Qualifying for city offices sets up races for mayor, Wards IV, VI

ALBANY – The field of candidates to lead the city of Albany as mayor grew to seven on Friday when incumbent Mayor Dorothy Hubbard filed paperwork to seek a third term in the city’s November municipal election.

On the same day, which ended the qualifying period, Demetrius Young became the third candidate to qualify to fill the Albany City Commission Ward VI seat now held by Tommie Postell, who is not seeking re-election.

Hubbard said her main motivation for seeking four more years in office is to see through to completion work that is in progress. That includes work on the city’s sewage system and street resurfacing.

“I want to be here to work for the future of this city,” she said. “We are actually on the brink of some other exciting things, and we would like to see these come to fruition.”

In addition to the work that law enforcement does in addressing violent crime, Hubbard said, the mayor’s Safe City Coalition has been discussing how to address that issue.

“They have put in some recommendations, and the (police) chief is working on implementing some of those recommendations right now,” she said. “We are concerned about crime. That is one of the things we are going to address.”

In addition, local police are working with other law enforcement agencies, including the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Southwestern Region Drug Enforcement Office, which is looking to relocate to Dougherty County.

“We are working on some additional incentives for recruiting additional police officers,” Hubbard said. “I plan to bring together a proposal to my fellow commissioners to improve the technology for our law enforcement (officers). We have to have the technology. That is key, especially technology that our public safety officers are using.”

Hubbard said her plan includes seeking federal and state grants to help pay for that equipment.

She said commissioners also would work with local colleges and universities, as well as other entities in the state, to address economic issues and train young people for jobs that could prevent them from turning to crime.

She said she also hopes to rally mentors and other adults who can provide opportunities in sports and the arts to reach out to those who may be susceptible to joining street gangs.

“I would like to see that come to fruition,” she said.

Former commission member Bo Dorough, who qualified on Monday, said the city actually has deteriorated by some measures in recent years.

“In 2010, the city commissioners identified poverty as its biggest priority,” he said. “Twenty-seven percent of people in Dougherty County were living below the poverty line then. In 2017, that had increased to 33 percent.”

More residents are now living in neighborhoods with dilapidated and vacant houses than in the past, he said, and several major streets are eyesores as well.

Dorough also criticized the way the city utilized some $76 million in credits the city received through the electrical collective Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia over a 10-year period. The city split the funds by a third each between the city, its utilities department and a job-creation fund, with much of it going into reserves.

“If we had taken that $80 million, we could have built a 440-acre solar farm that would have provided electricity for 12,500 homes,” he said. “We could have had 25 percent of the demand available to us at no cost. (That) could have reduced all rate payers’ bills by 10 percent.”

He also argued that city utilities should be returned to a new entity separate from the city.

The other five candidates in the November election for mayor are Edward Allen, Henry Mathis, James Pratt Jr., Omar Salaam and Tracy Taylor.

On Friday, Demetrius Young joined candidates John Hawthorne and Leroy Smith in the Ward VI race. The sprawling district includes some of the most economically distressed areas of the city.

“I just think there is a need for the city to refocus on the area of the community that has been neglected and divested, and that is Ward VI,” Young said. “The residents don’t receive the attention they need.”

Residents there are concerned about the lack of economic opportunity, as well as crime, and have a “general feeling of unease,” Young said.

“I’m here to offer leadership,” he said. “I’m here to offer my expertise. I’m just stepping in to try to revitalize that community.”

Hawthorne agreed that the southern part of the city is most in need of focus. He worked with the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development during recovery after the 1994 flood before leaving for Florida to do similar work following the death of his wife Alice in the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta.

“That community was left devastated,” he said.

Flood recovery is not complete in the area, and the people there continue to live in communities that are lacking basic infrastructure, he said.

That is borne out, Hawthorne said, by “the fact there is no major recreation center, the fact the roads need improvement, the fact there is a food desert, the fact there is no business district. There is a lack of growth in home-ownership.”

There are a few large employers in the area, but with no business district there are none of the small businesses that drive job growth, he said.

“That makes it difficult for residents there to work within the ward,” Hawthorne said. “What’s going to be needed to make (growth) happen is a collaboration between communities and the political establishment. My goal is to sit down with my colleagues, should I be blessed to win, and listen to what residents want, and then try to deliver on what they want.”

In Ward IV, incumbent Commissioner Roger Marietta will face the challenge of businessman Chad Warbington. Ward I Commissioner Jon Howard drew no opposition.

Staff Photo: Alan Mauldin
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