Q and A Reprinted

1.      What experience do you bring to the job and what is your motivation to serve the people of Georgia?

 I bring new ideas, a fresh perspective, and over 20 years of experience in international trade, business and development. I am not a conventional politician. Serving the local community and applying my leadership and organizational skills in a number of ways is something I like to do.

I am very active in my community and serve as a member on the Zoning Board of Appeals with the City of Peachtree Corners, as well as on a number of civic and professional organizations. I look at politics through a professional lens: with a focus on results, outcomes and performance indicators.

As I become more involved with the community, it is becoming more apparent that our legislature is not doing nearly enough to solve real problems we are facing. Over the past few years, I have seen a disconnect between the legislature and the people they have taken an oath to serve.  The outcomes are not making a difference in people’s daily lives.

Georgia lags behind in national ratings in numerous categories. Poverty has risen since 2000. Our ranking in job creation, median household income, number of children living in poverty, test scores, and unemployment are not where we need them to be. We do not have an energy policy in place and environmental indicators do not rank well. I am motivated to change the way we make decisions and to improve these conditions and the state’s ratings by making policy relevant to the people. I want to bring the legislators closer to the people they serve.

 2.      If elected, what would be your top three priorities and how would you work to achieve results?

 If I am elected, I actually have four top priorities. They are economy, education, ethics and energy.

First, I will use my experience and contacts to bring jobs to Georgia and improve our local economy. More jobs means more opportunities and success. Job creation should be Job # 1 for our General Assembly!

Second, I will work to improve our schools. Georgia’s students and teachers have suffered through too many severe cuts to our education system and unfairly allocated resources. I am committed to protecting and increasing the education budget to ensure that our teachers have the tools and support they need to help our children succeed.  We must maintain quality education for our students by ending furlough days, maintaining smaller school sizes, and restoring a full year of 180 days of school.

Third, we must get serious about maintaining a high standard of ethics in Georgia. The Ethics Commission must be an independent institution that is separate from all politics and which answers to people. I will do my level best to reform this institution.  

Fourth, the State of Georgia does not have an energy policy. I will work to promote sustainable energy and environmental security by creating a task-force to work on a comprehensive energy policy for the State of Georgia. 

 3.      If elected, how will you identify issues that are important to your constituents, and how will you ensure progress is made on their issues?

 Communication and evaluation are two methods that I will use to identify issues of importance to my constituency. Being available and accessible to the community to listen to their concerns and issues and to let them know what is going on at the legislature is important. If a legislator is not communicating with the constituency, then policies not relevant to people’s lives and needs tend to get created. I will make sure that I communicate effectively with my constituents by holding regular town halls, informal meetings, and just being out there as much as I can with people in my district.

I will request my constituents to evaluate my performance, using an annual professional feedback and review framework. Depending on the ratings I receive, I will stay focused on improving the areas that receive weaker ratings. I will apply this appraisal-based feedback loop to work on issues that are important to my constituents. This will also increase my accountability in representing my constituency and will support a bottoms-up approach to policy making, thereby bringing the legislature closer to the people.

 4.      Several states are moving to permanent, portable voter registration, meaning that the individual’s registration would automatically transfer if they move within the state. Would you support permanent, portable voter registration in Georgia? Why or Why Not?

 From a resource utilization and operational point of view, this is a pragmatic and cost effective approach. I support the portable and automatic voter registration transfer method. However, we must also be prepared to address technological glitches and ensure that transfer of data takes place in a transparent manner and that there are back-up systems in place during times of breakdowns and emergencies, so that we can also track down voter verified data trail. Every citizen in the State of Georgia should be able to vote and I am all for this.

 5.      Georgia allows hundreds of millions of dollars each year on tax incentives for businesses to locate, hire, expand and invest in our state. What role should the legislature play in keeping these businesses accountable to ensure these tax breaks produce their intended results?

 We must use creative and innovative financing to support businesses. However, incentives must emphasis corporate accountability, effective utilization of human capital and a transparent policy. A right mix and framework of tax incentives are important to stimulate our local economy, improve productivity and create jobs. These incentives must match with the operating environment and adapt to the needs of local area. We want to create a sustainable business environment and a situation where markets are able to absorb workforce produced by our educational institutions and they stay.

We must avoid situations where a handful of legislators provide tax incentives for five years, influence relocation and location of major businesses within their districts. The legislature must demand corporate accountability with a fair, sound and transparent policy.  Policy review of purchase of good and services, and due diligence of contractors are also important. Tax incentives can be linked with human capital.  Out of State hires bring in additional revenue to the State, however, optimizing the workforce by combining external and local hires will work better for our people.

The other side of the debate is also the types of incentives we provide to small businesses. We must balance our incentive structure to support our small business community, too.

 6.      Do you support or oppose the continued use of Common Core Standards in Georgia? Why or why not?

 I support common standards but not necessarily Common Core. If Common Core can be judged to produce a conducive environment for students to thrive and achieve, and if having a common standard can indeed deliver the result of excellence in learning, then it might be the tool we can use in Georgia to raise the bar with success.

We have been fortunate with the Gwinnett County Public School system which has been vetted nationally as one of the best for urban education and is once again a finalist for Broad Prize. Gwinnett’s model deserves a closer scrutiny. We must prepare our students to effectively compete in a 21st century market.  Our economic boundaries lies beyond the State of Georgia and preparing a workforce that can compete effectively beyond these boundaries will, in the long run, support our labor market, boost productivity and prepare a student to support a post-modern economy. I am a believer of benchmarks and goals, having a common standard as a tool to measure excellence allows both the teacher and the student to work towards a goal and measure their performance against benchmarks. The efforts and standards increases responsibility, ownership and accountability.