Kenneth

Steele, a soon-to-retire Delta Air Lines pilot

and current city councilman, and Paul Oddo,

"half CPA, half restaurateur and just a

little bit of book publisher," both want

your vote for mayor of Fayetteville.

Steelae,

a native of Glen Mills, Pa., has been a

Fayetteville resident for 21 years. Oddo has

lived in his the Fayetteville area since 1970,

though his south Fayetteville home was annexed

into the city limits about two years ago when a

large portion of the family property was

developed as a new Kroger shopping center.

Steele

holds a BA in education and spent seven years in

Southeast Asia as a lieutenant commander in the

U.S. Navy before beginning work for Delta. He

said he will retire in July after a 30-year

career. He is married with three grown children.

Oddo

holds a BBA in accounting and worked six years

with Price Waterhouse and Mann Judd Landau before

establishing his own firm, Paul C. Oddo Jr.,

P.C., now known as Oddo Brothers, CPA's, in 1979.

The

two candidates offer different approaches to

development and regulation, among other topics.

Steele: "I feel that I always

represent the homeowners and the taxpayers,"

said Steele, who has been a City Council member

for five years and served on the city Planning

and Zoning Commission for five years before that.

Although

the city can't deny property owners the right to

develop their land as zoned, Steele said,

Fayetteville has developed ordinances designed to

provide some control.

"We

do not determine where commercial development

is," he said, "but we have forced by

ordinance the big box retailers to locate between

two state highways." That plan has worked

well, said Steele, because the only area that

meets that requirement is between Ga. Highway 85

north and Ga. Highway 314.

"Now

we have Fayette Pavilion in the best place it can

be, bordered by two four-lane highways, with a

landfill on the north and another shopping center

to the south," he said. "We did that so

as not to impact our residential neighborhoods,

and I strongly support that concept."

Oddo: That concept is all wrong,

said Oddo. "Traffic is a huge problem,"

he said, " and it has got to be addressed,

not by forcing every bit of new commercial

property into the area known as the Pavilion, but

city and not saturating one particular

spot."

Oddo

said he is proud of his family's development of

the Fayetteville Towne Center (Kroger) shopping

center south of town, adding that he believes it

has helped spread some of the traffic around a

bit.

The

new Lowe's super-store, under construction in the

85/314 corridor, originally sought city approval

to locate on Ga. Highway 54 west, Oddo recalled.

"Instead they forced it up there to add to

the traffic problem," he said

The

law requiring large retail stores to locate

between two state highways should be repealed,

Oddo said, to encourage some of those big box

retailers to move into some of Fayetteville's

empty spaces, like the old Wal-Mart. "I

would much rather have seen a change in [the law]

and got rid of two empty buildings," he

said.

Steele: Changing the two-highway

rule wouldn't attract new retailers to the old

spaces, said Steele, adding that the city has

little control over the situation. "It's

private property," he said.

"We

have taken some initiatives, though," he

said. "We've grandfathered the older

buildings." Those who want to redevelop

older properties are exempt from some of the

city's more restrictive new development

regulations.

Oddo: Those regulations also are

a bone of contention with Oddo. "They write

rules and regulations and they don't understand

the impact on the other side of it," he

said. "They don't have to deal with

it."

As

a business owner, Oddo said, he does have to deal

with the regulations, and in some cases they're

too restrictive. He recently went a round with

city regulators in seeking approval to expand his

restaurant, GTO's. The expansion was a simple

one, he said, yet the process took longer than

seven months. "That's ridiculous," he

said.

His

accounting firm helps people deal with the

Internal Revenue Service, and as mayor he would

help local people deal with the city, he said.

"I want to help people deal with the rules

and regulations," he said.

Steele: Rules and regulations are

necessary, said Steele, to keep commercial

development from overtaking the community. Zoning

is already in place for a great deal of

commercial development, he said, and although it

would be legal for the city to change the zoning

of some of that land, it wouldn't be practical.

