The Columbus mayor’s race is no game, but like many competitions, it may begin with an introduction of the players — in alphabetical order, Wayne Anthony, Zeph Baker, Paul Olson and Teresa Tomlinson.
None is a political newcomer. This is Tomlinson’s first run for public office, but the attorney has been so active in politics and community affairs that it’s hard to call her a rookie.
Anthony has been Columbus’ citywide Post 9 councilor since 2002.
Baker in 2008 ran as an independent against longtime Democratic Georgia House District 132 Rep. Calvin Smyre, and lost, with about 29 percent of the vote to Smyre’s 71 percent.
Olson twice has sought public office: In 2002 he ran as a Democrat against Republican state Sen. Seth Harp, and he lost, with about 30 percent of the vote to Harp’s 70 percent. In 1998, he ran against Mary Sue Polleys, then Columbus’ citywide school board member, and he lost, with his opponent pulling about 70 percent of the vote.
So no one seeking the mayor’s seat this year is an absolute unknown. But what do we know about them?
Here’s a rundown of the four candidates, who were asked to cite their top priorities and say what they liked most about Columbus.
Wayne Anthony
Wayne Anthony, 61, grew up on a farm in north Columbus, the fourth-born in a family of five brothers and one sister. A graduate of Jordan High School, he got a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Asbury College in 1971 and a master’s in divinity from Emory University in 1974. For seven years he was a Methodist minister serving churches in Preston, Poulan and Valdosta, Ga.
In 1985, he got a master’s in business administration from the University of Georgia, and in 1997 completed a graduate program at Colorado’s College of Financial Planning to become a certified financial planner.
While working on his MBA, he managed a KFC restaurant in Athens, Ga., and after graduation was promoted, managing north Atlanta restaurants that had $10 million in annual revenue.
In 1987 he came home to Columbus to direct the financial counseling and employee assistance programs at the Bradley Center and Pastoral Institute. In 1998, he helped organize the Center for Servant Leadership and served four years as its director. In 2000 he helped start House of Heroes, which provides home repairs for elderly or disabled military and public safety veterans.
He and wife, Frances Sue Brown, have three grown children — sons Mark, 34, and Tyson, 32, and daughter Pam, 36.
What is Anthony’s top priority for Columbus?
“Priority No. 1 is public safety,” he said. Columbus must continue to develop its police force, focusing on “community policing,” so officers assigned specific neighborhoods get to know the residents they serve, and are held accountable for what happens in those areas.
“We benchmark every neighborhood, every precinct, and then say, ‘OK, your goal and objective is to lower all seven of these level-one crimes,’” he said, referring to what police call “Part I” crimes, felonies such as murder, robber, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, car theft and arson.
Residents also must become engaged in fighting crime: “Public safety begins with the public,” he said.
What does he like most about Columbus?
“I like the people, the activities in Columbus,” he said. “I like the wide variety of opportunity for everyone. I love the downtown river development.” And Columbus is conveniently close to the beach, he said.
Zeph Baker
Zeph Baker, 34, has the twin distinctions of being the youngest candidate in the mayor’s race and the only African-American. He grew up here, graduating from Columbus’ Carver High School in 1994 and obtaining a bachelor’s degree in biology from Columbus State University in 1999.
He said he once worked for the Muscogee County School District and helped form Phenix City’s Teen University, which he described as “a private school that educates kids with disabilities — not physical disabilities but learning, behavior, social disabilities.
A lot of these kids are in the custody of the state, so it’s providing alternative academic opportunities for them to be able to get educated.”
That endeavor began in 2003 or 2004, he said.
He said he’s also been involved in various tutorial programs and community collaborations.
The son of the Rev. Wayne Baker of Spirit Filled Ministries, Zeph Baker said he also started the ministry’s private school, a Christian education center.
At age 20, he and some partners pooled money from their tax returns to buy real estate, he said. “Instead of getting the rims on the cars and the fresh paint jobs, we put our money together and bought a house, got it out of foreclosure,” he said. “We got an equity line of credit from CB&T and we ended up fixing up the house and selling it. The profit we made off of it became seed money for future investments.” That was back around 1996, he said.
A widower, Baker has three children, two sons age 13 and 11 and a daughter age 10. He declined to give their names. “I’d rather keep their names out of the paper, because they’re still young,” he said.
What’s his top priority for Columbus?
“The top priority, first of all, is to make sure we defend and abide by the city charter,” he said. “That is extremely important for us, to examine each department to make sure that it is effective and running efficiently.”
How would he do that?
