Kelly Kautz Sworn in as Mayor

(Editor's Note: This article was originally published November 15, 2011.)

It was an arduous campaign, but Kelly Kautz and her new fellow council members must step into the present now, and move into the future. 

Kautz, a Brookwood High alumna, was sworn in November 14 as the first female mayor of the city she grew up in. Those standing with her included her mother, Carol Kautz. Her father, Tom Kautz, clicked photos from the audience.

After she was sworn in, there was a standing ovation at Snellville City Hall, where citizens crowded along walls and in the lobby to see the new leader step forward.

In her remarks as mayor, she thanked her family and campaign supporters, but she also thanked the citizens of Snellville for coming out to vote and Barbara Bender -- her opponent -- for her leadership. Now, the 34-year-old attorney said she is ready to represent all of Snellville.

"Now that the elections is behind us I plan to go forward representing all of Snellville," she said. "I believe that we need to unite Snellville as a whole. We all sitting up here on the bench need to represent everyone, not one side or the other.

"We need to represent the Caucasian population, the African-Americans, the Hispanics, the Middle Eastern, Republicans and Democrats, the old and the new.

"We need to come together as a city, as a whole, to make this community, that we call know can be, great."

The new mayor then ticked off a list of items that citizens can see in the not-so-distant future now that she is in charge. Those include: art work in Snellville City Hall, the opening of a new mayor's office, an economic development committee, and more connections with South Gwinnett High School.

In the future, Kautz said she plans to work on economic development incentives, additional park space in the city, resolving the service delivery agreement with Gwinnett County and putting sidewalks down U.S. Highway 78 near South Gwinnett High School.

In accomplishing these goals and more, Kautz said she's also excited to work with her new council members and to hear about their plans for the future.

Tom Witts, a vocal opponent of Kautz, congratulated the new mayor and said he looked forward to working with her.

"I look forward to working with you," he said," getting to know you better, working through our differences, and hopefully work together to do what is right for our city."

He also welcomed the three new council members -- Diane Krause, Bobby Howard and Dave Emanuel -- whom he called "free-thinking, independent spirits who share a single goal of doing what is best for their community."

Each of the new council members ran unopposed, and they were also sworn in Monday evening.

Former State Rep. Melvin Everson, who previously served on the Snellville City Council, said he hopes Kautz stands by her words.

"It's very historic since we have our first female mayor," said Everson, who is now the state's director for workforce development. "But I hope everything she said she works towards unifying the city because right now it's still segregated between the old and the new."

He's apprehensive that the "old guard" will be working to take Snellville back to where it was when he first arrived to city council in 1986. During those times, city council was fraught with dissension, and progress was stagnated.

"We don't need that," he added. "That's just frankly speaking."