a black man. Right now, what I’m saying is the white, moderate churches like Dr. King spoke about in the Birmingham, Birmingham jail. They’re beginning to come alongside. I feel like we’ve got a do over, and this is the opportunity for people to rise and be on the right side of history, be on the right side of history. And so I think it’s very important, that as we look at what the church is doing, we see the one race. We see the Victory church. We see Peachtree Corners church. We see those churches, Perimeter church. Well, we also have to recognize that a lot of the movement that is happening is happening because the people who are in the church are getting outside of the church and sitting in circles like this. And so, the church is bigger than the four walls. And I do think as an organization, it is important for us to, to present a united front. But I would also say, as I’m looking across, I see a lot of movement happening from people, who are sitting in the pews on Sunday, going out into the world on Monday through Saturday.

Rico: [00:35:38] Let me ask you something Darius. The, you know, like you said, the church is not a building. You have Sunday school teachers, you have the men’s group, the women’s group, they meet outside the church. They do other things. I mean, you have a variety of people that build that church that are there. So I get what you’re saying. When you, when you say, when you, when people say the church is here, cause it, it is the people that make it up, right. It’s not just the pastor, people will follow the pastor if the pastor’s good, right? Or multiple pastors in the church. But what I’m, what I’m looking at too, is there are people that don’t belong to church or as Andy Stanley likes to put in, I love his preaching, the church for the unchurched, if you will, right? So you have people that don’t go to church that, that might go once in a while. That looked like me, right. White, maybe middle-class whatever. And they look at what’s going on and all, and I’ll just, can I be real here? You know, I’ve had lots of friends in Brooklyn where I
grew up that were African American, that were Asian. I mean, they weren’t always in my community though. Because the community I lived in was Italian, Jewish. As I grew up and that was, that was the enclave of what that was. But when I went to school, when I went to high school, when I went to city college, my world blew up if you will, right. Got exposed to a lot of different cultures, a lot of different people. But I think what’s happening now is that for the black community that has gone through this for, hundreds of years, churches for all this time, a lot of white people haven’t seen that, right? We’ve, we’ve learned history. Sure. But history, we’re not in the midst of it. My kids know about the sixties, the you know, the protests, the Vietnam war, how unjust that was for minorities, even that were conscripted, how white middle class families were able to get their kids out of being the draft. And those, those were things that happened. And working for Chuck Schumer for a year, doing constituent work when he was a Congressman, I got to learn, the stuff that happened in communities where, Schumer had a house. We have to be the middleman, if you will, to sort of work things in between tenants and landlords, where the tenants or the landlords were taken advantage of the tenants because of their color, maybe for other, for other reasons. Redlining, redlining was huge. I mean, that was something that, I mean, it was apparent. It took years for it to actually come to the, to the front, but having said all that. I think we, the people see the protests going on, see the riots going on for a while, seeing the looting that was going on. And I think when they saw the video of Floyd, I think most people, most anyone would say that was wrong, right? I’ve got to believe that most people look at that and say that was wrong. There’s no two ways about it. But I think that people out there are afraid too of changes. You know, it’s one thing taken down a Robert E. Lee statue, Hey, I’m from the North, take down all the Southern Confederate statues you want. I’m okay with that. But Christopher Columbus, you know, listen. I understand the history of the man. I’m not, I’m not, you know, yeah my grade school books didn’t quite give me the right history, right? Had to get into college and then get older to learn that. But some people looking at, into saying, you know, what, where do we stop? Does the Jefferson Memorial come down? Does the Washington monument come down? Do we blow up the Mount Rushmore, versus celebrating minority groups. Not just African Americans, but everyone, Latinos, Asians that have built this country. Put memorials up to them, put statues up to them. You know, we haven’t done that. I mean, and if we have, it’s been really small ways. I mean, we’re not celebrating where we should be. So I just had to put that out, that there are people that look at this and they don’t know what to do with it, I think. And they look at this and they’re afraid of what may go on. And they look at this and they don’t know how far it will go. Do they want justice for African Americans? I believe so. Well, I believe most people would, right? But so how do you address that? How do we go down that road because that’s where the road we have to go down, right?

Beth: [00:40:22] Rico, do you mind if I address that? You know, I’ve always disliked the arguments of where do we draw the line because the answer is always somewhere, right? And that line will change, you know, based on evolutions in society. So the line was different back in the 1920s, it was different in the 1970s and it’s different in the year 2020. You know, I can recall a conversation I had with some fellow legislators down at the Capitol last week. I started talking with one young white man and you know, he was, we started talking about some of the Confederate statues that adorn the Capitol grounds. And, you know, his general attitude was
like, well, you know, what harm are they really causing? And at that moment, I saw the chairman of the democratic party, a black man. Start walking towards us. And I asked him to join us. I said, James, come over here. I would like this young man to ask you a question. And so he did. The young white man asked the black man, okay, do these statues cause you harm? And his unequivocal answer was yes. Absolutely. That every single day he comes into work and has to pass by those statues. He knows what kind of message was being sent when they were first erected, which is, you know, this land belongs to a certain group of people and not to others. And that is exactly the message they were intended to convey. And they weren’t even erected after the civil war, they were erected almost, you know, almost 70 years later you know, as a response to the civil rights movement. And so, you know, the young white man was still a little bit defiant said, well, you know, shouldn’t we leave them up so that history won’t repeat itself? And my black friend, the chairman said, well, history is repeating itself just in, in different ways. And I just thought that was an incredibly profound statement of succinctly conveyed to the person who by the end of the conversation said that he was happy to engage in the conversation because he was trying to learn new perspectives. And I certainly learned some new perspectives that day, too. You know, and I added to the conversation that as a, as a white southerner, you know, the men portrayed in those statues, don’t represent my values either. No, I would rather, they not be there. And we have if we’re going to portray anyone, reevaluate where we draw that line in the year 2020, because it’s going to be somewhere and, you know, for anybody who would say, well, we’re going to draw the line here. We might as well draw it all the way to its extreme conclusions and blow up Stone Mountain and Mount Rushmore. It’s like, no, like the line’s going to be drawn somewhere. Let’s make sure that where we draw it in the year 2020, is reasonable.

Rico: [00:43:19] Well that conversation goes there. I mean, it’s going to go there. And it just no doubt people will look at that. And I’m not saying it shouldn’t and I’m not saying statues shouldn’t be taken down. I mean, some of them need to be taken down, I think, right? Or, certainly qualified, you know, what, where are they in history? Maybe they should be put in a museum. I don’t know. I don’t know the answers to everything. That’s why we’re having this conversation.

Karl: [00:43:43] It’s interesting, the discussion around statutes. And, and then I agree. I lived literally behind stone mountain for a time here in Atlanta, and I would ride my bike and hike up it everyday and see it and, and, understanding the history of stone mountain was, was interesting. But all the focus around the statues is, is important, but I’m also curious, can, is there a general passion for, equal justice? So the problem with the George Floyd’s, a bad thing happened in a man’s life died. There were the general consensus that without the tape, without protest, no justice would come from it. There’s too often when a reasonable person could look at a situation and say that was wrong. Someone acted incorrectly, a person’s life is taken and when you go to a court, you expect a fair treatment of it. If, if another black man took that life, he would be in jail, he would be arrested immediately. And that’s what I’m always curious to the question is when you see something like that, what should you do as a citizen? And I always say, well, I would pick up the phone and call 911. But am I making the problem worse in doing that or better in doing that? So there’s a lot of pushback against the police and people think that you have to be
for one or the other. I’m curious, how people could better understand there could be support of the police as well as support of black lives matter. And maybe some of that involves holding people accountable and others stepping in when they see danger happening. When they see someone getting out of hand, simply saying pause before you take this too far, let’s deescalate this. Let’s, let’s do something to have impact. I’m just curious your perception of why isn’t it, that more people can’t just do what a normal person of good conscious would do. What’s preventing them from doing that when it comes to, issues around racial justice.

Darius: [00:46:02] Karl, I want to speak into that question, but one of the things that you said, I feel like I would like to just clarify also, because oftentimes when I’m talking to people, they make the comment. Well, black people kill black people every day, you know? And the thing that I try to explain to them is that when a black man kills a black man, that black man goes to jail. This is not an issue that we’re talking about of murder. We’re talking about justice. And I think that’s, that’s one of the things that I find myself often clarifying. That if that had been a black man killing another black man, including a police officer, in some, some situations that we’ve seen, that they would have been in jail. And, and so when it comes to the disparity of sentencing or charges, or the swiftness of justice, it’s just such a large disparity. And so I just, I wanted to touch on that. Before we enter the rest of your question, because I feel like that’s a, that’s a big wall for some people to overcome. They don’t get it because they’re like, well, what about this person? Yeah, we hear that, but it’s not about the murder. It’s about the justice that happens afterwards. And that’s one of the big issues we have to understand.

Karl: [00:47:34] Very, very good point.

Joe: [00:47:37] I mean, it’s just like the fact that call is what was that? Four or five years ago when, the gentleman went into the church in South Carolina and shot all those people. When they caught him, the police caught him, they took him to McDonald’s to get a Big Mac meal before they took him to jail. Now, if that would have been a black man, they would have beat him up pretty bad. That’s just, that’s just true like Darius said there’s, there’s a difference between, you know, a black and a white when it comes to the police. And I, I have a good relationship with the Gwinnett County police. You know, I feel safe in Gwinnett because of the people I know. But outside of Gwinnett, Hey, you know, we canceled a trip to St. Simon’s a couple of weeks ago because I didn’t want to drive through Brunswick, Georgia. So, I mean, you know, there’s, God gives everybody the knowledge to know better. I knew better than to go to St. Simon’s a couple of weeks ago, because I didn’t feel like going through any kind of drama, you know? And so, you know, things are, it’s definitely a difference between being arrested by, you know, if a black man killed somebody, he goes straight to jail. But if a white person do it, they take him to burger King or McDonald’s before they take them to jail. Now, you know, how is that right? You know, but you know, we have to overcome, you know, we have to be, we all have to, we’re all in this together. You know, my daddy used to always say, you know, everybody bleeds red. But we just gotta get past the color of the skin. And remember we were all made in God’s image. And that’s the thing. I think that’s the problem that people are having, you know.

Karl: [00:49:25] So that’s part of the question is, you know, there’s the why, but what can people do? What if people want to do something, change a behavior? Are there things that you think can start people on that journey moving toward action.

Darius: [00:49:41] I would say one action is to call representative Beth Moore. I do think that’s a big part of it. I think calling your, your local representative, I think even your, your city Councilman, all of those things are a part of it, and I think those are steps of action. I think after you march, after you protest, you have to get in and talk to the people who make the actual, makes the laws and help change the culture. First of all of your local community, but then at a greater scale, the nation. So talking to people, who make decisions, talking to the chief of police, and finding out, you know, where they stand on some of the reform that, you know, That was, that happened under the, some reform happened under the Obama administration, but then some of that was rolled back. I’m just saying some of those conversations we need to take and have the right conversations with the right people to see where they stand. So that in every cycle, when we’re voting, we can elect the right people who are on the right side of history.

Karl: [00:50:49] There, you mentioned a little bit of, if I could expound eight can’t wait Campaign Zero is an organization where they’ve conducted research and came up with recommendations for police law enforcement departments, eight policies that they could implement that has been proven to help reduce the amount of use of excessive force and the death of black citizens at the hands of law enforcement, including, they talk about no choke hold. They talk about citizen review board. They’re talking about accountability, keeping records and metrics on, on the use of force as well as the obligation or the requirement to intervene should they see somebody’s life in danger. These are things that are out there. I couldn’t tell you. I’m not, I’m not educated enough to know how much of those are implemented in Gwinnett or various police stations around the local area here, but people can go and ask the question they can ask and demand to understand. We’d love to know the plan. If it’s been implemented great, tell us, how’s it going? If it hasn’t, is there a plan to implement? And if there, if there’s no intent to implement, tell us why. If you think choke holds are necessary to protect or just explain to the citizens, you know why that is and how you’re going to control the proper use of it and train people. But those are some of the things that people could do is to start holding leaders accountable. And asking the questions of them that deserve answer and discussion.

Beth: [00:52:23] Well, since we’re talking about policy, that’s my area, I’d be happy to jump in. And I am familiar with the, the eight can’t wait platform. As a member of the Georgia house democratic caucus, we came up with a legislative agenda that we call Justice For All. And it was 12 specific proposals. But I’ll, I’ll highlight a few that we can talk about for today’s purposes. Number one on the list was to, when we went back to the session on June 15th was to prioritize the passage of hate crimes bill. Georgia was one of only four States in the entire country that did not have a hate crimes bill on the books. And to clarify what that means, hate crimes bill is a penalty enhancement for biased, motivated crimes. So there has to be an underlying crime. But if it turns out that this crime was motivated by hatred, towards the victims immutable
characteristic, whether, their, their race, gender, religion. A whole litany of, of, of criteria that a prosecutor could ask for penalty enhancement. Because let’s face it when you are indiscriminately targeting people based on, for example, their race. That puts everybody who fits within that racial category at risk of also being a victim. Which is, you know, any crime is, is scary to be the victim of, but when it’s something that you can’t do anything to fix or prevent that’s, that’s terrifying for the entire community. So I was very pleased to, that we were able to get the vocal support of the speaker of the house. You know, back in 2019, the state house, the chamber in which I serve, we did pass a hate crimes bill. But the Senate never passed it. And the governor at the time didn’t really seem all that interested in it. Well, after the Ahmaud Arbery situation, as well as George Floyd, the governor signaled that he would be, he would be interested in, in revisiting that possibility. And we did in fact, pass a hate crimes bill this month in, in, June, 2020, and the governor immediately signed it into law. So that’s progress. That’s a, you know, I did, before I continue, I did want to, take a moment to thank Derius and his church in the one race movement that has organized around racial injustice in society, because quite frankly, that that put, took a lot of pressure off of legislators to find a quick fix to some of these issues. I will be the first to say that passing a hate crimes bill is not going to prevent hate crimes. I mean, you know, that’s, that’s the purview of, of society and the church in terms of changing hearts and minds out in the community, but as a legislator, I take it, I have made it my priority to make sure that at least our laws reflect some kind of equity when it comes to, to achieving racial justice. And we do that one bill at a time, basically. Some of the other proposals that we had put forth, for example, one of the bills that I was a cosponsor of when we went back to session recently, was to create a district attorney oversight committee and lots of people including myself a couple months ago did not know that if you have a bad or a rogue district attorney, who’s tasked with prosecuting crimes in their jurisdiction. If they’re not doing a good job, there’s nothing you can do. You know, you’ll just have to wait and vote them out next election cycle but that might, that opportunity might not happen for, you know, anywhere from two to four years. Whereas compare that to, the, you know, the oversight committee that reviews judges. You know, if a judge is not acting properly or is maybe declining in mental health, there’s a committee in place to remove them if warranted. There was no, no equal procedure for district attorneys. And we got a lot of support for that bill, it did not pass this time around, but that’s something that I look forward to continuing to advocate for when we go back. Lots of other things on that list, for example, ending the use of choke holds, ending the use of no knock warrants, which are, is something that is applied on a, on a discreetly racial basis. Ending the use of citizens arrest, which was used as a reason, not to arrest the killers of Ahmaud Arbery down in Brunswick. You know, the repeal of stand your ground, that particular one probably requires a little more explanation. A lot of people think that means that you can’t defend your home. That is not what that means. There’s I would not advocate for the repeal of any kind of castle doctrine that allows you to defend yourself in your home. But if you go out and you pick a fight with somebody and they fight back, you have a duty to retreat, as opposed to using excessive force in that case, that is what the repeal of stand your ground means. There’s a whole lot more that the democratic caucus has proposed. We’ll continue to fight for those policies.

