Note: This letter was written early in the morning on October 13. That night, in a meeting Jeff couldn’t attend due to the 13th being his anniversary, Leesburg City Councilwoman Judy Powell attended the Lee County Commission meeting and spoke in favor of the proposed boat ramp along the Kinchafoonee Creek at Slappey Rd near the Lee/Dougherty line.
As I walk around Leesburg talking to people, I keep hearing about recreation and the need for more safe recreation opportunities in town. Not just organized sports, such as baseball, softball, and soccer, but solo exercise such as a walking loop or a safe place for kids to play on a playground without fear of a baseball flying over a nearby fence.
The problem for these people is two-fold: 1) The City of Leesburg doesn’t have a Parks and Recreation Department, it is entirely run by the County. 2) Their City Commissioners don’t always show up for their own meetings, much less the County Commission meetings where recreation opportunities could be discussed.
Because the City of Leesburg doesn’t have a Parks and Recreation Department, one might think that City Councilpersons might take an interest in showing up to Lee County Board of Commissioners meetings, where they could at least keep track of what the County was doing in regards to such a major issue with their constituents. I’ve been doing that for two months, long before I decided to run for City Council myself. The problem is, I haven’t seen any City Councilperson there with the exception of Mayor Jim Quinn. Furthermore, of the two City Council meetings I’ve gone to, only three Councilpersons have been at both of them – Sydney Johnson, Bob Wilson, and Mayor Quinn.
The citizens of Leesburg deserve a Councilman dedicated enough to seek out news and developments on the topics that concern them, as well as the topics that are boring to them but are equally important. They deserve a Councilman professional enough to actually show up at the meetings where these issues are discussed. They deserve a Councilman open enough to share his own analysis of the topic and the information he based his analysis on.
I created SWGAPolitics.com with those exact ideals nine months ago, and I will continue to uphold those ideals as the newest Leesburg City Councilman.
Jeff Sexton,
Leesburg, GA
This article was published in the Albany Journal on Weds, October 14, 2009 as a Letter to the Editor.
