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Americus Mayor Lee Kinnamon on Jimmy Carter: ‘… a giant man, who never lost his connection to this little place’
Lee Kinnamon, the 59-year-old mayor of Americus and a sixth-generation resident of Sumter County, sat down with State Affairs this week to discuss former President Jimmy Carter’s impact on Americus, a small, rural town in southwest-central Georgia with a population just shy of 16,000, Carter’s hometown of Plains, and the former president’s wider contributions to the county and state.
Americus, just 10 miles north of Plains, is the birthplace and headquarters of Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit that works with volunteers and would-be homeowners to build affordable homes around the world. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter spent one week a year for almost 40 years swinging hammers for Habitat, building and repairing thousands of homes, and bringing precious publicity to a cause near and dear to their hearts.
The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q. What are some of the key ways that President Carter has been able to impact Americus, Plains and Sumter County throughout his life?
A. Well, since he returned to Sumter County from the White House he has been an unflagging supporter of his hometown’s and the county’s economic development, and a supporter of public education in the county. He’s a strong supporter of Georgia Southwestern [University], where he got to know his wife, Mrs. Rosalynn. And he has supported projects in Americus, such as the Rylander Theater. Of course, his and Rosalynn’s support for Habitat for Humanity, which was founded here by Millard and Linda Fuller, has been enormous. And they were all friends. Not only did they work together on these homebuilding projects around the country and around the world, but they were good friends. And so he was closely tied to what was going on here in the years following his presidency.
Q. Talk about that a little bit more, because most people know that he and Rosalynn volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. And because of their prominence, they brought a lot more attention to it. But how did that involvement begin and evolve?
A. President Carter grew up here [in Sumter County] on what was a fairly typical farm and, if you've read his book, "An Hour Before Daylight," you get a glimpse into that world where African-Americans who worked [as sharecroppers] on the farm, and he and his father's and mother's siblings, they all were integrated in a way on the farm that allowed them to work with each other. They were segregated, of course, and separated by the conventions and rules of that period. And that informed his development significantly.
So that by the time he became our governor, and gave that famous quotation from the gubernatorial inaugural address in January of 1971, he had traveled a good way along an arc that began in his childhood. [At his inauguration, Carter said, “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over. … No poor, rural, weak or Black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job or simple justice.”]
He was talking about an end to segregation and end to discrimination and a call for equality. It's a watershed moment in the state's history. Prior to that, we had not heard a governor say those words. And we had not heard him say those words. And I think that's the moment that history will remember. Because Jimmy Carter had been elected under the assumption that he would be a sort of business-as-usual, conservative white governor, in the vein of Lester Maddox. [Segregationist former Georgia Governor] Marvin Griffin had endorsed him [Carter]. When he made that statement, he shocked some, but confirmed for others what they had long suspected: that he was really a progressive. And people who knew him well knew that he was going to change the state forever. And from that moment forward, he devoted really his entire life to living out those words.
Q. The evolution of his public positions on race is interesting. When he was on the school board in the 1950s, he basically toed the line as far as segregation goes.
A. Well, you know, I suppose the time was not right for that change to happen. But what allowed him to stand and make those statements at his inauguration were all of the heroic actions of African Americans and whites during the civil rights movement in the prior decades, in the ‘50s and the ‘60s. And it's not as though he had not been evolving, really, from his childhood, and his intimate relationships with African-Americans on the farm. He had the example of Mrs. Lillian, his mother, who had a much more progressive, forward-thinking view on matters of race than certainly most people of her station here in those years.
Q. There was a period in the late-1950s when Carter was pressured to join the White Citizens Council in Plains. And he said he wouldn't, and his peanut warehouse and dry goods store were boycotted.
A. President Carter is never one to be bullied. We also have to remember even when he was campaigning for governor, on the position of federally enforced busing, he stood against that and said that he did not believe that was the solution. And part of that was the fact that he just was not going to be bullied.
