Peachtree City Candidate Comparison in their own words – Mayoral Edition

Who should you vote for in Peachtree City’s mayoral election? In this feature, you’ll find the differences between our candidates in their own words as they answer questions from The Citizen. Candidates were given exactly one week to reply to our questions.

Both candidates for Peachtree City Mayor, incumbent Mayor Kim Learnard and challenger and Former Mayor Steve Brown, were invited to respond to an identical set of 13 questions about governance, development, traffic, finance, and community priorities.

Each answer appears exactly as submitted, up to a 250-word limit, and has been lightly formatted for readability.

Personal contact details and website links have been removed from both candidates’ submissions. In an effort of fairness, we switched the order of response for each question.

Stay tuned for the Candidate Comparison on the other two contested races in Peachtree City over the next few days. Early voting in Peachtree City starts next Tuesday, October 14 at the Library/City Hall complex.

Governance & Transparency

Q1. What sets you apart from your opponent? How would you be a better choice?

Kim Learnard

I am proudly running on my record—not on misinformation and half-truths. Voters know they can trust me. I’ve lived here 26 years, raised my family here, and have been re-elected every time I ran. My opponent was the mayor 20 years ago but after one term in office, Peachtree City voters handed him the largest election landslide defeat in city history.

I am a collaborative, approachable leader who believes in working with people, not against them. I have built strong partnerships with schools, businesses, neighborhoods, and officials in local, state, and federal government. I support the community events our families love.

Under my leadership, we are revitalizing our villages, solving traffic, and making our community a more safe and beautiful place. We welcomed new businesses into buildings that sat vacant for years. We blocked overdevelopment. We expanded the paths and upgraded our recreation facilities. We lowered the millage rate to provide tax relief (my opponent raised taxes when he was mayor). We are one of the Top 10 Safest Cities in Georgia.

This year’s election presents a clear choice between steady, positive leadership and negative, dysfunctional politics of the past. I am Peachtree City’s biggest champion. My opponent has trouble finding anything good to say about our community.

Peachtree City deserves continued positive, forward-looking leadership.

Steve Brown

I have more experience and success than the current mayor, with a webpage displaying my accomplishments. I have done far more for our local children and adults.

I refused to rezone revenue-positive land zoned for future corporate headquarters and light industrial to revenue-negative residential zoning. The current mayor has done the opposite, squandering critical revenue for current and future generations that would have offset our residential property taxes, which she continues to increase.

I follow the law and our ordinances, but the current mayor has violated Open Meetings/Records laws and was the deciding vote for a campaign contributor’s multi-family complex, without disclosing the conflict or recusing herself from the vote. I was honored to be cited as an “exemplar” of government ethics in the textbook “Ethics Management for Public Administrators, Building Organizations of Integrity” by Donald Menzel.

More than any Fayette official, I have drawn more state and regional government transportation funds (widening Highway 74-South, widening and bridge expansions of Highway 54-West, cart bridges and tunnels, the new Highway 74/I-85 interchange, road and cart path repaving funds). The current mayor has zero.

The current mayor has a repressive style and has drastically restricted citizen speech in public meetings and prevented council members from performing their duties. My previous administration as mayor was the most open and transparent, with no restrictions on speech; all citizens and officials had a voice.

Vote for a positive, open, ethical, and productive difference with me.

Q2. Outside of public comments, how will you ensure residents have a stronger voice in city government?

Steve Brown

Immediately reverse the autocratic ordinances imposed by Mayor Learnard.

By city ordinance, only 10 people out of 40,000 residents are allowed to speak at meetings, each for only three minutes. On agenda items with state-mandated public hearings, the mayor has forced the citizen comment time down to 52 seconds per person, totally ridiculous. It’s proof she doesn’t care what you have to say. The mayor has been quick to say that if she feels you are ‘worthy,’ she’ll consider allowing you to speak beyond the mandatory 10 citizens for a couple of minutes. She has a giant stopwatch on the large screen with an alarm that sounds when your time is up.

