Editor’s Note: Leading up to nonpartisan local elections and partisan primaries May 21, Flagpole will be publishing features on each of the contested races in Athens.
When Commissioner Jesse Houle decided not to run for re-election, it left an open seat on the ACC Commission in District 6, which covers Atlanta Highway outside the Loop and neighborhoods along the Jackson County line. Two candidates—Rashe Malcolm and Stephanie Johnson—are now stepping up to fill that gap in what could be the most competitive commission contest this year.
Malcolm and Johnson are both prominent Black women in the community who vote Democratic but otherwise have different backgrounds. Johnson has worked primarily in the public sector during her career, including in the ACC Finance Department and as the ACC internal auditor. Malcolm is an entrepreneur best known for her Jamaican restaurant, Rashe’s Cuisine. Malcolm is also the founding director of two Athens-area nonprofits: Farm to Neighborhood, which seeks to expand access to nutritious and affordable food, and the Culinary Kitchen of Athens, which provides shared kitchen space for local food trucks at a reduced cost.
As the chair of the ACC Industrial Development Authority and a member of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors, it’s not surprising that Malcolm’s top priority is economic growth. She told Flagpole that she wants to help the Atlanta Highway corridor become a powerful economic driver again by making it more walkable.
“When Atlanta Highway was vibrant and growing, people worked on Atlanta Highway, we fought to get housing nearby, and we played a lot. We shopped there. We did everything right there in our district, and we didn’t have to go far. We were able to walk out our door and catch a bus, and if we wanted, we could walk. That is something I would like to see brought back,” Malcolm said.
Malcolm might get the chance to realize her vision for Atlanta Highway in this decade. A massive redevelopment of the Georgia Square Mall is on the way that will include greenspace, walking trails, bike lanes and an Athens Transit transfer station. The redevelopment could be transformative for the corridor—not only will it help to increase walkability, but it will also provide some affordable apartments for the area.
Malcolm stressed that promoting and developing Athens’ small businesses should be top priority during this transition. “I would like us to remember that the strength and the backbone of what we’ve been able to maintain in that area has continued to be the small businesses. They are the ones who have stayed and remained loyal to us,” she said. “Even when you go inside the mall, the larger businesses are gone, but the smaller businesses are still there.”
Johnson also wants to prioritize economic growth, but she’s primarily running on a platform of government transparency and increasing community involvement in decision making. She has expressed concern with some government spending that she considers wasteful, and she’s frustrated by rising tax bills that she feels have been pushed on the community with little notice.
“Many local people just don’t feel comfortable being engaged,” Johnson said at her campaign kickoff event on Mar. 4. “There’s not a lot of communication to bring people out. There are many last-minute decisions that are made that affect people, everyday working people. We have to figure out how to afford [increased taxes] now, after it’s gone up, because the vote has already happened.”
The local government has cut tax rates significantly in recent years, and voters approved a larger exemption for homeowners in 2022 that the ACC Commission and state legislators placed on the ballot. Nevertheless, the tax bills many homeowners pay have gone up rapidly due to rising property values determined by market forces. As required by Georgia law, the local government holds three publicized taxpayer bill of rights hearings every year before setting tax rates.
At her kickoff event, Johnson echoed a common sentiment of residents living outside the Loop that they don’t receive a fair share of government resources compared to those in the city center. “District 6 has been ignored far too long,” Johnson said. She said she supports increased infrastructure investment in her district for things like streetlights, sidewalks and road repaving.
Johnson has ample experience in local government. Then known as Stephanie Maddox before marriage, she worked in the ACC Finance Department for over four years before then-mayor Nancy Denson appointed her internal auditor in 2015, a position she held until 2021. She told Flagpole that she hopes to use her “extensive experience and knowledge of how local government operates and how it could better operate to serve our residents in a more profound way.”
Yet, Johnson’s experience may not be the kind voters are looking for. Johnson had a rocky tenure as auditor, often clashing with the chair of the Audit Committee at that time, Commissioner Allison Wright. Wright voted against Johnson’s reappointment as auditor in 2017, along with the late Commissioner Jerry NeSmith. It’s rare for any commissioner to vote against the reappointment of a charter officer such as the internal auditor.
Johnson was criticized for poor management skills and low productivity, especially in the later years of her appointment. Johnson’s employees in the ACC Office of Operational Analysis regularly complained about her management style, saying that she was extremely disorganized, spent very little time in the office, often belittled her employees and denied reasonable requests for time off, according to an independent investigation paid for by the ACC government.
ACC Human Resources was unable to take disciplinary action against Johnson due to her status as a charter officer. As Johnson’s employees continued to complain about a hostile work environment, Mayor Kelly Girtz stepped in and placed Johnson on a performance improvement plan in 2019.
Johnson says that Girtz took disciplinary action, not because of problems in her office, but rather out of retaliation for an open records request she filed in 2018. Johnson is currently suing the local government about this supposed retaliation, alleging that Girtz and ACC Manager Blaine Williams discriminated against her. The internal investigation found no evidence for that claim, and the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission dismissed a complaint she filed. A federal judge last fall dismissed part of Johnson’s lawsuit while allowing part of it to move forward.
Johnson stayed on as auditor for several more years, but her productivity plummeted after all three of her employees quit or transferred and she did not hire replacements. As the Audit Committee pushed her to complete long-delayed projects, she received another disciplinary action in 2021, which included a plan for monthly check-in meetings with the commission. Johnson failed to attend these meetings, which led to her unanimous termination in September 2021.
If elected, Johnson would be empowered to vote against Williams’ reappointment as ACC manager, something recently advocated by local Republican Party members.
Johnson is supported by a diverse coalition, including anti-government Republicans like former mayoral candidate Mara Zúñiga, and also some leftists who have a similar distrust of the local government. Malcolm, on the other hand, is hoping that the center will hold and that she’ll also have support from voters of both parties.
“We need to get back to listening to each other,” Malcolm told Flagpole. “We really do have more in common than our differences. I’ve been told I can’t take pictures with people who are Republicans. And then if I take pictures with certain Democrats, it will hurt me. That’s just not how I feel about things. We need to get back to thinking about what is best for our community and how to get past our differences.”
Malcolm said she is happy to work with people of all ideologies and party affiliations to make Athens a better place. For example, she worked with Republican state Rep. Houston Gaines on a food truck reciprocity bill which allows food trucks to work in any county in Georgia with only one license. The bill finally passed in 2022 after several years of advocacy.
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