"The courts have ruled that we must

reimburse them" for the difference in

marketability between the old zoning and the new,

he said.

"Instead,

we increase the development standards to make the

best possible project with the current

zoning," he said.

Some

residents in recent years have pushed the city to

put a liquor by the drink referendum on the

ballot in hopes of attracting better restaurants

to the city. Steele said he is not in favor of

any action by the City Council. "If the

voters initiate the referendum by petition,

that's probably the purest form of democracy left

in America," he said.

"I

support their right to petition. They have a

direct voice," he added.

Oddo: Oddo said he favors the

City Council placing the liquor question on the

ballot without a petition. "Peachtree City

has shown that having liquor by the drink does

not create a den of iniquity," Oddo said.

When

people want a drink, they're going to buy it, he

added. "Instead of driving over to Peachtree

City or Clayton County, we might as well have

them here at home," he said.

On

another topic, Oddo said that, although

Fayetteville has lowered its tax rate over the

years, many residents are paying higher taxes

because inflation has driven the value of their

property up.

"Dollars

paid - that's what you look at," said

Oddo. He said he believes that balancing

commercial and residential development, along

with making the city government more efficient,

can reduce people's actual taxes.

Steele: Steele said the city

already is holding the line on taxes, and

although every individual case is different, for

the most part lower tax rates have kept citizens

from paying higher tax dollars, even with

inflation.

"I

would say that 90 to 95 percent of the city

property taxes have, in fact, gone down," he

said.

Steele

said he also feels that the City Council has

recently reduced residential density in the city,

through approval of a new land use plan.

Generally,

the city should be developed more densely near

downtown and less densely farther out, said

Steele. He is opposed, he said, to annexing

property in order to give allow developers higher

density because of the availability of sewer

service.

"We

now have a two-acre zoning category for anyone

that wants to be annexed" and whose property

is zoned for two-acre development in the county,

he said.

He

said he also favors flexible subdivision plans

that make use of more green space, as long as the

overall density remains the same. "They may

have a hundred acres, and after you take out for

infrastructure they can get about 85 homes with

one-acre zoning. Under [flexible planning] they

still end up with 85 homes, but they might have

them on 25 acres and the other 75 are deeded to a

preservation trust or something like that,"

he said.

Oddo: The city should be

developed more densely than the county, said

Oddo, "but it doesn't have to be super dense

either." Higher density residential

development should be "balanced with zero

density," he said, meaning commercial

development.

Oddo

also called for more cooperation between the city

and Fayette County, including possible

consolidation of the city and county water

systems. "I'm not against looking into

it," he said.

Reminded

that a committee of county and city officials

currently is currently working to foster greater

cooperation, Oddo said, "I can do a better

job. That's why I'm running for mayor.

If

elected, Oddo said, he would encourage city staff

to look for small ways to help senior citizens,

including having their trash picked up without

their having to take it to the street.

Steele: Steele said he also would

like to see more emphasis on senior citizens, and

called for community involvement in building a

new senior services building, similar to the

Fayette Play Park effort.

Fayetteville

should develop more green spaces and recreation

areas, he added. "We do not have the

financial wherewithal to do it," he said,

but added he is hoping Gov. Roy Barnes' emphasis

on green spaces will be bolstered by more state

dollars.

He

said if elected he also will push for more state

and federal help for Fayette's transportation

problems. A county transportation plan is in

place, he said, and should be funded. "It's

a regional problem, and it's going to take

regional solutions, he said. �

committee representing the Georgia Association of

Chiefs of Police, Georgia Sheriff's Association,

Fire Chiefs Association of Georgia/Georgia State

Fire Fighters Association, Emergency Medical

Services, Emergency Management Agency of Georgia,

911 Advisory Committee, and Prosecuting

Attorneys' Council, as well as other state

agencies with public safety authority,

participated in the selection process.

The

awards ceremony will be Tuesday, Oct. 26, at 10

a.m. at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center

in Forsyth.

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