The current mayor abolished the longstanding tradition of our citizens being able to place items of concern on a council meeting agenda. Even worse, she created restrictions preventing city council members from placing agenda items on the meeting agenda, totally outrageous.

We will return to the “no speech restrictions” policy used during my previous administration. Everyone gets to speak on every agenda item, no time limits.

When you call Kim Learnard out on this awful behavior, she says you’re being “negative.”

The current mayor touts city surveys conducted by Zencity, but the company has admitted that these surveys aren’t scientific.

In my previous administration, we had Teen and a Senior Adult Councils, and I worked directly with the parents of the recreation associations. Learnard does none of it and wonders why she’s out of touch.

Kim Learnard

Since I took office, citizen engagement has skyrocketed. We launched “The Slice,” our weekly e-newsletter, which now reaches nearly 24,000 subscribers, and I film “Mondays with the Mayor” videos to keep residents informed about Council decisions. We created “Slice of the City” village visits, a Recreation Advisory Group, a Transportation Advisory Group, the new PTC 101 class, and a Summer Internship program – all giving our residents fresh opportunities to get involved and make their voices heard.

We’ve also continued popular programs like CERT and the Citizens Police Academy, while our Fire Department added a Community Outreach Coordinator who works directly with schools and community groups. I’ve hosted Town Hall meetings on traffic, recreation, city communications, and the new HB 581 property tax bill. Our meetings are now videotaped and livestreamed. We even moved one of our bi-monthly evening Council meetings to the morning, to encourage broader participation. Public Comment in our meetings is three minutes, standard practice across the state (including Tyrone, Fayetteville, Dunwoody, and most cities with a Public Comment policy).

To connect with our business community, we launched “The Compass” e-newsletter and hired an Economic Development Manager. I maintain an open-door policy, meeting regularly with both individuals and groups. My priority has been—and will remain—ensuring that every resident has easy, meaningful ways to be heard in Peachtree City government.

Growth, Development & Annexation

Q3. How would you protect Peachtree City’s village concept while also planning for future growth?

Kim Learnard

Peachtree City founder Joel Cowan has endorsed me for a second term because I uphold his original vision for our city.

Revitalizing our villages has been a top priority in my first term. When I took office, there were storefronts in town that had sat empty for years. Now we have J. Alexanders coming to the Smokey Bones location, family-owned B. Turner’s clothing in the old Stein Mart, and Homesense in the former Bed, Bath & Beyond. Peachtree City landed the first Trader Joe’s on the south side, opening at the end of this month, and The Avenue is adding new exit lanes to the parking lot. Willowbend shopping center is being transformed into the Willow District with walkability and gathering spaces.

My opponent’s claims of “urbanization” are nothing more than election year fear-mongering. The only apartments built in the last 20 years were Somerby and Hearthside–senior living facilities.

Like most of our citizens, I oppose high density residential. I rejected proposals for apartments at the former Kmart site—not once, but twice. Today, that property is home to Ace Pickleball, with Altitude Trampoline Park coming soon. In Aberdeen Village, the owner of Partners Pizza is now revitalizing the center with a new restaurant, new retail, a rooftop patio, and 12 owned condo units—this is a far cry from the original proposal for 190 apartments which I strongly opposed.

We’ll continue to balance growth with preservation so that Peachtree City remains the unique, vibrant community we all love.

Steve Brown

The village land plans have been abandoned over the last 12 years, one of the reasons I decided to run for election and stop the bleeding.

Immediately stop the ‘urbanization’ efforts by the city government, started by Mayor Vanessa Fleisch and continued by the current mayor. There has been a push to build more densely populated multi-family complexes across the city, like Fayetteville. Our market has overcapacity in multi-family complexes.

Mayor Learnard went to the LCI plan meetings and never offered a single word of opposition to the horrific plan to build multi-family complexes across the city. I discuss the plan in detail here: [on my website]. I led the opposition to the LCI. Learnard has already approved several multi-family condominium complexes.

Learnard has backed candidates who support building large multi-family complexes and radical change, but all have lost so far, thankfully.