So now in terms of my personal experience with him —I was speaking as a historian, because I was born in 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act. So you know, I turned seven in 1971. I don’t remember the assassination of Dr. King, right? But turning to what I do know of him [Carter] on a personal level, when he was campaigning for president, and when he ultimately won the election and went into the White House, I was 11, 12, 13 years old. Those are really strong memories for me.
Q. What do you remember?
A. Just the incredible flood of people into this sleepy place. Plains was transformed. And we would ride over there from Americus, my cousin and my sister and I. We would go over and gawk at all of the goings-on and kind of marvel that [ABC news reporter] Sam Donaldson would be at the depot in Plains, interviewing Mrs. Lillian. And yeah, I remember the pride, too, that we, me and my parents, felt of having a president from this place was overwhelming. I remember my grandmother having campaign buttons, and all the posters and paraphernalia and things for Carter. And she was very interested and very, very proud of that. Now, I'm talking about a woman who was born in 1894. She lived to be 97.
Much later in life, I got to know President Carter and Mrs. Rosalynn in a civic capacity. They were both involved in driving the economic development to ensure the continued good fortune of their hometown, Plains, which they dearly loved.
So in the late-‘90s, Mrs. Rosalynn and Mr. Jimmy, in order to accomplish this, one thing that they thought would help would be to take the railroad line that runs into their town and create a passenger excursion train for tourists. And they became involved in that, and I was named to the board of the Southwest Georgia Railroad Excursion Authority, which was created by the Georgia General Assembly. President Carter had his hand in, kind of pushing that forward to get it funded and to get it created. …President Carter worked very closely with [local legislators] to make sure it happened. And then I began to get to know President Carter and have interactions with him. … I was made chair and I've served ever since, for about 20 years, as the chairman of the railroad authority.
Q. And what does that railroad do for not just Plains, but for the whole area?
A. Millions of dollars in economic uplift every year for this relatively poor area. At least $2 million in direct economic impact from the train, and then of course a big multiplier effect from all the related tourism.
The train begins near Cordele, where we're headquartered, and then it takes passengers from there across the heart of Sumter County, crossing Lake Blackshear and the Flint River. Then it terminates at Archery, which is [Carter’s] boyhood farm. And we bring thousands of people annually. Several hundred on each trip come into Plains every Saturday. And we’ve all benefited. Because when it lays over here in Americus, we have people staying in our hotels and our restaurants. … And our business owners know the excursion train is deeply tied to their fortunes.
And I have to give President Carter and Mrs. Rosalynn their due for this. They were just absolutely determined to get that train off the ground. It took a lot of people, but without the clout offered by the Carters, we probably wouldn’t be here today talking about it.
And the Carters have stuck with it. We lost all state funding for the train during the great recession. And we were cut completely out of the state budget. And just in the last several years, President Carter has helped to advocate for restoring funding to the train, helping us to navigate politics and the budget process and all of that with people he knows, and it has been bipartisan. [Representative] Butch Parrish, a Republican, really helped with that. It has not been, you know, ‘Well, that train was for President Carter and his Democrat cronies.’ It's a train that helps a poor part of the state just get a little bit better. It helps a lot of folks, it provides employment, it's an economic engine.
Q. What is the budget for the train?
A. It's just shy of $700,000. And you know, sometimes [Carter] would ask me hard questions about what we're doing and what the numbers are looking like. Because when I would meet with him, he’s the chief executive, in every sense of the word, and he would ask all the difficult questions.
… And not all people who leave that [presidential] office are as connected and invested and rooted in their home place as President Carter is. He has just done so much to improve conditions here.
Q. Carter devoted a lot of acreage from a former peanut and soybean tract on his farm to create a giant solar energy field that now powers 50% of Plains. And now we have all of these green energy industries, including solar energy companies, coming to Georgia.
A. Well, he was the alternative energy president. He was the one who pioneered that, making the White House energy efficient and so forth. He was way ahead of his time on that, though, and he was criticized for it at the time. The Austerity President, right? And there was a big economic development announcement in the governor’s office recently about a solar panel company coming to Americus. NanoPV is the name of the company… We hope that materializes. If it does it could be an enormous economic uplift.
