Shaheen may run for mayor again

Warner Robins City Councilman Chuck Shaheen may try to reclaim his old job as mayor in November.

Shaheen said he does not expect he will run again for his council post but he may run as mayor. He said that depends on whether the council approves a city administrator position before qualifying starts on Aug. 21.

Shaheen said he would like to serve as mayor again, but keep his job in pharmaceutical sales and have a city administrator running the day-to-day operations. He said he would not be interested in doing it as the job is now.

He added that his interest in having a city administrator isn’t that he wants to be a part-time mayor but that he thinks having the mayor run the day-to-day operations is outdated.

“It’s a dysfunctional system,” he said.

The city administrator issue was discussed during an impromptu public hearing May 1 in which more than 100 people showed up after word spread that council members were considering a city administrator. Opinions varied, but many expressed support for Mayor Randy Toms and said his powers should not be reduced. There has been no discussion of the city administrator issue in the council meetings since then.

Toms, who is in his first term, said he will seek re-election. He said he had no comment on the possibility of Shaheen running against him. However, Toms said he believes the city clerk’s position could be turned into a job similar to a city administrator by giving the city clerk more authority. But he said he does not advocate creating a new position for a city administrator.

“I’ve never asked for help, and I don’t think we need that,” he said.

Eric Langston, a Robins Air Force Base employee, plans to announce Thursday that he is running for Shaheen’s seat, which is a city-wide post. Langston cited public safety as his main reason for running and said he believes the city needs more police officers. At Robins, Langston manages a small fleet of special operations helicopters.

Shaheen served four years as mayor but when it came time for re-election in 2013 he chose instead to run for city council. He said that was because he wanted to return to private sector employment while still having involvement with the city.

This story was originally published June 6, 2017 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Shaheen may run for mayor again."