Karl: [00:57:37] What can folks do to, if they want to learn more and want to get involved and express their wishes? How can folks, what are some of the right ways to do that?

Beth: [00:57:49] In terms of, effective advocacy of your elected officials. There are a couple of things. Number one, obviously is go vote, right? And don’t just vote. Be a voter. Being a voter means that you have researched the candidates. You have researched the issues and what each candidate stands for. That you understand what role they play, if and when that person does get elected. You know, and furthermore, it means that you hold elected officials accountable in between elections. That is a duty and a privilege that we have been granted as American citizens operating within a citizen led democracy. So number one, vote, number two, show up to community meetings. You know, if you’ve ever been to a Peachtree Corners city council meeting. They’re pretty bare, nobody’s there. And, and not only the, the public meetings, but also the working sessions, right? You know, and if you don’t have to stretch yourself too thin, pick one and stick with it, you know, whether it’s city council or attending your County commission meetings or showing up at the legislature. You know, showing up to other types of public meetings that are, that are crafted in order to serve your interests. You know, the school board meetings, election board meetings, these sorts of things are happening all of the time. And we need citizens in the room, holding these officials accountable. Beyond that, you know, I can tell you as an elected official myself, that some of the most effective advocacy that I receive are when people email me, because I do read every single email that I receive. And my office tries very hard to make sure to reply to every email. The one exception that we make as if, if you’re using one of those sites that sends just mass non-personalized email that clearly come from some kind of bot. I don’t typically bother with those because that’s just very low energy type of advocacy. But if I receive a personalized email saying, Hey, my name is so and so I live in your district. You can provide an address for me to confirm it. Then I will, that, that email will receive high priority from me because I am answerable to my constituency through emails, phone calls is, is, probably the next best way although sometimes phone calls and voice messages get, get lost in the fray. Last year I received exactly eight handwritten letters to my office, which is quite a treat in a world where we don’t often receive personalized handwritten letters anymore. And then of course, my folks know that they can always reach me through Facebook. And I’m starting to get a little bit better at Twitter and I have an Instagram account too, but you know, every, every elected official has some means to receive input from the community and, you know, whichever particular elected official you’re targeting, find their information, contact them, stay in touch with them, let them know who you are, and you should get to know who they are as well.

Karl: [01:00:57] Can I add one more to that? I think there are good people out there with amazing talents in leadership and otherwise. Another way you can get involved is to run for office. Whether it’s city council, participate in government, get involved. If you’ve got talents for leadership, if you’ve got passion, sometimes especially in these times, it’s easier to sit on the sidelines. And to watch and wait for someone else to take care and to do it. But sometimes stepping up and starting in small ways might be one of the most effective ways to affect the chain. Joe what about you? Any advice?

Rico: [01:01:42] Joe? Are you going to run again?

Joe: [01:01:47] Well, you know, Rico, it was only 15 votes in the runoff and I tell people, citizen Joe, will be back in 2021. So I’m looking forward to it. You know, we’ll be missing Steve Cohen, you know, he passed away. But we are looking for a new manager and I have a couple of people, but yeah, citizen Joe is getting very excited right now. And you know, we’ve got another year.

Karl: [01:02:13] What office is that Joe?

Joe: [01:02:15] Peachtree Corners, post four. So if they didn’t know, they know now since it’s on the podcast, so yeah, for the city council. And, you know, and like Beth says, you know, I do go to those city council meetings and it gets lonely because there’s no one there. You know, and I’ve had, you know, I talked to some of the people in this area, especially on the South side of town. And the first thing they say is, you know, those people over there don’t care about us. And I said, you know, put somebody in there that does. So you got to get out and vote. 15 votes is nothing.

Karl: [01:02:48] But I could share something that a mentor of mine once told me. We were talking about diversity in corporate America and how to drive that in, in higher levels of leadership. And he implemented a practice with his team where before he would interview for any director or above level position, if the slate wasn’t diverse, he rejected the slate because often it’s comfortable and easy. Just say these are three candidates. I’m going to pick one of these three candidates for the job. But if the slate isn’t diverse, he said we won’t start the interview process, which forced HR and others to bring more voices to the table to be considered for those positions. So, I think everyone could take a look at if you see which voice is missing at the table and you want to affect change, do something about it.

Joe: [01:03:41] Yes, sir.

Karl: [01:03:43] Darius, any thoughts from you on, on things that people can do practically to, to really impact change when it comes to racial justice in the church or outside?

Darius: [01:03:52] Yeah, I think, I would just kinda come off your last point, Karl. Again, I think for you know, policy is not going to necessarily change the heart. I think though it can definitely create a boundary, create great boundaries for a safer America for black people. And I do believe it’s a part of it. Because some things by habit, people are just birthed into some of the social injustice. But I would say again, I think on a very simple level, I’m talking just to the common person who doesn’t know what to do. Here’s the thing you have to change your circle. And I would just continue to, continue to say that. You have to not only listen to one news station, you have to go on the other side and you have to hear what other people are saying. But most importantly, invite people into your circle that are different than you, people of color
need to be in your circle. And I would say to people of color, if the only people around you are black people, then you have to reach across the line. And so I would just say it from that perspective, that’s one of the things that we champion all the time. And so you’ve, talked a lot about the things that we can do practically when it concerns local government. But I would just add that piece from a very human level, love your neighbor. That means talking to the people that are right around you. In your supermarket, in your neighborhood, where you are, giving people a chance and giving yourself a chance to understand people. And so that’s what I would add to that.

Karl: [01:05:34] If I could also build on that, that can translate also to social platforms like next door. Love your neighbor a little bit more when folks express views and issues. And even there’s that practice of, I saw a suspicious person in the neighborhood on next door, which then triggers off a whole lot of scrambling. You know, the question you’ve got to ask is what made that person suspicious? And if it wasn’t an action and/or a behavior that makes someone suspicious, you’ve got to look at your biases. That’s fallen in there. And social media is a powerful mechanism to create a lot of harm. If people aren’t more cautious with what they say. When you’re in front of a person or what you post when you’re online. And my media expert Rico, I wonder from your perspective, first, I want to, I want us to mention one thing, when it comes to stepping up, when I first, moved into the area of Peachtree Corners Life Podcast was one of the only platforms where you can find out what was going on locally, whether it was a city council and others. And, I don’t know if everybody knows, but you started that as a labor of love and just because you thought it needed to be done. And that’s a great example of stepping up and doing something and creating a platform where dialogue like this can happen. So I just want to know that you’re appreciated and recognized for doing that. And for all that you do in the community, whether the people get to tell it to you with face to face or not.

Rico: [01:07:11] Thanks, Karl. I appreciate that. You’re right, though there was a labor of love because I wasn’t making any money off it. And I keep telling my wife, I don’t play golf. This is what I do. And I’ve been doing it for, I think almost four years now. So, and, and talking about getting out of comfort zone, you get to meet a lot of different people. I choose a lot of the interviews and then people also come back to me like Joe, I think we’ve, I’ve interviewed you before on here. Keybo Taylor recently, diverse people from all walks of life. So I do get an opportunity to see a lot of stories and to hear a lot of things. So which is good for me, magazine does that as well, too. So Peachtree Corners Magazine, I get to tell, I get to direct what to tell about other stories in Peachtree Corners. So all good things and you know, Darius is correct. You should go out and out of your comfort zone. I don’t just listen to CNN or Fox News. I, BBC. I mean, I go out and I, not only to, I read a lot, but I listen to a variety of places. Cause you have to. And it’s in an interesting, You can look at CNN and Fox news the same day, same night, and totally different stories. Totally different stories. I’m like, you know, who’s reporting the news. Forget about reporting. You almost think they report, but I don’t get it because it feels like I am living in two worlds. And I’m not sure which one is real. Karl: [01:08:38] The fun game you could play Rico on that. Some cable channels they have the news mix channel. Where it shows multiple news stories. And you could just toggle between
different ones, same exact story reporting. And you’ll hear at least three different views. I love the European view, how others see us. That’s some of the most fascinating insight.

Rico: [01:09:00] And that’s why I listen to BBC, sometimes. We can BBC Europe, not BBC America, just to see what they’re saying about the crazy people in America sometimes. But, so it’s yeah, it’s a good place to be. I come out of politics and business background. And, you know, the world has changed over this period of time, but it’s not going to change enough. And I fear we will take much longer to change these other things. It’s going to take generations. So this is really the beginning of where it needs to go. Or the second reset, I think like Darius said before. Another opportunity to maybe do it right. It’s going to be a long road. I fear.

Karl: [01:09:44] Absolutely. And I’m hopeful that there is another generation coming that’s impatient with the status quo. So whether we want to change or not, it’s going to change because, the younger generations didn’t grow up in the 1960s and 50s. And so they have a different take on the world and they’re, they’re going to drive us all to change one way or the other. Well, we’ve come to the, to, to a little bit over an hour and, and wanted to thank, Joe Sawyer for, for joining us today. I want to thank you for sharing your heart, sharing your stories with us. Representative Beth Moore. Thank you so much for continuing to do what you do to help drive the agenda down at the Capitol and, and, and help the citizens of the community, be heard and, and, and help drive and be a leader in the community to help drive change. Whether it’s social, racial justice or, or many other things that you’re, that you’re helping pass. And Darius, thank you and the work of your entire community at Victory. What you do in the community, what Victory does in the community, what you do personally. We appreciate that and thank you for participating in this ongoing discussion. We’re not going to stop here. We’re going to, we’re going to do another one on Thursday at two o’clock. We’re going to bring some more people on and we’re going to continue this conversation. If there’s one thing we can prove that people from different backgrounds, people from different perspectives can come and sit down and have a discussion. It’s not that hard. If we could do it, you could do it in your home. You can do it in your church in your discipleship group. You could do it in your community. You can do it in your gym. But have the discussion, reach, gain understanding, listen for understanding. And when you start to formulate what you think that future could look like, take an action. Write a letter, run for office, join a committee, make your voice heard, vote. There’s things you can do and I’ll spend I’ll, I’ll share a special challenge to those that are in leadership positions in business, in the community, in nonprofits, in the schools. You have a very unique role to impact those you lead and the communities that you’re in. And so if you’re for black lives matter, if you’re for racial justice, if you’re for something, speak on it, where you put your time and money tells us what’s important to you. So that’s the challenge I throw out there to all leaders. Thank you.

Rico: [01:12:25] Thank you,

Karl: [01:12:26] Karl.

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Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

Arts & Literature

From Food Creations to Handmade Jewelry: Wesleyan Kids Prep for Artist Market 2025 [Podcast]

Published

3 weeks ago

April 7, 2025

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, host Rico Figliolini spotlights three remarkable student artists featured in this year’s Wesleyan Artist Market. Eighth graders Kimberly Wang and Nika Jensen, along with sixth grader Carter Jensen, share their creative journeys—ranging from edible art like fruit jellies and peppermint bark to handmade jewelry and custom-designed bags.

Kimberly talks about her love for food art and balancing sweetness with fruity freshness, while Nika and Carter discuss building a jewelry business that also gives back—donating proceeds to families in the Philippines. This isn’t just an artist market; it’s a showcase of purpose-driven, globally inspired young talent. The event runs April 25–26 at Wesleyan School and is open to the public.

Podcast Takeaways:

Kimberly Wang creates handmade edible treats, balancing flavor and freshness for the show.
Nika and Carter Jensen co-run a jewelry and fashion accessory business, inspired by global travel and cultural experiences.
Nika donates part of her proceeds to support families in the Philippines.
All three students are deeply involved in extracurriculars—from musicals, marching band, math club, and academic bowl.
The Wesleyan Artist Market features 24 student artists and over 70 professionals—open to the public April 25–26.

