Patti Garrett, Kelly Walsh to be sworn in at Decatur City Commission meeting
Kelly Walsh (left) was reelected to the District 1 seat and Patti Garrett (right) was reelected to the District 2 seat on the Decatur City Commission.
Decatur, GA — The Decatur City Commission will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 4, at 7:30 p.m. for an organizational meeting. The meeting will be held in person at Decatur City Hall, 509 N. McDonough Street, as well as Zoom.
To access the meeting, follow these instructions:
Participants must register in advance through Zoom to receive the meeting link. To register, click here.
The meeting will also be livestreamed on the city’s website.
To view the meeting agenda, click here.
During the meeting, Mayor Patti Garrett and Commissioner Kelly Walsh will be sworn in for their new terms. The City Commission will also elect the mayor and mayor pro tem for 2022.
Garrett was elected on Nov. 2, 2021, to serve a fourth term on the City Commission, representing District 2. She ran unopposed last year.
“I don’t take this responsibility lightly in any way,” Garrett previously told Decaturish. “I really look forward to working with my colleagues on the City Commission, and our partners on the School Board and in the community.”
She is looking forward to making progress on major projects, addressing climate change and working on policy items. She hopes the work on the clean energy plan will help the city figure out the best way to move forward.
“I’m looking forward to seeing some things take place on the continuation of what’s happening on the Legacy Park property, especially in terms of affordable housing and continuing to really activate that whole area,” Garret said. “I really think the strides that we can take in the area of equity, inclusion and climate change are going to wrap around everything else that we do in the next four years. I think those priorities are clear on the part of our community and also clear on the part of the elected City Commission.”
Kelly Walsh was reelected to the District 1 seat in November and will serve a second four-year term. Walsh ran against Katie Bell and received about 59% of the votes cast.
Walsh and Garrett are focused on implementing the city’s strategic plan during their terms.
“We’ve got a great strategic plan to accelerate through the pandemic and strive for a lot of the sustainability and resiliency that we’ve been planning for,” Walsh previously said. “We’re a good team and I think we work well together.”
Walsh looks forward to seeing how work will overlap regarding the strategic plan, as equity and racial justice is the backdrop of the issues the City Commission will look at.
“It’s only opportunity, in my opinion. I think we’re a healthy city and our house is in order, and we can springboard off of that platform to do the work we plan to do for Destination 2030,” Walsh said.
Some of that overlapping work comes through efforts in housing, Walsh said, adding that when the city makes an impact on housing, it’s also affecting equity.
“When you talk about intersectional policymaking, I think a lot of what we’ll continue to work on is affordable housing and that’s embedded in smart growth strategies,” Walsh said. “It’s up to us to put ourselves in the driver’s seat as a city and a city that’s embedded in a big growing county, in a big growing metro region, and say how do we want to be in the driver’s seat and have policies that help us with smart growth?”
Additionally, the City Commission will appoint the city attorney, designate the municipal court chief judge and appoint municipal court judges.
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