Challenger takes on incumbent, mayor pro tempore for a Macon-Bibb commission seat
Caitlin Mee will face incumbent and mayor pro tempore Seth Clark for the District 5 seat on the Macon-Bibb County Commission.
Clark has been in office since 2020. Mee previously worked as a city planner, and is now a preservationist in Macon. Clark is the executive director of the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative, a local group working to make Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park into a national park and preserve.
Mee is interested in increasing community pride and connection. Meanwhile, Clark wants to work to tackle poverty and crime. Both candidates emphasized communicating directly with citizens and the importance of working with other commissioners.
Early voting ends on Friday, and Election Day is May 21. Because the race is non-partisan, it will be decided in May instead of during the General Election in November. The winner’s term will begin Jan. 1.
The answers below are from the candidates in their own words, but slight edits have been made for clarity and writing style.
Seth Clark
What makes you qualified to run for office?
I’ve spent my entire professional career serving others. Whether it was running a legal clinic at a homeless shelter, running an AmeriCorps program drafting policy for higher education access in the General Assembly, or working on conservation issues across the state, I’ve dedicated my career to serving my neighbors, and that’s why I ran four years ago, and am running for re-election.
How do you plan on connecting with Macon residents on the campaign trail and while in office?
I plan on connecting to my neighbors on the campaign the same way I have the past four years: By listening to them and communicating to them directly. No other candidate for county commission to my knowledge has knocked on more doors and received more campaign contributions in order to directly communicate with our neighbors where they’re at.
What are the three biggest issues you see in Macon-Bibb County?
Poverty, crime, and preparing for the next 50 years.
How do you plan to solve those issues while in office?
These aren’t issues that one person can “solve.” But there are ways to make great progress in these areas. One area that possible is the renewal of the OLOST in 2025 so that we can continue to fund programs that keep us safer and that improve quality of life across town while taking taxing pressure off the backs of Macon homeowners. This program not only keeps money in middle and low income homeowners’ pockets, it provides the necessary funds to provide services that keep us safe and make us a more fair community.
I also intend to continue to support the Mayor’s Blight initiative. We’ve almost torn down 700 blighted structures that are a drain on the soul of neighborhoods and we cannot let up. These blighted structures hurt property values of neighboring homes, they are dangerous centers for crime, and are a product of longstanding neglect that must be rectified, and their demolition represents a more fair Macon - because when one side of town is better off, we all are.
I also intend to continue to fully fund public safety and law enforcement as we have done all four years I’ve served on the county commission. Our approach of fully supporting law enforcement while working on poverty-related quality of life issues through the Macon Violence Prevention program has resulted in a county wide drop in homicides of over 40% and a drop in teen homicide of almost 70%. We’re trending in the right direction, but we cannot let up.
Lastly, we need to continue to prepare to steward the visionary, big ideas we’ve seeded in the past four years. We have to pass a West Macon Tax Allocation District in and around the new amphitheater so that the out of town investment coming to West Macon is captured and the neighborhoods in the vicinity of the aren’t left out.
We have to work with the Middle Georgia Regional Commission to create a strategic plan to be the home of America’s next National Park and Preserve, which will create thousands of jobs, bring in hundreds of millions of investment, and result in real tax revenue to fund the programs we need to fund to take care of ourselves, while allowing us to keep or lower Macon citizens’ property taxes.
Growth is coming to Macon; and it’s up to us to decide whether it happens with us or to us. This team, with Mayor Lester Miller at the head of us, has accomplished a lot these past four years, but to make sure it takes, and that the past four years are able to seed the generational change by making Macon safer and more fair, we can’t change course.
Is there anything else you would like to add that you feel is important for voters to know?
Early Voting is from April 29 - May 17. And the election is on May 21.
Caitlin Mee
What makes you qualified to run for office?
My background is in regional and city planning and historic preservation. I worked when I first moved to Macon for the Middle Georgia Regional Commission, and I was learning so much about what resources there were in Georgia federally and locally. Working so closely with so many other middle Georgia governments — like Houston County, Warner Robins and the surrounding areas — I would come home and see disparities. I know how to plan a city and I’ve worked as a preservation planner for the city of Houston, Texas. I really grew a love of serving as a public servant and connecting people who were struggling with different, everyday issues in their own backyard. I want to take that experience that I have professionally and even personally and run to advocate and represent the district.
How do you plan on connecting with Macon residents on the campaign trail and while in office?
I started campaigning and getting a feel for the community back in December, and since then I have met some of the most amazing human beings. There are people who are born and raised in Macon and people that choose Macon. I chose Macon, and I always marvel at how amazing the stories that have yet to be told are.
I’ve been doing a lot of public engagement in the historically Black neighborhoods of District 5 because they’ve been historically underrepresented. Even if I don’t win, there are people there who I’ve met who are forever friends who’ve told me about struggles they’ve had with keeping their home up-to-date, or financial problems after COVID, or even telling stories about growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s in Macon. It’s really cool because a lot of these people were part of the Civil Rights Movement right here in our backyard and the stories I’ve heard are just inspiring. I wouldn’t trade the campaign experiences I’ve had for anything.
If elected, I want to keep having opportunities to facilitate conversations. Something I learned as a city planner is that it’s our jobs to facilitate conversations within our community. I’m planning to implement regular town hall meetings that rotate throughout locations in the district so people can just step up to the mic and talk about what’s going on.
What are the three biggest issues you see in Macon-Bibb County?
The issues I’ve noticed Macon has are under the umbrella of community pride. People tend to stay in their niche, and because there’s historically been disinvestment in certain parts of Macon, there’s a little bit of apathy. We’re definitely moving forward, but there’s still a community pride issue and the symptoms of this can be seen through the trash, the crime and the inequality of affordable housing.
How do you plan to solve those issues while in office?
My short answer is the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing. It’s a partnership between the Department of Community Affairs and the University of Georgia’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. When I was with the Middle Georgia Regional Commission, I helped to designate Baldwin County as a GICH-designated community. What’s great about that is through the partnerships and the track record of helping communities in Georgia, GICH provides a framework to tackle community pride, which includes litter, crime, affordable housing and access to food. It targets neighborhoods and gives it special attention. GICH also takes community leaders on retreats to see what other places are doing. I feel like seeing what other cities similar to Macon are doing can only benefit us. And then the best part about GICH is that you create a team of diverse people in the community who work together to solve issues.
Is there anything else you would like to add that you feel is important for voters to know?
I’d like a chance to try these things. It’s only a four-year position, but I’ve seen these things work in other cities. And regardless of what anyone says, I think Macon is absolutely a special place. Anybody knows that once you come to Macon it gets in your blood. The partnerships between people who are from Macon and people who aren’t from Macon has made it so great and will continue to make Macon great.
