Roswell Elections Guide 2019: Candidates Focused On Development

ROSWELL, GA — The Roswell City Council election will take place Nov. 5. The election is for the council seats of Post 1, Post 2 and Post 3.

Patch has invited each candidate in contested races to participate in our election profile series. We will continue to update this story with links to responses to our questionnaire.

Part one of the candidate questionnaire dives into why the candidates want to run and what their long and short term goals are, and why they love the city. Check back next week for what they say is the biggest issue that the city faces, how they want to combat that and why people should vote for them.

Who's Running?

Post 1

Marcelo Zapata (Incumbent) http://www.marcelozapata.info/

Donald J. Horton www.votedonhorton.com

Post 2

Mike Palermo (Incumbent) Mike4Roswell.com

Geoff Smith www.SmithforRoswell.com

Post 3

Keith Goeke Keith4Roswell.com

Christine Hall ChristineforRoswell.com

Lisa Holland www.LisaHollandForRoswell.com

Kay Howell kayforroswell.com

Question 1: Why did you want to run for city council?

Post 1 Candidates

Marcelo Zapata: Because I want to continue consistently working for our city with the integrity, principle and ethics I have demonstrated over the past four years and ensure the community’s unheard voices are represented at City Hall. Also, I would like to continue advocating for an open, transparent, inclusive, engaging, and responsive city government.

Donald J. Horton: I am running for the Roswell City Council because I want Roswell to grow and prosper. We are not competing very well with our neighbors for jobs and new businesses. I want us to become more competitive. I am also passionate about protecting our Historic District and want to ensure that recommendations from the recently adopted Historic District Master Plan are implemented.

Post 2 Candidates

Mike Palermo: There are currently three councilmembers that approve whatever a developer will request, even if it is record-breaking apartment density. I want to continue to fight for residents to bring balance to this council. Although my family prefers Roswell over Alpharetta, I have recently seen Alpharetta do a good job of pushing back for better developments. Unlike the majority of this council, when Alpharetta saw a request to rezone from office to multi-family, Alpharetta said no. I understand our zoning code and how to push for more responsible development. Roswell needs more destinations, more office, more jobs. Not more apartments. As long as this council continues to approve any and all apartment requests, why would a developer request anything else?

Geoff Smith: My first job was as a newspaper reporter 20 years ago and I covered Roswell and Alpharetta City Council, the Fulton County Commission and some issues at the state capital. I understand the issues and how to get things done. I’ve become known as someone who gets things done. Our council has been engrossed in constant bickering that I believe is hurting our city from moving in a positive direction. Unlike my opponent, I am known as someone who works with people to get things done. I don’t just want to be a voice, I want to get things done.

Post 3 Candidates

Keith Goeke: My entry into local politics began two years ago because of a high density project being proposed in a nearby neighborhood. As the former HOA president of Hollyberry, I felt it was important to learn about and understand both sides of the issues so I invited the developer to come and speak with our residents. Subsequently, I represented the residents of our HOA at City Hall to challenge the developer to build something more in-context for our suburban neighborhood. I believe it is imperative that the residents’ voices are heard on issues facing the city today. Getting it right is imperative to preserving Roswell’s unique heritage and character.

Christine Hall: Roswell deserves a voice on City Council that represents the resident's interests. and I am committed to doing just that. I believe in the qualities that make Roswell great and I want to protect them. I also want to enhance what we have and focus our redevelopment strategically in our commercial corridors. Throughout my life, it has been important to me to give back to our community through my extensive civic engagement. I want to represent and serve the residents of Roswell, not special interests.

Lisa Holland: I dedicated my entire adult life to the citizens of the City of Roswell. I started my career with the city when I was 19-years-old. For the last 10 years, I was assigned to community relations. I partnered with schools, churches, and civic organizations. I have a great understanding of the community from the inside, and as a resident who lived in Roswell for over 33 years. It would be my honor to continue my commitment to the citizens of the City of Roswell.

Kay Howell: I am a process improvement expert. I have created multiple successful process improvement initiatives for both state and federal governmental clients. Since I live in Roswell and I love it here, I believed it was important to bring my skills to the local level, right here to our city.

Question 2: What are your short term and long term goals for the position?

Post 1 Candidates

Marcelo Zapata: To bring balance to the recently elected council voting bloc, continue protecting the character of our neighborhoods, advancing economic development, promoting a plan for a responsible, conservative budget and millage rate. Continue maintaining and upgrading the public infrastructure; supporting the expansion and making better the operation of the Advance Traffic Management System to improve traffic flow in Roswell.

Donald J. Horton: Short term, I want to codify the recommendations of the Historic District Master Plan. Long term, I want to see some of our outdated shopping centers repurposed into business-oriented campuses so that we can attract new businesses to Roswell. I want to balance our current tax base from 27 percent commercial and 73 percent residential.

Post 2 Candidates

Mike Palermo: In the short term I would like to continue to fight against the constant apartment requests, like the most recent approved record-breaking apartment density on Hill Street. These projects will continue our trend of increased density, increased strain on our infrastructure, and fundamentally change the character of Roswell. Long term I will fight to tighten up our zoning code, which implements our vision. I plan to improve our tax base by approving more businesses instead of high density residential.

Geoff Smith: Short term is to bring a servant leadership style to the post, where instead of bickering, I help to create an environment at City Hall where staff and the rest of our community want to pitch in to help make Roswell the best place to live, work and play in the country.

