MACON, Ga. — The two candidates running for the District 4 commission seat are George Thomas, an office and leasing manager for NewTown Macon, against incumbent Mallory Jones, who has a little over six years of experience on the commission board.
George Thomas is a Macon native and Westside High school alumni.
Thomas attended Savannah State University and Valdosta State University.
If elected, he wants to focus primarily on pedestrian safety.
"No sidewalks, a lot of bikers, no bike lanes anywhere. Thomaston Road has a high rate of traffic, speeds up to 55 right around that area, so there definitely needs to be improvements there," says Thomas.
Thomas also wants to tackle lowering property taxes.
"Not even too far from my house, I can drive a few miles down the road, cross the Monroe County line, keep a Macon address, and pay a significantly lower millage rate on my house. By passing the OLOST tax, that would be a 100% rollback to the property tax," says Thomas.
Incumbent Mallory Jones served on the board of commissioners since 2014. He is a real estate broker.
Jones has lived in Macon for 50 years and attended the University of West Georgia.
If he is reelected, he wants to continue making strides in hiring more deputies.
"We are 130 to 140 deputies short. That's caused by many factors, but our pay is not competitive. We know that we're waiting on the results of a pay scale study," says Jones.
The budget will also be Jones' main focus. Especially, because of the coronavirus' potential impact on revenue coming into the county.
"It's going to be something that I don't think any government, obviously, has ever faced, unless you go back to 1918 with the Spanish flu, or you go back to the recession of 1929, but I come from the business world, and I try to look after the people's money like I would look after my own," says Jones.
These candidates will be on the ballot for the election happening on June 9th.
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