MACON, Ga. — The August runoff is a little over two weeks away. Two candidates are in a runoff for Macon-Bibb County's District 5 commission seat.
Ashlyn Webb spoke to both candidates about their top priorities. Both candidates also weighed in on COVID-19 and race relations.
Seth Clark and Carlton Kitchens were neck and neck in the primary, just a few hundred votes' difference. Now, they're in the runoff. Here are some of the top issues they're running on.
Clark says one of his top priorities is fixing the food desert in his district. On Monday, Planning and Zoning approved that part of the old Kroger on Pio Nono Avenue will be a grocery store. The other section will be storage units. Clark says this is one step in the right direction.
"We got to make sure that whatever is under that sign, what's in that building is going to be here for the long haul because we can't just throw something in there to say that we did something, and then five years later, end up in the same exact situation we're in right now," Clark said.
Another of his priorities is busting blight. Clark says the county needs to allocate funding based on the areas that need it most.
"Last time, we issued blight bonds to attack blight, it was split up evenly across political districts," Clark said. "It just wasn't as effective, and I don't think it went as far as it could have."
Eliminating blight is also a priority for Kitchens, but he says first, the county needs to balance the budget.
"Sometimes, you got to move money around to bring, to get more money for the city. Sometimes, you know, you got to resource or prioritize the money," Kitchens said. "Sometimes, you got to source it out to bring more money back into our city."
Kitchens says once the county frees up more money in the budget, they can focus on blight and bringing in jobs.
"More money can come in from the federal government. As that money comes in, you want to create jobs that are economic for both. Some of that money, like I said, can go to blight," Kitchens said.
On the topic of COVID-19, we asked both about their thoughts on a mask mandate.
"If I were on commission today, I would lobby my fellow commissioners to override the mayor's veto of the mask mandate. I don't believe the governor is on solid, legal ground," Clark said.
"Well, that's a toss-up question. That's an 'either/or' question," Kitchens said, noting that, overall, safety should be the priority. However, he didn't answer whether or not he would be in support of a mask mandate, initially.
We asked Kitchens again about how he would vote on the mask mandate.
"That's a good question. I would be for the masks," Kitchens said.
Lastly, both candidates say the county needs to mend race relations.
"You got to work around all ventures, areas to bridge and merge the race problem. We got some systemic racial issues and problems," Kitchens said.
"I don't think we can move forward together with simply nominal acts, the policy has to match the rhetoric of inclusion and of leveling the playing field," Clark said.
The runoff is August 11, and early voting has already started.