Q&A With Peachtree Corners City Council Candidate Alex Wright

Peachtree Corners Patch asked the 20 candidates vying for the six council seats on the new Peachtree Corners City Council a series of questions relating to city government for the upcoming Municipal Election on March 6, 2012.

Each of the candidates were asked the same set of questions. Our last question was to request each candidate to compose his or her own question and provide the answer to that question.

Patch introduces Alex Wright, one of four candidates seeking to fill the council seat for Post 3.

Name: Alex J. Wright, age 41

Lived in Peachtree Corners: Since February 2003

Educational background: Monroe Area High School, Monroe, GA; Georgia Tech (Bachelor of Science in Management with a concentration in Accounting); Wake Forest (Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance)

Family: Married, wife Loreen and four children; three sons, one daughter, ages ranging from 4 to 14

Military background: United States Navy (Officer); 4 years active duty, 4 years reserve, USS El Paso (LKA-117) – Weapons Officer, Boat Office, Deployed to Somalia during Operation Restore Hope, USS Briscoe (DD-977) – Main Propulsion Assistant, Auxiliaries Officer

Occupation: Finance Manager for the North American division of Biolab. Lead a team of financial analysts that advise and provide decision support to a $350 million chemicals business. My team is responsible for budgeting, forecasting, monthly reporting, cost/benefit analysis, financial modeling and other ad hoc duties

What experience in your background do you think has best prepared you for serving on the Peachtree Corners City Council?

My entire post-military career has been spent in corporate finance. In most businesses finance does not hold the ultimate decision making authority on major business decisions.  Without that authority the only way finance can influence decisions is through consensus building based on making logical, fact based arguments that show the best way forward. 

Though seemingly an unpopular idea in today’s political environment consensus and compromise are vital for a democracy to function effectively.  Our city council will be no different. The ability to consensus build and work together as a team will be critical for the council as they create a new city from scratch. 

For those that followed my blog during the cityhood campaign you are familiar with the type of fact based and logical arguments I used when advocating for the city . The common theme I practiced during the months of blogging was to encourage debate and discussion no matter the viewpoint and even when there was disagreement to stick to facts and logic, always stay professional and never attack personally. 

While clearly a city council is not an online blog debate you have a taste of the type style and methods I would use in situations where there will enviably be disagreement.

Tell Peachtree Corners readers about your vision for the new city and how you would accomplish it?

My vision for Peachtree Corners is to make our city a destination for businesses, consumers and home seekers.  A place where when we tell people we are from Peachtree Corners people know exactly where we are talking about and the image that comes to their mind is a place that is prosperous, on the rise and somewhere they wished they lived and worked.

How do we accomplish it? My personal view is that the role of government is simply to create a stable and attractive legal and business environment and then let the private market (aka ‘the invisible hand’) do the rest.  Peachtree Corners already has some built in advantages to build off of in terms of becoming an even more attractive destination. 

These advantages come in the form of what I call “anchors.” These anchors are things that are either not going anywhere (physical) or that can withstand economic uncertainty (institutions).  Examples of these include the Chattahoochee River, the lake over at Berkeley Lake right on our border, The Forum, Tech Park, several well established and high performing private and public schools, etc.  These are things that people want to live near and they will pay to live near them either because they frequent them often or because they know these things provide stability in terms of housing value. 

How do we build off these anchors? By incorporating we have eliminated or minimized one of the things investors (business and individual) dislike – risk.  We have done this by creating legal boundaries that contain a populace that is generally fiscally conservative, pro business and that dislikes having too much government. 

I feel very confident that we will elect a council that reflects these views and a council that will actively engage the business community in such a manner that will result in an increasing amount of redevelopment in our area.  This redevelopment will result from the confidence the private sector has that our area and the associated attractive income demographics are not going anywhere.  As higher end redevelopment takes place it will create a virtuous cycle of expanding improvement that will make our area increasingly desirable both as a commercial and residential destination.

What do you think is the greatest challenge facing Peachtree Corners, and how would you approach it?

Our greatest challenge is creating an identity and sense of unity/community.  There was much discussion during the cityhood campaign about the proposed boundaries of the city.  Many people believed the boundaries were a power grab.  Others felt the boundaries were partially chosen to satisfy the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) and the Voting Rights Act. 

Regardless of why, the reality is we have a very large city (both geographically and population wise) that has areas where people feel very little connection to the idea or reality of a city of Peachtree Corners.  The results of the Nov. 8 election reflect this. The cityhood campaign was bruising and divisive. Healing those divisions and bringing disparate groups together is critical. 

How do we do this? I think the first thing that has to be done is elect a council whose views and concerns reflect and acknowledge this issue and who are focused on addressing it.  Simply saying you want to be a ‘watch dog’ against government spending or promising not to raise taxes is not sufficient.  We must have a council made up of people who interested in serving ALL the PEOPLE and not just focusing on showing certain people how ideological pure they can be.

Having council members whose motivation is to be a servant of the people and work constructively toward building a great city will ultimately result in positive and productive changes to our area.  This in turn will inspire confidence in people that everyone’s views are being considered and that there really is a tangible benefit to being a city.  

Will a property tax increase be necessary to operate the city? 

The Vinson Institute of Government at UGA conducted a feasibility study that estimated annual city expenses at approximately $780k per year. The study estimated franchise fee revenue at $1 million and property tax revenue (1 mil increase) at $2 million.  Based on this study franchise fees alone should be able to cover estimated expenses.

Additionally data from other sources have indicated that franchise fee revenue could possibly be much higher than $1 million if the example of Dunwoody is a good guide. In 2010 Dunwoody, with a population of 46,000, pulled in $3.1 million in franchise fees. Peachtree Corners is estimated to have around 38,000 to 40,000 people therefore franchise fee revenue would be expected to be closer to $2.0 million to $2.5 million using Dunwoody’s franchise fee per resident ratio as a guide. 

Website: http://www.wright4pccouncil.com/home