Lilburn Election Forum: What the Council Candidates Said

It was standing room only at during the candidate forum, organized by the Lilburn Woman's Club, with Michael Smith as moderator. If you weren't able to make the forum, here are some highlights of responses from the six candidates for city council.

Responses from were published separately.

The candidates for Post 1 are Teresa Czyz, an engineer at Georgia Transmission Corp., and Thomas Wight, a lawyer.

For Post 2, the candidates are former stage manager and businessman Angel Alonso; incumbent Scott Batterton, a dentist; Kay Bennett, a housewife and mother; and Porter Deal, a real estate broker.

Answers are presented in the order they were given.

Post 1 candidates' introductory remarks on their vision for the city:

Teresa Czyz: "My goal is to work side by side with independent organizations and businesses and you as residents in order to create a prosperous environment for Lilburn. I believe in improving communications in the city. I know a lot of people feel they’re in the dark, so that’s one of my primary goals."

Thomas Wight: "I have asked myself this question over and over and over again for the last year, and it’s the reason I’m running for city council. In 1995, when this building was completed, there were 11,000 residents in Lilburn.  In 1995, Lilburn’s city budget was $3.2 million dollars. In 2011, they’re talking about building a new city hall. There are 11,300 residents in Lilburn, and the city budget is just a shade under $6 million. Ladies and gentlemen, where did all our money go?"

Post 2 candidates

Angel Alonso: " I sit here before you because it’s time we got a change. The residents of Lilburn need to know what's going on instead of finding out at the last minute when there’s a vote. Y’all need to be able to ask questions and get those answers right away. And y’all also need to know where your money is going. Right now, a lot of money is going out the door and a lot of things are being done, and you’re the last ones to find this out. It’s about time this is in the forefront instead of the back door."

Scott Batterton: "My vision for Lilburn is simple. I’d like to see Lilburn function as the economic engine of this end of Gwinnett County, as a city where citizens feel they are safe, and our kids can play in their cul-de-sacs and not worry about something happening to them. And I want a city with a strong aesthetic appeal."

Kay Bennett: "I’ve seen a lot of changes in Lilburn in the last 41 years. We’ve just got to make some changes to turn Lilburn back to a positive and thriving neighborhood, where quality businesses will want to come here and open their businesses and do business in Lilburn. To do this a lot of steps need to be taken, and I’m willing to work really hard for you to do that."

Porter Deal: "We just need to get ourselves pointed back in the right direction. ... I think with just some hard work, some common sense, we can move ourselves forward. I think it’s basic, I don’t think it’s extensive. I think you grow business with the basics.  It’s what I’ve done for 25 years. And growing my business is simple, not complicated: fiscal responsibility, common sense. And that’s what I’m asking you to listen to here tonight."

Other cities in Gwinnett have been successful in redevelopment. What's the candidate's vision for attracting more business and customers to Lilburn?

Post 2 Candidates

Batterton: When Batterton was mayor of Lilburn, he said it took regular quarterly calls to Publix headquarters for four years to lure the supermarket into the city, and even longer for Starbucks. "I just want you I just want you to know that getting a business like that into the city is a harder prospect than many of you realize, and we do work at that. . . . I have a real desire to see viable businesses on Highway 29 as well as in downtown Lilburn. Getting the road realigned up there is going to give us an opportunity to present some prime commercial property that the DDA controls and the tenants or the people it’s sold to can be picked very carefully. On the other hand, you citizens have to support these businesses.”

Bennett: "I kind of vision Lilburn being more like Norcross with nice restaurants in the old town area, and entertainment and things going on for families in the park. Lilburn is a great place for families. We chose to raise our families here, we have a lot invested in Lilburn. So we have to draw customers though from other areas to come into Lilburn to support these businesses. We need some unique shops and great food, that usually draws them in. I don't want Lilburn to lose its small-town atmosphere... . I think with some new ideas and some hard work, I can make this happen."

Deal: "I’m a businessman. I’ve built five businesses. And I’ve built all five from scratch. And I think that’s kind of the way you have to look at Lilburn. We’ve got some infrastructure we have to work on. But it’s really basic to attract more businesses. Scott kind of hit on it: You kind of have to call people. An example I like to use is, in Atlanta, we have the second-largest franchise show that comes to town every year. The city of Lilburn needs to send a contingent to that, because everybody there is a potential customer, people looking to open businesses, people who have businesses and franchises. That’s just an example of one step you can do.”

