Mr. Jordan goes to Roswell.
This is me at midnight after waiting for five hours to speak to my mayor and council.
At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to share this one.
Last night was public comment night for the Roswell City Council and like a number of my fellow Roswell residents, I went to the meeting to voice my opposition to the city’s use of eminent domain to seize and demolish the local Masonic lodge—a pre-Civil War church in the heart of Roswell and one of the few structures from that period spared by Union forces when they rolled through Roswell and laid waste to our town, our mill, and deported our residents over 150 years ago.
I went as a resident—not as a candidate—to voice my support for preserving or history and my opposition to Mayor Kurt Wilson’s lack of transparency and constituent engagement.
But the mayor had other plans.
Rather than let residents speak, Mayor Wilson cynically stacked a three-hour special session ahead of public comment, hoping to drive away his critics before the mics turned on. And while a few older residents and a few residents with health conditions weren’t able to wait, the vast majority of us did. Residents of our disintegrating public housing asked for long overdue repairs, residents harassed by code enforcement asked for help, residents who care about history protested the demolition of the old church. And a few of us protested the mayor himself.
Because it’s incumbent on our elected officials to listen to their constituents, provide all of us equal access to representation, and to communicate clearly and proactively with us about the job they’re doing on our collective behalf.
And when they’re not living up to those modest expectations, it’s our job to call them out. And to vote them out.
You can watch and read my comments below. You can learn more about the meeting at AppenMedia. And you can view the entire hot mess of a meeting on Roswell’s Youtube.
Thank you. It's been kind of a long night.
All right. My name is JD Jordan. I've lived in Roswell for about 23 years. I currently live on Oakfield Lane.
I have never actually spoken to this iteration of the council before, but I wanted to come in and talk about a lot of the things that are going on right now—or at least in the context of a lot of things that are going on right now.
I really love living in Roswell, but I feel like things are not going particularly well in some very particular ways, right? I believe we are dramatically overpaying for some outsourced consultants who operate outside public scrutiny. We're seeing a lot of city staff leave at an alarming rate. Roswell Housing Authority tenants live in terrible conditions. We've got some half-baked plans—I think there's some of us who would agree anyway—some half-baked plans for parking deck that threatens one of our oldest buildings. And just this evening, we've been victim to something of a sabotaging of a public comment meeting in this very chamber.
And the one of the things that I think is a through line through all of this is negligent constituent experience. I don't know if that's the whole council or just the mayor, but I certainly see poor leadership on your part, Mr. Mayor, and I would like to use the example of the lodge to describe this. But not the conditions of how the lodge was acquired or [the use of] eminent domain, or whether or not what has been said at certain meetings or not.
I'd like to take us back a month or so to a RoswellNEXT meeting that you probably remember that happened, I believe it was, about a month ago. Might have been a little bit longer.
I went to that meeting to learn more about the situation, because I didn't know very much about what was happening. And you spoke about your vision for the remainder of your term and the matter of the lodge itself. And I left that meeting very angry, frankly. And not because, as a lapsed Mason myself, I have special feelings for that building. I do. And not because, as a historian, I have feelings about preserving artifacts of our past. Which I also do.
But I left [angry] because I believe that you comported yourself at that meeting—and I would argue the same tonight—as exactly the kind of person that makes people distrustful of politicians.
You said you would entertain tough questions at night, but you proceeded to ask yourself a series of softballs, and then you would thrust the mic into the faces of unprepared attendees and bully them when they weren't ready.
You said you valued transparency, but you brought these informative slides that were purposely opaque. I'm actually a consultant. It's kind of a bad word tonight, but I'm a consultant, and I can recognize a BS slide when I see one. I make them for a living. And you had circular comments, circular logic that night. You kept telling us, “We'll share information when we've made up our mind” which to us or to me, said, I'll share it when it's too late to hear your opinion.
You said you valued listening, but you didn't bother to attend the open mic night that we had prior to this one. I'm glad you're here, though. Thank you. And when asked about a town hall on the subject of the lodge, you dismissed it because, “discussion slows action.”