The signage denoting the individual village boundaries has been removed as part of the urbanization effort. The mayor even hired a new Planning Director who specializes in urban planning. The mayor was part of the effort to rezone the westside land from corporate headquarters uses to residential.

Learnard sought endorsements from former mayors Bob Lenox and Harold Logsdon, the two mayors most responsible for making Highway 54-West a traffic gridlock nightmare.

Endorsements from Lenox and Logsdon are a good indicator of where they believe the current mayor is heading on the issue of infill urbanization.

Please don’t allow them to completely destroy our golden goose.

Traffic & Infrastructure

Q4. What additional solutions would you propose for Highway 54/74, and how should Peachtree City work with Fayette County and GDOT to implement them?

Steve Brown

Let’s be clear that the majority of the problems we currently face are the result of horrible city government decisions. I’ll be accused of being “negative” again by Learnard, but people would rather hear the truth. The entire area around Highway 54-West is the result of Mayors Bob Lenox, Harold Logsdon, Vanessa Fleisch, and Kim Learnard abandoning the city’s successful, award-winning land plans. The westside land was intended for use as corporate headquarters and light industrial purposes. Instead, it was converted to high-vehicle-traffic retail, apartments, condominiums, and dense, small-lot single-family residential.

Therefore, the best solution is to stop electing individuals who seek to make radical changes to our award-winning land plans. We’ll all be better off for it. I worked with GDOT to secure a substantial amount of funding to expand Highway 54-West and all its bridges. The other mayors completely eliminated all the added capacity I acquired, resulting in two miles of congestion in both directions.

GDOT has admitted that the current construction at 74/54 does little to relieve east-west gridlock, but Mayor Learnard signed off on the project anyway. An interview with the GDOT engineer is on our campaign website. They say the low-budget band-aid is supposed to last 10 to 15 years!

A grade separation at 74/54 is the best long-term solution. I’ve worked with engineers on that concept, but Learnard has made it tough to obtain because she settled for the inferior, low-budget project instead. We will fight to achieve a long-term solution.

Kim Learnard

Traffic is my number one concern, and I take traffic implications into account with every decision I make for Peachtree City. Highways 54 and 74 are state roads. The 54/74 improvement project is funded by GDOT and scheduled for completion next summer. Once construction is complete, GDOT will re-time the traffic signals from the MacDuff bridge to City Hall to improve flow.

I have already convened officials from Fayette County, our neighboring cities, and GDOT for the next step: a Scoping Study of the west corridor. This collaborative effort will identify and recommend additional long-term improvements beyond the 54/74 intersection. I will continue to push for smart, coordinated solutions to ease congestion and improve mobility across our community.

We need to be honest about how we got here. Twenty years ago, my opponent personally recommended the six traffic lights that now choke Highway 54 West. As mayor, he ushered in overdevelopment on both sides of 54 West. He also stopped the planned, paid-for TDK Boulevard connection to Coweta County. While that project was controversial and stopping it may have been the right choice, failing to create an alternative east–west route to relieve Highway 54 was a serious mistake and today we are living with the consequences.

I am focused on long term solutions. By working with Fayette County, our neighboring cities, and GDOT, I will continue to address today’s challenges and plan responsibly for the future.

Q5. Which city roads beyond 54/74 do you see as priorities for improvement, and how would you address them?

Kim Learnard

In my second term, we will continue making traffic improvements across the city. In 2025, we approved the construction contract to add dual left-turn lanes from Huddleston Road northbound onto Highway 54 westbound, a much-needed upgrade for that busy corridor. We also approved the engineering design for new sewer, stormwater, and path infrastructure along Huddleston Road—long overdue improvements that will support local businesses.

At Peachtree Parkway and Crosstown Road, we are acquiring right-of-way in preparation for the construction of a new roundabout to improve safety and traffic flow. In addition, we have partnered to share the cost of paving a new access road from Rockaway Road to Meade Fields, providing safer access to our athletic facilities.