Timestamp:

00:02:19 – Student intros and extracurriculars
00:03:06 – First-time participants and motivations for joining
00:04:13 – Kimberly’s edible art and recipe testing process
00:05:16 – Nika and Carter’s jewelry and bag design business
00:07:06 – The reward of watching people enjoy your creations
00:08:20 – Donating art profits to support families in the Philippines
00:10:39 – Future aspirations in medicine and law, with art as a passion
00:12:06 – Behind-the-scenes logistics of preparing for the market
00:13:25 – Global travel inspiration: 73 countries and counting
00:17:19 – Where the students draw artistic inspiration
00:20:04 – Custom requests: From peppermint bark to Lego earrings
00:21:16 – Anticipation and excitement for this year’s market

00:22:29 – Reflections on Wesleyan and the artist experience

Transcript:

00:00:01 – Rico Figliolini

Hey, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. We have a great set of guests today. Because of the upcoming Wesleyan Artist Market, we thought we’d do some interviews with student artists. Three of the 24 that are going to be at Wesleyan Artist Market. So they’re with me here today. So we’re going to get right into that shortly. I just want to say thank you to our corporate sponsors. So I want to say thank you to EV Remodeling, Inc., based here in Peachtree Corners. The owner is Eli. Him and his family live here. They’re great. They do a lot of design work, design your space. Essentially, any home remodeling you need from whether it’s your kitchen, your bathroom, or a whole house remodel, or even an addition to your home, think about it, whatever you need, Eli can handle. So check them out. Go to evremodelinginc.com and find out how they can design your space and your life. Our next sponsor just came on, and they’re Vox Pop Uli. I want to thank them for joining us as well. They deal with all sorts of things you can imagine putting your logo on, similar to a little bit about what these kids do, right? They’re creating artwork. They’re creating a brand for themselves. And so this is what Vox Pop Uli does, right? They’ll take your brand and bring it to life. Essentially, anything that you can think of that would go on apparel, whether it’s sweaters or T-shirts or wherever you want to put your brand engraving, your logo, what object you want to put it on, even vehicle wraps. So if you’ve got a truck, you want to put a whole wrap around it, check them out because they can do that. They’re here in Peachtree Corners and they’re called Vox Pop Uli. So visit their website. I’ll have the links in the show notes as well. So thank you guys. I appreciate your support. So now let’s get right into it. Let me introduce our three artists, great Wesleyan students. Can’t wait to start talking to them. We have Kimberly Wang first on your left, on my left, and Nika and her brother Carter Jensen, who work together creating the artwork they do. So I’m going to ask you guys just to, you know, give me a little background. Tell me who you are, your grade, what you do, extracurricular, stuff like that. This way our audience can get to know a little bit more about you. So let’s start with Kimberly Wang. Hey, Kimberly.

00:02:19 – Kimberly Wang

My name is Kimberly Wang. I’m in eighth grade this year, and outside of Artist Market, I do marching band, and I also do the musical production this year, which is Matilda.

00:02:31 – Rico Figliolini

Excellent. What about Nika? How about you?

00:02:34 – Nika Jensen

I’m also in eighth grade. My name is Nika Jensen, and apart from doing the Artist Market, I do cross country. I’m also in Matilda this year, and I also do math counts, which is a math club.

00:02:47 – Rico Figliolini

Okay, cool. And Carter?

00:02:49 – Carter Jensen

Hello, my name is Carter Jensen. I’m in the sixth grade. And outside of the artist market, I do academic pool and I also do basketball.

00:03:00 – Rico Figliolini

Excellent. Alright, cool. So have you guys ever done the artist market before? Is this the first time?

00:03:06 – Kimberly Wang

This is my second year doing it this year.

00:03:08 – Rico Figliolini

Second?

00:03:10 – Nika Jensen

Yeah, this is our first year because we’re new students this year.

00:03:13 – Rico Figliolini

Alright, cool. What inspired you to get into it, Nika?

00:03:17 – Kimberly Wang

Well, I had my own business before we came to Wesleyan and so I thought that the artist market is a good way to like show my business to other people in our community. So yeah.

00:03:30 – Rico Figliolini

And you brought in your brother Carter to help you with?

00:03:35 – Nika Jensen

Yes, sir. He’s also part of the business.

00:03:39 – Rico Figliolini

Alright cool. Okay so, Kimberly. Food. Food is art, right? I’m sure your mom would probably say, it’s food, just eat it. But you’re playing with your food, essentially. What they used to tell you not to do, right? So when you create your food art, what do you think about? How do you go through this? How do you choose what you do and what do you exactly do?

00:04:13 – Kimberly Wang

So this year, I am making fruit jellies and peppermint bark. And when I think about what creations I want to make for the artist market, I go online and I look through like, what are some popular desserts that a lot of people like? And once I like choose my items, then I go through

the recipe and then I do a lot of trial and errors to make sure that like the products are like healthy and they taste well.

00:04:42 – Rico Figliolini

So they have to be edible, right? Because this is edible art?

00:04:45 – Kimberly Wang

Definitely, yes.

00:04:46 – Rico Figliolini

So are you eating a lot of the edible art before you get to what you need?

00:04:50 – Kimberly Wang

Not really. I don’t usually taste a lot of the food. I let my family taste it.

00:04:56 – Rico Figliolini

Ah, good. I like that. Yes. Get them to participate. Cool. So edible art, that’s one way of doing it. Jewelry, that’s something else, right? Wearable. How do you guys, Nika, Carter, how do you get to the place of what you do?

00:05:16 – Nika Jensen

So I started my business when I was 11 years old and it started like I got my first jewelry making kit and I kind of just expanded from there. So like I usually use Amazon to search and find like the prettiest designs like of earrings and pendants and get opinions from other people like my mom and my family to see like if they think it’s like wearable and if they like it. So I browse on Amazon for a while and I find like the best and high quality products and then I hand make them at home usually like every day after I come home from school so and my brother he does something else and he can tell you about that.

00:06:01 – Carter Jensen

I, my sister, she got a Cricut machine for, like, her 12th birthday, I think. And started making these, like, iron-on bags with the Cricut machine and, like, making them based on, like, Georgia and, like, Wesleyan and designing it based on fashion.

00:06:19 – Rico Figliolini

Alright. Cool. So let’s get back to Kimberly. The food that you do. Do you have particular flavors you like? Do you have particular areas that you stay in?

00:06:33 – Kimberly Wang

So this year I’m trying out like something more sweet with chocolate. But last year I definitely went for more of like the fruity side. And I think I like to keep it like a balance. So that way one is not overpowering the other. My personal favorite will probably be fruit because it’s healthy. And I mean, it just tastes good in general.

00:06:56 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. Alright cool. What’s the most rewarding part that you can think of, of making edible art?

00:07:06 – Kimberly Wang

Well, I mean definitely like you said before you get to eat a lot of food. I mean, I did say before that I don’t eat a lot of the creations I make, but sometimes I still do eat it. And so I think it’s also really rewarding to see like people try out your creations and see like their reactions to what they think of it.

00:07:27 – Rico Figliolini

So when, I know I’ve spoken to other artists when they sell their artwork like paintings or stuff like that they get a chance to see it sometimes when the fan that bought it if you will, would send them a picture of where they hung it right? Yours disappears right?

00:07:45 – Kimberly Wang

Yeah, exactly.

00:07:47 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah I guess, there’s no way to, short of doing a selfie with it or taking pictures of it, there’s no there’s no permanency to it so how does that feel?

00:07:57 – Kimberly Wang

I mean well as long as the people enjoy it that’s good. And I mean I think mainly it’s about like the memory that you have of having the food and if you like it then it stays as a good memory for you and if you don’t then I mean you can always try out different things.

00:08:20 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. Nika, Carter, as far as the jewelry goes the, you’ve used it to raise money to support children in the philippines? yes

00:08:29 – Nika Jensen

Yes sir.

00:08:31 – Rico Figliolini

Is that, is that how you started this when you were 11? Is that the reason?

00:08:35 – Kimberly Wang

No, so I was like 11 during the pandemic. So I was always looking for a way to express my creativity. And so that’s how I started my own business. And so I was selling at my uncle’s pharmacy and I was saving up the money to use for like college or for like other events later on in my life. But this last year and a half before this school year, we were living in the Philippines. And so I was really touched by all of the families there. And we even did something similar where we gave out food and canned goods over Christmas to poor families there. So that just

really touched me. And so ever since we got back to America, I’ve been donating part of my profits to other families in the Philippines.

00:09:24 – Rico Figliolini

Carter, did you end up going on that trip as well?

00:09:28 – Carter Jensen

Yeah, I was with her. We stayed there for about a year and a half. We also did schooling there.

00:09:36 – Rico Figliolini

It’s interesting brothers and sisters, I have three kids and you know growing up brothers and sisters always there could be dynamics there. So how do you get along? Do you ever say to your sister, I don’t know about that. You know that might not look as good, that might not sell. Do you give good feedback? I mean how do you praise her or how do you work together?

00:09:58 – Carter Jensen

She’s more of the leader of the business so like I usually just like try to like agree with her and like yeah.

00:10:12 – Rico Figliolini

Alright that’s cool well you need a leader of the pack sometimes right? So Nika the artwork that you do, you know this is part of what you do you’ve mentioned other things you do right? I know you’re young, you all are, you know you’re not old enough to really think well maybe you are to really think what you want to do with your life right? Is art something that you want to keep as part of what you’re doing in your life?

00:10:39 – Nika Jensen

It’s definitely something that’s of great value to me, but I kind of want to pursue the medical field, but art is also really important to me.

00:10:49 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. Sounds good. Same question to Kimberly. What about you? How do you feel about the work you do?

00:10:57 – Kimberly Wang

I definitely enjoy making food, but like Nika said, I was also really interested in the medical field. And so like I’m not really sure if I’m going to continue pursuing this. But I mean it’s definitely brought me a lot of joy while doing food art.

00:11:15 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. Medical field both of you, that’s cool. What about Carter? How about you? 00:11:19 – Carter Jensen

I kind of like, I like doing art it’s one way to like express your creativity as my sister said. But I also kind of, I’m not really sure what I want to do when I grow up, maybe be a lawyer.

00:11:33 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. Well, artwork gives you a chance, right, to play a little bit, to be able to also see how people, like Kimberly, like you said about how when people see your food or taste your food and your food art, if you will, and it gives you a chance to see how people appreciate what you’re doing, I think, right? The challenges of making food art and keeping it fresh and making sure you’re going to deliver it on the right way I guess at the Wesleyan artist market, how do you how do you handle that part of it?

00:12:06 – Kimberly Wang

So for me the night before each day of the selling I would stay up really late and I make all my products so they’re all fresh and they’re all new. Because I want the best for the people that are eating the food because I don’t want anything to go bad overnight and so I make sure that it’s always new products and I make it, yeah.

00:12:32 – Rico Figliolini

We don’t have the same issue with the jewelry that you do, Nika. So that could last forever, right? But putting it together, sourcing the supplies, right, of what you do, the logistics of it, I guess. How do you handle that? Like getting all the materials together? Do you order it all on Amazon?

00:12:52 – Nika Jensen

Yeah, I order like 99% of all of my things from Amazon. And then since I already have the materials shipped to me, then all I have to do is just create them from my house. So it’s easier for me than having to go out and buy supplies at stores.

00:13:11 – Rico Figliolini

Sounds good. What inspires you as far as jewelry goes? I know that you said you look online to see other things and what the trend is. So where do you find most of your trends? Is it just on Amazon or is it social media, other places?

00:13:25 – Nika Jensen

I kind of observe other people and like what they wear and also social media. And I get a lot of inspiration also from like nature and from like my travels. We’ve been to a lot of countries in the past five years, 173 countries.

00:13:44 – Rico Figliolini

How many?

00:13:45 – Nika Jensen

I’m sorry, not 173, 73 countries.

00:13:49 – Rico Figliolini

73 countries?

00:13:50 – Nika Jensen

Yes, sir.

00:13:51 – Rico Figliolini

That you’ve been to in how many years? I can’t even wrap my head around that. How did you even do that? Teleport? I mean, how did you do that? Wow. What is your heritage, if you don’t mind me asking?

00:14:12 – Nika Jensen

I’m half Filipino. My brother and I are half Filipino. And then my father is part Danish and then also American.

00:14:21 – Rico Figliolini

Do you speak any languages?

00:14:23 – Nika Jensen

I speak the language of the Philippines called Tagalog and then English. And I’m learning Spanish.

00:14:30 – Rico Figliolini

Really? Okay. Kimberly, how about you?

00:14:33 – Kimberly Wang

So my mom is Taiwanese and my dad is Chinese. So I speak Chinese, English. I’m learning French and I’m learning Korean.

00:14:43 – Rico Figliolini

Really? Wow. Okay. Speak Mandarin, is it? Okay. My son was learning that for a year and he was, it’s a tough language to learn. But I’m sure being able to travel for example Nika, to be able to see other other countries and inspiration from those countries. What of the 73, 75 countries you visited what would you say the top five would be for that type of inspiration? Can you pick that up?

00:15:16 – Nika Jensen

I think so. I really like Argentina just because it’s so unique and the culture is just so strong there. Like you really feel so immersed just when you like step into the country. I like Italy, not only because of the food, but that’s also where I got a lot of inspiration for my jewelry. Just like the glass in Venice, like the Murano glass, like that’s also a really big inspiration. In Turkey, that’s when I first like found my interest in jewelry because there was, we went to this bead store and there was like thousands of different beads and I got to like choose different charms and like experiment with creating jewelry. So Turkey, Argentina, Italy, and then I have to give it to the

Philippines, obviously, because we lived there for so long. And then that’s hard. What do you think, Carter?

00:16:12 – Carter Jensen

I like India because I really like butter chicken. Also like Italy because I like pizza and pasta.

00:16:27 – Rico Figliolini

Yes, can’t get any better pizza than Italy, that’s for sure.

00:16:30 – Carter Jensen

Yeah, it’s really good there. And I also like Japan because it’s very futuristic and it’s like…

00:16:38 – Rico Figliolini

Is it?

00:16:39 – Carter Jensen

Yeah, it’s like a new environment and it’s like…

00:16:45 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, cool. I can’t wait I think where, I think we may be heading there in July so that would be fun. I’ve never been so that would be interesting. Cool so with the artwork, with the inspiration, with the journey that you guys have been on, do you think that, are there any artists it’s hard and food maybe unless it’s Gordon Ramsay or something, but do you draw any inspiration? Who do you draw inspiration from for the work for what you do? Let’s start with Kimberly.

00:17:19 – Kimberly Wang

I don’t really have a specific artist that I look up to but I do watch some cooking shows and some like dessert making shows and they always really inspire me so I feel like that’s what really led me into like starting food art. And so I was like, whoa, this is really cool. And so I was like, okay, let me try this. And so now I’m here and then I’m like, this is pretty fun.

00:17:49 – Rico Figliolini

Oh, okay. Carter, I know you’re not the main person doing the artwork, but what do you see when you’re working with your sister? How does that feel working with her, doing the stuff with her, the artwork? Whatever you’re doing with her, how you know what’s that journey feel like for a brother and his sister?

00:18:13 – Carter Jensen

It’s kind of relaxing doing artwork and like peeling off like the stickers on the bags

00:18:26 – Rico Figliolini

Okay, alright, that’s cool. Sister, how do you feel?

00:18:30 – Nika Jensen

Yeah I just enjoy anytime I’m like I get to make jewelry because I feel like it’s such like an important thing to me. And it also like my brother said it’s really relaxing and just like sitting in our home and just like making jewelry it’s like, it’s really fun for me.

