Candidates speak at NAACP forum

Oct. 20—Several local candidates participated in a forum at the Mack Gaston Community Center in Dalton on Monday, Oct. 16.

The event was hosted by the Dalton-Whitfield NAACP branch and featured contenders for Dalton's mayoral, Ward 2 council and school board races.

Dalton Board of Education incumbent Tulley Johnson and challenger Laura Orr, who retired from Dalton Public Schools this spring after more than 30 years and continues to work part time for the school system, took to the podium first. Candidate Pablo Perez was not present.

An early question touched upon the issue of minority representation in the school system's hiring practices.

"We have a lot of people that have never been here before, this year, that have jobs in our community in our school district," Johnson said. "You have other communities — like Cobb County, Atlanta, you have Gwinnett County — and what they do, they take away from us because they offer bonuses."

Maintaining a diverse employee base is difficult, he said, due to competition throughout the state.

"Money drives people," he said. "That's why they go to different communities."

Orr said the district has a diversity committee that meets with the system's superintendent.

"We want to hire the most qualified person to teach our kids, regardless of the diversity," she said. "We want the one who knows the content and knows how to engage students in instruction."

Orr said she believes it is important for district employees to serve as "role models" for students.

"We do want our Hispanic students to see Hispanic adults in leadership and in teaching and in the community serving," she continued. "We also need to have varied perspectives, a diversity of perspectives."

Another question asked the candidates what they intended to do to address specific concerns from Hispanic parents.

Johnson said he's well aware of the challenges posed by language barriers.

"We offer every student a chance to learn within their language," he said. "If they don't speak English, we should have an interpreter for them to know, to learn how to speak English."

In that area, Orr said the district has to "genuinely listen" to parents.

"We've got to listen for trends ... if we continue to hear the same concern, then we've got to take that and check it out," she said. "And we have to listen for misinformation."

Marisa Kelley, president of the Dalton-Whitfield NAACP branch, was the moderator of the forum.

"There is talk in the community and some concern about The Dalton Academy (TDA) being Morris Innovative High School 2.0, with a high population of ESS — which is Exceptional Student Services — and EL English Learner students," she said. "How are you going to address the needs of those students to make it more in line with state regulations?"

Johnson responded first.

"All of our schools are in line with state regulations," he said. "Graduation is up to 75% at The Dalton Academy and at Morris it was like 23% or 33%."

Another key difference, he said, is that TDA is a school that students can choose to attend.

"It is the only school in the North Georgia region to offer the AP (Advanced Placement) Capstone Program," he said. "Also, they can go to dual enrollment ... this is not a school that we place them in."

Orr said a committee is currently evaluating the district's secondary configuration.

"It is made up of administrators, teachers, community members," she said. "TDA does have a population of EL and ESS students but they are not grossly out of line with any other school in our district — for ESS percentage, they are third."

When it comes to EL-served students, she said there are four other schools in the district with higher percentages of such pupils.

"Before we opened TDA, we were up to about 2,000 kids or more at Dalton High School," Orr said. "Some of our kids don't thrive in that situation, they want that smaller school experience."

As for what they considered their top priorities, Johnson said his are academics and school improvements.

"Everything is budget driven," he said. "Some of the things that people want to do is going to take millions of dollars ... we actually need to build another school, but we can't afford it at this time."

Orr said she is worried that stakeholders are losing confidence in the school district.

"I want to ensure that we have strong leadership, that we cultivate and maintain a professional and respectful culture so that we retain valuable administrators, teachers and staff," she said. "And we have healthy community relations."

The council raceWard 2 Dalton City Council candidates Nicky Lama, Tyler Mitchell and Peter Pociask also fielded questions at the NAACP forum.

Each contender was asked about their perspectives on expanding the affordable housing stock within Dalton.

"I believe it's important to keep our taxes low to help decrease our cost of living," Lama said. "To help those families that need more affordable housing, as well."

Pociask said he believes the way to create more affordable housing is to make more housing in general.

"We need to incentivize and support builders who want to come here and build, especially density and especially closer to downtown," he said. "We really need to focus on building communities and not homes ... can we build units where they're needed, can we build the density so that people who want to come into the city and spend money can do it and not move into houses that would otherwise go to other people?"

Mitchell said the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program could bring more housing options to the community.

"We've got to increase our supply to drive down demand," he said. "The price of housing would go down if we had more supply."

The topic of homelessness was also broached.

Lama said he believes partnerships with local nonprofits are crucial.

"These are people who, honestly, have just had problems — something happened in their life, they've been tossed into the street," he said. "They may not know where to go, but they need the help."

Mitchell had similar thoughts on the subject.

"A lot of people who are homeless don't have a connection to find out what's available to them," Mitchell said. "I believe we should create a program that goes to the homeless community and encourages them for the programs that are available to them."

