Meet Lester Miller, a candidate for Macon-Bibb County mayor

Lester Miller qualified to run for mayor of Macon-Bibb County on March 4, and he wants to create a better community for future generations.

The Telegraph partnered with the Center for Collaborative Journalism, Georgia Public Broadcasting Macon and 13WMAZ to interview each mayoral candidate and gather biographical information.

Miller, 51, has lived in Macon all of his life, went to seven different elementary schools in the Bibb County school system and graduated from Southwest High School, Mercer University and Mercer’s School of Law, according to a submitted election form.

He works as an attorney and a small business owner; he and his wife, Toby, have two children, Tyler and Landon, who also grew up in the Bibb County school system before being admitted to Mercer.

As a member of the Bibb County School Board, Miller was voted board president three times. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce and NewTown Macon and on the Council of the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank.

Here are Lester Miller’s answers to the media’s questions. Answers have been edited for brevity.

1. How would you address violent crime?

“Violent crime is one of the number one issues that we have here in Macon-Bibb County, and back when I decided to run in 2018, I identified crime as the most important issue,” Miller said. “Violent crime, in particular, are those that prevent businesses from coming here, people from feeling safe in their homes.”

Miller said the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office is short 150 officers, and he plans to address that first.

One of his plans to address the officer shortage is a program called Justice Works.

Justice Works allows nonviolent offenders to work while they are in prison, which allows them to pay for some of the costs to house them as prisoners, pay child support and be better situated to reenter society, he said.

Rather than needing 25 officers to guard the jail, this program will reduce the number of officers to around 10 so that the officers can get back to patrolling the streets of Macon, he said.

Another plan of Miller’s is to bring back retired officers on a part time basis to work in jobs like working at the courthouse or the government center. The officers could work up to 20 hours per week without receiving other benefits, he said.

“The officers that are presently in those positions can be back on the streets and provide safety for our community,” he said.

2. What would you do to tackle blight?

“Blight is one of those things where I see it in my business as an attorney, and also I see it every day with our school systems,” Miller said. “One thing I proposed earlier to the county is to have our school system work more closely with the county as a taxing entity.”

As a board member of the Bibb County Board of Education, Miller said they requested to have a permanent board member on the Land Bank Authority because the county doesn’t have a lot of money set aside for blight.

He suggested they use some of the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, he said.

The school system could use the funds to tear down and rebuild dilapidated houses in neighborhoods that are severely impacted by blight, specifically areas around schools like Central High School, Miller said.

The project would provide students with jobs and internships with the contractors so the students could learn a trade, he said.

“They’ll get a little money in their pocket, but the whole goal is to teach them a trade to help them get a job, and also to restore that neighborhood the way it should be restored,” he said.

Because blighted properties often have issues with ownership, he said his law practice has worked to help people write free wills, and he said the county can do a better job of creating policies to help with this issue.

3. How would you prioritize spending to improve road conditions, safety and traffic concerns?

“I’ve been going from neighborhood to neighborhood right now myself, and a lot of times, particular areas of Macon have been abandoned,” Miller said.

For example, Miller said the Jeffersonville Road project has continued for the past 16 years without a completion date, and the Lizella area has many potholes and road problems.

A Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax will need to be considered to pay for improvements to the roads, he said.

“One of the reasons I believe it has failed is because there’s been a lack of trust in the local government,” Miller said. “The county government has been unable to put together a T-SPLOST because people simply don’t trust that additional penny going to where it’s supposed to go.”

To improve pedestrian safety, Miller said he plans to update Macon-Bibb County’s infrastructure by improving lighting, sidewalk maintenance and better striping.

He believes he can achieve this with SPLOST funds so taxes will not be raised, he said.

4. What can the county government do to assist with improvements in the Bibb County School System?

“I think the county needs to be a better partner. I think in the last couple of years we’ve worked together a little bit better, but I think there’s some services that we could work together on to improve our whole community as a whole,” Miller said. “Even though we’re separate taxing authorities we should work together for all of our people.”

The library system and the Land Bank Authority are two entities in which Miller said the school system and the county government could work together.

Educators should be a part of local government boards, and as a trustee of the Museum of Arts and Sciences, he said the county can better partner with the museums and the schools to make sure everyone is receiving the benefit and also help both entities financially.

5. What county departments are overstaffed and which are understaffed and what changes would you make?

“I’m looking to put more boots on the ground with the fire department as well. They’re understaffed. They’ve got less people working on those trucks than they should have on there. They’re not earning the proper money they should be, and we’re losing a lot of them to outside areas,” Miller said.

Because the Business Development Services Department has been in the news lately due to the county’s proposal outsourcing building permits and inspections, Miller said he would like to analyze the situation to determine if the department is understaffed or overstaffed, and he would like to start a business advisory group.

“Georgia is the number one place to do business in the United States. Macon should be the number one place to do business in the state of Georgia, and I think that’s something that I look forward to doing as the next Mayor of Macon,” he said.

As mayor, Miller said he would look at different ways to generate revenue without increasing property taxes, such as taxing billboards and cell towers.

“I think there’s wasteful spending, and there’s more efficient ways we can do things, but I think we got to quit relying on the taxpayer to bail us out,” he said.

6. What would you do to improve race relations?

“I think race is always the elephant in the room,” Miller said. “I think it’s something that we have to have open and honest conversations about. You got to find common ground.”

Everyone appreciates a good education and wants to have a good paying job and opportunities to do better in life, he said.

An example of how Miller plans to find common ground is the Justice Works program because it will save taxpayers money while also helping prisoners take care of their families and have a better chance of success when they are released, he said.

When Miller was elected to the school board, he said the board was divided with four African Americans and four Caucasians, and they couldn’t elect a president, vice president or treasurer during the first meeting.

“What I learned on the school board is you don’t go out there and you don’t try to solve all the world’s problems at one time. You build trust, and you have relationships. We haven’t had a tie vote since that… first month I was on the board,” he said. “The more we listen the more we find common ground, the more we make sacrifices and make compromises, and we get things done for all the community.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2020 at 11:08 AM.