Lizella's Adah Roberts becomes third candidate to run for District 6 seat

On Friday, March 15, Adah Roberts officially made her intentions known to the public in a press conference at the Bibb County Courthouse and announced that she will be a candidate for the District 6 seat in Bibb County's new consolidated government.

District 6 encompasses most of western Bibb County, including Lizella and Lake Tobesofkee.

Roberts is the second African-American woman thus far to announce her intention to run in this new consolidated government.

According to the 2010 census, Bibb County became a majority-minority county for the first time.

The majority of Bibb County's African-American population do reside within the Macon city limits, but over the past two decades, the county's African-American population has significantly grown.

District 6 has a minority population of approximately 40 percent.

Some of the main areas of District 6 are the following: Lake Tobesofkee, Knoxville Rd., Columbus Rd., Thomaston Rd., Heath Rd, Bethel Church Road, Hopewell Rd., Lower Thomaston Rd., and Rogers Rd.

Roberts is not a stranger to government, because she worked as a administrator in the City of Macon's Finance Department for seven years during Jack Ellis' two-term tenure as Mayor of Macon.

Roberts, 62, had different roles in the Finance Department such as assistant finance director and chief accountant.

Subsequently, Roberts was eventually promoted to the position of Finance Director in July 2006 and had left in May 2008, a few months after Ellis' tenure as mayor had ended and current mayor Robert Reichert had begun his term.

At the press conference, Roberts cites she has never run for political office before, but believes she is someone who can work with others in an effort to get things done for the community.

Roberts told The Macon Telegraph the following:

“My vision is to see Macon-Bibb County government work cohesively to become a growing, vibrant hub of central Georgia,” Roberts, 62, said via e-mail. “While I have had no experience as a politician, I have had quite a bit of experience working with a diverse group of politicians. As finance director I worked with every department in the city and some in the county.”

The former finance director for the City of Macon, explains that her policy targets will be finding ways to reduce crime in Bibb County along with devisng ways to help keep property taxes as low as possible.

Roberts brought up the issues of developing tourism along with recruiting new businesses to Macon and Bibb County.

Roberts become the third candidate to announce an intention to run for the District 6 seat.

The other two candidiates are Ed Defore, 81, who has spent four decades in local government--primarily on Macon City Council-- and retired telecommunications specialist Robert Abbott, 64.

Abbott had run for office last year in a Bibb Commisson race and lost, and has never been elected to public office.

In mid-February, Abbott announced his intentions to run for District 6 and told The Macon Telegraph the following:

“When the SPLOST expires, I’d like to see it continue as a permanent tax,” he said. “I think we can save 30 to 40 percent in millage (if that happens). (President Barack) Obama says everyone needs to pay their fair share, and right now, there’s a lot of people not paying anything into the county because they don’t own property. ... My objective is to lower taxes."

Qualifying is scheduled to end in late April and the election is tentatively set for Tuesday, July 16.

However, a legal challenge is currently under federal review involving the Republicans' efforts to change the date of local elections from November to July.