“I think it speaks for itself: In order to examine these departments, we need to speak to the department heads, and make sure each department is running effectively and efficiently. The other thing is crime... We’re going to make sure that we’re taking care and doing all that we can to prevent crime, and that means a stronger police presence.”
What does he like most about Columbus?
“The thing I like most about Columbus is the promise of our city, that it’s the place where dreams are to be realized. Our people are our greatest asset.”
Paul Olson
Paul Olson, 59, grew up on a farm just outside Fort Dodge, Iowa, the fourth of seven children. His family moved into the town when he was 7 years old, but he still spent every summer doing farm chores for relatives, right up until he graduated high school in 1969 and went into the Army, serving 1970-71 in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division.
He got out in 1972 and worked his way through college, gaining an associate’s degree in liberal arts from Iowa Central Community College in 1975.
In 1978, he re-enlisted, starting over as a private. He trained at Fort Benning and was sent to Germany. After Officer Candidate School, he came back in 1980 as a lieutenant and settled here.
In 1992, he left active duty as a captain and entered the Army Reserves, becoming a major. Among his decorations are the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal and Parachutist Badge, he said. All told, he had 37 years of military service, 17 active duty and 20 in the reserves.
He has a bachelor's degree from Troy State University in human resources management and military science, and a Georgia real-estate license.
In 1990 he married his wife, Terri, owner of Columbus’ Terri’s Florist. He has a step-daughter, Natalie, 36, and a daughter Brooke, 19.
What’s his top priority?
“Stop spending,” he said. “These people are just spending us into oblivion. Right now we’re going after our wants instead of our needs, and right now times are becoming real difficult... .In our own households we’re contracting and saving, and right now the city’s just spending like there’s no tomorrow.”
The city government needs to start saving money “in case we go into a double-dip recession or possibly a depression,” he said.
What would he cut?
The city should not be building a natatorium, a second ice-skating rink at the Columbus Civic Center or a rails-to-trails route from downtown to Psalmond Road, he said.
He also said the city needs permanently to roll back property taxes now that it has two 1 percent local option sales taxes.
What does he like most about Columbus?
“I would say the people; the people are always friendly,” he said. “I love the Springer, and I love the RiverCenter, and I love the Civic Center.”
He tries to attend a couple of events every year, he said. Also his two grandsons play in Little League, so that’s important to his family. “I would say the baseball fields are just fantastic for our youth.”
Teresa Tomlinson
Teresa Tomlinson, 45, is the only woman in the race. She grew up in Atlanta’s Chamblee-Dunwoody area, and graduated from Chamblee High School in 1983. From there she went to Sweet Briar College in Virginia, graduating with degrees in government and economics in 1987. She got her law degree from Atlanta’s Emory University in 1991.
Then she went straight to work for the law firm of Pope, McGlamry, Kilpatrick, Morrison and Norwood. That brought her to Columbus in 1994. In 1998 she became the firm’s first female partner, she said.
In 2006, she took a leave of absence to serve as executive director of the nonprofit MidTown Inc., which works to revitalize a 9-square-mile area of central Columbus. The organization has given the city’s core a sense of identity, helped form 19 neighborhood associations, and negotiated a Cross Country Plaza rezoning leading to the Publix store there expanding to 54,000 square feet, she said.
She is married to attorney Wade “Trip” Tomlinson, a Columbus native. They own Tomlinson Properties and The Butler’s Pantry.
What’s her top priority?
“Accountability and city efficiency,” she said, “and that is, a stronger mayoral, oversight, supervision role, as is precisely allowed by the charter: mayoral cabinet meetings together with the city manager, so the mayor is in there meeting with those department heads, knowing everything that’s going on... And the other aspect of accountability and oversight is efficiency audits, which I’ve been promoting now for years.”
Such audits employ spreadsheets track how money is being spent and to calculate the value of the return on that investment.
“If you hire three more people for a pothole crew, how many more potholes did you fill this year than you filled last year?” she said as an example. “That way you can quantify the taxpayer investment, because to me, taxpayer dollars should not be spent, they should be invested, and you should be able to articulate what the return is.”
Through this process the city of Mobile saved $500,000 just in one department, realizing it was wasting so much money on overtime that it should have just hired more workers, she said.
What does she like most about Columbus?
“Columbus has absolutely no apathy,” she said. “Any city in an economic downturn that can pass two taxes somehow believes in the possibility of what the community can do. They may not believe in every single elected official, or every single policy or program, but somehow the majority of people believe that that community has great potential and possibility.”
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