MACON, Ga. — Lester Miller’s fastball didn’t intimidate opposing batters like those sizzlers unleashed by Atlanta Braves’ pitcher John Smoltz.
Miller’s fielding of hard-hit ground balls didn’t come close to equaling current Braves’ shortstop Dansby Swanson.
But off and on, Miller played pitcher and shortstop during his time as a student at Macon’s Southwest High School.
He’s 51 now, and the sole practitioner in the Macon law firm that bears his name. He’s served on the Bibb County Board of Education for the past seven years and was board president three of the last four years.
He was interviewed recently at the WMUB Studio at Mercer University by 13WMAZ and partners the Telegraph, Georgia Public Broadcasting Macon and the Center for Collaborative Journalism.
CRIME: Put felons to work
Here’s what Miller said about fighting violent crime, which is what he called one of the two major issues in Macon-Bibb County.
“Number one, with the education that we have in our school system, I think you have to have a better-educated student to teach them those things that you need to teach in school, to make sure they have more opportunities to get better jobs, therefore, to decrease violence," he said. “But the number one issue right now is public safety. We’re 150 officers short in the police department, and I think that’s the number one issue that we have to address to start with."
One possibility, he said, would be to implement what he calls his Justice Works program. With that voluntary program, people convicted of non-violent felonies would be allowed to work jobs while incarcerated.
“While they’re in jail, they would actually pay to live there each week, pay for their transportation to and from the job and the child support -- if they have children to take care of -- would be taken care of by their income tax or the check that they’re earning there," he said.
Miller said that program would free up about 14 officers who would normally be working in the jail. Those officers could be out on the streets fighting crime.
BLIGHT: School kids could help clean up
As an attorney and school board member, Miller said he sees the adverse ramifications of blight every day.
“One thing I proposed earlier to the county is to have our schools work closer with the county as a tax entity. We requested to be part of the land bank (of) Macon-Bibb County to have a permanent board member there," he said.
The land bank authority buys up blighted properties and tries to redevelop them for housing or other purposes.
The reason he wanted a permanent member there, Miller said, is “because the county doesn’t have a lot of money set aside for blight right now, and the way they use blight in the past is they basically gave each commissioner a certain amount of money that they used in their districts, and I believe that was a complete waste of time. We don’t see a lot of benefits of it. It’s more of a pork-barrel project.”
Miller wants to earmark more SPLOST revenues to fight blight.
“The ESPLOST (education) will be passed with the school system, a couple of million dollars, and we would begin with the neighborhoods that were the most severe” -- like the Pleasant Hill and L.H. Williams areas, he said.
“You go to the Central High School area, and you’ll notice there’s a lot of burned-out houses, a lot of houses, they’re dilapidated, and those areas, the school system could use the money from the ESPLOST to tear those houses down and rebuild those houses.”
Under normal conditions, Miller said ESPLOST couldn’t be used for non-educational projects. In this case, he said the educational purpose would be providing jobs or internships for students.
“They would actually go in there with a contractor, they would help demolish the house. They would actually go get the permits,” he said.
ROADS: Bibb should pass TSPLOST
Switching to road improvements, Miller said he wants voters to approve a (transportation) TSPLOST. That mean an additional one-cent sales tax on every dollar spent in Bibb County.
“If you look at the Jeffersonville Road project, it’s been going on, you know, for the last 16 years without a completion date,” Miller said. “If you look at the Lizella area, most people that live out in Lizella and sub-south, they complain about potholes and the road errors that we have. You know, eventually we’re gonna have to consider getting together to do a TSPLOST.”
Miller noted that recent TSPLOST proposals haven’t fared well in Macon-Bibb County.
“One reason I believe it has failed is because there’s been a lack of trust in the local government," he said.
He pointed out that the school board had succeeded in getting two ESPLOST proposals approved in the last eight years.
“The county government has been unable to put together a TSPLOST, because people simply don’t trust an additional penny going where it’s supposed to go,” Miller said.
He says TSPLOST money could be used to expand Bass Road or for pedestrian crossings on Gray Highway.
GETTING ALONG: ‘We live in our own silos’
As a veteran member of the Bibb County Board of Education, Miller has first-hand knowledge of the way school board members and county commission officials work together.
