Commissioner Kelly Girtz Kicks Off Mayoral Campaign

Espousing an egalitarian platform to improve conditions in all Athens neighborhoods, ACC Commissioner Kelly Girtz kicked off his campaign for mayor with an outdoor rally at the Lyndon House Arts Center on Sept. 9. “This is not an economy that will be great, if it’s only great for a few of us,” Girtz told around 100 supporters. (Athens-Clarke has one of the nation’s highest poverty rates at 38 percent, according to Census estimates.) On paper, the powers of ACC’s mayor are not great. It’s the county manager who runs the government day-to-day, with commissioners setting policies, and the mayor votes only to break a tie, sets meeting agendas an…