Q. We understand that over these last couple of years, the Carters are still working on a fair housing initiative through the Carter Plains Foundation to delve into some heirs property issues with a number of low-income, predominantly African American folks in Plains who don't have clear titles to their homes, which are falling into disrepair. And they’re helping to repair the homes and work out the legal issues.
A. Yes, those properties are all wrapped up in inheritance issues, with lack of wills and deeds and so forth. So yes, it’s heirs properties, we call it. That's exactly right.
…They are amazing. It has been a privilege for me to get to know them. My wife Karen and I have had dinner [at a mutual friend’s home] with the Carters and other people on many occasions. This is kind of a closing of an era for us. We used to go over there fairly frequently and talk with him. About personal things, not just train business. I mean, he likes to hunt and fish and do things that I like to do. He’s a big outdoorsman. He's a fly fisherman. He was a deer hunter. He loves turkey hunting. So he's, you know, just like a lot of other folks around here, I guess. … But he also happens to be a former president.
Q. President Carter has said what drew him back to Plains is the kind of peace and equilibrium he gets from being there, still connected to his people, and to be in the natural environment, the woods and the streams.
A. For President Carter, place matters. I know that place doesn't matter to people so much anymore. In our transient society, people rarely stay in one place long enough to develop connections and roots and all that, but for him, he grew up as did I, and here place matters to us. His people, my family, we're both from families that go back generations here. My boys, our children, are seventh-generation residents of Sumter County, which is unusual today.
… He's just a real person who has a very broad understanding of history and politics, and religion, and is conversant on so many topics. But he's also a down-to-earth human being. So one minute we can be talking about, you know, the political history of the New Deal, or something like that, and the next minute you're able to talk with him about his pond and fishing and a fly that he used, and that sort of thing. So you can do both with President Carter, he's never lost. Connection and rootedness with this place and its people matter to him. And I think the things that he grew up doing as a child, you know, fishing, for example, was something he loved to do when he was little. And he carried that with him.
I dare say if he were able to, he would probably want to go fishing this week because the weather's about to warm up. We're about to hit 84 degrees on Thursday. And he's probably thinking that turkey season is about to start in March. He so loves turkey hunting. So in other words, a giant man of the world, who has never lost connection to this little place.
Do you have memories of former President Jimmy Carter or his family? We would love to hear from you. Reach out on social media at:
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Read more on President Carter:
Jimmy Carter: From Plains to prominence
COMMENTARY: He is 'Mr. Jimmy' to me
COMMENTARY: What Jimmy Carter taught me about being a public servant and reading a compass
Chick-fil-A board chairman Dan Cathy reflects on Jimmy Carter’s ‘profound’ legacy
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Putting long lines in the rearview: driver services continues technology update
The Gist
The days of standing in long lines to get or renew a driver’s license may soon be in the rearview mirror for good.
Over the next month, Georgia drivers will continue to see significant updates in services as the Georgia Department of Driver Services continues its push to modernize through state-of-the-art technology and to cut back on long wait times caused by a shortage of workers and backlogs due to Covid-19.
What’s Happening
The department will roll out about 20 kiosks in its metro Atlanta offices where motorists can get or renew driver’s licenses, replace lost or stolen ones and record address changes. The rollout is a pilot program and will be extended to the rest of the state later, department spokesperson Susan Sports told State Affairs.
At the same time, the kiosks you use at Kroger and Publix to renew your car tags “are being updated and modified to add the driver’s license [renewal services] to them,” Sports said. Initially, those kiosks will renew licenses and ID cards. More services will be added later. The grocery store kiosks are run by the state Department of Revenue.
Driver services has also taken steps to make traveling easier for Georgians.
The department now allows Georgians to add their driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch, making check-in at airports quick, easy and secure. It is not intended as a replacement for a physical copy of your license or ID but it can speed up the process at TSA checkpoints. Android users will soon have a similar option, Sports said. Georgians meanwhile also have the option of renewing their driver’s license online.
Despite the online presence, some people still prefer to come into the office, Sports said. Now, they’ll have the option of using a self-serve kiosk rather than having to stand in a long line.
