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PTC council candidates answer questionsWed, 10/07/2009 - 2:33pm
By: John Munford
The following is a summary of the most crucial questions and answers from Tuesday night’s candidate forum hosted by the Peachtree City Rotary Club. For simplicity’s sake, the Q&A summaries are split up by the various races. A similar roundup of the Q&A with the mayoral candidates will be forthcoming later this evening. Post 1 candidates: (note - candidate Eric Imker was not present at the forum) Q: What is your position on using the reserve fund to balance the budget is that a prudent use of our resources. Also what is your feeling about mass layoffs and other cuts to balance the budget? Shelby Barker: PTC should be “hesitant” about using the reserve fund, though he did support council’s recent decision to use reserve funds to avoid a tax increase this year. The best way to balance the budget is to avoid raising taxes at all costs and make government more efficient instead. David Craig: Reserve funds should not be used to make up for budget shortfalls. He does not support laying off people just for the sake of cutting the budget; he would rather do better job managing the city’s resources to handle budget issues. Beth Pullias: Doesn’t believe in using reserves to balance the budget; was disappointed council didn’t raise the property tax rate for the coming year to make up for budget shortfalls. She said she’d rather raise the millage rate to avoid losing services, than to see the city decline. Q: Mr. Craig your bio states no annexations and no residential development in industrial areas ... can you envision a situation where you would support annexation or residential development in industrial areas? Craig: I don’t believe there’s any scenario where city needs to expand the borders beyond what they are today. Prior annexations have caused budget issues and need to expand fire and police protection. Developments in industrial areas we need to stay with the land use plan. Need to insure we have viable area for our businesses to go and expand, bring new jobs into Peachtree City. Subdivision proposed near Falcon Field is in wrong position. Pullias: Not against annexations, but they need to make sense for the city. Does not support Hyde Park expansion to east of city, it has no benefit to the city. Would be more interested in southside shopping center annexation (Southern Pines Plantation) if the entire shopping center tract was being annexed instead of a small piece. As currently proposed, it makes no sense. Rezoning industrial areas will never make sense as there’s no way to connect them to existing villages and make cart paths available. Barker: Supports annexing Publix shopping center on Ga. Highway 54 East but will have to find way to enforce sign ordinances to maintain PTC quality. Against rezoning of industrial land for residential use, as it would not fit into the village concept. Q: With Peachtree City basically at buildout, where do you see our city in five years? Pullias: wants to see city keep as much of its existing trees as possible. Also wants to see redevelopment of older areas such as the Peachtree Crossing shopping center and the old Photocircuits campus in the industrial park. Also want to see buffers kept and increased. Also want city to acquire land to preserve what is left of trees. Barker: Main priority should be golf cart path repair. Want to see less empty retail spaces, have noticed more at Avenue lately. Wants to attract more businesses not by loosening sign restrictions but for example not banning walking signs. Craig: I see PTC no larger than it is today. I think we need to stop growing city from land use standpoint. Need to try to redevelop village concept, make existing villages more vibrant. Store and office space vacancy is a problem. Cart path safety can be improved by adding signs, clearing brush and making it physically more safe for users. Transportation plan improvements are also important. Craig said he also opposes the new proposed SPLOST. Q: If the SPLOST fails, how will city balance budget and pay for the cart path improvements that make this city unique? Craig: I oppose SPLOST for several reasons. City not getting enough revenue from it. If not approved, we will have to significantly scale back the kind of improvements we were doing in the city. Rejuvenation of the paths would have to go at a slower pace. Believe the city has enough revenue to make it work without SPLOST money. Pullias: We’re not going to pay for it, or we’re going to raise taxes. SPLOST is not perfect but revenue will keep city from having a tax increase of 1.5 mills. Or we’re going to have to do without. Feels city needs to fund those improvements. Barker: Oppose SPLOST as another tax on citizens. If elected want cart path maintenance to be a higher priority in the general fund budget. Making budget decisions will be tough. ### Q: what is the answer to keeping our city’s budget under control? Steve Boone: We can’t do it all on property taxes alone. Don’t see need for raising the property tax rate. Dismissing the city’s public works employees was a tough decision but necessary and saved a significant amount of money for the city. Kim Learnard: The budget is not sustainable for the long term. The reduced mowing schedule has made it harder for realtors to sell homes. City survey supports modest tax increase if only a modest cut in services. The vast majority of the citizenry has decided that Peachtree City’s uniqueness is worth funding. Bob Walsh: Need to be careful about cutting budget and losing