Politics & Government

Loganville Elections Heat Up

Mayor says campaign rhetoric is "a pack of lies."

With less than a month to go, the elections appear to be heating up.

After former mayor Mike Jones directed criticism at the city in a story that appeared in The Walton Tribune last week, current Mayor Ray Nunley responded this week with a column of his own.

“I felt I needed to,” Nunley said. “I wanted the voters to hear the truth instead of a pack of lies.”

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Nunley said he didn’t know if this was going to be the last time he would be commenting on any of the campaign rhetoric that is being quoted, “but we’re going to defend ourselves whenever I see the need,” he said.

In the Tribune article, Jones said he was seeking a position on the Loganville City Council because the city government “had grown too large and is a burden on our taxpayers.” Jones lost a run for mayor to then incumbent mayor Tim Barron in 2006 and is now one of the five candidates seeking one of the three at-large seats on the city council. Jones said, if elected, he wants to reduce city spending by 10 percent in 2012 and again in 2013.

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Citing as examples of the city’s overspending, Jones said the city turned down a grant of $300,00 for beautification then turned around and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new streetscape in front of City Hall. He also raised questions about a reported $200,000 plus spent on the Livable Cities Plan, suggesting it included property owned by real estate brokers, developers and people who owned a lot of property in the city. He also said the city had just approved a contract for $500,000, with $150,000 coming from reserves, to prepare a plan to increase sewer plant capacity while subdivisions and commercial development projects stand empty.

In his response, Nunley called Jones’ statements, as well as some made by newcomer candidate Skip Baliles in the same article, “misleading and in some cases totally incorrect.”

Nunley said the city turned down the transportation enhancement grant of $250,000 because it would have cost taxpayers $100,000 in matching funds and federal regulations attached to the grant. He said instead the same project was funded by a program that qualified under the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax transportation funding with no matching money from city taxpayers. Funds under the SPLOST are generated through the 1-cent sales tax - a consumption tax on purchases - and not revenue generated from city taxpayers through property taxes.

Nunley called the statement regarding The Livable Center’s Initiative Study “purposefully misleading.” He said not only had the city not spent anywhere near $200,000, but the study was evidence of a proactive city government and not the “day-to-day caretakers" Baliles had referred to in the same article.

Nunley said the cost of the study was only $100,000, and of that the city was only on the hook for $20,000. The balance of $80,000 came from a state grant. Nunley said in order to qualify for the grant, the city had to conform to state regulations that mandated landowners, business owners and other stakeholders be involved in the process.

With regard to the expansion of the wastewater treatment facility, Nunley said planning for this dates back to 2004 and the permitting process takes years. The city is now in possesion of the permits to move forward with the design and permit phase and moving on it will allow the city to adopt a wait and see attitude as to when the demand will warrant construction to begin. He said the item is budgeted for in 2012 with the remainder of $150,000 allocated out of reserves.

Nunley also pointed out that despite a doubling of Loganville's population since 2002, the city actually has fewer employees now than it had then. Jones was the mayor of Loganville in 2002. He withdrew from re-election at the end of 2002 and has not held office in Loganville since then. Nunley, who is not up for re-election until November 2013, was elected unopposed in 2008 and again in 2010.

Jones and Baliles were contacted to comment on Nunley’s response, but neither have at this time.


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