Below is the text of the statement I issued at the press conference tonight:

“What you really believe, you live. The rest is just talk.” –former Southern Baptist Convention President Dr. James Merritt

For the past year and a half, I have lived open government and finding ways to enhance the quality of life of the citizens of Leesburg without spending tax dollars. I have taken it upon myself to use my own private resources to video tape the meetings of the Leesburg City Council and Lee County Commission and post them on YouTube, rather than asking the City and County to purchase costly equipment and hire costly staff to perform the same function. I have recommended to the County Commission that rather than spend $25,000 on a reverse 911 system, we could use the power of the free website Twitter to perform largely the same function and not have to spend the $25,000. This would fulfill the desire of the City and County in alerting the public of an emergency, but without enhancing the tax burden.

Furthermore I, like my fellow citizens, have had to watch helplessly as within the past year the City Council has raised our water and trash rates in the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. At least one of those votes was recorded in the videos that are now on my website, SextonForLeesburg.com.

I love this City, and I love its people. It is for that reason that I announce the following solemn oaths:

1) I will protect and defend our Constitution, of both the United States and our great State of Georgia, with every ounce of fight I can muster. This includes the rights of free press and addressing of grievances to our government, along with every other right therein. I signed that oath as a teacher several years ago, and I’ve meant every word of it my entire life.

2) I will preserve, protect, and promote our rights to know what our government is doing. I signed the Sunlight Foundation’s “Open Government” pledge in April, which states “Government transparency is critical to creating a better democracy, and of highest importance in how I cast my vote. I pledge, through my sustained engagement, to hold public officials accountable for being open and transparent.” I had already been living that oath for more than a year, and was recognized by the State House of Representatives for that work at around the same time this pledge was released.

3) I will never vote to raise our water or trash rates, or any other tax, fee, or any other creative name used to hide a tax increase. I will also work to lower the tax burden on all citizens by implementing free, efficient methods to achieve our goals and by partnering with the private sector, including the Lee County Chamber of Commerce, our local churches, and private citizens and institutions to enhance the quality of life for the citizens of Leesburg.

One thing in particular I am already working to do is to partner with KaBoom, a private organization similar to Habitat for Humanity that builds playgrounds, to reclaim Leesburg Central Park from the reputation it currently has. I already have experience doing this in Winter Park, FL, – just outside Orlando – in college, and I know we can do the same here. To that end, I have already requested permission from the Lee County Board of Commissioners, who owns the property, to begin this work, and I have also already publicly recommended that Lee County Sheriff Reggie Rachals task some of his jail work crews to maintaining the trails in Central Park so as to limit taxpayer expense in having Public Works or the Recreation Department do it. My request of the Board and the Sheriff, as well as my recommendation to use the free alternative to the $25,000 reverse 911 system, can be seen by all citizens in the video of the July 13, 2010 video of the meeting of the Lee County Board of Commissioners available on youtube.com/swgapolitics

Thank you.

Responsive Government: I believe your government should listen to you, and that it should pro-actively present information about itself to you. This is why I have been speaking of the City of Leesburg getting a website for quite some time, and I have been actively working towards this since May 2010. Since January 2010, I have personally video taped and placed on youtube every meeting except April, when I was on vacation, and August, when my camera had technical problems. That is also why I have a wide variety of methods to contact me on this site, including Facebook, Twitter, email, IM, my phone number which is text capable, and my physical address (all on the Contact page).

Enhancing the Quality of Life: Some say we should “maintain” the quality of life of our great City. I say that simply maintaining it is not enough. We must pro-actively work to enhance the quality of life in our City in whatever ways we can. To that end, I want to encourage private groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, the churches, and the civic organizations such as the recently formed Kiwanis Club to hold various festivals, parades, block parties, and events throughout the year. In recent years, we have seen new festivals such as the Under the Oaks Art Festival and racess such as the Leesburg in the Long Run 5K race come about, and I’d like this trend to continue. I participated in the Rivers Alive cleanup of the Muckalee Creek just outside of town this summer, and I’d like to see other volunteer-based clean up events occur throughout the year, including trying to recruit someone to start a Leesburg/Lee County affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, if possible.