Alonso: "I've seen businesses open up and they close their doors soon after or not. They leave, but the problem we have is we’re not getting enough out there to bring businesses in and try to make sure that people know you’re bringing your business to a family oriented town, where you’re going to move forward. We’re not giving them incentives." Alonso added: "How can I attract businesses to come to downtown Lilburn and say we want to bring more entertaintment to the park and stuff when we’re trying to think about moving the downtown area down the street."

Post 1 Candidates

Wight: How many of you moved to Lilburn because of the Starbucks here? No one? How many of you moved  to Lilburn because there’s a Walmart here? How many of you moved to Lilburn because there was an Outback here, or a Publix or a Kroger? Ladies and gentlemen, what is Lilburn’s wealth? Or wealth is in our neighborhoods.  You are Lilburn’s wealth. . . . Retail stores do not create wealth, they consume it.  You create wealth. You are the wealth of this city. And frankly, I think we have lost sight of that. . . . I think we need to focus on us. When the city is focused on keeping money in our pockets, then retail will follow."

Czyz: As an engineer I am known to ask questions. I agree with Johnny when he asks why are businesses sitting there empty? What’s the problem with businesses moving into our area? Are regulations too strict? Are rents too high? What do we do if we want to attract people to our city to spend money? We have to ask ourselves these questions to get to the bottom line." Czyz, who said she has discussed the issue with the CID and the DDA, said a strategy needed to be devised based on the answers, giving careful consideration to a balance between residential and commercial areas.

What remedy would the candidates suggest for the various symptoms of ailments that citizens say the city has, from problems navigating the city's website to zoning changes, lack of awareness of what organizations are doing and complaints that the DDA, CID and council aren't coordinating efforts.

Post 1 Candidates 

Czyy: "I feel that communication is the number one thing that you deserve as residents. I would like to have a quarterly newsletter, where I would write out what’s going on in the city, what’s going on with government. Ii would like to hold meetings with you and your neighborhood to talk about issues and your concerns. Communication is important to me and I’ve been doing it for the past four years with people across the city, and I would continue to do that as your councilman."

Wight: The lawyer mentioned the gross receipt tax that will be introduced Jan. 1: "I’ve had small businesses tell me that they are leaving the city on Jan. 1 because they cannot afford to stay here. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not a solution to say other cities have higher taxes than us, so we’re going to catch up by raising our taxes. And that’s what I’m hearing here tonight.  We need to catch up by lowering our taxes.” Wight said the city of Suwanee has had two tax cuts in recent years. Citizens' input - instead of just the city communicating what it's doing -  and more openness were other issues Wight mentioned.

Post 2 Candidates

Bennett: "There’s no question there’s a lack of communication here at city hall. The citizens don’t really know what the real issues are for the city, when they take the time to come to council and listen to find out what’s going on. When they leave they still don’t know anything more than when they came in the door. “ Bennett added that she thinks there have been problems with the CID, the DDA and the city working together. “They need to have one vision.”

Deal: "I kind of like what Tom said. It’s more about input. I might say it’s more of a two-way street. I want my input to count. I think the first place I start with it is: How many of you right now trust what you’re told by your government? There’s a lot of distrust out there, I can tell you. It’s going to be a hard task to fix, to earn back your trust. I think new people can do that. Put fresh faces up here.” Deal added that it's important for officials to answer citizens' concerns and questions, and for there to be faith that that's being done by the city.

Alonso: "From day one I’ve always been that the people should have a voice in this matter of government. I’ve seen many, many times where people come up here to this podium and sat right here and asked a question, and all you got was nothing, nothing at all. No answers but a straight face saying 'We’ll get back to you.' How many times have they got back to you?” Alonso indicated the council's decision-making process should be more transparent. 

Batterton: The councilman asked if anyone in the audience had tried to attend a work session and been denied access. “There’s always citizens sitting back there listening to anything, unless there’s an executive session,” when the council discusses such things as personnel matters, he said. “I’ve never seen anyone turned away from a work session when the doors are open.” On answering citizens’ questions, Batterton said he’d never had a citizen come with a question that he either didn’t have the answer to, and if he couldn’t answer it, he referred them to someone who could.

Batterton explained that the DDA is a “quasi-governmental organization” with the right to act on behalf of the citiziens of Lilburn. In the CID, the city is only one member with one vote. “We do not run it,” he said. “I hope that clears up some of what you’ve been hearing this evening, because some of what you’ve gotten is misinformation.”