00:18:48 – Rico Figliolini

Do you wear? I’m assuming you wear some of the stuff you make?

00:18:51 – Nika Jensen

No actually I don’t have my ears pierced. And so I just like making it and seeing my creations on other people.

00:19:00 – Rico Figliolini

Okay, cool. Kimberly, do you ever decide, I’ve got to make something, I want to eat something, do you ever decide to do that, or is it always just for the art?

00:19:10 – Kimberly Wang

I think mainly just for the art. Because, I mean, I do piano outside of school, and so most of my time is sucked into that. But, I mean, sometimes if I do want to make something, yeah, I’ll go for it. And I’ll try my best, but it might not be successful.

00:19:31 – Rico Figliolini

Have you ever been, have you ever designed anything custom design? Because someone requested it from you? Like has anyone ever asked Kimberly, has any anyone ever asked yeah can you make that for me? Like aside from the artwork you sell.

00:19:50 – Kimberly Wang

I don’t think so. I did get one request by a high schooler to make peppermint bark for him for his art and science class. But like other than that, no.

00:20:00 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. How about Nika? Have you ever had a request for jewelry?

00:20:04 – Nika Jensen

Yes, I have. So my mom was posting some of my creations on social media and someone reached out to me and she wanted lego earrings like so little like lego figurines as earrings. So I used some of my own legos and then we also bought some but I drilled a hole on top of their head and I had to stick a screw inside. I had to mail it to them. And then they sent me a picture of them wearing it.

00:20:42 – Rico Figliolini

It’s just the way you were describing it, drilling the hole in the head. It’s like, all right, well, that’s good. So there’s the art. You do anything for art, I guess. That’s good. Great. We’ve been showcasing and talking a lot about art here and food and stuff. What are you looking forward to this year’s Wesleyan Artist Market? What is it that’s looking forward? I mean, you have there’s

three of you out of 24 other students. Have you seen or talked to other students and what they’re doing for the show, for the market? What are you looking forward to?

00:21:16 – Nika Jensen

To me?

00:21:17 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, sure. Let’s go with it.

00:21:18 – Nika Jensen

Okay. Yes. Kimberly and I are actually really good friends so we’ve been like talking with our other friends that are doing the artist market and we’re like you know what they’re selling and yeah. I’m just really excited because we’ve never my brother and I have never done something like this before so I think it’ll be a really good opportunity and it’ll be fun so.

00:21:39 – Rico Figliolini

Something wholly new. That’s good, a good experience. How about you Kimberly?

00:21:45 – Kimberly Wang

Ever since last year, I was really astonished by everything I saw, even if it was like the adult artists, but like the student artists, they were all so talented. I know like a few other people are making food art and people like Nika are making jewelry. And so I’m honestly really inspired and just really blown away by all the effort that everyone puts in.

00:22:13 – Rico Figliolini

Cool. Anything that I’ve not touched on, guys, that you want to share about, individually about what it takes to do what you’re doing or your experience at Wesleyan? Why don’t we start with Kimberly?

00:22:29 – Kimberly Wang

I don’t really have much. I feel like this was a really nice opportunity to be able to share what Wesleyan Artist Market is about and how students have been able to participate in it.

00:22:42 – Rico Figliolini

Cool. Nika?

00:22:43 – Nika Jensen

Yeah so my mom printed out pictures of our time in the philippines so this first one it’s all the bags of food that my old school donated to families in the philippines.

00:23:01 – Rico Figliolini

Excellent. Glad you printed those out.

00:23:03 – Nika Jensen

This is my old class. This was this year when I sent my profits back to the Philippines. And those are all the boxes of food and clothes that they get with that money.

00:23:16 – Rico Figliolini

Wow, you really did make a lot of money.

00:23:18 – Nika Jensen

Yes, sir.

00:23:19 – Rico Figliolini

That’s good. That’s great. And maybe at some point I’ll ask Camille on this, getting some pictures from you all of some of the artwork that you’ve done. I’d love to include that when we post the podcast as well. And if you have any social media where you post your artwork on, if it’s public, feel free. We’re going to be sharing this and we’ll be taking you all as well. I think we got everything covered. I mean, you’re all just unbelievable kids. You’re just doing great work. And I’m just like, it’s always great to talk to you, to Wesleyan students, just like, or to students that are motivated, put it that way, to do things. So glad to see that you’re doing all sorts of things and I still can’t wrap my head around 75 countries, I’m just still trying to think that just like in five years, I can’t even see doing that. But I want to thank you all for for joining me so this is Wesleyan Artist Market you all will be at and that’s April Friday the 25th from 10:00 – 7:00 pm and Saturday April 26 from 10:00 to 3:00 pm. We’ve been talking with Kimberly Wang, who does food art, edible food art, and Nika and her brother Carter Jensen, who do jewelry. Appreciate you guys being with me and being so talkative and just being good guests. So thank you all. Hang in there with me for a second. Everyone else, I want to say thank you again for joining us. You can find out more about Wesleyan Artist Market from just going to wesleyanschool.org or just Googling Wesleyan Artist Market it’ll pop up for you. And it’s open to the public, Friday and Saturday in April. So check them out. Visit the 24 students that are displaying their artwork as well, along with the over, I think it’s over 70 professional artists there. And thank you all from, I guess you’re in Wesleyan Wolf TV station too. So appreciate you doing that with me. So thank you everyone. Stay well.

Peachtree Corners Life

Peachtree Corners Roundabout Plans, Tech Park Housing and Zoning Updates [Podcast]

Published

3 weeks ago

April 7, 2025

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, host Rico Figliolini speaks with City Manager Brian Johnson about several key developments happening around the city. From proposed traffic improvements near the Forum to the shift toward more equity-based residential housing, Brian provides updates on what’s being considered and how the city is approaching growth and redevelopment.

The conversation covers changes in Tech Park, details about the new Curiosity Corner mobility hub, updates on zoning and land use policy and the city’s efforts to manage potential data center projects.

If you live, work, or invest in Peachtree Corners, this episode offers a clear and timely overview of where things stand and what’s on the horizon.

Downloadable Content

🔍 Key Takeaways

New Roundabout proposed at Peachtree Corners Circle near the Forum to address traffic safety.
Multiple equity-based residential projects replacing outdated office spaces, including at 20-22 Tech Park, the Day Building, and 333 Research Court.
Curiosity Corner Mobility Hub coming to Tech Park, featuring EV stations, food trucks and drone test areas.
Autonomous vehicles like May Mobility already operating with zero drivers on Peachtree Corners streets.
City’s proactive zoning changes include special-use permits for data centers and new infill residential zoning.
Merger of Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals to streamline decisions and reduce redundancy.

Peachtree Corners Rounabout at The Forum

Timestamps of Major Topics

00:01 – Introductions & Sponsors
02:00 – New Roundabout Near the Forum: Safety & Traffic Study
09:45 – 20/22 Tech Park Development: Downsized, Equity Apartments
13:30 – Day Building Townhome Settlement & Safety Upgrades
17:00 – 333 Research Court: Office-to-Townhome Conversion
20:00 – Curiosity Corner: Tech Park’s New Mobility Hub
23:45 – May Mobility Driverless Car Stories
26:45 – Why Peachtree Corners is Restricting Data Center Development
31:30 – Merging Zoning Boards: Efficiency & Transparency
34:00 – New Infill Residential Zoning for Smaller Sites

38:00 – Wrap-up and Magazine Plug

Podcast Transcript:

Transcript:

00:00:03 – Rico Figliolini

Right. Hi, this is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. Appreciate you guys joining us. This is me with Brian Johnson, the city manager. Hey, Brian.

00:00:09 – Brian Johnson

Hey, Rico. How are you?

00:00:15 – Rico Figliolini

Good. Good to have you. We haven’t done this in a while, but before we get into this, let me just say thank you to two of our sponsors, EV Remodeling Inc. and Eli, the owner, based here in Peachtree Corners. They’re a great company, great family. They do design to build. So from everything from rebuilding your house to adding a deck or an extension or just redoing your kitchen. They’ve done over 260 family homes and stuff. So check them out. They just will do great work for you. Our second sponsor is Vox Pop Uli, also here based in Peachtree Corners. If you have a company and you’re doing either trade shows or you have a company and you’re trying to get your brand name out, they’re the company to do it with because they deal with everything from vehicle wraps, wrapping that whole truck or that car, to trade show booths, to garments for your business, or to if you’re doing a Peachtree Corners Festival and you need the tent and you need branding, they’ll take care of that. So anything you need, your logo imprinted onto almost any object, they’ll figure it out for you. So check them out Vox Pop Uli is the company. Tell them we sent you, so thanks for supporting us. So Brian it’s been a while, I think we got a few things to touch on to talk about. Lots happening this year as one city councilman told me, it’s going to be an exciting year of stuff going on. But things going on right now. So let’s start off with I guess one of the biggest things, we just had an informational meeting about. So we had a lot of comments on our social posts about this. And this is about installing possibly another roundabout. This was an informational meeting, right? And the roundabout, similar to the one that’s on Peachtree Corners Circle and Medlock Bridge Road, right? But this one’s going to be located between the Forum and Creme de la Creme on also Peachtree Corners Circle. So can you give us the, you know the the details on that or eye level?

00:02:20 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, so it boiled down it really comes to this if anybody’s ever left the Forum on the south end by Trader Joe’s and wanted to turn on the Peachtree Corner Circle, really any direction but certainly if you’re trying to make a left out of there, it’s kind of a dangerous you know intersection. It’s unsignalized there, you know Peachtree Corner Circle coming from the west or the right side if you were, you know leaving the Forum is coming over down a hill around a corner. You’re crossing over, I believe what at that point you’re at least five lanes of traffic are at two lanes each way in a middle turning lane. And it’s a dangerous intersection. And as the activity at the Forum increases, the property right across the street, right next to Creme de la Creme is zoned for condos. So that could get developed. And then we’re going to talk here shortly about just up the road, the Day Building properly, which is actually the next property over that just got approved. And so traffic is going to even increase even more. We cannot put a signal, another traffic signal at that intersection because it’s too close to the Peachtree Corner Circle, Peachtree Parkway intersection. So we either have to leave it the way it is or a roundabout allows people, especially the most dangerous turning movement is leaving the Forum turning left.

00:03:54 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, for sure.

00:03:57 – Brian Johnson

And that, there’s no way to resolve that with, I guess unless you did a four-way stop, which I’m not, I mean, that’s, again, not just two lanes of traffic each direction. It can’t put a signal. So a roundabout allows people who want to turn left to actually turn right first into the roundabout and then just stay in the roundabout as you can go around to the left. So it’s almost like making a turning right to ultimately make a left. But you would turn right and enter the roundabout and then just follow the roundabout around until you’re now facing Peachtree Parkway and then you head straight. So we did a big traffic analysis, the city did along with Gwinnett County DOT and Georgia DOT, and a roundabout fits at that location. And so right now where we’re at is council, the city had an open house recently to solicit public comment on it. We’re sharing with you, have some, and we’re sharing the remainder of the information with you, Rico, so people can get on your social media posts and see, you know, but ultimately, you know, a lot of this detail will be hosted on our website, but they can see everything from the traffic analysis, the accident reports, the design concepts. But we’re doing that so that council can ultimately decide if this is you know a good to go project, and so that’s where we’re at with that project.

00:05:37 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. And we’ll have links we have an article being written about it but we’ll have links to the website, to the resources that you talked about, we’ll have that in the show notes. And this video I think a 3D video also that we’ll be sharing.

00:05:52 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, it’s an actual traffic model. So we took real traffic data from that intersection and then applied it at different times of the day on how this new roundabout would address that traffic count, that real traffic count. So that is not like, oh, let’s just throw a number of cars going through it. It is actually from the traffic counts.

00:06:16 – Rico Figliolini

And I remember the consultant telling me that I asked him, I said, it looks like an awful lot of cars. And he says, well, this is based on what the traffic is.

00:06:25 – Brian Johnson

Well, yeah, at the worst time, like, say, at 5:30.

00:06:30 – Rico Figliolini

Right.

00:06:31 – Brian Johnson

You know, how would it handle that? I mean, it’s easy to handle traffic there if it’s, you know, two in the afternoon, you know, nine in the morning, but we want to know what it’s like, you know, especially in the evening and rush hour, because the Forum’s not open in the early morning, so the morning rush hour traffic isn’t so bad. Evening is definitely, afternoon into the evening.

00:06:50 – Rico Figliolini

When you have people leaving the Forum, when you have people coming through wanting to go into the Forum, you have people leaving Creme de la C reme, you have people going left out of the QT station. Which once this is put, if I understand correctly, it’ll be a right in, right out only. Because there’ll be a median across the way. Correct.

00:07:13 – Brian Johnson

Correct. And you won’t be able to make a left out of the J. Alexander’s curb cut that’s closest to Peachtree Parkway.

00:07:21 – Rico Figliolini

You won’t be able to do that.

00:07:22 – Brian Johnson

Because that’s also, that’s actually going across.

00:07:25 – Rico Figliolini

That’s actually worse.

00:07:26 – Brian Johnson

Seven lanes of traffic with the turning lanes included.

00:07:29 – Rico Figliolini

I can’t even see how someone wants to make a left out of there. That’s dangerous right there.

00:07:32 – Brian Johnson

But people do.

00:07:33 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah. It’s crazy. And making a right out of, or coming out of the Forum by the Trader Joe’s, that driveway. I mean, I’ve personally seen anecdotally, if you will, one or two accidents roughly a year every months or so. And that’s what I’ve seen there. And I’ve seen people in the median stacked two, three, four cars. And if the first car doesn’t do their turn. The car behind them wants to play chicken and wants to come through sometimes. It’s like, you know, so I’m looking as I’m coming towards Peachtree Corners Baptist Church with the QT behind me. I’d have to be looking at the right side to see the Forum people, either people coming out to make a right or cutting straight across or wanting to go from that median going into the Forum. And even sometimes the Creme de la Creme people wanting to make a left out of there as well. Cutting across and who’s going to go?

00:08:30 – Brian Johnson

At the same time, somebody may want to make a left out of the Forum and Creme de la Creme.

00:08:35 – Rico Figliolini

Yes.

00:08:35 – Brian Johnson

And then there, you know. Yeah. So the only two options we have really, again, GDOT won’t let us put a traffic signal there because it’s too close to their signal on Peachtree Parkway.