These projects are well underway, and I look forward to seeing them implemented in my second term. They reflect the kind of thoughtful, forward-looking planning that keeps Peachtree City moving safely and efficiently.

Steve Brown

All projects require funding. Learnard hasn’t secured a single dime of state or federal transportation funding (not even the low-budget 74/54, which the Fleisch administration solicited). I have secured more road funding than any other elected official in the county.

Our issues emanate from Highways 54 and 74, and those should be the focus. The rest is routine maintenance.

Mayor Learnard has toyed with the real estate developer windfall project, the “TDK extension.” She has informed some via email that she would consider building it, and then she signed a city resolution in public stating she opposed it, exhibiting more chameleon-like behavior.

For those not familiar, the TDK extension was a scam project promoted by real estate developers on the Coweta County side of the road extension. They hid their plan, containing more new retail shopping square footage than the entire Fayette Pavilion shopping complex. There was also a massive amount of high-end office space, as well as thousands of homes, apartments, and townhouses. The population just across the border would have been similar to Fayetteville, Tyrone, and Fairburn combined! I refused to participate in the con job.

I lost re-election as mayor by a wide margin to pro-TDK candidate Harold Logsdon. Once Logsdon was elected, the developers announced their actual plans. Peachtree City residents went ballistic and fought the TDK extension to the point that Logsdon had to run away. The deceptive real estate developers who funded Logsdon’s campaign were left empty-handed; the citizens prevailed.

Support higher standards.

Parks & Recreation

Q6. Do you support the recently adopted Parks & Recreation Master Plan? Why or why not?

Steve Brown

Anyone who pays attention to our city’s budgeting knows that the $140 to $200 (they always underestimate project costs) allocated for new projects is unsustainable.

When some of us publicly questioned the $10 million in unfunded maintenance for existing infrastructure, Learnard accused us of lying. Then the City Manager had to admit that the city had used a once-in-a-lifetime federal pandemic grant for a new fire station to perform maintenance, leaving a densely populated area without adequate Fire and EMS coverage.

Therefore, we still do not have sufficient incoming revenue in the budget to continue with ongoing maintenance, and we are short a fire station. With this level of incompetence, the last thing we should do is build more non-essential infrastructure at this time. The Fayette County Development Authority had Georgia Tech conduct a “Cost of Community Services Analysis” for Fayette County, which raises the alarm. Fiscal accountability matters.

Learnard rigged the newly approved pickleball facility, sneaking it up to a tier one project. They are building the facility over our adult softball fields. Softball was a highly popular adult sport until the city government abruptly shut it down without explanation. To make matters worse, Learnard has decreed that people from Clayton, South Fulton, Coweta, etc., can use the new pickleball facility for free at your expense. Furthermore, instead of entering into a public-private partnership with companies that are investing millions of dollars in local pickleball, we are creating taxpayer-funded competition for them. It’s ridiculous.

We deserve better leadership.

Kim Learnard

Yes. Peachtree City is a master-planned community and recreation has always been central to our quality of life. Since 1999, Peachtree City has relied on a Recreation Master Plan to guide our decisions. In January of 2025 City Council unanimously adopted the first new plan in 15 years.

This month, we will break ground on 18 long-awaited public pickleball courts at Meade Athletic Complex. My opponent railed against these courts, stating on camera, “I mean God, this is stupid! Why would we do this?”

On my watch, we have sharpened our focus on cleaning, repairing, upgrading, and maintaining our recreation facilities. We renovated Riley Fields with a new track, upgraded playgrounds citywide, and restored the Tennis Center. We opened a new ADA playground and improved parking facilities at the PAC. We installed LED lights at tennis courts and softball, lacrosse, and baseball fields. Soon we will move forward with restrooms at Drake Field and a Veterans plaza on Kelly Drive.

The Recreation Master Plan reflects robust community input, with more than 2,400 surveys completed, over 40 stakeholder interviews, and professional guidance from a third-party expert. It captures what our citizens want for the future in terms of recreation programs and facilities.

