Jim Baskett was unanimously voted Decatur’s new mayor this evening in a 3-0 vote by his fellow commissioners.  That was quickly followed by a unanimous vote for Kecia Cunningham to be the city’s new mayor pro-tem.  Baskett takes the place of outgoing Mayor Bill Floyd, who had been Decatur’s mayor for the past 14 years.  Here’s the City of Decatur website’s official bio for the city’s new mayor and now longest serving commissioner…

Jim Baskett was elected to the City Commission in 1995 and has served as Mayor Pro Tem since 2002. As Commissioner he has served on the Taskforces for Greenspace, Infill Housing, and Scottish Rite redevelopment, Preservation Corridor and the Woodlands Committee.

Jim is a Founder of the DeKalb Library Foundation and served as chair of the DeKalb County Library System Board of Trustees. He is a graduate of Leadership DeKalb and the Regional Leadership Institute and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Decatur First Bank. He served on the Board of Directors of Our House, Inc., Leadership DeKalb, and is a past president of the South Candler Street Neighborhood Association.

After graduating from The Candler School of Theology, he studied social ethics and political thought at Emory University. Jim and his wife, Mickey, live in the historic South Candler district and can be seen around town driving their electric GEM car.

It’s a light serving of Decatur City Commission-ness to start the year this evening, as the four remaining members of the commission will vote one of their own into the mayor’s seat while another will receive the mouthful title “Mayor Pro-Tem”.   There can be only one!

Other than that, they’ll be giving an alcoholic beverage license to Chai Pani and appoint the city attorney, municipal judges and commission/board seats.  Annnd, that’s about it.  Don’t forget, you can always watch the drama unfold over on the city’s website.

Wait, does Decatur technically have a mayor right now??   (Decatur Metro, asking the questions you don’t care about – and ending sentences with prepositions.  Since 2007!)

As GBK Gwyneth pointed out in a comment yesterday, the Chocolate Bar space on West Ponce, next to Ted’s Montana Grill, has a For Lease sign up in its window.  It’s currently unclear whether the business has closed or moved, but it looks like they’ve moved out of the Artisan building.