00:08:49 – Rico Figliolini

Right.

00:08:50 – Brian Johnson

You can’t really put a four way stop where you have that many lanes. So we either leave it alone and just hope. Keep hoping for the best, or we do something that allows anybody who wants to make a left to technically do it by making a right into the traffic circle and then coming back around.

00:09:08 – Rico Figliolini

And I think there’ll be some improvements based on what we learned, what was learned from the roundabout at the other place that there’ll be some, what’s called brambles, I guess, stopping people cutting across from one lane to the other as they’re coming around. So there’ll be areas where they can feed into naturally into the lane. But yeah, so I thought that was good. So if you guys want to check out the links, you’ll be able to see that information and stuff. So that’s cool. So let’s talk about also 2022 Technology Parkway. That was the, that was originally had an old developer that came in. That was actually approved, I think, for just almost 300 units, apartments.

00:09:54 – Brian Johnson

A little more than 300, yeah.

00:09:55 – Rico Figliolini

More than 300, right? So now a new developer came in. And so tell us a bit about that, because now it’s moving towards equity property, I think, or?

00:10:06 – Brian Johnson

Well, no, that one isn’t. So the original application that was approved for rezoning was to combine 20 and 22 Tech Park South, which is at the corner of PIB and Technology Parkway South. And to combine the properties and then put, you know, around 350-ish apartment units on two different, I don’t know if you want to call them towers, but, you know, I would say six-story properties there built on top of where the existing buildings had been demoed. And the original owner, you know, ends up selling it. And so when the new developers come in, we work with them. And the ultimate product that they ask to be developed is reducing it by, I don’t know, somewhere near 100. So there’s like about 100 less units going in as tall. But it is still a multifamily development right there at the corner, all being built on existing parking lot or foundation of existing building. Anybody’s driven there recently that’s an old building that had structured parking there, it’s derelict people are breaking into it and and so it’s a code enforcement you know kind of challenge right now but the developers were approved for this less dense product than was previously approved so in that vein that’s a good thing. And again tech park and the businesses in tech park need, you know, it’s healthy to have a mix of housing units in amongst these buildings because employees like to be able to work close to or live close to where they work. So this is a good node right there, right there at PIB. So, yeah, we’re excited about the project and, you know, have every reason to believe the developer is going to jump right on it.

00:12:08 – Rico Figliolini

It’s amazing how we, how is its transition, Tech Park, 500 acres of office, all office, to slowly being more residential in there as well.

00:12:19 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, the mix.

00:12:20 – Rico Figliolini

The mix of it. Because you know the world has changed there’s still a lot of people working remote still a lot of you know office buildings, just you know going the way of this if you will.

00:12:32 – Brian Johnson

And we did part of that small area plan that council just approved recently was a office inventory in which we graded the quality of the remaining office And we identified the offices that are, you know, and it’s a lesser percentage, but there are some that are almost at a point where you’re not going to ever see somebody fill it with, you know, commercial tenants anymore because the building requires too many upgrades for it to be competitive. So those are ones that council will be, you know, more amenable to consider transitioning it to residential. Some of the office product, if an application came in and they wanted to demo or repurpose an office, council would say no, because we do want to also protect our office product. It’s still a very important part of our, you know, local economy. So we’re being very, you know, selective in which ones we might allow for this to happen, which ones we won’t.

00:13:34 – Rico Figliolini

Okay. Talking about another one, also the Day building, which is on Peachtree Corner Circle. People might be familiar with that building. It’s just, it’s before the Creme de la Creme on the right-hand side going up a hill. So they’ve originally came in, wanted to do 225 units or somewhere about there, retail, townhomes, so mixed use. That was denied, I think, at some point. And then they filed suit, trying to figure out, you know, we want to use this land, let us use this land. And then they went into a settlement with you, with the city. So tell us a bit about that. And they resubmitted, I think, right?

00:14:13 – Brian Johnson

Yes. And that is all true. And so they came back as part of settlement discussions and changed it from a mixed use product that had 225-ish or so apartments to an all equity development of around 60, maybe a little bit more than 60 townhomes on that product or on that property. That property has two entrances, one on Peachtree Corner Circle and then the back side also has ingress egress onto what’s Data Drive. Then if you take Data Drive up it goes into Triangle Parkway near Cornerstone Christian. So this development will have two entrances so it won’t have to dump everything out on Peachtree Corner Circle all the time. But it does allow us, as part of this settlement agreement we mandated, if you are on Peachtree Corner Circle, say, heading from Spalding towards Peachtree Parkway, and you start coming around that, you know, down the hill around the corner, getting close to the Forum, Creme de la Creme, the current entrance doesn’t have a deceleration length. So people don’t realize there’s an entrance there and all of a sudden when you’re on this corner where you would think there’s no entrances anywhere we’re at a higher rate of speed people turning into it all of a sudden slow down and people behind are like why are you slowing down. So we required a deceleration lane so now they can get out of the you know normal, you know travel lane and decelerate outside of it that will help. But yeah, this product goes from, again, 200 plus apartment units down to 60-ish equity townhomes, and that’s it. No commercial, no retail, just residential. And it’s an office product that probably would remain vacant if we didn’t allow this because the office is so old, it would require more money than they could make by keeping it office just because office product, like you said, is just not at a premium right now.

00:16:29 – Rico Figliolini

No, no. Changing environment out there and more density, you know, I mean, even multi-use, right? Multi-use is changing also. There’s not, right? There’s not as much, unless you go up to Johns Creek, I guess. They just approved some big multi-use retail density apartment.

00:16:50 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, but that’s part of their new town center, though.

00:16:52 – Rico Figliolini

Right. so that’s a whole different thing. So to, okay so there’s quite a few you know things going on there as far as residential development and stuff the other thing that I noticed.

00:17:04 – Brian Johnson

Real quick, we have one more at our last council meeting we’re talking about that’s 333 Research Court.

00:17:11 – Rico Figliolini

Right, okay I was going to save that for later but let’s go into that.

00:17:13 – Brian Johnson

Oh, okay. Well I mean it was all kind of in the whole genre of having selected office buildings that were of poor enough quality that the occupancy or call it the vacancy was so high. And the property owners had come in and said, we’re not, we can’t keep it as an office. We’re never going to be able to get tenants without pouring a lot of money. And right now the demand isn’t high. So it was another one. It’s at the end of Research Court. Probably the best way to know is if you’re looking at Norcross High School, right of their main building is a bunch of classroom trailers, then into the woods, there’s a buffer there. You would come into the back parking lot of somewhere that the only way to drive through it is you got to go into Tech Park, onto Technology Parkway Research Court at the very back. Anyway, this is converting that property into their original attempt was to put about, I don’t know, 100, just maybe under a hundred stack flats. Was an equity product, but it was stacked flats. They were not able to make the numbers quite work on that. And so they’ve, they decreased the density of the equity and that’s going to be around 60-ish or so townhome product as well. So that’s where that is at. And again, a carefully selected node within Technology Parkway where we feel like having a small cluster of residential will meld well with the existing higher quality office to create the mixed use that Tech Park is becoming.

00:18:57 – Rico Figliolini

You know, I like the fact that we go from I mean there’s a reason for multi-use and the reason for multi-family development actually. But I like the fact that we’re moving towards equity like the these equity properties. I think that more stabilizes the community also a bit. That’s a lot of development decisions that have been made. There’s been some also first reads of some other stuff that will be in the next city council meeting. So we’ll have links to these things that you all can visit because the city set up on their website a special page showing development applications. So you all can actually go there and you can actually look through the applications and see the you know, the maps and stuff and what’s coming up over the next month or two. There’s somewhere else also in Technology Park, things going on there. I saw some clear cutting just recently. So something’s happening. Something’s beginning. I remember seeing a check, a federal, I think it was Congressman Bordeaux at the time, gave a check for over a half a million dollars back in 2022 for this. And it’s a mobility hub in Technology Park. It’s called Curiosity Corner now. So tell us a little bit about that and what’s coming there, Brian.

00:20:15 – Brian Johnson

So it’s at the corner of Scientific Drive and Technology Parkway. And, you know, really most across the street from Global Aviation, you know, that area. It is, you know, what, a three plus acre parcel. And it’s going to be everything. It’s a mobility hub. So all things mobility can come together there. Everything from the Gwinnett County Transit bus has their route there to EV charging so that you could have electric vehicles, e-bikes, e-scooters, all things mobility can come together there. Testing around that with the Curiosity Lab ecosystem can happen there. There’s also drone, location for drone, both testing and as well as if we have interested companies that are starting to get into the drone delivery space, a number of companies like Amazon, Google, that have arms that are doing, you know, point to point, you know, it’s like, I guess, retail to customer direct delivery of things like medicine and other things, but they need locations and cities to make this work. This could be one of those. We’re also turning it into an amenity to make the employees within businesses here in Technology Park have a place, an amenity to go to, to kind of create the sense of place within the entirety of Tech Park. Here, we’re going to have food truck stalls with, you know, plugins right there, covered seating with fans underneath it and public 5G Wi-Fi. Our hope is that it creates an opportunity for employees in Tech Park businesses to be able to go to maybe for lunch and not have to get on that river of cars that’s either Peachtree Parkway or PIV. To get together, to socialize. There’s some open space there that there could even be some you know, organized events, maybe in the evening, you know, something, you know.

00:22:31 – Rico Figliolini

You’re going to have some green space.

00:22:33 – Brian Johnson

Green space there, yes. So it’s a mix of a lot of stuff. It is a mobility hub, but it’s going to be both for practical, you know, purposes and testing as well, which is what this ecosystem of Curiosity Lab has become.

00:22:49 – Rico Figliolini

It’s amazing. We did a podcast about May Mobility. and people that have gone through Tech Park probably have seen this car, has a wrap and stuff like that. It drives like 35 miles an hour at least and it’s going through and people will see no driver.

00:23:08 – Brian Johnson

There’s not even a person in the car.

00:23:09 – Rico Figliolini

Not a person in the car, right. So it looks really strange when you see it. When I drove in it, getting into that middle seat with some people and seeing this car drive by itself it’s kind of weird too because it takes you a little while to like, damn, look at that. It’s just moving.

00:23:27 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, there’s nobody there in case something happened for them to grab the wheel.

00:23:31 – Rico Figliolini

That’s right. Yes.

00:23:36 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, we’ve had safety stewards in some of the other autonomous vehicles. So they’ve been autonomous, but you always had that person that was sitting there and they weren’t driving, but they were there. This one doesn’t even have that. So it is a little bit of a unique experience.

00:23:49 – Rico Figliolini

So the interesting part is too that it goes, so it’ll go up and down Technology Parkway and it goes through City Hall parking, you know City Hall area and then comes out it goes to with the former Anderby, jug turn if you want to call it that where it comes out and make a left back out onto the street to come on back. So we’re doing a photoshoot.

00:24:11 – Brian Johnson

It also goes through the Marriott parking lot.

00:24:16 – Rico Figliolini

Right, the Marriott, yep. So we’re doing a photo shoot in front of City Hall. We have the marshals there and we’re doing this photo shoot. The cars are parked right literally in front of City Hall. And we’re doing the shoot. And all of a sudden I noticed there’s a car waiting to get through. And I’m like, it turned and it’s the May Mobility car. And it’s like, it stopped and it’s just waiting. I’m like, is that supposed to be staging from here? What is going on? No, the damn thing, it’s just waiting. It’s waiting. And it’s like, I think we need to let it go through. So we step off the parking lot a bit. Now, mind you, these marshal cars are pointing towards us away from the building. They were like, we had three of them there like that. And so we stepped off. We’re still near the edge. And it’s not moving. So I was like, maybe it’s the cars or maybe it’s us. What if we take a couple more steps back? We did that. All of a sudden, after a second or two it decides okay maybe I’ll slowly start moving so it slowly starts moving, weaves its way up and then picks up speed and then goes. And I was like, it was actually waiting for us look at that. It actually worked the way it’s supposed to.

00:25:23 – Brian Johnson

Yeah, it does although you know it’s interesting without people there you know normally if somebody was there and you didn’t want to move you know you could like motion them to like go around or something.

00:25:30 – Rico Figliolini

Really? Oh, you know what yes.

00:25:31 – Brian Johnson

You know, because if you were driving up there and I’m like, Rico, we’re doing something. Can you go around? You’d be like, okay.

00:25:35 – Rico Figliolini

Yes, right. But that car won’t do it.

00:25:38 – Brian Johnson

It’s like, look, this is the direction of travel I’m supposed to be driving, you’re in my way. My, you know, A .I. and my, you know, all our sensors say I can’t go until you get out of the way. But once you do, it’s like, alright, it looks clear. Alright. And then it goes. I mean, so it works.

00:25:59 – Rico Figliolini

No. And it made the right choice because there were three cars that were pointing at it pretty much as it was going and but it was waiting for us to get off and then it made that decision that those three cars are parked that even though they weren’t in parking spaces so it had to make that intelligent choice to say it’s not going to move they’re just pointing that way it’s stable for the last five minutes. Yeah it was just an interesting thing to see. Alright. So we’ve got just a few more quick things, that we talked about a little bit about a special use permit that’s being, this is a bit proactive decision the city council is making and the city’s making about data centers and creating special use permit for that. Walk us through why that as a proactive thing, why that makes sense.

00:26:51 – Brian Johnson

Yeah. So also at this last council meeting we had, we had a couple of preemptive moves. This one is just merely for us to require anybody wanting to construct a data center and by data center I’m essentially saying these are large buildings that are constructed to house server farms. And this is when somebody says, oh you know I’m saving something to the cloud, well there’s not anything actually in the cloud, it’s still going to a server. But the cloud is really server farms and these can be hundreds of thousands of square feet of just servers that require a lot of electricity and a lot of water to oftentimes cool the space. And they serve a purpose. But if you’re not careful and somebody’s got the current zoning allow for it, you could find property chewed up with very large buildings that don’t really provide value to the city because you could have hundreds of thousands of square feet of these servers and five employees that are managing it and it’s not generating retail transactions for us to get sales tax. And it’s not the headquarters of a company that would pay us a business license, so we essentially could have large you know very valuable property chewed up with this but it’s not a value add to us as a city. We feel like there might be exceptions where we could have a modest size one, maybe. Maybe in conjunction with something else with a Google or whatever, Amazon, whatever. But oftentimes these big ones are better left for more rural areas. You know, we’ve become more of a redevelopment city because we don’t have a lot of undeveloped property left. So our property is a premium. And so there’s, Metro Atlanta has a lot of tire kicking going on with developers wanting to do it because the demand for cloud storage just keeps going up and up. We want to be very careful. So we made it to where each specific instance has to get in front of council and has to have a public hearing. And so that’s what this is to do.

