Taking Aim at Public Office

In the three decades that Gerald Duane Kissel worked in law enforcement, he learned a few things about people and a few things about government.

People want a government that works, and government should work for the people -- that's Kissel's stance in a nutshell. Politicians, he adds, aren't the sort of folks who can make those connections, and that's why he doesn't want to be called a politician. 

Instead, he said, call him a public servant. If elected as chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Kissel said he will turn things around.

"I got into this race because I am tired of the government wasting the taxpayer's money," said the 23-year Snellville resident.

Kissel's approach is evident even while sitting in a Snellville Chick-fil-A recently. He was there with his wife, Elizabeth Kissel, folding one of thousands of paper brochures that the family has handed out. There are no frills to the plain, white sheets of paper with black-and-white print. That, Kissel said, shows he understands about getting down to business without spending a whole lot of money to do. 

"This is informational; at the end of the day it's going to end up in trash," he said about the brochures. "If your going to waste your money, or your supports money, what makes you think they're not going to waste your money."

The county, he asserts, "wastes thousands and thousands of dollars when it's not neccessary."

"I know, I spent 30 years working for Gwinnett County," said Kissel, 56.

He questions some county decisions, including the trash plan, the Gwinnett Braves stadium and 151 acres in Dacula purchased for the Sugarloaf Parkway and park land.

"Government should be providing services," he said. "It's time we get back to what government should be."

As a career police officer, rising to the assistant police chief in Gwinnett County, Kissel said he wants to continue the work he did then -- helping people. Retiring in 2006, Kissel said the job was the greatest one he could have had.

"You get to meet people every day and help people every day, and its's not all about kicking down doors and locking people up, "said Kissel, a 39-year resident of Gwinnett County. "It's about helping people, and that's what the government should be all about, and that's it."

Lately, Kissel and his wife said they've been busy, meeting people and spreading their ideas for the county. If he doesn't win, Kissel said he will rest well in retirement.

His wife, Elizabeth, said her husband wants to win, but that he also wants people to get out and vote, in any case. Still, she added, she thinks he will do a good job.

"He's truly qualfied," she said. "And, I just think that if he doesn't win, it will be the county's loss."

Besides Kissel, three other candidates – Charlotte Nash of Dacula, Larry Gause of Tucker and Will Costa of Lilburn – are running for the position of chairman. The special election is March 15. The winner will fill the unexperied term of former Gwinnett County chairman Charles Bannister.

The candidate elected will assume responsibility for managing the county's $977.5 million budget.