The plan provides a roadmap, but it will be up to the 2026 City Council and future City Councils to set priorities, secure funding, and continue listening to residents as projects move forward. I see this as an exciting opportunity for ensuring our recreation programs for future generations.

Finances & Budget

Q7. What is your opinion of the current city budget? Would you have voted to pass it, and why or why not?

Kim Learnard

One of my top priorities is tax relief. My opponent claims to be a fiscal hawk, but when he was mayor, he increased the millage rate by a whopping 22.4 percent, raising taxes on residents.

We all know what it means to do more with less, and I believe local government should do the same. In FY2025, I lowered the millage rate; the FY2026 budget reduces it even more. In addition, I joined other mayors in opting into the new state law, HB 581, limiting property assessment increases to the rate of inflation starting in 2026 and every year thereafter.

Because of my strong relationships with state and federal officials, Peachtree City secured a property tax break for low income seniors (a ballot referendum on Nov. 4), and we are now awaiting a $1.172 million federal grant to remodel the former Big Shots gun range into a state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center to serve the entire community.

We have a strong, conservative budget and a healthy rainy-day fund. Nearly half of the budget goes to my top budget priority—public safety—and we are ranked one of the Top 10 Safest Cities in Georgia because of it.

Our budget process was thorough, transparent, and included multiple opportunities for public input. We held budget discussions in April, June, and July, followed by a public hearing. I am proud of the months of work that went into crafting this balanced, responsible budget, which City Council unanimously adopted in September.

Steve Brown

Peachtree City’s current and past budgets are bloated, reflecting a lack of fiscal discipline.

Mayor Learnard routinely supports the City Manager’s proposals and last year blocked Council Member Suzzane Brown from accessing key budget data. It was Ms. Brown who forced a full rollback of the millage rate, preventing a tax hike in FY2026.

In 2023, Learnard stated, “Council’s goal will be to budget no millage rate increases over the next five years.” She never intended to roll back millage rates to offset rising property values—effectively endorsing ongoing tax increases.

Taxpayers face rising property taxes without seeing improvements in city services. Learnard’s failure to preserve land for corporate development shifts the financial burden onto homeowners. Her administration’s annexation of residential areas only worsens the problem, expanding service demands and driving up costs.

As mayor in 2002, I inherited a budget deficit following the 9/11 attacks. As county chairman, I faced a similar challenge after the Great Recession. In both cases, I led successful turnarounds, earning AAA bond ratings for Peachtree City and Fayette County.

We can regain discipline. I will establish a citizen-led budget review committee to eliminate waste, streamline operations, and align spending with community priorities. Working with department heads, we’ll identify inefficiencies, consider system reorganizations, and evaluate staffing needs. Our goal: restore fiscal responsibility and deliver value to taxpayers. Let’s not ignore our widows, single moms, and families trying to make ends meet.

District 4 candidate James Clifton is also a strict conservative on budgeting.

Q8. Do you believe Peachtree City’s reserves are appropriate? If so, why? If not, why?

Steve Brown

This is part of the current poor fiscal management. The city’s practical standard is to maintain a reserve fund of no less than 31 percent. We are now around 60 percent. Learnard should have been returning the excess revenue on a scheduled basis as a rebate on the following year’s taxes; instead, she hoarded the cash and used it as a slush fund to purchase non-budgeted items. Most of those slush fund purchases originated from secret executive session meetings, so there was no public input on the purchases. It’s just plain wrong.

The corrupt practices have to end. Mayor Learnard has also violated the Georgia Open Meetings and Records Acts multiple times.

I always stand up for the average citizens. I fought the old city attorney for mishandling lawsuits against the city when he had a business interest with the plaintiffs, and I won on your behalf.

I confronted and ended the multimillion-dollar corruption schemes of the Peachtree City Development Authority, referred to by then-Police Chief James Murray as “a culture of corruption.” The next administration totally disbanded the unethical authority.

That excess tax revenue in reserves belongs to you. Mayor Learnard is over-taxing you and keeping the balance for her own personal projects. We should never allow such corruption.

Like most issues, District 4 candidate James Clifton and I are in total agreement on returning excess taxation to our homeowners and businesses. Clifton is a strong choice.