00:29:11 – Rico Figliolini

So you, at the beginning, before we started the podcast, you were saying there were a lot of tire kickings going on, I guess. Was it from that or was it also from trends that you saw other cities having some of the same issues had that this sort of, you know, get on your list of that we need to take care of this?

00:29:30 – Brian Johnson

Well, reading some of the recent, I think even the AJC had not to, but a couple of weeks ago, recent article about the demand in Georgia as a whole or Metro Atlanta specifically. And so that got it kind of got already on our screen. We did have specific tire kicking going on here by a developer who was actually, you know, my community development director, Sean Adams will get calls with people asking, hey, I’m, you know, representing a property owner or whatever. And I wanted to know, is this an eligible use? And he was getting a little bit of those. So then he did look, you know, he did look out nationally to see what our city’s doing, what are best practices. He took that and crafted his own language, made it ours, and then presented it to me, and I put it on the agenda for council to consider. So all of what you said is added together is kind of how it ultimately got on an agenda, but it is a preemptive move. So we now do have this protection. So if somebody want to do it, council’s got to approve it and there’s got to be a public hearing so the community gets a chance to weigh in on it as well.

00:30:48 – Rico Figliolini

It’s good to see the function of city. Of the city mechanics if you will. How things come about, why you look at certain things and stuff. So it’s good I think for the public to see this, that it’s not just pulled out of nowhere. It’s like why this? Why data centers? Well, because these trends that you all even went out to look at the competitive field, what was being done, best practices, it’s all great. Rezoning Board of Appeals, rezoning board, I guess, and the Planning Commission. There were recently, and I’ve noticed there on the, I guess, is it the rezoning or the zoning board of appeals, I guess. There were a lot of canceled meetings at certain points. Wasn’t being probably needed, but you all decided to merge, I guess, both of those.

00:31:39 – Brian Johnson

Yes. So Zoning Board of Appeals hears cases of, you know, where somebody has, you know, a hardship due to a zoning or a code compliance, you know. And so they don’t have a lot of cases every year. In fact, two years ago, we went the entire year and there was no case for them to hear. No hardship case for them to weigh in on. So it started to get to where it, you know, you ask somebody or somebody is interested in being civically active. You put them on a, you know, the ZBA and they don’t have a meeting for a year or they’re canceled. That’s one, too training. You know, you like to these board members oftentimes go to training and, you know, we want them to be trained up. And so we just thought that, you know what, we’ll, you know support and provide even additional training to one group. And we combine the planning commission and the ZBA together. So now planning commissioners will also hear, you know, appeal cases on city code that the ZBA would have heard. And so we’re combining it, we’re adding, because it’s a more, call it a body that hearing two types of cases, we decided to add two additional spots. So the planning commission grew, but now we won’t have a ZBA. The planning commission will serve in that capacity.

00:33:08 – Rico Figliolini

And for people that may not be aware, planning commission, these are volunteer positions of appointed people, citizens from our community. The zoning board of appeals would look at not only commercial, but residential appeals, right? So if someone wanted a little leniency on the easement on their property, maybe, or they needed.

00:33:28 – Brian Johnson

Or they wanted to park an RV. A common one is park an RV in their driveway permanently if they’re not using it for a long period, you know, where that’s not allowed per code. And they make a hardship case. And, you know, the ZBA would say, yeah, you know, you do have a hardship case. We’re going to allow it on that particular property. So it’s an important role.

00:33:52 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, for sure. Okay, cool. So that’s cool. So I think the next one was the new zoning district for the infill residential development. So what does that mean to most people, Brian?

00:34:08 – Brian Johnson

Well, you know, if people knew anything about Peachtree Corners, again, they’re going to look at the city and be like, you know, there’s not a lot of undeveloped property left. So, you know, we are more of redevelopment. So now new projects are oftentimes, they involve the tearing down of a use that’s run its cycle. You know, maybe it was an office building for 50 years, but now it’s time for there to be a new office or something else or maybe a combination. But when that happens, there are oftentimes pockets of smaller properties that maybe things have changed and we could put them to good use. A good example of that would be commercial office buildings used to have a higher parking spot per square foot ratio than we need now. There used to be, you know, the big sea of parking in front of a big, you know, box store is no longer the case. So we oftentimes have office product is a good, you know, again, a good example where there could be twice the amount of parking that they need, but they’d like to do something with it. Well, maybe there’s an opportunity for infill. And so there are pockets, and there’s not a lot of them, but we have pockets where we were kind of like, what are we going to do with these? We don’t have a zoning classification that allows for certain smaller, you know, you could almost argue shoehorn things. But yet, if you don’t do anything, it’s kind of a waste of a property. And so we want to maximize our property and be as flexible as we can. So again, the community development director looked at best practices and came up with the infill residential. So this could be to where you could put smaller, you know, pockets of residential and oftentimes maybe it doesn’t have the same buffer requirement that you would normally have or some of those other things. And so it’s just a way for us to be flexible. Again, there’s not a lot of, cases but there are some cases where we think there could be a use here so it’s just providing us, it’s adding to our you know, our bag of tricks if you will when it comes to trying to maximize what is not. We’re not getting any more property right now, so we’ve got to make that, make the best of what we have.

00:36:36 – Rico Figliolini

So, it’s good to see the city being proactive So not just reactive to everything that’s coming along, right? You want to plan things out. I mean, that’s why the comprehensive plan is there that just got revised and stuff. We’ve hit on quite a few things. So there’s a lot of stuff going on in the city, more things coming. Anything that we’ve left out, Brian, that you just want to mention for the time being?

00:37:01 – Brian Johnson

No, not really. I mean, you know, encourage people to go. I think you put a link on there, the latest edition of Peachtree Corners Life has a, the mayor has a column in there.

00:37:14 – Rico Figliolini

Yes. On our website about deer population.

00:37:15 – Brian Johnson

Yes. And, you know, deer. So for those who want to know what we’re doing and we’ve, we’re actively getting to a point where we will have a deer management plan, but if anybody’s curious as to what we’re doing there, I encourage them to read that. But, you know, right now that was, you know, our last council meeting was a lot of land use stuff. Good things. Essentially all but one project was equity. And, you know, and all of it was city negotiated a less dense product taken into consideration, traffic and other things. So, you know, I think these are going to be, it’s going to be new injection of life into property that right now is stagnated. So good things. And we’ll continue to drive forward.

00:38:05 – Rico Figliolini

Sounds good. We’ve been spending our time with Brian Johnson, City Manager. Always appreciate his willingness to come on and talk about things. Southwest Gwinnett Magazine, let me just show you. This just is probably hitting your mailbox this week. Wesleyan Artist Market, that’s happening at the end of April. So check this out. Some decently good stories in here about summer camps. And local author, Great Atlantic Christian and their expansion and some other things. Even a former Beatles tribute drummer who just opened a coffee shop here on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. Well, Peachtree Boulevard, actually. I need to start saying that.

00:38:46 – Brian Johnson

There’s still a section that’s PIB.

00:38:49 – Rico Figliolini

Is it?

00:38:50 – Brian Johnson

I mean, technically, it’s Peachtree Boulevard if you’re heading north from 285 until the split. At the split, if you stay on the right heading north, it’s still PIB. It’s only Peachtree Boulevard while it’s a state route.

00:39:08 – Rico Figliolini

Gotcha. Thanks for explaining.

00:39:08 – Brian Johnson

There is still a section of PIB as it heads up into Gwinnett. Yeah. You got to be a government junkie to know all this stuff.

00:39:17 – Rico Figliolini

No, I appreciate that. And I’m more of a political junkie than government junkies.

00:39:23 – Brian Johnson

I’m paid to be a government junkie.

00:39:25 – Rico Figliolini

For sure. Thank you Brian, everyone else yeah no, hang with me for a second. But everyone else thank you. You’ll find the important links below and if this is on YouTube or Facebook, just check out our website and you’ll for this post, this podcast post and you’ll see all the links in there leading back to pictures and all sorts of things that you need. Alright thank you guys, appreciate you being with us, bye.

Peachtree Corners Life

Inside the Solicitor General’s Office: Lisamarie Bristol on Justice in Gwinnett County

Published

1 month ago

March 25, 2025

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

On this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, host Rico Figliolini speaks with Gwinnett County Solicitor General Lisamarie Bristol about her work addressing the county’s growing case volume and implementing new justice initiatives. From launching a public resource website to tackling a 4,000-case backlog, Lisamarie shares how her office is improving efficiency and accessibility in the legal system.

She also discusses innovative programs like the Diversion Program, the Duty Attorney Pilot Program, and the Special Victims Unit—each designed to enhance fairness and provide second chances where possible. Tune in to hear how Gwinnett County is adapting to its rapid growth, the role of technology in legal processes, and how community partnerships are strengthening justice for all.

Key Takeaways & Highlights:

Understanding the Solicitor General’s Role – How the office prosecutes misdemeanors, traffic offenses, and quality-of-life cases.
4,000-Case Backlog Solution – Strategies to streamline processes and improve case resolution speed.
New Legal Resource Website – How Gwinnett residents can access critical legal information and victim advocacy services.
Diversion Program Success – Over 1,400 successful cases, providing alternatives to prosecution and preventing repeat offenses.
Special Victims Unit – Dedicated to handling sensitive cases like misdemeanor sex crimes and vehicular homicides.
Teen Dating Violence & Social Media Risks – How technology is impacting legal cases involving young people.
Expanding Access to Legal Support – Partnerships with Mosaic Georgia, PADV, and HIMSA House to assist victims and underserved communities.
Justice System Challenges – Addressing mental health, substance abuse, and legislative changes affecting prosecution.

Listen in for an insightful conversation on justice, reform, and the future of law enforcement in Gwinnett County!

Resources:
Gwinnett County Solicitor Website: https://gwinnettsg.com/
Campaign website: www.lisamariebristol.com
Mosaic Georgia: www.mosaicgeorgia.org
PADV: www.padv.org
Ahimsa House: www.ahimsahouse.org

Transcript:

00:00:01 – Rico Figliolini

Hi, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. I appreciate you guys joining us. We’re in our little smart city just north of Atlanta. I have a great guest today, Lisamarie Bristol, Solicitor General for Gwinnett County. I appreciate you joining me, Lisa.

00:00:18 – Lisamarie Bristol

Thank you so much, Rico. It’s a pleasure to be back with you.

00:00:21 – Rico Figliolini

Yes, this is our second podcast together. I think the last one was just before you got elected?

00:00:29 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes.

00:00:29 – Rico Figliolini

Right? ‘22?

00:00:30 – Lisamarie Bristol

It’s when I was still campaigning so probably about three years ago now. Oh my.

00:00:34 – Rico Figliolini

Yep, yeah. You took office January ‘23 so a good tenure. So lots to talk about right? But before we get to that I just want to say thank you to our sponsors. And we have two great corporate sponsors both based in Peachtree Corners, both family run. EV Remodeling Inc is a company that does great work. You have a dream home, they can build it, renovate it, add home space to you, renovate your bathrooms, your kitchens. They design your space like they want to design your life. So 260 families plus have been really happy with their work. So you should check them out. EVRemodelingInc.com. We appreciate their support. And Vox Pop Uli. Vox Pop Uli is family run as well. I want to thank Andrew and Daniel for supporting us. You have a brand, you want to bring it to life. These guys will put your logo, your brand on almost anything. Think of truck, car, vehicle wraps. They’ve done over 1,600 last year, I think alone. So check them out, trade show things, embroidering, whatever you need. If you have a logo and you want to put it on an object, challenge them because I think they have yet to fail whatever we need done. So it’s kind of cool. So check them out, voxpopuli.com. So I appreciate them doing that and supporting our journalism, our podcasts, and the magazines that we produce. But let’s get to Lisa. Let’s get to, do you prefer Lisa or Lisamarie?

00:02:11 – Lisamarie Bristol

Marie, actually.

00:02:13 – Rico Figliolini

Okay, Lisamarie. So you’ve been tenured in the job of Solicitor General for Gwinnett County since ‘23 of January. For those people that aren’t aware, tell them what the job entails. What does that job do in this county?

00:02:29 – Lisamarie Bristol

Great. Well, thank you so much again for having me here today. I’m really honored. Full circle moment. You were the first podcast I did when I was first campaigning for this seat. So it is wonderful to be back here. As Solicitor General, my job as the elected prosecutor is to handle prosecuting cases in state court, recorders court, and we handle all of the misdemeanors, the traffic offenses, the code enforcement, animal cases. So everything that’s not a felony comes through my court. My office is responsible for prosecuting cases in 11 courtrooms. We are the second largest office in the state of Georgia in terms of Solicitor General offices, and we are definitely a high volume office. So anything from DUI, domestic violence cases, death cases that are misdemeanor amounts, as well as traffic offenses and quality of life cases like junkyard and animal barking cases. All of those are prosecuted through my office.

00:03:33 – Rico Figliolini

Wow. That’s a lot. And I remember when we first spoke back then that there was a huge caseload backlog of I think over 4,000 cases in ‘22 and it was going to be a challenge for anyone that took office, the amount of courts, the amount of work to be done. And trying to make it in an efficient way. So you’ve started some programs to help better work the system if you will versus the system working you. So one of one of the things you all set up and maybe you could tell us about it. It’s the launching of the new website and what that does for anyone that needs to interact with the agency, with the department.

