Candidate Profile: Doug Williams For Atlanta City Council

ATLANTA — Fifty-six City Council candidates are running for 16 seats in Atlanta'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.

Doug Williams is running for Atlanta City Council, District 5.

Age (as of Election Day)

52

Party Affiliation

Democrat

Family

Amy Williams

Wife , Ageless, Carter Williams, son, 10

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

Bachelors degree, Double Major, Business Administration and History, University of Indianapolis, '96

Occupation

Natural Products Broker, 19 years

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

Past President East Lake Neighbors Community Association, 2005-2007, Past V.P. NPU-O, 2008-2009

Campaign website

doug4atl5.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

To ensure the people of the 5th district have a responsive representative to help each community achieve its goals and have a responsive city government.

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

Public Safety is the biggest concern citywide, but our district is generally more concerned with the lack of housing, and there is massive intersectionality between the two issues, as lack of housing creates desperate circumstances feeding crime. As representative, I'll work to make sure Atlanta has affordable housing for everyone, regardless of income, with special attention paid to providing housing for those with physical and mental disabilities. Currently over half of our residents cannot afford housing within 30% of their income. (Affordability means that a family has rent or mortgage payments within 30% of their family income.) I want to ensure we have housing available for all income levels below the Federal Average Median Income (AMI) of Atlanta citizens, ($83,000). There are two specific tactics we can use to improve affordable housing. 1) We need to require affordable housing for all large-scale developments and incentivize it for small-scale landlords. Any development over 10 units should have at least one affordable housing unit; anything over 20 units should have 20% towards affordable housing. We need to provide tax incentives to small-scale landlords that give them benefits for providing affordable housing. Increasing density options for housing within 1/2 Mile of Transit routes must be tied to a mandate for affordable housing. The market can provide affordable housing in the 60 to 80% of AMI range using this approach. 2) For housing at or below 50% AMI we need to use all tax breaks and incentives with local, state, and federal resources to subsidize the cost of low-income housing. We need to eliminate the capacity of development authorities to give tax breaks for any housing development that does not include affordable housing. Affordable housing should be required along major transit routes, at a minimum percent proportional to income levels of residents and the workforce in a given area. First, we need to require affordable housing for all large-scale developments and incentivize it for small-scale landlords. Any development over 10 units should have at least one affordable housing unit; anything over 20 units should have 20% towards affordable housing. We need to provide tax incentives to small-scale landlords that give them benefits for providing affordable housing. We should focus zoning changes and incentives to create greater density along mass transit routes. The proposed MRMU changes are good starts for this but we need to make affordable housing a requirement for large developments or heavily incentivized in the case of small landlords.

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

I have accomplished more for the people of the district than the rest of the field combined. I have not only served with over 10,000 hours of volunteer time given to my community, but I have also produced over 1 million dollars in improvements to Atlanta in DeKalb in my time as a neighborhood resident, NPU officer, leader of the park and community center renovations in East Lake, Founding the East Lake Farmers Market and Urban Farm, and serving on the DeKalb Animal Services Advisory Board. While I am not an incumbent, I have a track record of successful outcomes in developing solutions as a community organizer, that shows more results for the community than many current city council members. I have developed successful partnerships with city, county, state, federal, and private partners to accomplish meaningful change for our community. I am not just offering promissory notes, I know how to get things done for the community, and have the receipts to show for it.

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. I am challenging cynicism, which has plenty of support but has served to lower expectations so that people don't expect better government from their leaders.

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

The city has been hamstrung by the shameful actions of our governor, who has neglected to take seriously the pandemic. I think the city should have fought harder for a mask mandate in court and needs to have stronger messaging encouraging masks in public.

What do you identify as the root causes of the recent and ongoing increase in violent crime, and how would you address the issue?

