Macon Magazine

JAMI GAUDET: YOU RAN FOR MAYOR FOR MORE THAN TWO YEARS. WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO RUN AND WHY DID YOU RUN? MAYOR LESTER MILLER: I knew my second term on the Bibb County school board was ending, and although I was able to run for a third term, I thought the board needed new ideas and a new person so I looked for other ways to serve the community. Eight years is a good term limit for anything and anybody. I thought the city should go a different way and knew the mayor's job was opening. I looked at who was running and met with a couple of people who encouraged me to think and pray about it and talk with my family, which I did. I didn't know I wanted to run until Jan. 28, 2018, when I filed the paperwork and hired a consultant. It was L ast November, after a hard-fought race in a crowded field followed by a contentious, racially charged runoff, Macon-Bibb County voters elected attorney, businessman and entrepreneur Lester Miller to be their new mayor. e consolidated government's unassuming second mayor has big ideas and plans for the city — some he shared, some under wraps and others being formulated. Miller thinks strategically, which is how he intends to manage the city, and, subject to commission approval, believes he has assembled a solid team of department heads also known as directors. e former Bibb County school board president aims to bring the collaboration and consensus-building skills he honed in that role to city politics. e pragmatic Miller says he's unafraid to lead, learns from his mistakes and will make tough calls when necessary. Two watchwords of the Miller administration will be "accountability" — his and everyone else's, and "listening." He has no time to dawdle, acknowledging, "I've got four years to accomplish my agenda, with four additional years if I'm successful." Miller's hardscrabble childhood was a springboard for his ambition, success and desire to serve. As a free- and reduced-lunch kid, he felt the sting of scarcity, which guides his thinking and informs his priorities. A self-described outsider, in his youth he found acceptance on the baseball diamond where he bonded with his father, who coached him. But at 14 that scarcity drove him to give up the game he loved to work as a busboy, and by age 18 he and a partner opened a restaurant, the first of Miller's many business ventures. A double Mercer Bear with a Juris Doctor and an undergraduate degree in political science, Miller's story is an instructive one — about insiders and outsiders, what it takes to win a seat at the civic table in Macon, and the prudence of reaching deeper into the community to identify volunteers with the interest, capability and drive to lead. Days before his Dec. 30 inauguration, Miller chatted in his new office, which literally and figuratively signals a new era — freshly painted walls, now hunter green and white, with a change of carpet, now burgundy, and windows devoid of drapes and blinds — like Miller, waiting to be installed. But most striking was the placement of the mayor's desk in a new direction — a theme repeatedly echoed in our conversation. a gamble, but turned out to be the best thing. I got out of the gate quickly to keep others from running and was able to fundraise. By the time the pandemic hit, my campaign was well established while others' campaigning was limited. I ran for mayor for the same reason I ran for school board. I brought experiences from my childhood to the job. On the school board, I thought I could help bring equity across the districts, and as mayor, I think I can bring equity to the city. After growing up in seven neighborhoods, I can relate to the common person in Bibb County. I married my high school sweetheart and this is our home. I ran to make things better for the community and for my boys, who are 24 and 20. I want them to stay in Macon, get good jobs and raise their families here. JG: YOU APPEARED TO HAVE A WELL- FORMULATED, LONG RANGE PLAN TO RUN FOR MAYOR, BUT YOU'RE SAYING IT WASN'T A LONG-TERM CONTEMPLATION. MAYOR: Not at all. Running for the school board wasn't even a long-term contemplation. My kids were attending Skyview Elementary School and Rutland Middle School. I was PTO president at Skyview and Booster Club president at Rutland and everyone was in an uproar. The graduation rate hovered under 50 percent and Romain Dallemand was Bibb County school superintendent. The seat was open and I was encouraged to run. I thought I could help the community and my kids' school system. I won two four-year terms and was president three of my last four years on the board. I chose not to run again last year because I didn't want to miss my duties while campaigning. JG: YOU CALL YOURSELF AN OUTSIDER. TELL ME ABOUT THAT SELF-DESCRIPTION. MAYOR: As a child, being a free- and reduced-lunch kid was embarrassing, so over the years I sold candy, cut grass and picked up pecans to pay for my lunch. When I was on the school board, we secured federal funding to ensure that every child ate free to remove the stigma. After experiencing my family's bankruptcies, I worked at Beall's 1860 and the Green Jacket to help my parents. I become a cook and a chef and had a scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America but chose to stay in Macon. I opened my first business when I was 18, Martin and Miller's (M&M's) Pub, and also opened The Symphony, Red Baron restaurant at the airport and Charter Café in the Fickling Building, all while I was in school. I laid the foundation in my teens that most people lay when starting a business as an adult. I thought I had done all of the right things in the community to have gotten noticed enough to serve on a board. I was a pretty successful businessman, a decent lawyer, but never made a list FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021 | maconmagazine.com 35

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