Long term, and this is something I’m laser-focused on, is to implement a Community Improvement District (CID) along the Holcomb Bridge Corridor. This is not a new concept and Roswell is behind the times in not having this. In a CID, every commercial property owner pays an added tax. Then a board made up of those property owners decides how that money is spent on infrastructure projects throughout the corridor. The funds can be used to beautify the road through sidewalk improvements, intersection improvements, burying the wires that run rampant and landscaping along the road. This will improve the values of those properties, which will increase desire for businesses to want to move into them. That will give us weekday customers and new demand for more restaurants and entertainment districts, and will increase the amount of commercial tax we collect, thus lightening the burden on us residents. Alpharetta has one along GA400 and that’s why their exits are so well maintained and why they have one of the most beautiful bridges in North Fulton along Encore Parkway.

No one gets off at Holcomb Bridge from Ga. 400 and says “home sweet home.” I want to change that.

Post 3 Candidates

Keith Goeke: Bringing back transcription is the simplest first-step that can be taken on the road to restoring trust and transparency as well as modernizing the mayor and council voting system so every vote by our elected leaders are searchable by the citizens.

We must bring a strategic economic development team in-house so they can be directly accountable to city leadership and work collaboratively with Planning, Transportation, and Public Works. This sends a message to employers with high-paying jobs that we are open to helping them make Roswell their home. This also helps balance our tax base from being so heavily focused on residents.

In addition, I am proposing a Citizen Transportation Action Committee of knowledgeable and passionate residents representing the interests of Roswell. Citizen engagement is crucial when developing transportation solutions to ensure plans are neighborhood supported and context sensitive while optimizing local traffic flow.

Christine Hall: My foundational principles include treating everyone with respect and being accountable for your actions. Bringing back written, searchable minutes is an operational step we should take for the residents of Roswell to increase transparency. My guiding principle for governing is Roswell is for the residents. Our development efforts need to embrace the resident’s vision of Roswell. So many of us have experienced crossing the river and recognizing we are home. So we need a plan that protects all the things we love about Roswell, while enhancing our commercial areas to keep us economically strong in the long term. Our development efforts should be focused on the work and play elements of our live-work-play strategy. As a CFO and a small business owner, I appreciate a clearly defined plan and a professional process. We should be proactive with developers who share our vision. Our mixed-use districts can be a strategic vehicle for attracting more businesses to our designated commercial areas.

Lisa Holland: I bring unique skills to the council position, with my 35 years in public safety, the Roswell City Council would greatly benefit by having me on hand with my experience and knowledge in public safety, operations and public relations. I understand the changes that are happening in police departments in Roswell and nationwide. There is a growing number of vacant police positions. My short term and immediate goal is to help Roswell be a competitive employer, and keep our city safe.

My long term goal is to revitalize our commercial areas. Abandoned shopping centers tend to attract criminal activity and also become a dumping ground for trash. It’s important that we attract responsible redevelopment - businesses that families can patronize. It is also important to attract commercial office space which will provide jobs for people in our own town. If people live in our city and go to work in our city, that means we would have less traffic on our roadways.

Kay Howell:

Short Term:

• Create Citizen Councils that represent the citizens for Community and Economic Development from all parts of the city, representing ONE ROSWELL
• Ensure that all citizens are aware of what is going on in the city, creating avenues of awareness for the Roswell Citizens

Long Term:

• Execute a Transparent and Accountable City Council that would ensure the council is listening to the citizens for each of our city's projects.
• Create a better operational city government, building better relationships with all stakeholders whether that is (RDOT, GDOT, Business, or Private Citizens), identifying clear plans of execution, outlining the budget as well as clearly identifying an execution plan (timeline) for each project.

Question 3: What is your favorite part of living in Roswell?

Post 1 Candidates

Marcelo Zapata: I love the community feeling of our neighborhoods with all our parks, the rich history of Roswell and the river.

Donald J. Horton: I love our history, our historical assets in the city and the vibrant arts scene.

Post 2 Candidates

Mike Palermo: Our parks and our historic downtown. Roswell has a world class park system that my whole family enjoys. I was proud to support the preservation of the Seven Branches property (on the south side of Holcomb Bridge Road) to further that mission and continue to preserve Roswell greenspace. I hope we continue to value our park system and work to better connect it through multi-use trails. I want to ensure our historic downtown keeps it charm and is able to expand. We can do this by implementing the Historic District Master Plan, increasing parking, and creating safer pedestrian access across Highway 9.

Geoff Smith: The quality of life and its constant commitment to the youth in our community. There are few better places to live and play than Roswell. From the Adult Recreation Center to the river frontage to Canton Street, it has been a truly wonderful place to live and raise our family.

Post 3 Candidates

Keith Goeke: One of my favorite parts of Roswell is our history and the beautiful tree-lined streets and neighborhoods. When you drive into Roswell you get a sense of being home. We are blessed to have the Chattahoochee River, National Parks and City parks all here in Roswell that make people want to live, raise their children and grow old here.

Christine Hall: My husband and I moved here because Roswell is a safe, vibrant city of historic charm, tree-lined neighborhoods and strong schools. I love the outdoors and the active lifestyle that Roswell provides for its residents. I was one of the first members and advocates of the Roswell Rapids Adult Swim Team. I play league tennis and enjoy biking. The river, the parks, our history – it all combines to create a great place to call home.

Lisa Holland: One of the reasons why I chose to raise a family in Roswell was because of all the beautiful and natural areas we have in our town. I live in a subdivision where there are spacious yards filled with beautiful trees, paths and streams. I frequently patronize our city and national parks and love living so close to the Chattahoochee River. It is important that we protect our parks and wonderful amenities.

Kay Howell: I have so many favorite things that I have discovered over the last 20 years living here in Roswell. Whether that is taking the route to come home from Sandy Springs down Ga. 9 into Roswell, where I always feel welcomed by the river and the trees that line the street. Or once a week, we like to hike at the Mill - to get away and enjoy both history and nature.