Why It Matters
The state is spending close to $2 million to add the kiosks and update services for Georgia drivers, an initiative driven by fewer department staff and greater demand for quicker services.
“The kiosks especially should help with the agency’s workforce issues,” DDS Commissioner Spencer R. Moore said. “If you have a self-service kiosk that is handling that renewal customer coming in, not having to take a break or a lunch or take vacation, it’s going to really offset some of those staffing challenges that we have.”
The new technology isn’t just for giving short-handed staff some help. It also is intended to head off a potential rise in wait times once a round of license expirations kicks in over the next two years, Sports said.
“Having a self-service kiosk option will save wait time for customers,” she said. “In turn, the driver examiners will be able to assist those customers that cannot be served in any way but in person. It will save customers time because if they use the kiosk, they do not have to fill out the required ‘application for service’ or take a ticket number for service as is required for all customers visiting in person.”
While as many as 45 Department of Motor Vehicle agencies in the United States were using some type of self-service kiosks in 2021, there is still a large number of government agencies that have not yet taken advantage of the technology, according to Kiosk Marketplace.
What’s Next?
Meanwhile in Georgia, the Department of Driver Services’ kiosks are currently wrapping up the test phase, Sports said, and should be rolling out over the next 30 days at the 65 DDS offices statewide and in grocery stores.
“That’s the wave of the future and our customers are on the go. They want more options,” said Sports. “In the old days, you’d go to the DDS and you would take a lounge chair and you’d take a book and you knew you were going to be there all day. So now … our service goal statewide is less than 30 minutes.”
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Header image: City of Warner Robins former Police Chief John Wagner poses with a Georgia driver’s license. (Credit: Georgia Department of Drivers Services)
Lawmakers plan another run at rent control legislation
The Gist
ATLANTA — Skyrocketing rents and punitive fees by homeowners associations that place some Georgia residents at risk of losing their homes are among the targets of several housing-related bills that Sen. Donzella James, D-Atlanta, and other members of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus hope to revive in the next legislative session. Four such housing bills stalled in the Senate this year.
What’s Happening
The Senate Urban Affairs Committee met Wednesday to discuss the proposed legislation designed to protect renters from sharply escalating rent prices, and what some senators and presenters described as unfair fees, eviction and foreclosure processes imposed by property owners and private associations that manage homes, apartments and condominiums.
James, the committee chair, is the sponsor of SB 125, which would repeal state law enacted in the 1980s that prevents local governments from regulating rent. Georgia is among 30 states in the U.S. that prohibit rent control by municipalities or counties, and among several states now considering repealing such laws.
“We’re attempting to lift that ban so cities and counties … can work with residents to stop rental leases and bills that are doubling and tripling and causing foreclosures and evictions,” said James. She noted that as the cost of living increases, “we’re seeing more families struggling to pay rent in metro and rural areas, and consequently many of those people can’t afford it anymore and have become homeless, or are staying in day hotels when they can afford to do that.”
Two other housing-related bills were also on the agenda. SB 29 would limit the ways homeowners, condo and property associations can penalize people for nonpayment of fees, and requires them to seek arbitration before placing liens on a property. And Senate Resolution 37 would create a study committee to let lawmakers take a comprehensive look at the policies and practices of such property associations.
Why It Matters
Rents have increased sharply in Georgia in recent years. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, fair market rents — the monthly cost of rent for standard-quality units in a local housing market — increased by an average of 24% from 2019 to 2023 in the U.S. In Georgia, fair market rents increased by 33% over that time. A one-bedroom apartment in Georgia now averages $1,115, and a two-bedroom is $1,283.
Rental costs are considerably higher in some Georgia cities, especially those where out-of-state private equity firms have purchased large numbers of residential properties and jacked up rents. In Atlanta, the fair market rent for a one-bedroom is now $1,375 and a two-bedroom is $1,553.
Some apartments cost much more. Nothing in Georgia law limits how much a landlord can raise the rent.