Don’t allow things to worsen.

Kim Learnard

The FY2026 budget plan includes reserves of 59%. This level of reserves provides important protection for our community. Healthy reserves safeguard the city against economic downturns, ensure we can respond quickly to natural disasters (like the tornado that devastated Newnan in 2021, calling for an immediate expense in excess of $12 million for that city) or other emergencies, and they help us maintain our Moody’s AAA bond rating (which we achieved in March of 2023), lowering borrowing costs for taxpayers. Reserves also allow us to manage large, unexpected expenses without raising taxes. They give us the flexibility to take advantage of opportunities—such as grant matching or land purchases—when they arise.

For all these reasons, I believe Peachtree City’s reserves are appropriate, and essential to our long-term financial stability.

Q9. Increases in pay rates for Peachtree City Staff including first responders and police have not kept up with inflation in the last several years’ budgets. What would you do about this? Why do you think it matters… or doesn’t?

Kim Learnard

In 2023, Peachtree City conducted a comprehensive pay and benefits study, comparing our staff positions to those in 14 peer communities. One key finding was that starting police pay in Peachtree City was comparatively low. In response, we increased starting police pay by 11%, making our city competitive in recruiting and retaining officers.

The results speak for themselves: our police department is now fully staffed, and Part 1 crimes dropped 25% from the end of the first quarter of 2024 to the end of the first quarter of 2025. We are now working with the Fayette County School System to place a full-time School Resource Officer in every elementary school to ensure our children’s safety. (Our middle and high schools already have them.)

Both our police and fire departments continue to hold the highest professional accreditations. Looking ahead, the FY2026 budget includes three new firefighter positions to staff the new fire station soon to be built on south Highway 74.

In my second term, we will plan for the next compensation study to ensure not only our police officers, but every city staff member, is competitively paid. Investing in our employees is essential: it helps us attract and retain the best talent, maintain high-quality services, and keep Peachtree City one of the Top Ten Safest Cities in Georgia.

Steve Brown

I challenge the validity of the question. The city staff has seen recent across-the-board pay raises and continual cost-of-living increases on an annual basis. There were bonuses and pension increases due to the salary increases. If anything, I suggest that it is the taxpayers’ salaries that have not kept pace with inflation, and the city is hoarding excess tax revenue rather than returning it to property owners and businesses.

The government works for us, not the other way around. For years, Peachtree City residents have watched their tax bills climb while city services declined. That’s not on the taxpayers who are already paying more than their fair share. It’s on a government that’s lost sight of its priorities.

The trend is unmistakable. If we want Peachtree City to remain a top-tier place to raise a family and enjoy retirement, we must confront the growing dysfunction in our local government. You must have leadership with the will to act and the knowledge to fix what’s broken.

Let’s be honest: calling citizens “negative” isn’t leadership — it’s deflection. Mayor Learnard and her allies don’t want to hear the truth, so they dismiss legitimate concerns as negativity. But the people of Peachtree City aren’t negative — they’re paying attention. They’re paying taxes. And they’re paying the price for a government that’s stopped listening.

Peachtree City is brimming with talent. We’ve got well-educated people who’ve built careers solving problems. They expect competence, accountability, and results. What they get instead is political excuses and finger-pointing.

Environment & Greenspaces

Q10. What specific improvements or protections would you prioritize for our greenspaces during your term?

Steve Brown

Voters need to elect people who genuinely care about the local environment. The Fleisch administration sought to develop apartments, condominiums, and townhome complexes on our city’s green spaces. Mayor Learnard never spoke out against those plans until a massive backlash from the citizens arose.

Those living here for 20 years or more have witnessed a decline in the city’s maintenance of its green spaces. Kudzu has been allowed to choke out landscaping purchased with our tax dollars. And many spots look unkept.

I raised awareness of the local manufacturing facilities that were using very hazardous chemicals and had poor safety records, cited by the Georgia EPD. That civic push eventually forced the two companies to move to another city.

