Your Decatur Candidates for the 2013 Election
Decatur Metro | August 29, 2013 | 8:03 amQualifying for this November’s local election closed yesterday afternoon. Only one race – School Board District 1 Post A – has more than one candidate.
Here’s the rundown…
City Commission
Fred C. Boykin Jr. – District 1 Post A
Patricia M. Garrett – District 2 Post A
School Board
Mark Arnold – District 1 Post A
Lewis Jones – District 1 Post A
Bernadette Seals – District 2 Post A
Annie P. Caiola – At-Large
Related: Decaturish has an interesting post on how inexpensive it is to run a campaign in Decatur this fall.
Related Posts:
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April 21, 2015 City Commission and School Board To Hold Work Session Next Monday To Discuss $75M Bond (0)
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April 16, 2015 Decatur School Board to Ask for $75 Million Bond (1)
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April 16, 2015 School Board Approves Tuition Increase for College Heights “Birth to Age 3” Program (70)
People talk a lot of smack on this blog and elsewhere about what Decatur is doing wrong and how they think we can do things better. But that is all meaningless blather if no one is willing to put themselves up to run for office. Only 1 of 5 races is contested? People must be awfully happy with how things are going.
+1. Good point and I’ve always noticed that people hesitate to support campaigns against incumbents in Decatur because “they’re nice people”, never mind the issues. A downside of Mayberry meets Berkeley meets yuppie enclave is that local campaigns cause hurt feelings that spill over into our daily family, school, church, neighborhood lives.
To be fair to all of us not running, it is a massive amount of work to campaign for a contested office. A huge commitment and I cannot blame anyone for hesitating to do it. I commend those who do, whether or not I vote for them.
“Mayberry meets Berkely meets yuppie enclave”
I see a new slogan! Time to print up the T-shirts!
Should they be tie-dye or LaCoste – OR Tie-dye/LaCoste combo.
I sense a new festival idea forming.
It just seems so silly to run for anything in Decatur. DeKalb County pays so much better, both over and under the table!
Bwah! š
People might complain a lot on this blog, but most fellow residents I talk to are exceedingly happy with their lives in Decatur, including how the city is managed. I don’t think people are avoiding running for office. I think they’re genuinely happy with the state of the city.
To that point… The number of complaints (or constructive feedback) are not a measure of dissatisfaction, they are a measure of ENGAGEMENT.
I would argue that the collective engagement that we share as a community are one of the reasons that the state of the city is so good. And for engagement to be productive, it has to identify areas for improvement. When we reach the point at which we are satisfied, we will stop improving.
viva la bitching!
+1
Absolutely right. A healthy community requires two things: First, as Pierce notes, a high level of engagement. And second is leadership that not only tunes into, perhaps even leads, such engagement but then subsequently acts upon it in the form of policy and expenditure decisions.
Decatur does both, which is why the results to the city’s resident Satisfaction Survey — which counts both blog commenters and “regular humans” — are, in comparison to most places, off the charts.
Can someone provide a link for a map showing the district boundaries for the school board race? And for this relative newcomer, explain the posts? Thank you!
Do you live north of the tracks or south of the tracks? If you live north of the tracks, then you are in District 1.
The school board has 5 positions, 2 from each district (post A and post B) and one at-large elected citywide. All 5 positions have an equal vote.
Easy enough?
Great, thanks!
Actually, there are prices of both districts that are on the opposite side of the track, but what you say is generally true.
City of Decatur Voting Districts Map:
http://www.decaturga.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=4394
Information on elections and voting in the City of Decatur:
http://www.decaturga.com/index.aspx?page=352