“In the last couple of years, I think we’ve worked together a little better,” Miller said. “But I think there’s some services that we can work together on to improve our whole community.”
Miller said working relations between the two governments could be improved with their handling of the library system and the land bank.
“Too many times, we live in our own silos with the county, and it’s us against them, and even though we’re separate taxing authorities, we should work together for all our people. I think involving board members and the board of education, faculty and staff and parents and stakeholders in local government on boards would be one step in the right direction.”
When new appointments arise, Miller said, “not many times do you look at people associated with education on those boards. I think you need an educator’s viewpoint on a lot of issues that we have, and I think we could work better as a government and as a school system when we put things like that together.”
Miller said the school system and county government could also improve working relations when it comes to financing quality-of-life entities such as the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences.
COUNTY STAFFING: Improve business department
In recent months, many people – both government officials and concerned citizens – find themselves in heated discussion over whether governmental agencies are understaffed or overstaffed.
Miller supports increasing staffing in the fire department and sheriff's office.
“They’re not earning the proper money they should be, and we’re losing a lot to outside areas," he said.
But his major concerns center on the business development department. Some people believe it’s overstaffed, while others think it’s understaffed.
“One of the things that I want to do is set up a business advisory group of local businessmen and women who go through this contract each and every day,” Miller said. “We have to do a better job with that division. I think the small business and economic development part of that and the business development part of that is essential to our economy, and if we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything else right.”
He said listening to contractors and people who work in business in other areas could be helpful to Macon-Bibb.
“You know, Georgia is the number one place to do business in the United States,” Miller said, “Macon should be the number one place to do business in the state of Georgia.”
RACE AND THE DALLEMAND INVESTIGATION
If there’s an elephant in the local room, Miller said, it’s race relations.
When he joined the school board, Miller said there were four black board members and four white board members. It was so racially divided the board couldn’t elect officers.
“It’s something we have to have open and honest conversations about,” Miller said. “You’ve got to find common ground, and so, what do you look at? You know, I think everybody appreciates a good education. That’s a good common ground that we can find between everybody of every race.”
When Miller became a school board member, Romain Dallemand was Bibb’s superintendent of schools. Dallemand resigned a month later.
A federal grand jury later indicted Dallemand on felony charges, including taking bribes to help some businessmen secure an alleged bogus computer contract.
Dallemand later pleaded guilty to federal charges of failing to pay income taxes on the bribe money he accepted to help secure contracts and school board support for projects.
He was sentenced to eight months in federal prison and ordered to pay back taxes. As part of his deal, Dallemand agreed to testify against some Macon businessmen allegedly involved in the conspiracy.
Miller pushed to get federal authorities to investigate the school system’s computer contract. When asked if his efforts in pushing for the investigation would hurt his candidacy for mayor, Miller said it wouldn’t.
“I don’t plan on running my race based on things that happened in the past. But the facts are the facts. You can’t take away the fact that the school system lost millions of dollars as a result of some corruption that happened,” Miller said. “I was one of the persons who came in, and we turned that system around both financially and educationally.”
Miller also responded to critics who argued the investigation of Dallemand and several black-owned business had racial overtones.
Noting that Bibb’s school system is 75% black, Miller said, “what our school board did was prevent people from stealing money from African-American students.”
OLOST, HOMELESSNESS AND NAVICENT
Turning to additional questions not asked the other mayoral hopefuls, Miller said the Macon-Bibb legislative delegation hasn’t authorized a vote on a one-cent Operational Local Option Sales Tax, because the delegation is divided along Democrat and Republican lines.
“The local delegates are realizing that the county government doesn’t have the full faith and support of the community,” said Miller.
He said he believes delegation members will change their minds when the new mayor and commission takes office.
Next, Miller was asked what he’d do to alleviate homelessness. Miller said he’d appoint a liaison committee to work with nonprofit organizations to make sure they’re all working toward reducing or eliminating homelessness.
“It’s going to take a holistic approach,” he said. “It’s going to take people working together that have a heart and passion for it.”
Lastly, Miller was asked whether he thinks the Macon-Bibb government should continue earmarking tax dollars for the Medical Center, Navicent Health.
“I specifically told Navicent that I could not foresee, at least during my initial time as mayor, that I would give Navicent any money," he said.