Traffic: Leesburg is a city with a population of roughly 3,000 people, yet because all Lee County Schools are currently located inside the City of Leesburg, our population during the school day roughly quadruples. This causes quite a bit of traffic strain on our streets, and has led to at least one wreck on opening day of the 2010-2011 school year. There are some things that can be done about this, however. One is the completion of the Leesburg Bypass. I was at the meeting nearly a year ago when the State Director of Transportation Planning, Mr. Todd Long, was here in Leesburg and this project was detailed to him as one of Lee County’s highest priorities, and I intend to do everything I can as a Councilman to see that it is done quickly and efficiently. Another area of improvement is the recently completed redesign of Robert B Lee Dr to add additional turn lanes, and I was there for many of those meetings as well. However, one major thing that can be done to improve traffic in Leesburg is to encourage the School Board to start building new schools outside of Leesburg. One of the first Lee County issues I ever looked at was a location for a hypothetical second high school, and I stand by my conclusion from then – more than a year ago – that one possibly ideal location would be the intersection of Lovers Lane and Forrester Rd, near the new Publix.

One key to our transportation needs is a strong relationship with the movers and shakers in Atlanta, particularly in the Georgia General Assembly. This helps us secure much needed state funding, without which projects such as the Leesburg Overpass and even the Robert B Lee Dr improvements would simply not be possible without raising taxes. I am proud to say that I have been endorsed by State Senator John Douglas, an Albany native who recently ran for the Republican Party’s nomination for Public Service Commission and carried Lee County just two weeks ago in the runoff election. I also have been recognized by the Georgia House of Representatives for my work in open government. Some of those signing onto the resolution were recent Labor Commissioner Candidate State Rep Melvin Everson and recent PSC candidate State Rep Jeff May, as well as State Reps Steve Davis (R-McDonough), Sean Jerguson (R-Holly Springs), Ralph Long (D-Atlanta), and Mike Glanton (D-Ellenwood). With the Census this year and Reapportionment coming up next year, it is more important than ever that our next City Councilman have a good relationship with as many legislators as possible, as South Georgia in general and Southwest Georgia in particular stand to lose quite a bit of representation to the Atlanta area. As the above sampling shows, there is a wide variety of legislators that know me and recognize the work I’ve already done.

Taxes: I believe we as citizens of Leesburg, Lee County, Georgia, and the United States are already taxed far too much – and I’ve actively worked to lower them in the State and County by trying to recommend various ways to save money, such as the County using a free notification system rather than a $25,000 system. I believe that any new spending proposals need to be carefully scrutinized to ensure that they are truly needed, and if possible I’d like to see a corresponding cut in another area to balance the spending. Furthermore, I want to work to ensure that government operates as efficiently as possible and eliminate wasteful spending.

If I have not addressed an issue of concern to you here, please contact me and let me know your concern. I will then respond back to you personally as well as update this page.

Thank you, and I hope to have your vote on September 21, 2010!

The Leesburg City Council will meet in City Hall at 6pm tonight. At least one of the candidates in the special election next month will be there – me. I know that John Leach is also scheduled to be there, as he will be requesting a liquor by the drink license for San Joe’s, as they will be his new tenant at the former Krystal’s location at US 19 and Robert B Lee.

Here is the video from last month’s meeting, where the current Council tried to give the owner of San Joe’s the runaround about what was needed to get the license.

The first story was that a citizen of Leesburg had to request it. When I raised my hand and said I would request it on the spot, the story was changed to say that a petition was needed. After further investigation on my part after the meeting, I found OCGA 3-4-90 and -92, which are below. Even though the law does not require a single citizen request this, Mr. Leach is scheduled to attend the Council meeting tonight and do largely what I did last month – request this ordinance be passed and the issue put to the voters.
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