Warner Robins Mayoral candidates square off in debate 

WARNER ROBINS — Election season is in full swing as the mayoral candidates for the City of Warner Robins faced off in a debate at the Winning Church on Thursday, Sept. 18. The debate featured incumbent Mayor LaRhonda Patrick and Warner Robins local Fabian Velazquez. 

Both candidates were asked various questions regarding their interest in running for mayor, along with specific questions on how they would run the city. 

Before the debate began, each candidate gave their reasons why they are running for Mayor of Warner Robins. 

While living in the city, Velazquez said he has seen things happening that he is not happy about, including increasing crime, unaffordable housing, and the current administration’s failure to improve the north side. 

“I’m a proud Warner Robins resident and I hate to see that the north side continues to be forgotten time and time again in favor of new developments that expand the city limits and completely ignore the people that matter, which are the people of this city,” he said. 

Patrick’s reasoning comes from her first term, where she wants the city to be the best it can be while also doubling down on her promises made in her first term. 

“The reason why I’m running for my second term is because all the things that I said I was going to do, we did it and we’re doing great,” she said. “Crime numbers have decreased, not increased. Our city is growing as the majority of projects that happened under my leadership happen on the north side of town.” 

Patrick believes the city deserves a candidate who is prepared, educated, knowledgeable and someone who puts people over politics. 

With the City of Warner Robins’s budget of $180 million, the mayor candidate’s business qualifications were put into question.  

Velazquez shared that the mayor is never alone and has a team behind them, including an accountant and lawyers to make important decisions. He related that situation to his own personal business, a landscaping company that manages 130 properties. Velazquez states he does have an accountant and works with a team with his personal business. He also thinks it is important for the city to have a balanced budget. 

“This year alone, our expenditures for payroll was $5 million more than our revenue, and this is common knowledge to the workers of the city,” he said. “[City Administrator] James Drinkard has put out a video showing a dire situation we are in with our budget, and this has been known since at least May.”

Velasquez claimed the mayor has been saying the budget and economy are in good condition and ignored what Drinkard said. 

“I think that we need someone who is going to work with a team to balance the budget and we need a plan to do that,” he said. 

Patrick stated her resume says it all when referring to the business qualifications needed for the mayor’s seat. Patrick is a political science pre-law major from Georgia State University, worked at the General Assembly for over a year, working on Republican and Democratic sides of the staff and has a law degree from North Carolina Central University, practicing government procurement law, commercial contracts law, business law and municipal law. Patrick also became a city attorney and a solicitor before she became mayor. 

“I am very knowledgeable about the law requirements we have to comply with the State of Georgia and what it takes to operate a city efficiently and effectively,” she said. “While being mayor, I also did a number of training and I’ve gotten multiple awards just as my council has for completing training in a very quick manner for our state to make sure that we can handle the city’s business efficiently and effectively.” 

Looking around the State of Georgia, over 95% of cities have a City Manager, CEO/ part-time mayor form of government. In those cities, citizens pay a tax rate of 3.5% to 6% while Warner Robins citizens pay 9.98%. The candidates were asked how this form of government benefits the citizens of Warner Robins. 

Patrick explained that the City of Warner Robins has one of the lowest millage rates in the entire state. She said the revenue coming in is very limited. 

“We do great things with the money that we do have and we’re able to make sure that all the business is done without raising our millage rate,” she said. “Are times tight? Absolutely. Do we need more revenue? We surely do. So, we have to make tough decisions, tighten up our purse a little bit more than we have done, but we cannot decrease our quality because you all deserve the best quality, because I live here too.” 

Velasquez responded by stating that Georgia passed a bill capping the market value of houses to 3%. The bill didn’t come to fruition in Houston County, and he believed the mayor should have been more vocal to keep that from happening. 

“Because the county opted out of [the bill], now our elected officials can hide behind the millage rate and how they lower the millage rate,” he said. “Essentially, your property values are going through the roof. They lower the millage rate, but they still tax you more and you never see how it affects you.” 

Velazquez also claimed that the city services have not been the same, such as trash pickup. He also claimed the current administration has focused on the north side this past year due to it being an election year. 

“I think that we need to take responsibility for how we tax our residents and we need to be outspoken. You need someone to speak up against the county because they are not you. You want someone that is going to be a Warner Robins resident first.”

Another question posed to the candidates centered on a potential recession in the next two years and whether the City of Warner Robins is prepared for such an event. 

Velazquez pointed out that the uncertain economic future may hinder the plans for the proposed downtown. 

“There’s no guarantee it will be done within the next five years. They start construction and they’re always late on construction, and even on the north side the roads don’t get fixed in time,” he said. “If we’re going to survive the next four years, we need to be very fiscally conservative, and we need to find a way to invite people so that they spend their money and not the city.” 

Patrick claimed that Warner Robins is not struggling and said that if they were, the budget would not have grown $20 million. 

“We are in great shape. The news reports will show that we are looking at other ways to bring revenue into our city that does not impact the millage rate of our city residences, and we stand firm with that,” she said. “You have to make those tough decisions sometimes and we’re not exempt.” 

The topic of crime in the city came to the forefront, and Velazquez doubled down on his claim that crime has been increasing. He stated that in the past month, there have been four armed shootouts against police officers, one being shot. 

“The perception is a lot more important than the statistics they bring up because the statistics aren’t always a full picture; they can fudge the numbers anyway they want,” he said. “I’m seeing more kids walking around with guns. Kids are committing murder and getting murdered. This is something that Warner Robins was not known for the last five to ten years.” 

Patrick responded that the numbers show crime has gone down year after year. She touched on the fact that people are carrying more guns and do not feel safe, and said it happens everywhere. 

“Do we want people to feel safe? Absolutely. That’s why we invest 54% of our budget on public safety to make sure that we are recruiting and retaining our workforce,” she said. “Each year we are hiring more and more police officers to work in our city, and that is what is attributing to the decrease in crime that you’re seeing.” 

After the debate, Velazquez said he was feeling a lot better now that the debate had concluded. 

“I think that I got to say my piece in front of a lot of people, and I hope that everybody votes for their conscience,” he said. “I don’t know if there will be [another debate] but never say never.” 

Meanwhile, Patrick felt relief after the debate. 

“I feel like I did a pretty decent job in articulating the things I wanted to say as I had to speak quickly and only had three minutes,” she said. “There’s so much I didn’t get to touch on, but I think I did a pretty good job summarizing most of them.” 

Patrick isn’t sure if there will be another debate, but she welcomes another one. 

The full livestream of the debate can be found at facebook.com/thewinningchurch/videos/1813543116199135