Brooks Candidate Comparison in their own words – Mayoral Edition

Who should you vote for in the Town of Brooks next 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. 

The Mayoral candidates, incumbent Dan Langford and contender Lieze Harris were invited to respond to an identical set of 4 questions about candidate differentiation, challenges, planning, and budget.

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 candidates’ submissions. Answers were truncated to ensure the 250-word limit. In an effort of fairness, we switched the order of response for each question. 

Early voting is underway in Fayette County. 

Q1. Why do you feel that you would be a better choice than your opponent?

Dan Langford

I am finishing my sixteenth year as Brooks’s mayor, and previously was a council member for a decade, and zoning administrator for two years.  I know Brooks and her people with an understanding that can only come from long service and experience.

I am a seventh-generation Brooksian, whose grandfather and great-grandfather both served as mayor.  I say that not in some foolish claim to be a member of a non-existent class of local pseudo-gentry, which would be laughably ridiculous, but instead to clarify that Brooks is in my very heart, mind, soul, and being, and that I would never do anything I did not believe was in the best interest of the Town of Brooks and its residents.

Having been involved in Brooks leadership since 1998, I am a known quantity here and in county leadership.  These wide-spreading relationships, which were not built overnight,  are critical to Brooks’s well-being.

I am a respectful person, always striving to treat people fairly.  I keep my property neat and in good order, and have never been in an adversarial or litigious relationship with the Town of Brooks.  If steady, level-headed, and deliberate win the race, then I am your candidate of choice.

Lieze Harris

I believe I’m the better choice for Mayor because the people of Brooks deserve leadership that listens, respects, and tells the truth.

Right now, this town is being run more like a dictatorship over its own people. If you don’t give in to their demands, you get punished. If you speak up, you get silenced. That’s not leadership — that’s intimidation. And that’s not how Brooks should ever be run.

Too many decisions are made behind closed doors. Too many facts are twisted to fit their narrative. In my opinion, too many council members are coerced to vote one way instead of standing up for the folks who put them there. That’s not democracy — that’s control.

And what makes it worse is that some of the very people doing this stand up and call themselves Christians, while turning around and treating their neighbors without kindness or grace. Faith should guide us to serve others, not to step on them. We’re called to be humble, honest, and fair — not to twist the truth or use power to punish.

When town officials cross the line or misuse ordinances, nothing’s done about it. No accountability. No fairness. And I’m here to say — enough is enough.

Brooks deserves better. We deserve honesty. We deserve transparency. We deserve respect.

When I’m your Mayor, every voice will matter. I’ll open those doors at Town Hall and keep the lights on — because the people have a right to know what’s going on. I’ll tell the truth, even when (truncated for length at 250 words)

Q2. What is/are Brooks’ biggest challenge/s currently?

Lieze Harris

The biggest challenge facing the Town of Brooks is that we’ve lost our way — and our identity. Right now, our town’s being run in a fog of confusion and self-interest. We’ve got leaders trying to please folks who don’t even live inside the town limits, and decisions being made based on chatter from a Facebook group instead of listening to the good, hardworking people who actually call Brooks home.

We’ve got a town manager who keeps dreaming up unnecessary projects just to grab more grant money, while our water’s still not clean and our town-owned rental properties sit vacant — costing taxpayers money month after month with nothing to show for it. Then there’s a legal counsel that thinks it’s okay to sue innocent citizens — even going so far as to claim my husband “failed to communicate,” when in truth he did everything by the book. That’s using the courts to twist the truth and intimidate people, plain and simple. That’s not justice; that’s abuse of power.

And let’s talk about this so-called “historic district.” The mayor signed off on pushing it to the state, claiming overwhelming community support, when in truth only a handful of folks are behind it. That’s misleading at best — and dishonest at worst. Even worse, the town itself owns several properties that would benefit directly. That’s not public service; that’s politics for profit.

Brooks deserves better. We deserve clean water, open government, and leadership that tells the truth. It’s time to stop chasing headlines and start (truncated for length at 250 words)

Dan Langford

I believe there are two:

1. Water system – our water system was installed nearly sixty years ago.  Operated by the county water authority, it gets older every day and nearer the end of its functional life.   Town government is working on a solution now, but the price tag ($4-5 million) is beyond anything Brooks can afford without substantial grants or other outside funds filling in the shortfall.
2. High-speed internet service – this is spotty at best in most of Brooks, and I hesitate even to mention it because I do not yet see an obvious solution to it.  Nationwide, the country’s Electric Membership Cooperatives are stepping in to bring broadband to rural America; however, our local cooperative, Coweta-Fayette EMC (the board of which I serve on), has a 95% saturation rate of broadband within its prescribed service area, and could never make economic justification for heavy investment that would be required to bring broadband to just 5% of its members at the expense of its remaining 95%.  

I was given an estimate of the cost of getting this service to Brooks a year or two ago, and it was two-to-three times the estimate given above for the water system, so the potential cost is truly staggering.   

I believe a viable solution will come at some point, but as yet have been unable to discern the “how,” “when”, “from whom or where” parts of that question.

Q3. What would you like to see Brooks do differently, should you win this race? What is your plan?

Dan Langford

I believe if most folks in Brooks were to be asked this question, their response would be, “Why mess up a good thing?”  