00:04:20 – Lisamarie Bristol

Absolutely. One thing I realized is a lot of people understandably just don’t really know what my office does. And the reality is, is most people will interact with a Solicitor General’s Office traffic court or something at that level. Lots of people get traffic tickets or they may be the unfortunate victim of a traffic accident. There’s lots of, you know, lower level misdemeanor kind of public safety or public nuisance crimes that may touch our community where they may be a victim or a witness to a car accident case or something that occurred in their community, not necessarily severe violent crimes all the time. And so one thing that I thought was really important was reaching our community. And reaching our community in a way that they got an opportunity to understand what we do, how we do it, why we do it, in not a very traumatic way. And so we created this website which allows us to give out information that we know we’re constantly being asked about. Things like record restrictions for people with older cases and older convictions to clear their record. So we have lots of information on there about that. Lots of information about our victim advocacy program and how victims and survivors of crimes can receive resources and help and assistance if they need it. We also talk a lot about what my office does and how we can help people and what we’re here to do. So if you go to GwinnettSG.com, there’s just lots of different nuggets of information. One thing on the website that I’m especially proud about is we started a safety resource library where we’re trying to periodically add different topics, whether it’s teen driving safety or DUI, a safety PSA, so people can kind of go there and kind of get like the high level nuts and bolts about different topics that affect everyone in our community and just get some quick information.

00:06:26 – Rico Figliolini

Well, you also have some additional links to other websites that are helpful as well, it seems, right? Gwinnett County Courts website and all that.

00:06:36 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes, we have websites and links to all of our other county stakeholder partners, as well as lots of resources to other agencies that serve victims in the community. So whether it is somebody who needs help for domestic violence, they need shelter, they need resources, food, culturally relevant services. We’ve tried to provide kind of a one-stop shop if this is where somebody ends up to find all of the things that they could possibly need. Additionally we have you know the generic contact us page where if you reach out to us if you can’t find the information on our page, contact us, send us an email. And if we don’t have the answer we will definitely try and point you in the right direction of who does.

00:07:21 – Rico Figliolini

And the good part is that the site can be read in not just Spanish, but Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Dutch, Chinese, Arabic. Quite a few languages.

00:07:34 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes, whatever language you need. I mean, Gwinnett County is the most diverse county in the entire United States. I don’t know if anyone had the opportunity to see our chairwoman deliver the state of the county earlier this month. We have, for the longest time, Gwinnett’s been known as the most diverse county in the Southeast region of the U.S. We’ve recently been recognized as the most diverse county in the country. I think that’s phenomenal. And as such, I thought it was very important to have a website that could properly serve such a diverse and vibrant community. So yes, all of the languages are available with a click of a button.

00:08:15 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, that must complicate things, I’m sure, in the courtrooms as well, right? A little bit.

00:08:20 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yeah, it does. And we try and have, you know, court certified reporters as quickly as possible when needed. And I’m grateful for the resources that we do have and definitely trying to expand the resources that we have even within my office. One of the things that we definitely worked on was making sure some of the core victim resources that we put out on a regular basis, we develop them in more than just English and Spanish. We expanded them, I believe, to Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, some of the more regularly seen languages that we were seeing throughout the community to make sure that we could reach people where they are.

00:09:00 – Rico Figliolini

For sure. I mean, there’s a large Korean population, Vietnamese population in Gwinnett County. Yeah. So it must be. So, I mean, with the growth of the county, which continues to grow, with second largest county in the state, a million plus residents, and that’s going to keep growing probably as much as 20% over the next decade, I bet. Easy. How does that affect your office? How does that affect budgeting and the things that you have to do?

00:09:30 – Lisamarie Bristol

Well, growth is a thing. Actually, the day I took office, my office grew. So we gained an extra judge in our circuit, a seventh state court judge. And gaining an extra seventh state court judge meant growing my office by an extra team and that was day one. And yes we do continue to grow, we do see an increase in numbers of cases that come in. I think we’ve seen a growth of approximately 2,000 cases per year so far that coming through state court. Two to three thousand citations per year and increasing coming through our recorders court. And the growth is something that we do have to deal with. I have increased my staffing levels and kind of restructured, not kind of, actually restructured how my office handles cases in an effort to be as efficient as possible. We have flipped how we look at our cases. So we are front loading a lot of the work. And what I mean by that is the effort that we’re putting in, every single case that comes through my office has to be touched. It has to be investigated. We have to reach out to the victims. We have to make these first critical touches and calls and safety planning and things like that. That has to happen no matter what. At the beginning of 2024, we had approximately 14,000 cases open in this office for state court alone. But by front-loading the work, by having my amazing investigations unit, my amazing victim advocate unit, who all since I took office has been nationally credentialed and poured a lot of training into both teams. What we’re able to do is we’re able to figure out which of those cases need further resources and need to be prosecuted at a higher level versus which ones we can divert and put into our diversion programs. Or which ones we need to go ahead and put in our accountability courts by identifying those low level offenses by identifying those low level or non-frequent fires so to speak, we’re able to kind of reserve some of that energy and efficiency so we can put that towards the cases, the more serious violent cases that we know need our attention.

00:11:48 – Rico Figliolini

So we’re talking about the implementation of the diversion unit essentially. And how that frees up the case, well not frees up but certainly frees up the time. I can see why you want to front load that to just, it’s almost a triage in a way because the flood keeps coming, right? It doesn’t stop. You can’t even put up your hand and say, whoa, it’s going to get more just essentially even just because of the expansion of population. Just the natural thing of it. So how do you identify these cases sooner than later? What makes you delay them or divert them? What criteria do you use?

00:12:31 – Lisamarie Bristol

That’s a great question. So diversion for those who don’t know, free trial diversion is an alternative to prosecution. So what it means is that someone who either has a minimal or no criminal history is given the opportunity to still be held accountable for their behavior, but rather than it ending up with them having a criminal conviction and criminal history, it gives them an opportunity to participate in this program pre-adjudication and keep a clean record if they successfully complete the program. So typically, a diversion program will be for someone who is either a youthful offender with very few cycles on their criminal history, less than three, someone who’s not been convicted of any felonies or any violent crimes, someone who’s maybe had a couple of traffic citations, anything that’s not violent or overly serious, things like that. They come into the program, they have to pay a fee. They usually have to do some forms of community service. The fee is not exorbitant. They’ll do some community service and they may have to do, well, they will have to do some sort of treatment. Maybe it’s anger management. Maybe it is a values clarification course, if it’s a theft-based class. Maybe it’s defensive driving if it’s a traffic offense or something of that nature. But they complete their portion in hopes that we are addressing what got them there in the first place, right. And once they successfully get through the program, which takes about six months, with no further arrests or any run into the law, the tradeoff is we will expunge their record. We’ll dismiss their case and the record will remain clean. So it gives them an opportunity to have. Yes, they did mess up. Yes, they did get a case. They were held accountable. They did have to pay their fine. They had to be supervised for six months. They had to go through this program, but they hopefully learned a lesson from it. And they have a chance to have a do-over without having the tarnish of a criminal record on their back.

00:14:37 – Rico Figliolini

So does this, just because the question pops to mind, I’m sure that other people might have the same question. Number one, are these minors or this would be anyone?

00:14:48 – Lisamarie Bristol

It could be anyone. It depends on their criminal history. So if, for instance, someone who is in their 50’s for the first time comes into contact with the criminal justice system and has a slip up and they’ve never done anything, they too would be eligible for our diversion program and would be able to maintain a clean history.

00:15:13 – Rico Figliolini

Go ahead. I’m sorry.

00:15:14 – Lisamarie Bristol

Well, as I’ve said before and what I campaigned on is knowing that convictions even to misdemeanors can have such a dire impact on people’s lives. It can keep from getting student loans, from you know stable housing, from jobs, from serving in the military. There’s a lot of things that can impact them. People with criminal histories may be prohibited from even getting a liquor license which may prevent them from being able to get a job as a server at a restaurant. So our goal is for those who are low risk, who have made a mistake, who may be restorative, to have that opportunity to do so. And so we’ve really expanded our diversion program. We’ve expanded our reach. We’ve tried to get people into our diversion program as quickly as possible. And I’ll tell you, our numbers are impressive so far. Between ‘23 and ‘24, we put in about 1,900 people into our diversion program, 1,900 cases, excuse me, with over 1,400 cases successfully completing it. So we have about a success rate of successful completion of about 74% on our diversion cases. We haven’t tracked this year yet.

00:16:31 – Rico Figliolini

So I guess the question for me would be a couple of questions. One is, how do you keep track of that? That’s a lot of people. You know, how do you keep track of it and make sure that it’s done in a comprehensive way? Because, you know, people can do things and fool around and stuff. And maybe you’re not getting quite all the information. But so how can you track that reasonably well? And the second part is when you expunge the record, what if they come in back into the system? Do you still, will you still know that they’re a repeat offender at that point? Or because the case is, the records expunge, you don’t have that record. So I guess that’s the two questions that I know that would come to mind to a listener.

00:17:19 – Lisamarie Bristol

Great questions. So for the first one, how do we keep track? Well, first, my office keeps track of, we have a team that is dedicated solely to our diversion program. And so their sole responsibility is keeping track of sending out the offers, maintaining the offers, signing them up, keeping up with their monthly check-ins. They are actually supervised by the probation office, not by my office, but they are responsible for staying on track of them and at certain timelines, checking in to ensure that certain cases have hit certain benchmarks to see that we’re on track. If someone has absconded or has disappeared or is not doing what they need to do, that team then pulls that case. We’re notified by probation. We pull that case and that case is then put on the regular track for prosecution, which would account for the 26% of people who unfortunately did not successfully complete the program. So we have multiple ways to track it, both internally within my team, as well as the independent probation office that handles the actual supervision of the people in the program. In terms of how do we know if they’re second offenders, the great thing is, well, what people are going to always know is for criminal records, there’s levels, right? As a criminal justice agency, we will always see somebody’s entire criminal history. So even though their record is expunged, that means for employers, for housing, for those reasons, yes, it is expunged. But law enforcement will always be able to see it. So I will always have access to their entire criminal history and see whether or not they’ve already been afforded an opportunity to go through diversion on a previous case. So those are all things that are checked prior to them being admitted into our program.

00:19:13 – Rico Figliolini

Cool. Okay, great. That answered my questions on that. So glad to see that that would work that way. Anything else about the diversion unit that you’d like to share?

00:19:25 – Lisamarie Bristol

I think one of the things I’m really happy about with our diversion unit is we are working really hard to expand the service providers within it. And by that, I mean, we’re trying to find as we are such a diverse county and not just in culture, but in needs. So we’re really trying to find diverse service providers that we can refer people to. That means having a variety of different types of anger management courses, not just always sending people to the same provider. The reality of it is, is if you have, say, a 23-year-old young lady, she might respond very differently to an anger management course then, let’s say a 30-year-old man. And we’re trying to be mindful of things like that and having a better rolodex of options so that people can be placed with the most impactful provider that will actually help them buy into the reformation and actually make a difference in what they’re doing.

00:20:26 – Rico Figliolini

Are you working with nonprofits in Gwinnett County as well that do outreach of this sort?

00:20:32 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes. And as we go around and we meet new nonprofits, I have members of my team who are able to kind of vet what they’re able to do, how they’re able to do it, and whether or not we can refer people not only through our diversion program, but sometimes through regular deed bargains with our defendants. Sometimes the victims in cases need some of these resources. So it’s really been helpful to kind of build these relationships with our community partners and other nonprofits. so we know what’s out there and so that we can utilize them and they can get the support as well.

00:21:08 – Rico Figliolini

Cool. There’s another program that you implemented as well, the Duty Attorney Pilot program. I know you’re proud of that as well. So tell us a little bit about that.

00:21:19 – Lisamarie Bristol

One thing we recognized when I took office is that, you know unfortunately some people are unable to bond out of the jail. They get arrested on a misdemeanor charge and they may have, they may, they will have a bond, but they may be unable to post the bond for various reasons. And for every day that they’re in jail, that leads to housing instability, job instability. It can really have a huge impact on them. And some of these crimes are, again, you know, nuisance crimes or nonviolent crimes that could destabilize them. One of the things I worked really hard with and did take partnership with other community partners, with other stakeholders rather, was getting a schedule so that we could have duty defense attorneys scheduled to be at each one of my jail calendars. We do three jail calendars a week so far. Hopefully they’re going to increase that soon. And at each of those jail calendars, there is a duty defense attorney. That means every person that we can get ready and put on those calendars, has the opportunity to resolve their case, even if they would otherwise not have had that opportunity or they would have had to wait a little bit longer for an appointed attorney to maybe get to them. The reality is we don’t have a public defender’s office here in Gwinnett. And our indigent defense defendants are dependent upon the attorneys who take the cases. And sometimes they’re stretched thin. Sometimes there’s complex things happen. People get stuck in other courtrooms. And what was happening is sometimes the defendants in jail got stuck because their attorneys could not make it for various reasons. I really wanted to address that. And having the duty pilot program has worked. It’s worked a great deal. I’m very proud of it. We’ve been able to increase our volume, increase our calendar sizes, and really start to move those cases on a more consistent basis. Because, honestly, the cases that we’ve identified that can be fast-tracked, our goal is to get them out of the jail, let them be held accountable for whatever they’ve done, and keep moving forward. It saves the county. It’s better for us in terms of community safety, and that’s definitely what we’re working towards.

00:23:38 – Rico Figliolini

So, obviously, you’re addressing a lot of the pressing challenges of the office, and you’ve done it, right, since ‘23. The, there’s other challenges as well. And you’ve implemented another program, the special victims unit program that you all did. And very important part, right, for the other side of that crime. So tell us a bit about the special victims unit.

00:24:03 – Lisamarie Bristol

So when I took office, one of the things I also recognized is there are some cases that just require extra care. I’m very fortunate I’ve had the experience to have worked with all types of crimes throughout my career on both sides. Whether it’s been from traffic, through serious violent felonies, as both a public defender and a prosecutor. And sometimes there are crimes that just require a little bit more TLC, a little bit more attention, more training to deal with them. We have a great deal of misdemeanor sex crimes that the legislature has carved out to be handled in state court now. And those are crimes of sexual nature that occur between consensual teenagers, anywhere between 14 and 18, sometimes 13 and 17. And frankly, those are just very sensitive. The subject matter is sensitive. All the facts usually surrounding the topics are sensitive. Both parties on both sides, usually the parents and guardians involved, it can be very sensitive. And I recognized really quickly that it was important to have a team that could really dive deeper and focus in on that, that I could spend extra time training and focusing their attention on handling those cases with the extra care they really do require. So our misdemeanor sex crimes, our vehicular homicides, which are cases where unfortunately due to a traffic accident, someone has passed away. And those are horrendous cases to deal with, but unfortunately they happen. So it’s an accident that a loved one has passed away. Again, very sensitive, very highly emotional at times and requires a little bit of extra attention. And so there are just certain crimes that have been, that we’re seeing an increase in volume at times in the office. Gwinnett has the largest school district in the state. So a lot of kid cases and just needed that extra touch. And so creating that Special Victims Unit was my solution to that.

