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House candidates face off at forumThu, 12/13/2007 - 4:49pm
By: John Munford
All four candidates for the Georgia House 72nd district seat were probed and evaluated by a crowd of about 100 people at Peachtree City City Hall Wednesday night. Questions came directly from the crowd, who bothered to come out on a Wednesday night ostensibly to pick the candidate they want to support. Voters will choose between former Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown, publicist Heidi Becker, and attorney Matt Ramsey, all Republicans along with Democrat Kevin Madden, who works in the air freight industry. The district includes almost all of Peachtree City and a swath of land stretching on the south side of Ga. Highway 54 through some of downtown Fayetteville. The vacancy was created by the unexpected death last month of Rep. Dan Lakly, and the winner of the election will fill out the remaining one year on Lakly’s term. Among the highlights included candidates’ responses to the current drought and what should be done: • Brown said he supports spending $30 million for the state’s Environmental Protection Division to do a study on the state’s current water production capacity; he also said the state legislature failed years back when it diverted money aimed at more reservoirs in north Georgia for other projects; • Madden rapped state officials for not taking action to address a 1988 study on the state’s water supply that urged creation of regional reservoirs and better conservation; • Ramsey said the water crisis will be the top priority of the state legislature, and he added that more reservoirs are needed along with the ability to make water basin transfers; he also said that the crisis has brought together not just cities and counties but also representatives of the business and environmental community all working together for a solution; • Becker said she supports putting caps on how much water can be used by residences and making penalties tougher for violators; she also said she wants to speed up the process to provide permits for reservoir construction. The candidates also weighed in on how they’d address transportation problems in Fayette County: • Ramsey said he wants to streamline the process by which the state Department of Transportation implements road construction projects “because the DOT is a broken bureaucracy.” He added that such legislation is likely to be considered by the legislature in the coming session; • Brown said he would like to see the county’s long-term traffic improvement plan changed; for example he said that the west Fayetteville bypass would “dump more traffic” on Ga. Highway 74, which he said needs significant improvements to combat significant commuting-time backups; Brown added that more significant traffic problems can be expected thanks to growth in adjacent Coweta County. • Becker said one immediate change that could make a difference in traffic would be to synchronize traffic lights, but she also wants to make funding available from the state for local road projects in the form of matching funds and grants; • Madden said he supports a long-range traffic plan for Fayette County to meet transportation needs; he added that if the TDK extension was somehow restarted, “I’ll be the first one to lay in front of the bulldozer.” The candidates also had divergent views on changing how Fayette County Commissioners are elected. Currently all voters can vote on all five seats when they are up for election, but under the “district voting” proposal, voters would choose only one of the five seats based on which district they live in. Madden said he agrees with making the change to district voting, while Brown argued that voters should make the decision on a referendum, the results of which he would respect regardless of whether it’s approved or voted down. Brown made reference to the current county commission districts being from the “Civil War era.” Brown also argued that the U.S. Department of Justice wants Fayette “to do something.” Ramsey and Becker said they both oppose district voting in Fayette County. Lakly fought against a move in the five-member Fayette delegation to make the district voting change last year. He spoke from the Senate floor passionately on the subject, convincing his fellow legislators to defeat the local legislation. The bill was defeated 71-53, with yet another 47 representatives “walking out,” meaning they did not vote on the measure. Such a defeat is a rarity for local legislation since the House typically rubber stamps such bills approved by a majority of the local legislative delegation. Becker, asked specifically about how the committee process works in the legislature and what subcommittees she’d like to serve on, said “I really don’t have the best answer to your question,” noting that she is not a full-time politician. She wasn’t the only candidate to duck certain questions. Brown was asked to pick his best accomplishment while serving as mayor along with his greatest regret. He failed to answer the latter portion of the question in the alloted 60 seconds each candidate got to respond to questions, while listing several accomplishments including construction of the new library expansion. Ramsey was asked how he proposed to support law enforcement officers in Fayette County and he responded that the legislature and local governments need to be sure to give them “the right tools” to do their jobs, without being more specific. On the matter of sex education provided by public schools, Brown said it was largely the parents responsibility to address the matter with their children, while Madden agreed, saying that prevention measures should be taught and not just abstinence. Ramsey said he agreed that parents need to take the lead, and while he thinks its OK for schools to supplement parents on the issue, parents should have the ability to opt their children out of the school program if they wish. Becker said she too supported sex education and drug abuse education in Georgia schools. Ramsey also said a proposal from House Speaker Glenn Richardson to eliminate the property tax levy power from local school boards makes him “nervous” because there’s no guarantee the state will return all of the sales tax money collected in Fayette County. Although Becker was more than 15 minutes late to the event, she apologized and said she wasn’t feeling well. There were roughly 100 people in attendance at the candidate forum, which was hosted by the Youth Council of Fayette County. login to post comments
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