The Urban Affairs committee heard from several tenants whose rents have increased precipitously. Among them was Gladys Dancy, 83, who lives at Galleria Manor Senior Apartments, an affordable housing complex in Smyrna. She said when she moved in 10 years ago, the rent for her two-bedroom apartment was $780, and has since climbed to $908. In July, she received a notice from the building’s owners that her rent will rise to $1,215 in October, a 39% increase.
“They’re pushing me out,” said Dancy, adding that her only income is from Social Security. Dancy has a leg impairment that requires her to use a walker.
Noting that she lives two blocks from Truist Park, the Atlanta Braves stadium, which was an undeveloped wooded area when she moved in, she said, “All the rents around here have gone way up, and now they say they’re switching from an affordable property to market price. Is that legal?”
Other people testified about negative experiences with homeowners associations.
One man said he was fined $4,000 by his HOA for cars parked on the street near his home, even though he doesn’t own a vehicle. His neighbor said the HOA doled out $1,600 fines for covenant violations such as lack of shutters on windows and has placed $10,000 liens on multiple tenants’ homes.
David Washington, a real estate broker, said he specializes in helping people faced with foreclosure to stay in their homes. He said he recently worked with a 91-year-old client whose property was foreclosed on for delinquent HOA dues and related late fees, even though the woman had never missed a mortgage payment.
“Georgia is a creditor-friendly state,” said Washington. The state’s legal code related to rent “is not designed for if life happens,” he said. Even if over a 30-year period a homeowner has a sterling payment history, an HOA does not take costly life events into account the way that some loan companies do, offering forbearance, he noted. “Whether it’s COVID, a car accident, a divorce, a death — if you owe $5,000 to an HOA, they will foreclose on you,” he said. “And the law allows it.”
James noted that small liens issued by HOAs or banks can quickly lead to foreclosure, if not paid or legally resolved within a few months.
“Once you get $2,000 worth of liens, that house can go up on the courthouse steps and be sold from under you,” she said.
Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, the House Democratic Caucus chair, told committee members that the “draconian” Georgia law that permits HOAs to foreclose on a property because of overdue HOA fees is “bad legislation and I think we should join the overwhelming majority of states which do not allow that.”
Preventing and reducing evictions is another legislative focus of the committee.
Mableton resident Alonzo Williams told the committee that he and his disabled mother were evicted from their apartment after the landlord doubled the rent during the pandemic. He said he works in education and his mother has a fixed income. “We struggled mightily to pay it, but we couldn’t,” he said, adding that they are now living in temporary housing, and so far unable to find a rental unit they can afford.
Elizabeth Appley, an attorney and fair housing advocate, said that as of April, 14% of Georgians were behind on rent, according to the National Equity Atlas, a data site run by PolicyLink, a research and advocacy firm. Those Georgians owing rent included 181,000 households, 72% of which were low-income families. More than half were households with children.
The average rent debt in Georgia is $1,400, said Appley, noting that that amount is considerably less than the cost of eviction to local communities in the state, which averages $11,200 per eviction, according to a University of Arizona law school analysis. That eviction tally takes into account the cost of emergency shelter, medical, welfare and juvenile delinquency costs.
Legislation to give local communities more control over rental costs, as well as to provide more tenant protections statewide is needed, Appley said.
Besides the rent control and property association-related bills, she encouraged the Senate committee to support HB 404, the Safe at Home Act, which would put a two-month cap on rental security deposits and require landlords to give tenants at least three days’ notice and the opportunity to pay overdue rent and fees before eviction proceedings can start. The bill unanimously passed the House but was not called for a vote in the Senate last session.
“While the idea of rent control may appear an attractive solution to the affordable housing crisis, it is critical to understand its counterproductive and damaging consequences,” said Stephen Davis, government affairs director for the Atlanta Apartment Association.
National research shows that rent control policies reduce housing supply, lower property values and disincentivizes new construction of apartments, he said.
Davis pointed to a 2021 St. Paul, Minnesota, rent control bill that capped annual rent increases to 3% and led, he said, to an 80% drop in building permits for multifamily housing. Overall, new housing starts in St. Paul decreased by 30% over the next year, resulting in an amendment of the law in 2022 that allows some landlords to make larger rent increases.
