Candidate Profile: Douglas DeRito For Alpharetta City Council

ALPHARETTA, GA — Eight city council candidates are running for three seats in Alpharetta's Nov. 2 municipal election.

Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as Election Day draws near.

Douglas DeRito is running for Alpharetta City Council, Post 3.

Age (as of Election Day)

61

Position Sought

Alpharetta City Council - Post 3

Party Affiliation

Non-Partisan Election - but affiliated with the Republican Party

Family

Doug and his wife, Ann Marie, are longtime residents of Alpharetta and have been married for over 35 years. They are the proud parents of three children; Jenna, Douglas and Matthew. All three children are graduates of Alpharetta High School. Jenna is a graduate of Arizona State University and works as a global Corporate Event Planning Manager. Douglas is a graduate of Georgia Tech and is a Biomedical Engineer. Matthew is a graduate of Virginia Military Institute and currently serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

Our youngest son, Matthew, is a Captain in the United States Army based out of Ft. Bragg

Education

Iona College - New Rochelle, NY - BBA, Accounting

Occupation

Senior Partner at Ryan LLC, and International Tax Consulting Firm - been at Ryan going on 17 years. Formerly worldwide Partner with Arthur Andersen and Deloitte - been in tax consulting field for over 34 years.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

Alpharetta City Councilman from 2001 - 2011, where I served as Chairman of the Finance Committee, City Council liaison to Public Safety and to Parks and Recreation. Doug also served on the Alpharetta Parks & Recreation Board and Ethics Commission. Currently a Statewide Board member of the Special Olympics of Georgia. Formerly served on the Alpharetta Public Safety Foundation and the YMCA Board.

Campaign website

electdougderito.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

Simply put, I have been blessed with a wonderful wife and three awesome children, of which I give my wife the vast amount of credit for. My business career as a Partner with an international tax consulting and government services firm provides more evidence of my ability to lead and make a positive contribution to my community. I bring a wealth of financial management and accounting experience to the table, and my previous ten years on the Alpharetta City Council presents a record of significant accomplishments for our City that I feel proud to have contributed towards.

Voters deserve experienced leadership, combined with purpose and direction. My vision will be based on some key principles. I will require our City to remain a financially secured community, one which proactively invests in the safety of our residents, our businesses and visitors, and one which offers a quality of life unmatched by any community in the country, keeping Public Safety at a Top Priority.

As your City Councilman, I will work every day to maintain our financial position, protect our families and improve the quality of life for your family and mine.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

I believe we have 3 pressing issues high on my list to focus on.

First, making certain we maintain the proper level of Public Safety resources to serve the growing needs of our City. We have fallen behind our needs as we see the City's growth outpace the number of police positions required to maintain the level of service we expect.

Secondly, we have to focus on exercising our fiscal responsibility to maintain our AAA bond rating by keeping our debt capacity in check and appropriating every tax dollar to critical needs.

Thirdly, we are facing a growing storm water infrastructure problem due to aging, that will require critical capital investment to accommodate the growth of the City.

What are your short- and long-term goals if you are elected?

Contributing to bringing back a sense of political discourse on our City Council that our citizens and business community can be proud of. Creating a sense of consensus building and respectful debate, while keeping the best interests of Alpharetta at the forefront.

In addition, I plan on focusing on determining the current additional needs within our Public Safety Department and moving on building consensus to fund these additional needs, both in the short and long-term.

I am looking forward to working on re-developing the Northpoint corridor that meets the standards set by our Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Zoning codes. This is a critical need in order to keep Alpharetta as a regional economic powerhouse and help to continue to maintain and increase home values in our City.

I want to discuss with my City Council colleagues how we can increase the budget for our Parks & Recreation Department. The City Council reduced the Parks & Rec budget this past fiscal year by $658,000 - requiring the reduction of 3 positions and reduction in some programs. This was done due to the impacts of the pandemic. I believe this funding is critical to maintain the Parks & Rec requirements of the City - particularly experiencing the growth of the City.

