First, let me say I’m humbled to be in a runoff for City Council Post 1. Second, I’ve been referred to as plain-talking, no-nonsense and I’ll add to that: no sell-out.

My message throughout the campaign has been to stop the crazy rezoning and get the budget under control. I am absolutely convinced the days of pandering to developers who stroll by with a rezoning request is over.

As for the budget, it’s clear we haven’t had a balanced one for several years now. Using over $4 million of city reserves the last three years to “balance the budget” is not balancing the budget.

I actually heard one council person say he hadn’t raised taxes his entire four years in office. That’s nice. Now what do we do in the next four years?

All this tells me is that we’re not living within our means. I will work with the next City Council to solve this problem.

A lot of the solution will be to consider delaying some of the “nice/want to haves” while continuing to fund the “got to haves” such as police and fire/EMS.

Everyone is going to have to share in the short period of inconvenience to make up for the past.

There should be no need for more taxes.

We need to come up with some real ideas on how to get our industrial park back working. That’s where our tax base should be, not on the backs of the citizens.

It’s going to take a while to correct the years of mismanagement, but I’m ready to get started.

By mismanagement, I don’t mean the good people at City Hall who implement the decisions. They are doing a great job with the resources they have. I mean with the decision-makers.

I will not wait until next year to start working on the fiscal year 2011 budget. As soon as I take office we’ll get started immediately. As I warned in a letter to the editor in June 2008, “Let’s get lean now before the financial crisis is on top of us.”

That was in June 2008. So they waited until earlier this year to come out and say, Hey, folks, we’ve got a $3.5 million shortfall for FY2010!

Who besides me didn’t see that coming? Surely City Council over the last three years didn’t. Well, maybe they did and thought we wouldn’t notice or maybe they thought they could get through the next election before they had to pay the piper.

I’ve successfully balanced my personal budget by planning for the worst and living within my means. I’ve successfully managed budgets in my professional career, and I’m ready to do it for our city.

Finally, rest assured, I will listen to the voters. You’re telling me, balance the budget ... properly. We need to get Post 1 filled with someone who can get in there and turn this budget mess around.

Eric Imker

Candidate, Peachtree City Council Post 1

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