Adding additional housing units to a market is the best way to address housing costs in communities with climbing rents, Davis said.
“The key is to increase housing inventory,” he said. “But most local governments are installing additional regulations and burdens on development. They’ve raised millage rates and impact fees. … Every condition put on a new development has a cost,” which is often passed on to the renter, he said.
What’s Next
SB 125, the rent control bill, did not move in the State and Local Governmental Operations committee last session. Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, who chairs the committee, told State Affairs he does not support state regulation of local rent policies.
“I think that should be between the owner of the property and the renter,” Ginn said. “I don’t think the government should interfere in that process. There are other things that we can do to help local governments to lower the cost of housing, and to address things that drive the cost of housing up.”
James said she and other legislators are inclined to consolidate and amend several housing-related bills still alive in both chambers. She told State Affairs that requiring mediation before evictions and foreclosures can occur and appointing a state ombudsman to give people involved in housing disputes “a place to take their complaints before they lose their homes” are two key elements that should be included in housing legislation to be pursued in 2024.
James said the Urban Affairs Committee plans to meet at least once more prior to the start of the next legislative session in January.
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Header photo: Smyrna resident Gladys Dancy, 83, told the Senate Urban Affairs Committee members that her landlord plans to raise her rent by 39% in October. (Credit: Jill Jordan Sieder)
New Georgia law mandates active shooter drills in public schools
THE GIST ATLANTA — Georgia K-12 public schools have been conducting informal active shooter drills for years, just like they have for fire, tornadoes and other emergencies. But earlier this year, state lawmakers made the safety precaution against active shooters and other intruders mandatory. Gov. Brian Kemp signed The Safe Schools Act into law in …
Gov. Kemp suspends fuel taxes
ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp suspended the state’s tax on gas and diesel fuel today, declaring “a state of emergency due to the 40-year-high inflation and negative economic conditions felt by hardworking Georgians as a result of policies coming out of Washington, D.C.”
The governor’s executive order goes into effect Wednesday and will remain in effect until Oct. 12. Kemp can only suspend the tax one month at a time as part of the executive order.
Kemp said President Joe Biden’s economic policies made the executive order necessary.
“From runaway federal spending to policies that hamstring domestic energy production, all Bidenomics has done is take more money out of the pockets of the middle class,” Kemp said. “While high prices continue to hit family budgets, hardworking Georgians deserve real relief and that’s why I signed an executive order today to deliver it directly to them at the pump.”
Kemp cited analysis from Moody’s Analytics from August that said U.S. consumers are spending $709 more per month than two years ago and $202 more each month than last year to buy the same goods and services.
Georgians will save 31.2 cents on a gallon of gasoline and 35 cents on diesel fuel, he said, adding that Georgians saved roughly $1.7 billion at the pump when fuel taxes were suspended from March to December last year.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, supported Kemp’s order and also framed it in a political context.
“I applaud Governor Kemp’s suspension of motor fuel taxes to keep our people and our economy moving despite Washington’s inaction on rising fuel prices,” said Burns. “Georgia’s success story is no accident — it is the result of conservative policies enacted to keep Georgia the nation’s best state for business.”
According to AAA, the average cost of a gallon of regular gas in Georgia on Tuesday was $3.57, up from $3.24 a year ago. Diesel fuel was $4.35 a gallon, down from $4.69 a year ago.
Overall, inflation has been ebbing in the U.S. over the past year. A report from the Federal Reserve in August noted that while the consumer price index (CPI) in July was up 3.3% from a year earlier, that level is far below the peak rate of 8.9% in the 12 months that ended in June 2022.
Energy prices in the South have decreased 12.8% from July 2022 to July 2023, largely due to a 20% drop in the cost of gasoline, while food prices rose 5.1%.
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Header photo: Gov. Kemp’s executive order to suspend fuel taxes will save Georgians 31 cents on a gallon of regular gasoline and 35 cents on diesel fuel through mid-October. (Credit: Jill Jordan Sieder).