Pociask suggested that an office within the city government be created to "coordinate" charities within Dalton.

"So that when someone needs help, they've got one spot to go to," he said. "I think we need to have people whose job it is to go out and find people who need help and get it for them."

On the issue of infrastructure, Lama said he is a fan of the council's current direction.

"They're keeping our fiscal house in order and taking care of things that we need to take care of, such as stormwater drainage, sidewalk improvement and roadway repairs," he said.

Mitchell said it's apparent that Dalton needs things like new sidewalks. The bigger question, he posed, is how the local government intends to pay for those upgrades.

"Resurfacing comes from the state and it comes at the bottom of the barrel," he said. "There are other grants out there ... but we have to apply for those and you have to do those in a certain amount of time. Are we doing that? I don't know for sure."

Pociask said roads are constantly a problem in Dalton.

"Some of it always needs repaving," he said. "You read the Forum (in this newspaper) and apparently we just have gravel roads everywhere — so it's something we need to deal with."

Each candidate was asked how they would implement the perspectives of African American and Hispanic residents in their decision-making.

"I encourage people to get more involved, that's one thing I'm a big believer on," Lama said. "If you care about our community, you will be involved with the council, you will be involved with our school board meetings, you will be involved with groups like the NAACP to help make a difference."

Mitchell said he is approachable and willing to talk about any concerns from members of the Dalton community.

"You can reach me through social media or email, call me," he said. "Anything you need."

Pociask noted that different people have different needs.

"I believe that the city needs to make sure that they are making all of their documentation and websites available in the language people speak here," he said. "Fundamentally, you have to care."

Mitchell said his top priorities are safety and education.

"When you have an educated community, you have a better community," he said. "And a safer community."

Lama said one of his biggest concerns is the city budget.

"I want to continue to work with our current council to continue our projects and see what we need to do next," he said.

Pociask said his paramount issue is housing.

"It is the biggest thing we are lacking," he said. "But I really believe everything follows that."

The mayoral race

The forum concluded with remarks from Dalton mayoral candidates Tom Causby and Annalee Harlan Sams. Candidate Jason Burgin was not present.

The first question asked the candidates what they would do to support residents living in or near poverty.

"You bring people into the tent or you make the tent bigger," Causby said. "It is to shine a light on those problems, to use the resources that the city already has and apply them to those problems and try to have better outcomes for those people."

Sams, who stepped down from the City Council to run for mayor, said one way to approach the issue is to bring better-paying jobs to Dalton — and keep them here.

"Sometimes it is brought before the mayor and council to talk about incentives for industry," she said. "We have to be mindful of are we bringing in good-paying jobs — because we're not helping this community if we're not bringing in good-paying jobs."

Another question asked the candidates whether they consider it more important to attract new residents to the community or focus on those who already live in Dalton.

Causby said he sees no reason why the local community cannot achieve both goals at the same time.

"If you make the city more attractive, more appealing, more livable, more walkable, it makes people want to live here," he said. "And it improves the lives of people that do live here."

Sams said she certainly wants to see the community grow — but not at the expense of the local government's services.

"We can do both," she said. "Are we willing to displace citizens to make room for citizens who earn higher wages? I am absolutely not in favor of that in any way, I am in favor of elevating the citizens that already do live here and continuing to provide a safe community, continuing to provide support for industry so industry can provide good-paying jobs."

The candidates were also asked how they envision organizations like the NAACP factoring into the strength, success and vitality of the community.

Causby said he believes such organizations are vital for a functioning democracy.

"The average voter needs to be informed, the average voter needs to feel like their vote counts," he said. "Perhaps most importantly, groups like this ... carry a lot more weight when they speak because it's not an individual. Your elected representatives are far more likely to listen to you if you have a group like this."

Sams said municipal leaders have to listen to their constituents — and listen well.

"There's a responsibility of organizations throughout this community to inform citizens about what's going well, what needs improvement, and that we all have to feel accountable to come and participate," she said. "And most certainly, to vote."

Before the forum came to a close, the candidates were asked what they consider to be the biggest issues in the community.

For Causby, it is addressing Dalton's housing situation.

"From 2010 to 2020, the city and the county didn't grow in any appreciable way," he said. "We've used pretty much all of the flat land that was for sale to build houses, to build plants, to build industry ... which means if we don't have any more land, we've got to use what we have left most efficiently — which means this city needs to take a serious look at its zoning codes, it needs to take a serious look at its future planning."

Sams said her focus is on youth programming. "We have a park per square mile in this community, and that's awesome, but it also needs a lot of refurbishment, and we've let some things go over time," she said. "I think about all the privileges I had growing up and every kid that grows up in Dalton should have access to — learning to play an instrument, learning about art, and we can do that through our parks and rec department without any significant impact on the budget."