That’s pretty much my answer to this question, for I believe government’s main function – from national down to local level – is to protect people, their inalienable rights, and their property.  Otherwise I think government’s job to stay out of the people’s way and not bog them down with maddening, picayunish regulatory and compliance requirements.

I believe the present Brooks government has this function down cold, and would ask again, “Why mess up a good thing?”    

But no one should mistake what I’ve said here as an indication of rigidity or opposition to change;  the present mayor and council have always been willing to consider new ideas and to implement the best of those after proper consideration.   The new Liberty Tech access road is the most recent instance of this.  

The mayor, council, and staff saw a need – for traffic relief during drop-off and pick-up times at the school – and acted swiftly, involving the county commission, the school board, Liberty Tech leadership, and the county road department to construct a new access road that seems to have accomplished its purpose – to prevent traffic jams on our main thoroughfare, Highway 85 Connector, and in doing so, to increase traffic safety by a great margin.

Lieze Harris

When I’m elected Mayor, the first thing I plan to do is clean house — and I mean clean it good. It’s time to sweep out the corruption, the secrets, and the lies that have been hiding behind closed doors for far too long. Brooks belongs to the people — not a handful of folks who think Town Hall is their personal clubhouse.

We’re gonna bring honesty and accountability back where they belong. That starts with getting a new town manager — one who works for the people, not one who treats this town like his own playground. We’ll bring in new legal counsel, too — somebody who’ll hold every official’s feet to the fire, including the mayor, the council, and the manager. No more cover-ups. No more excuses.

I’ll fight to eliminate all unnecessary municipal taxes and put that money back where it belongs — in the pockets of the hardworking men and women of Brooks. I’ll immediately stop the push for an unnecessary historical district that most of our citizens don’t even want. Because folks, it’s simple: less government, more freedom.

I’ll also create a new budget team that tracks every single dollar like a hound on a trail, so every citizen knows exactly where their money’s going. And we’ll cut the waste — no more funding nonprofits that don’t directly serve our community. Every penny will serve the people of Brooks, not politics.

My plan’s simple: open the doors, tell the truth, and hand this town back to its rightful owners — the good (truncated for length at 250 words)

Q4. Do you approve of how the budget is being managed in Brooks? How is it, or is it not, fiscally sound?

Lieze Harris

No, I do not approve of how the budget’s being managed here in Brooks — not one bit. You can’t call it “fiscally sound” when taxpayer money’s being used to sue innocent folks just to chase a narrative that isn’t true. That’s not good governance — that’s good ol’-fashioned waste.

Right now, this Town is spending your hard-earned money dragging honest people through court, claiming they unlawfully removed town property — all in an effort to gain ownership over land and Memorial Stones that they knew don’t belong to them. And here’s the kicker: the Mayor himself told me twice — before the lawsuit ever started — that he knew it legally belonged to the property owners. Yet they pushed forward anyway.

The public was never informed before this lawsuit was initiated. Not a single public meeting, not a single public vote. And when I asked questions during a tax meeting on how the Town could even initiate a lawsuit without telling the public — or how they could spend taxpayer money suing people who’ve done nothing wrong over private property — the Mayor’s response was, “We don’t sue people who haven’t done anything wrong.” And doubled down with, “We don’t sue people who don’t deserve it”.

Yet here we are — my husband dismissed from a false accusation, and his parents still being dragged through the mud for owning land with stones they bought fair and square 6 years ago.

This isn’t about law — it’s about power and control. And it’s a shameful misuse of public funds. (truncated for length at 250 words)

Dan Langford

Yes and yes.

The taxes paid on my house and lot recently were:

        County                                                           $1,091

         School                                                             4,095

         Fire/EMS                                                         1,022

         Brooks                                                                 332

         Total                                                                 $6,540

 Brooks’s percentage is 5.1%, a relatively low percentage.  And property taxes make up only 16% (approximately $62,000) of the total Brooks budget for 2025-26.  Other tax revenues, which total some $386,000 (counting the $62K Brooks assesses), are as follows:

   Franchise tax on utilities                                         9% (about $35,000)

   Insurance premium taxes                                       13% (about $50,000)

    Sales taxes                                                            47% (about $181,000)

    Vehicle taxes                                                         14% (about $54,000)

    Other taxes/fees                                                    1% (about $4,000)

These monies, which fund 84% of the cost of Brooks’s government, would flow into county coffers if Brooks did not have a town government, so the $62,000 we expect to collect in property taxes from Brooksians unlocks $324,000 in funds that flow directly into the town’s operating funds.  That’s a tremendous bang for the buck. 

Regarding  fiscal soundness, Brooks has no long-term debt.  Brooks has substantial fund balance, sometimes known as “equity.”  And Brooks’s leaders have adopted the strategy of using the rollback millage rate most years, but slightly raising the millage rate perhaps once or twice per decade to reflect inflation.

Brooks’s proposed millage rate for 2025, which should be adopted soon, is a modest 1.126 mills (down from 1.129 mills last year.)  This compares with 5.64 mills in Fayetteville, 5.98 in Peachtree City,  2.89 in Tyrone, 1.61 in Sharpsburg, 17.5 in Hapeville, and 5.7 mills in Griffin.  So our town taxes are some of the lowest around.