My record as an elected official is based on protecting our green spaces and our drinking water supply. I created the award-winning Fayette Water Guardians program, which cleans every drinking water reservoir in Fayette County annually at no charge to the taxpayers. Tons of debris have been removed. I will gladly put my record up against any elected official in Fayette County. I’m an enthusiastic member of the Flint Riverkeeper organization, which protects our watershed basin.

I received the 2005 “Local Champion” award from the Georgia Alliance for the Prevention of Tobacco for creating the state’s smoke-free facilities model, which was used to develop the state statute protecting our children from secondhand cigarette smoke in public places. Millions of Georgia children benefit from smoke-free air in buildings and parks.

Kim Learnard

In 2025, Peachtree City created and filled a new position—Certified Arborist—who provides professional expertise in caring for our greenspaces. This ensures that our tree canopy is managed to the highest standards. Each year, we dedicate a portion of our budget to tree care, greenspace management, and replanting.

We also have a tree ordinance that guides responsible development, protecting buffers and requiring tree replacement. We have welcomed the Southern Conservation Trust to Peachtree City for educational and environmental programming, and stewardship of our 620 acres of nature areas (Line Creek, Flat Creek, and Somerby Woods).

Our path system is intentionally designed to weave through protected greenspaces, preserving the natural look and feel of Peachtree City. Decades of thoughtful planning have kept large areas of greenspace intact, ensuring they remain central to our quality of life.

Together, these efforts—backed by both city policy and community values—show why Peachtree City was honored as a Tree City USA in 2025, and why protecting our natural environment will always remain one of my top priorities. I will carry out Joel Cowan’s original vision for protecting greenspaces, as they are essential to our quality of life.

Public Safety

Q11. How should Peachtree City address recruitment and retention challenges in police and fire?

Kim Learnard

As I detailed in Question 9, our strategy of increasing pay and benefits has worked, and we now have a fully staffed police force and fire department. Our first responders risk their lives and health everyday to keep our community safe; they deserve our respect and support.

Steve Brown

I also challenge the validity of this question. The current administration just leapfrogged cities in terms of top salaries in Georgia.

Public Safety employees received a $6,000 signing bonus and an upper pay range of $105,661. They also received an upgrade to their benefits package. Some of us were gasping for air when the WSB TV News reporter on the scene said, “The city says no taxes will be raised to pay for it all.” And, yes, the news crew got that straight from Mayor Kim Learnard.

You do not have to be an accountant to question the veracity of the mayor’s astonishing claim. Of course, she raised our taxes.

The way the pay increases, bonuses, benefit increases, and pension increases were handled was crude at best. They simply found the highest-paying cities with significantly larger populations, higher crime rates, and higher Fire/EMS call rates, and leapfrogged them.

I created the public safety pension fund program for Peachtree City 20 years ago. The impact of Mayor Learnard’s significant adjustments on the pension fund was never mentioned or discussed.

Like any job, the work environment matters, and that will be a key focus. Mayor Learnard just throws money at problems.

In my previous administration, we lost police officers to the Federal Marshals, FBI, and Secret Service. I view that as a positive: hiring employees who work hard and want to better themselves, and using that as a recruiting tool to attract the best candidates, thanks to our national accreditation.

Community & Identity

Q12. What do you see as its biggest threat that must be addressed?

Steve Brown

Got to get the traffic under control. The current 74/54 project does nothing for east-west traffic, huge mistake. I have pulled state and federal funding for the largest transportation projects in Peachtree City. Let’s do it again.

I explained previously that we need to get the budget and taxation right for a city of our size.

Unfortunately, the biggest threat is electing people who do not appreciate the actual assets in our community. Avoid people who think radically changing an award-winning platform is necessary.

For the past 12 years, we have had two administrations dead set on urbanizing our community. The candidates that Learnard has supported in the last two city elections have supported lots of tall, dense apartment and condominium complexes. She hired a Planning Director, specializing in urban planning.

We are a thriving community in which to raise a family and retire; let’s keep it that way. We are a community that attracts well-educated, gainfully employed, civic-minded, family-oriented citizens. Why on earth would we want to change that?