character of city that makes it special. This is the wrong time to be raising taxes because economy in such bad shape with so much excess in the city’s reserve funds. Q: Are you in favor of the proposed new SPLOST and if it is not approved how do you plan on paying for existing street and cart path repairs and repaving? Learnard: If SPLOST is not passed, very difficult budget decisions will have to be made to fund street and cart path projects. Some people feel the city should get a larger share of the SPLOST revenues; but policy makers want the $22 million to help fund the city projects. Walsh: Is in favor of the proposed SPLOST. If SPLOST is not approved, many projects will still be necessary and will result in more outsourcing of jobs and further budget cuts to pay for the projects. It would not be enough, we would need to raise taxes if SPLOST doesn’t pass to improve the city infrastructure. Boone: Real strong advocate of SPLOST program. “If it does not pass then our city is in dire trouble. I say that because we just haven’t got enough money to do these type of projects.” SPLOST will also help pay off revenue bonds. (He did not say how he would fund those projects if the SPLOST wasn’t approved) Q: Which is more important: minimizing Big Box stores or encouraging sales tax growth and would you support a freeze on new commercial development until much of our vacant commercial property is occupied? Boone: Undeveloped areas can currently be developed as commercial if they are currently zoned as such. Supports the location of quality stores in the city. “Yes it brings in revenue, and you really can’t shut the door on commercial development.” Wants to see empty storefronts filled first. Sales taxes are important. Learnard: Big Box sales tax revenue is outweighed by infrastructure, public safety and traffic costs to the city. City needs more light industrial, quality manufacturing and corporate headquarters to bring high paying jobs to city. Walsh: Don’t see sales tax revenue as that important from Big Box stores. We need to keep Big Boxes out to maintain the character of Peachtree City. Threw hat in ring when council voted to ask DOT to put that extra light on 54 so developer could put an outsize retail center in there. “That’s the kind of thing I want to stop.” Wants to ask DOT to remove the light to maintain traffic flow and retail development to an appropriate size. Q: What are your views on mass transit systems, specifically MARTA, coming to PTC? Explain your reasoning. Learnard: Road widening is not enough to relieve traffic congestion long-term. Would support looking at installation of transportation center north on Hwy. 74 to make light rail accessible for city residents. Public safety offices should be nearby. Walsh: If we have an appropriate facility on the periphery of PTC that connected to the Atlanta airport and into the MARTA system that way it could be a useful tool to reduce traffic, as long as it did not provide too much an avenue for excess traffic the other way into Peachtree City. Concerned it could encourage sprawl around that center that we are trying to avoid. Boone: Many residents are not in favor of a MARTA station coming to Peachtree City. But long-term, the city will need a rail system, though right now it might bring crime into Peachtree City. ### Post 4 candidates: Les Dyer: The paths are not safe enough. More officers are needed to patrol the paths, which means more officers need to be hired. Vanessa Fleisch: They could be safer. Police chief has increased patrols immensely, but more patrols are needed. People need to feel safe. It’s our hallmark, a selling feature that we have for this area and we need to keep it safe and we cannot have any perception out there that they are unsafe. Q: What do you think are the most pressing traffic concerns in Peachtree City and what are your ideas for solving them? Fleisch: Biggest problems are along 54 corridor going into whole West Village. City is at mercy of DOT for much of the issue; if additional light approved by council goes in I think its going to be that much worse. Peachtree Parkway and Walt Banks is bad when school lets out and during evening commute but that will be alleviated when the city adds turn lanes in the future as planned. Dyer: Cameras at intersections are helping with traffic sequencing on 54. Proposed TDK extension “has the potential to be a nightmare for us with additional traffic coming into our city.” Q: If elected what is the most important challenge to you? Dyer: Recession and our high unemployment. We need to create high paying white collar jobs in our city. Empty retail spots need to be filled and the city needs to attract colleges, universities, medicine and high-tech industries. Fleisch: City can’t forget companies already here such as Hoshizaki, Rinnai, FieldTurf. We need to retain as well as expand. Airport Authority is doing wonderful job and can help draw corporate headquarters that would be complimentary to the city’s land use plan and services. Q: Do you favor continued outsourcing of city jobs? Fleisch: Ultimately we have to be fiscally responsible and outsourcing should have been explored years ago. Admits it is difficult to have people lose their jobs. Dyer: Hope city budget tightening won’t be as wholesale as the landscaping crew reduction was. Outsourcing to save money is a way to tighten belts but i hope we can do it so that it minimizes the impact on city employees who i think are already carrying an inordinate amount of the burden for this recession. login to post comments
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