This is a complex issue, but there are many factors in play,

1. We do not have enough police to adequately respond to crime, as we are 1/3rd understaffed after an exodus of officers last year.
2. The Governor's prohibition of closing down business made ATL the only nightclub scene on the East Coast during the pandemic, and organized crime took advantage of the 2 situations to increase their presence, and have created a 3rd facet of gangs fighting over who gets to sell drugs in the nightclub scene. Half of the increase in the murder rate is tied back to two club areas of Atlanta.
3. We have a city that most people cannot afford to live in due to careless development, creating desperate circumstances for many, leading to desperate choices for some.
4. We have little mental care outside of the penal system for our citizens, which is a leading cause of chronic homelessness.
5. We have little treatment for drug addiction. About two dozen people account for 90% of the crime in this district, and roughly half of them are feeding a drug habit. To improve this we need to 1) recruit, hire and retain about 700 more police officers. They are already the highest paid in the state, but most cannot afford to live in the city. We need to enable our officers to live in the city they serve with housing assistance and reengage community policing so that our Law enforcement officers know and live in the communities they serve. This will rebuild trust and humanize the relationship between our police and the community. 2) We need to have stricter enforcement of alcohol licenses and shut down nuisance businesses, 3) we need to rebuild the gang task force to dramatically reduce gang activity and organized crime. 4) We need to create affordable housing options for all levels of income, 5) We need to change our current system of treating mental illness as a crime into one of wrap-around care. We are already paying for an expensive and ineffective poor solution by jailing people we could care for at less expense. 6) we need to expand drug addiction treatment programs to get people back on their feet and contributing to society.

Do you support or oppose the creation of Buckhead City? Why or why not?

I oppose the city of Buckhead and believe the majority of its citizens do as well. Their frustrations are shared by the majority of Atlantans. Lack of responsiveness and accountability are problems for all. They are better off working with the rest of the city to create an Atlanta that works for everyone, if for no other reason than it is less expensive and more effective to fix what we have.

How would your administration react to the creation of Buckhead City and the resulting loss of a major residential, commercial and cultural center and significant source of tax revenue? How would you respond to residents and businesses in that community if cityhood were rejected?

It's not my administration, I will be a council representative. If Buckhead wants a divorce, alimony will be expensive, they will have to pay a lot for infrastructure and they will not get their schools. We need to make Atlanta responsive and accountable to all Atlantans. Buckhead will benefit as much or more than most to having an honest government.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

My campaign slogan is Atlanta that works for Everyone, because currently, it does not. We need to make sure we care for our seniors, youth, and the disabled in particular because they are the biggest groups that have been left behind by careless development. We need to eliminate or reduce ATL housing taxes on senior citizens earning up to 200% of the federal poverty line who have lived in their homes for 30 years or more. We need workforce training for our youth in skilled trades, the film industry, and the hospitality industry. If build wrap-around services for mental healthcare, drug addiction, and homeless in addition to meeting our housing needs, we can make significant improvements in bringing down crime.

I will create a more responsive communications loop with the citizens by holding an annual community performance review, that will allow neighbors, business owners, and other citizens of district 5 to rate the city performance and identify major issues for improvement in a way that will better engage the residents, and inform the operations of the Neighborhood Organizations, NPU's and city. We should make the development of the Community Development Plan a high priority for citizen engagement so we can work out together what we want Atlanta to look like as we double in size.

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

I led the parks renovation efforts in East Lake for 9 years, creating a vision plan, building a new playground, leading over 3 dozen volunteer days and securing the funding for the complete renovation of the Zaban Community Center, while using the parks vision and volunteer processes to build community. I served 3 years as East Lake Neighborhood President and another 3 on their board. I spent 5 years serving at the NPU-O level, as representative and officer. I founded and ran the East Lake Farmers Market and Urban Farm, a 501c-3 organization, to displace crime and build community. We partnered with the USDA, Hosea Feed the Hungry and the DeKalb Board of Health to build an urban farm to make fresh healthy food more available for low-income residents. I served on the Advisory board for DeKalb animal services to double funding to get the new animal shelter built. I led a working group on safety for Atlanta and DeKalb neighborhoods to partner with APD and DeKalb County Law enforcement to reduce crime and build community. I led or served in community visioning and development plans for 2nd and Hosea, 4th and Memorial, and the affordable housing off Glenwood and Fayetteville. I helped secure city, state and federal funding for roadway improvements to Memorial Drive. I have partnered with multiple private philanthropic groups and agencies, City, County, State, and Federal Government to get things done for our community, from parks and infrastructure improvements to building an urban farm and reducing crime. In short, I have already worked with many of the issues that a city council member deals with, and have more accomplishments for the citizens of district 5 than many current incumbents on city council have accomplished for their residents.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Live your life so that the world is better for you having been here.

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

My prime motivation is to do the most good for the most people and make the city government responsive to our people. My main objective in community service has been to change people's expectations as to what we are capable of and to reset our expectations of the relationship between the people and our government.