Decision 2024: Meet Shekita Maxwell, candidate for Macon-Bibb Mayor
Early voting begins Monday, April 29 and ends on Friday, May 17. Election day is Tuesday, May 21.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Shekita Maxwell is seeking the office of Macon-Bibb Mayor.
She’s facing incumbent Lester Miller.
41NBC’s Tucker Sargent spoke with each candidate ahead of the May 21 election.
Candidate name: Shekita Maxwell
Running for: Macon-Bibb Mayor
Campaign website: theofficialmaxwellformayormacon-bibbcounty.com
Campaign Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557135968700
TUCKER: Decision 2024. We continue our Meet the Candidate series of interviews. Shekita Maxwell, who is running against current Mayor Lester Miller for the Macon-Bibb Mayor race, joining us today. Thanks for joining us.
SHEKITA: Thanks for having me.
TUCKER: So you were the only one who’s put your name in the hat to go against the current mayor. What made you decide to run?
SHEKITA: It was really God, because I was running for Ocmulgee River Soil and Water District Supervisor—something that I do every day as a chemist, but I went to turn in my paperwork, and Tom Gillon, who is over the Election Supervisor, he was like, ‘You sure you want to run?’ I said, ‘You said I qualified.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, but you might have greater aspirations.’ So I didn’t make anything of it. Now, on February 29, which evidently was a leap year, me and God had a conversation. And I said, ‘Is it more that you want me to do? Or can I just stay the course?’ And he was like, ‘No. What about mayor?’ And I was like, ‘Mayor?! That’s a lot of responsibility, and I have my children; I’m a single parent. So what do you do? You trust God and you keep going. Like, the next day, I went and signed my intent to run for mayor. I had to withdraw from Ocmulgee River, but ever since then, it’s been all gas, no brakes, because when God sends you on assignment, you don’t say no. You just carry it to the finish and when it’s through.’
TUCKER: Now that you’re in the race, what would a first 100 days of your administration look like? What are you prioritizing as mayor?
SHEKITA: I prioritize safety first. We can’t just leave it up to the sheriff to make sure our neighborhoods are straight, the city is good. I think that’s a collaborative effort between the mayor, who leads the city, and also the sheriff, who’s going to lead the police force, or however it goes. But we all have to work to make sure our community is safe for our own kids here in Macon. So you have “eat, live, work, and play;” it needs to be a safe place so everybody can get here. My next goal would be affordable housing. We have too many people being evicted, myself included, so I know what it feels like not to have a home. We have to have places that are affordable, adequate, and habitable, because some of these places you can live and pay for them, but they’re not suitable for humans. So if it’s not suitable for a human to live there, it’s inhabitable. We’ve got to make sure that we have affordable housing, but also housing that is quality and adequate for someone to live with their family. And the next thing I want to look at is the pay increase for the employees. Fifteen cents is not a pay increase that’s going to help families. Everything helps, but I think that we can get to a place where we have a surplus of talent, but these talents are going to leave the city if we don’t start paying people adequately. Even Governor Kemp has gotten on board with giving teachers what they deserve, so what about the city employees who work every single day? What about their families? Putting food on the table. Making a decision between rent, going to work, or medicine. Those shouldn’t be questions that we have in Macon-Bibb. And we say this is the best place to live? Let’s start paying people like they’re worth that.
TUCKER: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you. There have been reports, notably from Jeremy Grissom, the Macon Violence Prevention Coordinator. He accused you of misusing MVP funds. On your public page, you said you denied those accusations. You said you didn’t want to participate in smear campaigns. So, what’s your message to anyone who may have reservations about your past and your candidacy?
SHEKITA: I would say vote for Shekita Maxwell, because I’m transparent, I have integrity, and I’m honorable. They’re not saying that I stole the money; they’re saying that I misused or misspent it. That’s not true. I sent all the receipts for every program—over 3,000 receipts. They’re trying to say now that they don’t know what category it fits in, but every time we turn in a receipt, it’s with a program, so everything is labeled ‘program’ and ‘cost,’ such as paper, pens, student activities, and place of the events. I have all the records, so I don’t understand what they’re saying about not being able to understand what category it goes in. All you have to do is look at the receipt, and some of the receipts that I turned in, they’re numbered by the program, but they also have written on them, ‘This is for food,’ ‘this is supplies,’ ‘this is programming,’ ‘this is an event,’ ‘venue,’ ‘transportation.’ So there’s no mismanagement of funds. In the Army, I had a fund of over a million dollars at the age of 19 years old because I was responsible for all the chemical equipment that was inside my brigade. We didn’t have many chemical soldiers, so we were all responsible for signing for those things in wartime and also in peacetime.
TUCKER: All right. Giving you the chance to clear the air here for anyone, again, who may have some reservations about voting. Thanks for coming on today.
Snippets from both candidates’ interviews will air on 41NBC News. Interviews will also be posted in full on 41NBC.com on the following days:
Thursday, April 25 – Lester Miller
Friday, April 26 – Shekita Maxwell
Early voting begins Monday, April 29 and ends on Friday, May 17. Election day is Tuesday, May 21.
