I had a Nick Ferrante sign in my yard this spring for a week, but I voted for Kim Learnard for Mayor [last] week. Here’s why I changed my mind to vote for Kim, who I jokingly call Leslie Knope after the lead in the Parks & Rec sitcom. (Leslie is a hyper-motivated, hyper-optimistic, hyper-energetic public servant on the show.)
I removed my Nick yard sign when I realized that not only did Nick not have implementable plans for the city, but he lacked some key qualities that I want in a leader.
Nick’s plans don’t pass muster. He says he wants open container laws in all the villages to encourage “entertainment districts” that will hopefully spring up. How will that happen exactly? What does PTC police think about open container laws citywide? Potential big problemos, I’m thinking.
Most critically, I’ve had correspondence with Nick and seen him in-person at 2 public forums. My experience is that when Nick is pushed or asked hard questions, he becomes combative and antagonistic.
Back in spring in my Nick-for-Mayor days, I asked him what he tells folks who wonder why he didn’t run for a board or council so he could learn city issues. He told me if I liked what we have in now, then he wasn’t the guy for me. No attempt to answer a valid question and what a bad tone.
Nick’s performance at the Republican candidate forum was appalling. He was yelling at hecklers in the crowd and when he posted about the event, he only complained that he was mistreated. We need public servants who have solid answers to their constituents, who defuse contentious situations, and who recognize and apologize when they mess up.
When I asked Kim a hard question about anti-village development on south Hwy 74, she wanted to talk and even meet with me. Kim has served successfully on council, has extensive relationships with the surrounding cities’ leaders, and works like a Trojan.
And unlike Nick, who has a full-time job and little kids, Kim will be able to devote herself a hundred percent to working for the city full time.
And for Pete’s sake, we don’t need leaders like Nick who tear down other hard-working public servants. Stop posting how bad current leaders are cuz they aren’t sign waving and how we deserve better. It’s such a bad, ungrateful look. WE deserve better than a guy who has to tear down others to pump himself up.
Vote Tuesday.
Amy Nyman
Peachtree City, Ga.
Lots of vitriol in the comments here lately re the Mayoral Election..I sure hope it doesn’t carry over.
From his website, verbatim, since deleted:
“In 2003, Nick Ferrante EPICLY FAILED OUT OF COLLEGE AND GOT ON THE FAST TRACK BACK TO HIS PARENT’S HOUSE.
His parents were shocked to learn he managed to live on a college campus for two semesters without earning a single credit hour. They wondered if maybe their baby boy wasn’t ready for college after all. Nick wondered if maybe they were right.
Actually he knew they were right; he had very little doubt about how it all happened. Not only did he know how it happened but he also knew how it started. He knew from the day he packed up his room and moved to school that he didn’t have any business living in a college town. Nick wasn’t ready because he didn’t know why he was going in the first place.
No vision
+No plan
+No dream
No Reason to Say “No”
So there wasn’t any confusion or surprise only frustration.
Nick spent the next 2 years searching for that reason but floated from temporary vision to makeshift plan and from makeshift plan to short lived dreams. They were all stop-gaps. Band-Aids.
This letter reads as a contrived last minute hit piece. Which has been par for the course for the good old boys in this town. It’s been the same tired campaign of rumors against Nick for months in this column. The fear that someone not inside of the local establishment might motivate voters to actually come to the polls and drive change is palpable. And it is one more reason why people should vote for Nick.
Maybe not a hit piece but people who don’t drink Nick’s Kool Aid and research and pay attention to the fact the man cannot answer anything difficult and instead attacks them.
His new fav is calling people who don’t agree with him Racist…. Nick is not what PTC needs unless we want to devolve.
No it isn’t.
I’ve seen video of his performance at local events. He’s answering questions in a clear and concise manner. He’s certainly not calling anyone a racist.
Honestly, try to act like a grown adult, and not a teenage gossip.
Are you sitting down, PTCitizen?
I agree with you.
And I’m noticing a trend lately–on occasion, you and I actually back up one another.
Beware of the “slippery slope”–first you agree with a progressive Democrat, follower of the Universal Christ, happily strutting in her “clown shoes”…soon you’ll find yourself responding with civility and largesse to Visionaryjax…and then you’ll end up reading Father Richard Rohr!
Who knows–we might all end up as friends!
So Amy, if I didn’t know any better, I would think you were talking about Trump. I’d hope you didn’t vote for him either.
Local yokel DA strikes again.
Actually, to call him a local is an insult…just another transplant Chinese tool seller who hates America.
Amy, I appreciate your thoughts here. Nick is no doubt uniquely unqualified. Real world, if he were to apply for the job he seeks, it would be an absolute joke. Absolutely cringeworthy, He is clearly trying to ride what he and his supporters perceive as the wave of wokeness going on in America. We will see.
drdrakerrmore, what are your credentials? I have no doubt that you are uniquely unqualified to make a ruling on the qualifications of others. You sound like a real winner with your “wokeness” BS.
Dawn, I am certain the totality of your life reflects your thoughts like a glove
So only retirees can be elected officials in our family community? That doesn’t make sense, and has led to our historically “out of touch with families” leadership.
Kim even said herself that having grandchildren reinvigorated her desire to serve… the truth is some folks like Nick never lost their desire to serve the community in the first place.
I could get behind some of this if a main point in her platform wasn’t “Hey let’s add more traffic on Huddleston right by our worst intersection! It’ll be fun!” It’s a terrible idea. Why on earth you would think that is a good idea is beyond me.
We need people like Nick who are trying to do something for Peachtree City, not someone like Kim looking for something to do.
As Councilman and mayor I served with people with jobs. While fully legal it has problems. They miss meetings and come unprepared to vote.
At the time Kim had a job and missed a bunch of meetings. Eric missed a bunch of meetings because he was constantly going on cruises.
And as far as developments on 74 it is a joke that she opposes them when she voted for annexing and rezoning for residential.
Kim is part of the disastrous last eight years. She has voted for rezoning, stripping citizens from participation, urbanization and more. Having served with her for four years she is not what PTC needs.
Yes, Don, we know. You’ve only told everyone a million times that every other candidate sucks and you’re the only one that can be the Mayor. Do you actually believe everyone will forget your disastrous term and the sound beating you received as an incumbent? I mean, you came in last place as the incumbent! That’s a mandate! That debacle should have told you, right then and there, that your time as an elected official in PTC was done. Over. Finished.
It’s unfortunate that the Mayor’s position in PTC mostly attracts retired folks that have too much time on their hands and not enough to do. Plenty of time to talk themselves into believing that they are the only ones that can do the job.
Lever Up. no words. You are beyond clueless.
Lever, your clever spin dtd 10-31-21 really should read that Kim has numerous skills and talents accumulated over the course of a successful career which she wishes to apply in service to our town. I don’t think she is the wanderer here. Nice try.
Kim is part of the last eight years of urbanization, tax-and-spend and an absurd focus on recreation over other needs, like economic development.