Several years ago, the city presented the Livable Centers Initiative plan, which proposed replacing some of our valuable parkland and green spaces with infill multi-family complexes. I will NEVER support that. Learnard attended the LCI meetings and said nothing.

We have got to get a tighter grip on petty and violent crime. Shoplifting gangs, vandalism, and public intoxication can ruin a community just as fast as violent crimes. I will push for prosecution on all.

Kim Learnard

The biggest threat to Peachtree City’s future would be electing a poor leader who fails to safeguard our quality of life. Shortsighted decisions—like those we’ve seen from my opponent—would worsen traffic, threaten our way of life, and undermine the safety and character of our community.

My opponent was the mayor of Peachtree City for one term, 2002-2005. His leadership was described as “mired in dysfunction and infighting” and a negative identity of Peachtree City made the pages of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. His combative style eroded trust, divided colleagues, and drove dysfunction. He profoundly increased the millage rate, raising taxes on our citizens. Quality employees left the city. He is single-handedly responsible for a list of mistakes that resulted in the traffic congestion we are dealing with to this day. One look at his campaign and you can see that he has no plans for our city; his focus is on distortions, personal attacks, and partisan division. It’s no wonder that after one term in office, Peachtree City voters handed him the largest election landslide defeat in city history. We will not take our city backwards 20 years.

By contrast, I provide focus, steadiness, and solutions. My leadership approach and strong sense of community are reasons why I am supported by our city’s founder, four former mayors, respected former council members, and local leaders in business, industry, and education.

Q13. What specific steps should Peachtree City take to attract the next generation of families and businesses?

Kim Learnard

My strength as mayor is bringing people together — from families and neighborhoods to our airport and industrial park. I’ve conducted listening sessions with young families to learn directly what they want for Peachtree City, both now and in the future. Based on their feedback, we made the splash pad free, removed credit card readers from field lights, and added new events like the Homerun Derby and Family Football Tailgating. We’ve been re-certified as both a Runner Friendly and Bike Friendly Community — key features that keep us attractive to active families.

Peachtree City also has a strong business climate and people want to build their future here. I have worked to connect our industries and technical colleges to provide a strong workforce pipeline and drive opportunity. Our city Economic Development Department is focused on growth, small business support, and job creation.

This summer Peachtree City commissioned a professional survey. The results were clear: 87% of our citizens are happy with the Peachtree City quality of life — that’s 12% higher than peer cities nationwide. And just this year, we were named one of America’s Best Small Towns to Raise a Family.

Like you, I love this community and I will continue to protect all that we cherish about our city so future citizens can enjoy the quality of life that makes Peachtree City one of a kind.

Steve Brown

We are the premier community for attracting well-educated, gainfully employed, civic-minded, family-oriented citizens, so elect people who do not want to change it radically.

This is why I have teamed up with District 4 candidate James Clifton. He’s a young family man who loves our quality of life assets and is willing to fight to keep them. He is as ‘anti-urbanization’ as I am.

The longer-term residents, like my family, have enjoyed the benefits of having a growing and thriving corporate and industrial sector, which also pays property taxes and fees to offset our residential taxes as the city grows. Those uses kept our residential taxes reasonable over time. Mayor Learnard has participated in stealing future corporate revenue offsets from the next generation by rezoning the remainder of our corporate/light industrial land to residential zoning, a colossal mistake.

Cutting off corporate/light industrial areas and drastically expanding residential development will create major financial headaches for future generations, as city services need to expand to accommodate the residential growth without increased corporate taxes and fees. It’s not rocket science.

The Fayette County Development Authority had Georgia Tech conduct a “Cost of Community Services Analysis” for Fayette County, which supports all my claims.

Let’s follow Georgia Tech’s lead and stop annexing residential neighborhoods because it’s a revenue-negative action.

I’m the only elected official in the county certified in economic development, and sealed the largest economic development project in Fayette County, supplying high-paying jobs and significant tax revenue. We need more.