00:26:16 – Rico Figliolini

Are you finding, I mean, so there wasn’t anything like that before? Or is this new? Are you improving on what might have been there?

00:26:28 – Lisamarie Bristol

Special Victims Unit is brand new to this office. There wasn’t anything like that in this office before.

00:26:34 – Rico Figliolini

Are you finding any trends in that part? Let’s stick to that for a second. When you say, you know, we have the largest school district, you know, and parents worry about the safety of their kids, both inside the school and outside. Are you finding any trends that you’re seeing that you’d like to share?

00:26:53 – Lisamarie Bristol

What we are seeing is we know that teens are engaging in intimate and romantic relationships younger these days, and they’re exposed to a lot more. They are, whether it’s on the phones, on the media, what have you. And we are seeing that they are exposed and more experimental with things earlier now than probably several years ago, 10 years ago, even. I think that’s part of the reason why this whole kind of Romeo and Juliet portion of sex crimes is carved out. So what my office is trying to do is not only are we not only just the creation of the special victims unit, we’re also trying to be very proactive. So for instance, February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. And my office participated in a number of activities trying to get ahead of it. And what we did was we participated in resource tabling here at the courthouse where we set up tables with tons of information about teen dating violence, where we could share the importance on signs of healthy dating, management partnerships, and just regular partnerships amongst teens. We actually went out and we were in five different high schools throughout the month of February, where we were invited over their lunch periods to meet with various teenagers throughout the Gwinnett County Schools and talk to them and meet them where they are about healthy dating habits, healthy boundaries, how to seek help if they felt like they were in an unsafe situation. Whether it’s a friendship or an intimate partnership. Because what we do know is sometimes teens don’t feel comfortable or don’t want to talk to their parents. So we were able to give them other resources. Here are some toll-free numbers you can call. Here are some safe adults you can speak to. Speak to your teachers, speak to your counselors, if that’s what you need to do. There are some red flags you need to consider. So we’re really trying to be proactive with educating the public as well, not just being reactive.

00:28:58 – Rico Figliolini

Are you seeing any activity or exposure to social media that you have to attend to in some of the cases that you do?

00:29:08 – Lisamarie Bristol

We do. Sometimes a big part of it is explaining to teens the impact of some of the things that they’re doing on their phones and the potential pitfalls to some of that behavior. And a lot of times going out to the schools, whether it’s just a teen dating, violence awareness, tabling event, or just being at their career fairs or going to career days and speaking to different youth groups and answering those questions has been really beneficial. We also participated in a teen summit where we did a panel discussion, there was an attorney, an advocate, and an investigator from my office that all participated in the Teen Summit, which was in partnership with PADV, the Partnership Against Domestic Violence. Huge event over at Gas South last month. And they had the opportunity to ask those kinds of questions. What is, you know, what happens if I take this picture and I send it to my friend or if I get this picture and I send it out to my other friends? So I think having those conversations with young people in a space where maybe they feel a little bit more comfortable asking those questions has definitely been helpful. And we’re certainly trying to make sure that when we’re talking to them, they understand who we are and they’re meeting us not on the worst day of their life. So they can build that kind of trust and rapport with us.

00:30:32 – Rico Figliolini

I like the way you put that not on the worst day of their life, yes. Because some kids don’t you know, I think critical thinking sometimes is lacking, depending on the age. And they think you know they get a picture from from a friend from a friend and they think it’s okay to put it out because they didn’t shoot it you know. And it’s like you know whatever. But yeah some of these kids just, you want them to grow up a little faster in how they think, but you don’t want them to grow up too fast, right?

00:31:02 – Lisamarie Bristol

Exactly.

00:31:03 – Rico Figliolini

Technology, you know, that’s always, we’re talking about phones and smartphones and all sorts of things. How has technology affected you? Good and bad, either in office to make efficiencies or in other ways? Are there innovative technologies you all are using? How does that work?

00:31:26 – Lisamarie Bristol

So one of the things we were able to do in coming into office is we did apply for some federal ARPA funding. And, you know, the ARPA funding was earmarked for offices affected by the COVID backlog. And I was like, hey, that’s us. We are definitely affected by the COVID backlog. And very grateful we were able to apply for some of that ARPA funding to enhance and upgrade a lot of the technology in our office. Whether it is scanners for investigators so that they can move quicker in uploading evidence along with our trial assistants, just making sure we have the equipment that my team needs to work more efficiently. So those are things that we were able to do and does help us do our job better.

00:32:17 – Rico Figliolini

You talked a lot about community outreach just before. You talked about preventative. Preventing crime, crime awareness in the community, promoting that. Are there any significant partnerships or collaborations that you’re doing with other agencies within the county that may not have been done before that you’re expanding on?

00:32:38 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yes. One of the first partnerships that we were able to forge was with Mosaic Georgia. Mosaic Georgia is a nonprofit here in Gwinnett County, and they service victims and survivors of sexual assault crimes. They do free sane exams. They do free counseling and forensic interviews and anything that somebody may need. If schools reach out to them, if a victim reaches out to them, they’re a one-stop shop. They’re an amazing organization. Mosaic is someone, is an organization that I think is critical to a county like Gwinnett and the work they do is just so important. I was really excited to develop a partnership with them. They are one of the nonprofits that receive benefits from the annual 5K that my office does. It’s our signature event. So every October, we’ve done two so far. We do our Dash for Domestic Violence Awareness 5K. It’s the first Saturday in October at Alexander Park. And the proceeds from that 5K, every single penny we raise, whether it’s from registrations from runners and participants or sponsorships, is divided amongst Mosaic Georgia, Partnership Against Domestic Violence, or PADV, which is another nonprofit that services survivors of domestic violence both here in Gwinnett County. They also service them in Fulton County. We have a shelter here in Gwinnett County under PADV. They assist survivors with getting TPOs, temporary protective orders. They will help house them for about 90 days as they get back on their feet and give them some housing stability, child care, a little bit of job training to help people who are leaving those really hard situations stabilize and have a moment to catch their breath with dignity so that they can hopefully make that pivot and launch to a better place. And we also formed partnerships with the HIMSA House. HIMSA House is probably one of the more unique organizations that my office has partnered with. On a steady basis, the third recipient of proceeds from the 5K. HIMSA House houses animals. When people are leaving domestic violence situations, what a lot of people don’t realize is about 70% of people who would leave a violent situation do not because of their pets. And they don’t want to leave their pet behind. They have no escape to bring them. HIMSA House will house their pets up to a certain amount of time. And not just cats and dogs. And I ask them every year what’s the most interesting animal they’ve had for the year. They’ve housed horses, snakes, dogs, cats. They have quite an interesting list. But it gives that survivor that extra level of peace so that they’re able.

00:35:40 – Rico Figliolini

I didn’t even think about that. That makes a lot of sense. When you think about that the other things come to mind also then. Yeah, it’s just amazing. So let’s shift gears a little bit and because you know you’re not you don’t live in a silo right? Georgia State House legislators they’d like to pass laws and, you know even if we need them or don’t need them, the reforms that are happening at the state level and legislation, they tend to impact a variety of people, a variety of organizations. I am sure they impact sometimes the prosecution of cases or stuff. What approach do you have to that? And what do you see happening in the statehouse currently that might affect Gwinnett cases?

00:36:28 – Lisamarie Bristol

Yeah, that is an excellent question, especially. Like of us just getting over crossover day. I think what we’re seeing in the legislature is sometimes we have lawmakers who have the best of intentions and they want to fix one problem and it sometimes causes a domino effect down the line. And we don’t always have the opportunity to be like, wait, wait, wait, let’s stop and think how this can play out because you’re going to, you’re going to pass this lovely law and then you’re going to hand it to me to enforce it. And so the way I approach it is I really do try and be open and have relationships with my Georgia delegations. I actually spend as much time as I can down at the Capitol while they’re in section. So I’ve been down there quite a bit. I have conversations with different committees. I’ve testified before the committees and offered input on legislation that is being put before the Senate or before the House to make sure that they understand the impact of what it is that they’re trying to put out there and maybe reconsider some of the wording, reconsider some of the clauses. And I think having that open dialogue and having the availability to do that makes a huge difference. And I think it makes an impact because they know before they do something, they know they have a partnership in their prosecutors and they can say, hey, is this going to mess you up? How is this going to mess you up? How do we shift that? And we’ve definitely seen some improvement, I think, on certain things, not all things, by having that communication.

00:38:13 – Rico Figliolini

Do you, are there specific legislative reform or policies you would like to see updated that hasn’t been touched yet?

00:38:24 – Lisamarie Bristol

I would love to see us have some updates on or some better clarity on our intention with the misdemeanor sex cases. That’s been one of the things that I’ve been talking about probably the most since taking office, just in terms of intent and direction and some better guidance. It’s a really sensitive topic, and I would love to dive a little deeper into that. And generally, you know, most recently they passed some more law. I don’t know if they’ll make it to the governor’s desk or not, but I know it’s about crossover day regarding how we are assisting victims. We need to be victim-centered and whether or not victims can include their pets for TPO protection and things like that. So I think we’re seeing the legislature becoming more sensitive and aware to a more victim-centered, trauma-informed approach. And I think that’s important in this work that we’re doing.

00:39:24 – Rico Figliolini

Okay, cool. Mental health, substance abuse. I mean, we touched upon that a little bit. Is there anything you want to share about that as far as some of those issues, mental health issues, basically?

00:39:39 – Lisamarie Bristol

I think mental health is an issue that we’re continuing to see in the community as we continue to search for resources. I think that’s going to be our biggest downside is finding the right amount of resources to assist the people who need it. I think we’re trying. I think we’re at least acknowledging that, you know, there are people that we’re scared of and the people that we’re upset with and the people that are just in new settings. And I think we’re finally moving into an era where we know we can’t treat them all the same. For the people who, their real issue is mental health. It becomes, okay, well, what can I do? So you don’t just keep coming back. We don’t quite have the answers yet, but definitely working on it to make sure we’re not just putting them on that hamster wheel so they keep turning back.

00:40:27 – Rico Figliolini

Yes. I think we all feel to some degree we’re on a hamster wheel, right? Day keeps going, which is that by the time Friday comes, Monday comes, we’re still doing the same old, same old, and you want to make sure that you don’t keep doing that, right? So, okay. I mean, you’re only in this now. It’s been two years? Well, two years.

00:40:52 – Lisamarie Bristol

I’m in my third year now. Yes. Two years and two and a half months.

00:40:57 – Rico Figliolini

So too early to talk about a legacy, of leaving a legacy in Gwinnett County. But what would you like that to be if that was the case? What is the most important thing that you’d like to make sure you left once you do leave?

00:41:14 – Lisamarie Bristol

That’s a really great question. Thank you for that. I would really love to know that you can look back at the work that my office does, the work that my team does, the work that I do, that it makes an impact, that it leaves people better than how we found them. That I understand that a big part of what I do is supporting victims during some of the hardest times of their lives. Trying to keep the community safe during, you know, really hard times, whether it’s DUI or domestic violence cases, or whether it’s a family grieving their loss of a loved one. That can be really hard work. My desire is to have a legacy in knowing that people look back and say, even though it was a really hard time, Solicitor Bristol’s team treated me with compassion and kindness and respect and dignity, whether they were the defendant or the victim or the witness. And that even when held accountable, they came out knowing that what happened to them was fair. That is the legacy I really want to leave because sometimes you may not like what happens to you. You may not like being held accountable, but you can still acknowledge that it’s fair. And I think that’s important to me. It’s very important to me that what the work we are doing, we are supporting the victims. We’re educating, giving resources and doing what we can, but we’re still treating everyone with dignity and compassion and being fair in how we do it.

00:42:51 – Rico Figliolini

I’ve got to believe being a mother of three, middle schooler and high schoolers, that that probably informs a little bit about how you feel about doing these things.

00:43:03 – Lisamarie Bristol

Absolutely. Everything that I do, I’m always mindful that my children are watching me. And I never, ever want to do anything that I would be ashamed to do in front of them. So absolutely.

00:43:14 – Rico Figliolini

Well, yeah, the kids are definitely watching even when we’re thinking they’re not watching.

00:43:19 – Lisamarie Bristol

All the time.

00:43:21 – Rico Figliolini

Final question, I guess. You came in on, I won’t say it was a wave or anything, but you came in during a time of a lot of elections going on in ‘22, a lot of changing of the seats, if you will, changing of the chairs. It feels like musical chairs sometimes, they keep going back and forth. But I think there was some good expansion, some good things done. What would you consider saying to someone seeking a career in public service or law enforcement in Gwinnett County, what would you say to them that they should know about from your experience?

00:43:59 – Lisamarie Bristol

I think anyone who wants to serve publicly has to know it can’t be about them. It has to be about people. It’s a very humbling experience, and you may think you’re right, and you may think you have the best approach, and you might. You might be correct in that, but this work is not for the faint of heart. I will say, knowing when you walk into public service, you are walking into a situation where you are dealing with a cruise ship, not a speedboat. And it’s going to be small, incremental changes that make the biggest impact. And sometimes it’s easy to get lost in thinking, I’m not doing enough. But if you take a breath and you look back over it, and know where you’re heading, it’s worth it. It’s absolutely worth it. And so when I look back at where we started on January 1st of 2023, where my team is today, it was small. It was small steps along the way, but I am incredibly proud of the work that we’re doing. And I’m absolutely looking forward to continuing it on into a second term.

00:45:11 – Rico Figliolini

Excellent. So we’ve been speaking to Lisamarie Bristol, Solicitor General in Gwinnett County. Appreciate the time you’re giving us. Thank you, Lismarie. Hang in there with me for a minute. I just want to say thank you to our sponsors again, EV Remodeling and Vox Pop Uli for their great support of these podcasts, the magazines, and all that we do. If you have questions for Lisamarie, certainly if you’re watching this on Facebook, YouTube, or X, leave them in the comments, post them. I’ll have links in the show notes as well so you can reach out to her directly. If you’re listening to this on an audio podcast like Spotify or iHeart, certainly share it with your friends and share our video podcast as well. We appreciate that. It’ll be easier for other people to find our podcasts as well. So Peachtree Corners Life here in the city of Peachtree Corners. Thank you, everyone. And thank you, Lisamarie.