Mayor LaRhonda Patrick on Warner Robins initiatives, challenges, seeking another term of election

As election season approaches, Mayor LaRhonda Patrick is making her case for another term leading the City of Warner Robins. Since taking office in 2022, she has spearheaded several key initiatives, including Operation Reawaken, the city’s downtown development project; Haven Hope House, a community homeless shelter; and efforts to establish a Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

We sat down with Mayor Patrick to discuss issues facing the city and what she hopes to accomplish if re-elected.

Brieanna Smith: First off, reflecting on your first term, what would you consider to be your most significant accomplishment?

LaRhonda Patrick: The most significant accomplishment, to me, is the redevelopment of the downtown district, the progress that we’ve made. Coming into office, the city owned less than an acre of the 17-acre tract, and now we own over 70% of an expanded area. We’re extremely excited about the progress we’ve made. We’ll be releasing renderings soon. So when it comes to my proudest accomplishment, I would say that it is the downtown redevelopment.

Smith: During your first term, were there any initiatives that didn’t go as planned, and if so, what did you learn from that experience?

Patrick: Something that didn’t go as planned, but it’s still on plan, is the homeless shelter, Haven Hope House. We were hoping to have it open before winter last year, and it’s still not open yet, currently going through its last phase of renovations. That’s the one thing that I was hoping to hit a home run on quickly, and it’s taking a little bit longer to make sure we get it just right.

Smith: Now looking ahead to your next term, what are your top priorities and how do you plan to achieve them?

Patrick: For me, the top priorities are going to be finishing what we started. We have come so far. We’ve done so many great things. For redevelopment of the downtown district, we’ve got to the point of renderings. Next term, we want dirt moving; We want buildings being erected. 

For Haven Hope House, opening Haven Hope House, which will happen this year, but also showing the success stories of individuals who were able to transform their lives because of Haven Hope House. 

The third thing will be the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We made so much progress on that. We’re hoping that we have a groundbreaking this year, and maybe open during my second term. 

Smith: You’ve mentioned the downtown initiative with Operation Reawaken, and having a downtown area would be a huge driver of economic development. Besides just the downtown area, what strategies would you implement to bolster economic development and attract new businesses to the city?

Patrick: One thing we started last year was Start-Up Warner Robins, where we educate the small business entrepreneurship community on how to have a successful business in the city of Warner Robins. So we’re going to keep doing projects like that, even reaching out to small children to get them in the entrepreneurial spirit. That’s going to help bring new small businesses into our city from residents who already live here. And, of course, we have a huge focus on economic development, attracting new businesses to our area. We’ve got a lot of success with that as well.

Smith: You also mentioned Haven Hope House, a notable project to address homelessness in our community. What other plans do you have to ensure residents have access to affordable housing?

Patrick: We’re still working on that. That’s something that hasn’t gone as I expected it to go, but it’s something that we can’t control, which is the market. The cost of living in Warner Robins is high. To get a home or an apartment is more than my mortgage, right now. My heart goes out to individuals who are struggling to find a decent home to either purchase or a decent home to rent in our community with the high property values we have in our city. It’s a blessing but for some people, it’s also a curse. 

To get housing that will provide the stock for individuals to go out and purchase a home and pay a decent monthly mortgage is something we’re still working on. The progress is that we’re making connections with developers who develop residential properties in our area, and we have a buy-in. In a way, people are connecting with our vision and providing a different stock and more options for housing so that you can have a little less house, less land, but still very nice. That allows for a lower purchase price.

We’re going to keep moving forward with those relationships we’re building. We’re seeing a lot of great plans coming through with townhomes in our community that are for purchase, not for rent. I want to see quads. I want to see condos. I want to see row homes. So hopefully, we’ll still get more and more developers who are willing to take that risk and build smaller homes, on smaller lots, and at lower prices to allow more homeownership in our community.

Smith: Moving on to public safety; that has been a talked about topic in our community. We know that the Warner Robins Police Department and the Fire Department are a source of pride for the city. In the realm of public safety, what measures will you take to enhance public safety while also ensuring fairness and equality?

Patrick: Public safety is on a really good path. Our crime rate has decreased since I’ve been here. The last two years have been steadily on the decline. This year, we’re at a decrease of 13% in our class A crimes. That’s amazing. 

For our fire department, we have new leadership. They’re moving along quite nicely. I love what I’m seeing with the fire department. They’ve committed to trying to be more involved in the city government and also inside of the city itself. 

