With a resounding 72 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff election, Vanessa Fleisch will become Peachtree City’s first woman mayor on Jan. 1.
Fleisch handily beat challenger and former mayor Harold Logsdon, who made it into the runoff with the second-most votes in the field of five candidates to force the runoff.
A jubilant Fleisch was all smiles and hugs with campaign supporters at what turned out to be her victory party Tuesday. That evening, she revealed that she already had made plans to have meetings with city staff members on Wednesday on the chance she might win.
“I’m just so happy and thrilled for the city that we’re moving on and we’re going to have a wonderful four years,” Fleisch said. “I just look forward to a very productive four years, and working with the new council, and everyone pulling together to make it an even better city than it is.”
Though she has been a council member for four years and already knows many of the city employees, Fleisch wants to take time to meet each one of them, and that’s one of her first objectives, she said.
Fleisch pointed to the election of new council members Terry Ernst and Mike King as a sign of “a new day” for the city, and certainly in the political perspective.
In addition to Ernst and King, Fleisch will have familiar faces to work with on council as well in re-elected councilwoman Kim Learnard and holdover councilman Eric Imker who is in the middle of his four-year term.
Fleisch has been one of the driving forces working on the rehabilitation of older city facilities, as council issued a $3 million bond to repair and enhance infrastructure that was falling apart, from tennis courts with holes in the pavement to sports fields that needed a significant amount of rehab.
Fleisch also has been observed to keep a fairly low profile on council, particularly when rancor broke out at council meetings. As she wields the gavel and runs her first meeting in January, it will be evident those low-profile days are over as she tries to meet the leadership expectations the community has placed on her.
