Athens For All Of Us

originally published November 29, 2006

After a long political season, the runoff election comes down to a referendum on the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce slate of candidates: the Chamber against the rest of us. And back behind the public face of the Chamber lurk those who would undo the progressive initiatives that define Athens as a good place to live and work.

Make no mistake about it: this election, as usual, comes down to the choice of whether you want our town to fall into the hands of those bad developers who will pollute our streams, decimate our tree canopy, destroy our greenbelt, disintegrate our neighborhoods, gridlock our traffic and generally despoil our hometown for their own profit.

Thus would the Chamber and those it fronts destroy the very business-friendly climate they claim to promote and drive away those companies that care for the quality of life in the community where they choose to do business. If the Chamber wins, the sure result is fewer decent jobs, more poverty, poorer quality of life for everybody except those who profit from siphoning our common resources into their own pockets.

Is this what Charlie Maddox wants? Of course not. Charlie wants to be a good mayor for all the people. But Charlie’s campaign is financed and handled by the same crowd that always tries to get its hands on Athens for its own gain. If they get Charlie in, they’re going to keep on influencing him. The same goes for Alvin Sheats in District 9. Alvin is a great guy, but he proved when he was a commissioner how ready he is to vote the way the developers want.

And the developers want it all; they don’t want any limitations on their avarice. And our Chamber of Commerce backs them up. Their mantra is: anything bad for bad developers is bad for business. Remember that in former Mayor Doc Eldridge the Chamber and its backers had a mayor who understood where they were coming from, who tried to work with them, tried to point out to them that some limitations to their rapacity were good for the community. They would have none of it and refused to support Doc when he ran for re-election.

Heidi Davison and the people who believed this community could do better beat Doc, and now he has gone over to the other side. Out of friendship for Charlie, Doc is now in bed with those developers and the Chamber who wouldn’t support him. Alvin Sheats is in there, too: the very man who pulled the rug out from under Doc when Doc stood up to the developers.

Meanwhile, we have a very unusual mayor in Heidi Davison. In spite of the scant powers of her office and the difficulties of corralling a majority on the Commission, Heidi is a can-do mayor. She was elected by a coalition of citizens who demanded action in several areas of concern, and Heidi has delivered. The usual pattern is that we elect a candidate because we want her to do something, and then, once elected, she turns cautious and doesn’t want to offend anybody.

Heidi broke that mold; she set out to do the things we asked her to do, knowing that she would make people mad. She got things done, and she made people mad. She made the bad developers apoplectic, and they are gunning for her now—shooting dollars by the thousands, trying to bring her down, led by the Chamber. If they bring her down, they bring all of us down: they bring Athens down.

So, once again we are in a fight for the future of Athens. Mayor Heidi Davison has proven herself as a tough, thoughtful, inclusive leader who understands our city and has the knowledge and ability to take us where we need to go. The usual forces are arrayed against her, and this time around they have thrown their resources behind Charlie and Alvin, because they can’t control Heidi and District 9 Commission candidate Kelly Girtz is not in their pocket, either.

By the time you read this, you can go down to the Board of Elections office and vote early through Friday, Dec. 1. Runoff Election Day is Tuesday, Dec. 5, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at your polling place. If you don’t know where that is, call the Board of Elections at 706-613-3150. Even if you didn’t vote in the General Election, you can vote in the runoff, as long as you’re registered to vote. If you’re registered, you can vote in the mayoral runoff no matter where you live. Voters in Districts 1–4 also vote in “Superdistrict” 9.

Maybe soon we’ll have better leadership at the Chamber, and maybe someday the bad developers will wise up and understand that a healthy community is good for everybody’s business, including their own. Meanwhile, we’ve got to go to the polls and make sure we elect Heidi Davison and Kelly Girtz. They understand that Athens belongs to all of us.