Police officers are always engaged in the community, but they want to do more positive reinforcement when it comes to the youth in our community. So when it comes to public safety, I think that we’re moving in the direction that is best for our city and in a direction that the council and I are very pleased about.

Smith: Talking about the military, we know Warner Robins is military-friendly, through partnerships with Robins Air Force Base and making strides to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In that sense, how would you ensure that Warner Robins continues to support the military, past and present?

Patrick: I, too, am a huge supporter of military, our veterans, and their families. I am an Air Force brat, so I had to travel along with my dad, and their families sacrificed as well to be with the service member. 

The ties with Robins Air Force Base are very close, closer than I’ve been told they’ve been in the past, which is a great thing. We reach out to each other, we support each other, and we look for ways to improve their quality of life. At the State of the Base, one of the things that was mentioned by one of the commanders was having a downtown, so the individuals who may not have families who are [stationed] here have options for getting involved in the community, to be able to shop, like a little city center. And that’s something we’re working on.

I heard another commander with the last leadership team say they are talking about options for housing for individuals who can’t live in the barracks but may have a young family. They’ll have places that they can afford with their housing allowance. Those are still things we’re working on. But the good news is we’re moving forward with it.

Whatever Robins Air Force Base tells us that they need, we make sure it’s a priority for us, because for Council and I, they are the priority and for our community, Robins Air Force Base is always a priority. We make sure we keep that line of communication open so we can always partner and collaborate as much as possible. We also support them with some of their utilities. The City of Warner Robins supports Robins Air Force Base daily by providing their natural gas supply.

Smith: You and I have both seen it at council meetings – great residents who are rightfully concerned about their city and active in making their voices heard by the city government. In your administration, how would you ensure the voices of all city residents are properly represented?

Patrick: Yes, we do love it when citizens come up to take the podium for the citizen comments phase. Sometimes you get criticisms, but they’re constructive criticisms, usually. So, we always accept those. We want to hear what you think because the council and I, we’re constituents just like them.

We have complaints about our city government, too. We have complaints about the county. We have complaints about the state. So we embrace people’s rights to voice their opinions. We can do better if we know better. Providing more opportunities for more insight like that is something that I’d love to see more in my second term. 

I know the police department does town hall meetings quarterly, and that’s been going phenomenally. They have a huge attendance rate at those events. We want to see more that will allow council members to kind of be in that hot seat and hear from their constituents. More opportunities for town hall meetings or more intimate conversations like “coffee and conversation” or “chat and chew,” whatever it may be, to allow constituents to come and meet with us outside of City Hall and in more one-on-one conversations at times.

Smith: So, overall, looking back on your first term as mayor, what would you like to say to the community?

Patrick: Thank you to the community for allowing me the opportunity to serve them daily. Since I took office in 2022, this has been the best job I’ve ever had, outside of being a mother to my seven-year-old son. I have worked hard, sacrificing personal time, and time with my son for a job that I love because I understand how important the role is, how important it is for someone who’s elected in office to be in the community, not just be a member of the community, to engage with the community and to invite the community in. 

I feel like I’ve done a great job at that, also, running the city and showing data to show progress, data to show improvement, data to show higher revenue, and less expenses. I feel like I’ve done a great job with bringing in the best talent we can find, where the vacancies lied. We still have some more work to do when it comes to vacancies, but if you look at how it was when I came into office, and how it is now, we have done phenomenally. This is a job where I feel and my staff feel like we’re family, so we work better together. We move fast; We don’t take our time and one thing that we try to do always is we keep our word.

That’s what I’ve done. I made promises in 2021 of what I wanted to do, not truly understanding if I could actually accomplish it. It’s not a dictatorship, knowing that I had the council’s buy-in. We can agree on almost everything that’s in the best interest of our constituents. And we have made tremendous strides in only three years and three months, and we have the rest of the year to go to make it to four years.

With that, my hope is when the voters go out to grade me on my performance, that all the work that I’ve done, all the barriers broken, and all the progress Council and I have made will be at the top of their minds and they will vote ‘yes,’ which equals an A-plus in service, or at least an A. I’ll even take a B-minus as long as there’s a ‘yes’ in there, I am happy.

I serve at the pleasure of the 85,000 who live here, and I ask them for another opportunity to show them how great the city of Warner Robins can be, and how much we can do in the next four-year term.

The Municipal General election is on Nov. 4.