It has been an honor and privilege to serve as mayor of Fayetteville for a number of years. Municipal elections will be held in November of this year and I hope I have continued to earn your trust and confidence and look forward to your support.
The city of Fayetteville has been fortunate for quite some time in that we have chosen to elect individuals that have held similar beliefs as to the responsibilities and obligations of local government. There is a consensus among your local officials that the smaller and least intrusive the government the better it serves the people.
As your mayor and in conjunction with council and our outstanding group of employees, I believe we have stuck to those basic principles.
The primary responsibility of local government is public safety, police and fire. In your city these two departments receive 67 percent of the annual budget.
The result of this sizable investment is that we live in one of the safest cities of our size in the entire state, both from a police and fire standpoint.
Public Works, whose personnel do such a great job keeping our city looking so well maintained and groomed, receive about 10-12 percent of our funding and the other departments share the remainder of our budget as per their needs.
A number of years ago we sensed and began to prepare for the economic slowdown that we are experiencing now. Because of this foresight we have been able to weather the storm better than most.
Thus, we are still able to provide responsive, efficient, effective services to our residents, and perhaps most important, economically. When residents and taxpayers think of government their thoughts often turn to money. How much is it costing me?
Bottom-line, a $200,000 home’s Fayetteville city property tax is about $20 a month and has remained the same, give or take $1, for over a decade. Wouldn’t it be nice if our energy, utilities and food costs had remained level during this same period? The city must be doing something well.
One of the commitments of your elective officials and staff is to work in a cooperative and collaborative manner with our colleagues in other governments, not just within our county, but on the regional, state and to a lesser amount the federal level.
Additionally, we work closely with the business community, senior services, our service organizations, homeowners associations and most importantly our residents to ensure we are meeting the needs of the community and leveraging our assets to the maximum extent possible.
Fayetteville is recognized and acknowledged as one of the premier local governments in the state. Many of our personnel are asked to teach courses and serve in leadership positions in their professional organizations.
As an incumbent office holder seeking re-election, it is easy to visualize an opponent’s campaign thrust. Slogans such as “It’s Time for a Change,” “Let’s Move in a Different Direction,” etc., come to mind.
Might I suggest that many are suffering “Voter’s Remorse” from responding to such meaningless slogans in the recent past?
I believe it was that renowned bard, humorist and Southern philosopher, Lewis Grizzard, who was known to say, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Leadership is more than sound bites or a catchy slogan. My commitment to the voters of Fayetteville is to continue to listen to and represent you in an open, ethical and straight-forward manner.
We will embrace innovative ideas and technological advances that help us provide economical services and we will meet the inevitable challenges that we will face in a forceful and decisive manner.
I will continue to meet and enjoy talking to homeowners associations, business groups, our wonderful seniors and anyone else that would like to learn more about our outstanding city. Thank you for your time!
Ken Steele
Fayetteville, Ga.
