Retired Army officer Greg Dunn faces Fayetteville book store owner Stuart Barnes in the Nov. 3 race for County Commission Post 5.

Dunn defeated incumbent Commissioner Scott Burrell for the Republican nomination for the post. Barnes won the Democratic Party nomination without opposition.

Greg Dunn

Dunn, whose Republican Primary campaign was based partly on criticism of his opponent's record on ethics, said this week he has no criticisms of Democratic opponent Stuart Barnes.

"He seems like a nice man," said Dunn. "I'm just trying to beat him in this election."

A strong ethics ordinance is central to Dunn's campaign. "The county is still without an ethics ordinance with any teeth, and one of my first efforts will be to pass one," he said.

Dunn is running a low-key campaign in the final lap, he said. "Most people already know my position by now," he said.

Saying he has the time to devote to being a commissioner, and no ties to special interests, Dunn calls for strict adherence to the land use plan as the key to controlling growth.

He has lived in 18 communities during his military career, he said.

"We need to grow in accordance with the land use plan," said Dunn, but added that special circumstances like the Atlanta area's lack of compliance with federal air quality standards may require going beyond that.

"The county has to compensate and slow down the growth until we get relief," he said. "We have to make adjustments, and we have to keep growth at a level where it doesn't break our infrastructure," he added.

Most people accept predictions that Fayette County will have a maximum population of around 200,000, he said, but,"I don't think we should be racing to get there," he added.

He is opposed to fellow Republican candidate Linda Wells' suggestion of a rezoning moratorium, said Dunn. Property owners have the right to ask for rezoning, and it's up to the commission to turn those requests down if they aren't good for the county, he said.

He would continue to fund the county Development Authority at current levels, he said, as long as the authority keeps performing. "If they continue to bring the kinds of industry in that they've brought in the past, I would continue to support them at that level," he said.

But elected officials should not be members of boards like the Development Authority, he said. "We need to give broad guidance to them and then when they come with a deal we have to make a decision. I don't see how we can objectively do that if we're taking part in the deal-making," he said.

Dunn favors rolling back property taxes to match reassessments as much as possible, but opposes doing it as a matter of policy. "It depends on the priorities of the county at the time," he said. "Every time we go through the cycle we have to go with what's best for the county."

The County Commission doesn't pay enough attention to environmental concerns, Dunn said, adding that as a commissioner he would ask for input from environmental groups.

"I will be paying more attention to that than I have seen on the board in the past," he said, adding that in general he would push for more decisive action by the board.

"Anything that's tough gets worked until it's useless," he said.

"We study [ordinances] to death and then come up with something that usually doesn't fit the bill," he said.

Suart Barnes

Editor's Note: Barnes refused a telephone interview for this article, requesting that all questions be submitted in writing. Because all other candidates were interviewed by phone, that request was refused.

The following information was provided for an earlier article by the Fayette County Democratic Party.

A resident of Fayetteville and owner of The Book Worm on Ga. Highway 85, Barnes worked for Eastern Airlines for 21 years after serving in the U.S. Navy.