You also said history is worth preserving only if it can be monetized, which is a quote I remember writing down and sending to my wife because it blew my mind so much. It's a metric that would see nearly all evidence of history and culture in any city under the wrecking ball. And I pray no one ever tells you about the Smithsonian.
You bragged about the city going into the parking deck business, because after you spend millions of our tax dollars to tear down that Lodge and build that parking deck, you intend to charge us to park there. There is a free lot going up at Southern Post across the street. Why would we want to be taxed on a building that we're buying with our own money? It reminds me, actually, some of the hidden tax increase with the fees at the Recycling Center, now.
At that Roswell next meeting, I believe that you demonstrated the very worst qualities of a leader, a politician, and frankly, as a neighbor. My only previous experience with you, to be fair, was watching you in this room insult our fire chief and dress down some of the council members that maybe weren't voting exactly how you wanted. But at that meeting, I saw you insult a whole room of business leaders and active community members who were there. Members who were there because they care. And tonight? I mean, I don't really think I can say anything more than has already been said about tonight. But needless to say, I am embarrassed that you are my mayor.
I'm really grateful that others are stepping up to hold you to account. Because we deserve to have our questions answered. We deserve to be communicated with, clearly, transparently, to be heard, to have our history protected and to have our tax dollars spent wisely. Because that's the job we chose you guys to do.
And while I may have lost my faith, and frankly, my trust in your ability to ethically and transparently govern us, I really hope the rest of the council will decide to prioritize our constituent experience for the remainder of your term to represent all of us in our community. Because that's what we put you here for.
Thank you.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Opinion: Public officials must listen to the public
The following Letter to the Editor appeared in the August 7, 2024 issue of the Alpharetta-Roswell Herald.
To the editor,
Last Monday, I attended the Roswell City Council public comment meeting to voice my support for preserving the 1859 Methodist Church and my opposition to Mayor Kurt Wilson’s lack of transparency and constituent engagement.
But our mayor had other plans.
Mayor Wilson stacked a three-hour special session ahead of public comment, perhaps hoping to drive away his critics before the mics turned on. And while some people weren’t able to wait, the vast majority of us did. Residents of our disintegrating public housing asked for long overdue repairs, residents harassed by code enforcement asked for help, residents who care about history protested the demolition of the old church. And a few of us protested the mayor himself.
With some hesitation, I shared my public comments online. And, boy, has the reaction been strong.
As of this writing, my public comments have been viewed over 11,000 times on NextDoor and other social platforms. And my posts, inbox, and DMs have lit up.
The consistent thread through my comments and the messages sent to me is a simple one: We want our elected officials to listen to us. We know we won’t always change their minds, but the most basic part of their job is communication. And, sadly, communication is the part of the job Mayor Wilson (and so many others) appear to have the hardest time grappling with.
But it doesn’t have to be. We have only to look at customer-experience best practices to see how our elected officials might be more proactive about communicating with us, more active when listening to us, and how the whole business of Georgia government can be more transparent and honest. Because we’re not just their constituents. We’re their stakeholders, too. And it’s time they remembered that.
— JD Jordan
Roswell
JD JORDAN FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 56
For anyone in East Cobb, Roswell, or Woodstock alarmed by the state’s escalating attacks on our bodies, our families, our doctors’ offices, our classrooms and libraries, even our polling places, I’m running for State Senate district 56 to fight for our freedoms and to deliver a better future for everyone in Georgia.
And unlike my opponent who’s spent 14 years rolling back our freedoms, failing to safeguard our kids, and gerrymandered his district to stay in office, I promise to bring everyone in the 56—regardless of ideology—the best possible constituent experience so you feel heard, valued, and supported. As we all deserve to be.
I’m running for the 56. Let’s make a better Georgia for all of us.
—
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Jordan For Georgia, LLC
10800 Alpharetta Hwy Ste 208 #629
Roswell, GA 30076-1467
jdjordan@forthe56.com
706.804.0456