Additionally, we have to confront and deal with our Storm Water System infrastructure needs. This is not a topic that many people have interest in, but we have aging infrastructure that requires capital investment to bring the system up to supporting today's needs, while accommodating our growing City's impact on the storm water system for future growth of our City.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

EXPERIENCE - My previous ten-year experience as your City Councilman prepares me well to meet and exceed the ongoing expectations that our citizens and business community requires at this time. My experience, both in managing global business strategies as a Senior Partner at my firm and in serving in elected office, will serve the City well. My experience will help contribute to creating a cooperative and cohesive governing body that will maintain a focus on serving the best interests of our City. We have several matters facing us, including; keeping Public Safety a top priority and funded at a level to support our growing City, being fiscally responsible with every tax dollar to maintain our Triple A bond rating, fulfilling critical infrastructure needs, addressing a growing critical storm water infrastructure aging problem, re-development of the Northpoint corridor, and supporting our growing Parks & Recreational needs.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

This is an open seat, so I am not a challenger to a current City Council officeholder.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

Frankly, I think the entire nation was ill-prepared to respond to the pandemic. With this said, I do appreciate how our nation, including Alpharetta, pulled together to combat a unforeseen national medical emergency.

As we watched the response to COVID in Alpharetta, we experienced a focused governing body who worked hard toward implementing necessary precautions to protect our citizens by following State and Fulton County guidelines, while doing everything possible to keep our businesses viable and upholding the individual freedoms provided to every American under our Constitution.

As far as what I may have done differently from hindsight, I would have had a big focus on reaching out to our elderly community and our public safety professionals to make certain we provided any assistance possible to protect their health and well-being.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

When I last served on the City Council, my platform and governing philosophy was and will be based on some key guiding principles. I will require our City to remain a financially secured community, one which proactively continues to invest in, as a priority, the safety of our residents, businesses and visitors, and one which offers a quality of life unmatched by any in the region, all without increasing your tax burden.

My Key Platform and Guiding Principles:

Public Safety - Maintain a Focus on Supporting the Needs of Public Safety as a Top Priority

Fiscal Responsibility - Maintain a Triple A Bond Rating for the City and Keep Taxes Stabilized

Transportation and Development - Continue to Invest in Infrastructure Needs and Enhance Mobility Around our City

Parks & Recreation - Maintain our Award Winning Parks and Recreational Programs and Assets, while continuing to Support the Expansion of Public Greenspace

Senior Citizen and Youth - Support programs to continue to enhance the quality of life in Alpharetta for both our Seniors and Youth.

Cultural Arts - Support the ongoing efforts to enhance cultural arts in the City; whether that be theatre, music, sculpture or art work.

Education - Support, coordinate and work in concert with the Board of Education initiatives and involve their input and insights on any potential decision that comes before the City Council that could impact our educational system in Alpharetta.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I served on the City Council from 2001-2011. During this time period, we debated, designed and implemented the necessary zoning changes, established design features, develop site plans and approved those site plans that led to realizing both City Center and Avalon.

In addition, as liaison to Public Safety while on the City Council, I worked on merging the police, fire and 911 services under a Public Safety integrated agency.

As Finance Chairman, I worked on identifying internal financial control weaknesses and implemented over 18 new financial controls that created full transparency to the taxpayers that contributed to obtaining the AAA bond rating the City still enjoys today.

We invested in growing Parks space and increased the length of our Greenway System by over 6 miles while on the City Council.

What do you like best about living in your city (or county)?

Alpharetta is a great City and there are many things I like about living here. The best thing I like about our City is that we have been able to maintain Alpharetta as a safe, family-friendly community, while providing exceptional public safety and maintaining a stable tax environment that contributed to our growing home values.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Be true to your values and develop good listening skills. In order to be successful in anything we do, especially when serving constituents, one needs to develop good listening skills, while being true to the values one builds from life's experiences and upbringing.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I love this City. I am excited and enthusiastic about what the future will bring. All I know is Alpharetta will remain a great place to live, work and play. I am committed to governing in the best interests of all that I will serve once again.

Other candidates for Alpharetta City Council, Post 3:

• Candidate Profile: Daniel McAlonan For Alpharetta City Council