Meet Derek Mack: WR Council Candidate Post 1

“I wasn’t born in Warner Robins, but I’m as homegrown as the next person. This is my hometown. I love this city.”

Those were the resounding words of military veteran, Derek Mack, who is one of four candidates seeking to fill the Post 1 seat on Warner Robins City Council.

Houston Home Journal attempted to reach out to all four qualifying candidates, but was only able to get contact information for two at the time of press deadline on Tuesday afternoon.

Mack’s birthplace is Port Chester, New York, but his family relocated to Warner Robins when he was a second grader. After graduating Northside High School in 1987, he entered the military where he spent five years in the U.S. Army and another three years in the Louisiana National Guard. There, he attended Delgado Community College and Southern University at New Orleans.

In 1995, Mack returned to Warner Robins, and eventually tapped into his military background as an experienced helicopter repairman and landed a job at Robins Air Force Base as a helicopter swash repairman. From there, he worked his way through the ranks and eventually was promoted to Aircraft Logistics Specialist, the position he currently holds.

By Mack’s side in life is his wife, Antoinette “Toni” Mack, a triple-degreed graduate of Fort Valley State University.

Mack believes that a key element of a good leader is to have the heart of a servant, and servitude is something to which he said he’s no stranger.

“I come from a family of servants of the Lord—people of servitude. So, it’s in my spirit to do that. I’ve always done my best to serve my community. As a child, I would attend Vacation Bible School,” he went on to share. “In those classes, we would visit the elderly in assistant living facilities and nursing homes. I would go with my aunts and uncles to help elderly people clean up their homes. Servitude was embedded in me as a child, and as I grew older, it stayed in me.”

It was a church deacon who was among the earliest to urge Mack to pursue a place in the political arena where a man of his ethics and integrity could be a help.

“Deacon Jerome Stevens from Union Grove Baptist Church,” Mack fondly recalled. “He would always encourage me to run for city council. I didn’t feel it in my spirit to actively pursue it at the time, but for some reason it always stayed in the back of my mind. The desire to run didn’t move to the forefront of my mind until the last five years or so. I spoke to several people about it, telling them that it was in my spirit that this was the time to do it.”

When former Councilman Daron Lee, made the announcement that he was relinquishing his post, Mack said that was all the confirmation he needed.

“I knew then that the timing was right, and the time was now,” he said.

As councilman, Mack mentioned that he would work to bring back the inclusive nature for which Warner Robins was once known.

“We used to call ourselves the international city. You had to be here to experience it,” he said. “The only time that the town was divided back then was when Warner Robins played Northside. That was before there was HOCO, Veterans, and the other high schools we now have. Other than that time, everybody got along, and it was just a melting pot. Warner Robins is a city that is made from the foundation of many different men and women from a lot of different places.”

Mack has never held a political position before, but as a citizen and an observer, he knows that there are areas in which improvements are needed; areas in which he believes he can be a help.

“From an observational standpoint, it seems like our city is slowly becoming a model of the haves and the have-nots, and it wasn’t always that way,” Mack pointed out. “I want to help ensure that everyone has a voice at city hall. If they pay taxes, no matter what economic base they’re at, they have a say-so in the decisions that are being made for the city. Everybody’s tax dollars matter. Everybody’s concerns deserve respect.”

Mack challenges voters to take an honest look at the layout of Warner Robins and note how one side is growing while the other is not. “We have a lot of blight in this city. We have out-of-town landlords that are not keeping up their properties. We just want to help find out what’s going on so that we can clean up some of that and be a beacon in the state that other cities can emulate.”

Making Warner Robins a smart city, in Mack’s opinion, would be a huge step forward. He emphasized that more industry needed to be attracted to the city to balance out the rate of housing development. “I don’t want to raise taxes on our property owners, I want to invite businesses here so we can offset the rooftops that are being built here that are stressing our resources like our police departments, our fire departments, our water, sewer and natural gas. The rates on those are what’s paying the bills for Warner Robins right now, but if we brought industry here, it could offset some of that so that we can then hire more police officers and raise their pay. Our current police staff in Warner Robins is doing a great job with what they have to work with, but they deserve so much better than what they’re currently getting.”

His determination to help make Warner Robins a smart city is one of the things that Mack believes he will bring to city council that others of his opponents may not.

“I went to the Georgia Municipal Association, and I see how other cities are smart cities and how it benefits the entire community. During this pandemic, we had 10,000 people at home teleworking, and our internet is slow. We have 27 miles of fiber optics in the ground right now that are hooked up and not turned on. With the current rate that we have, the entire city has like 300 megs to work on. Fiber optics would be three gigabytes. What now takes 48 hours for a transaction might only take four minutes. We can digitize and free up a lot of time. We could tap into the resources that are available just because we have the base here. When BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) comes, they’re going to look at the community around it, how conclusive is it with the base and how it all ties in. This would strengthen our chances to keep that base open, because if Robins Air Force Base leaves, what do we have to fall back on?”

Mack also has a heart for the youth of the city and would like to work with the recreations department to create programs for their benefit. He noted that simple adjustments—like installing lights in local parks for those who want to keep themselves entertained and busy playing basketball on the courts after the sun sets—would be a good start.

“The people of Warner Robins are just not going to find a candidate that’s more prepared to work than I am. You’re not going to find one that will work harder. Nobody will outwork me for the citizens of this city. I plan to work with the honorable mayor and city council to do what’s right for our great citizens. I will be that all-accessible councilman. People will be able to reach out to me directly at any time with concerns and know that I’m going to address them at city hall level. There is a certain level of reverence and burden of responsibility that comes with being a councilman, and I take that very seriously. I love this city and I want to see it step into its purpose with the right leadership. If we have complacent leadership, the city will decline in its efforts.

“Economic development, removal of blight, public safety, programs for our youth, civic involvement and accountability at all levels of city government—those are the things that I will push for and stand for as Post 1 City Councilman,” Mack insisted. “And everybody who wants to see it all put into action, needs to get on this Mack Train.”

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