The number one job of any member of the Athens City Council is to represent you. Too often in recent years, Athens has received media attention, not for the many wonderful attributes of our city, but because of ‘spectacle’. As a member of the Athens City Council, Abby will be committed to treating everyone - regardless of opinion - with dignity. A significant part of being an attorney is knowing how to disagree with grace and respect, and she intends to behave accordingly, regardless of whether that person is another Councilmember or a member of our community. Athens is the Friendly City – and Abby intends to lead by example.

A comprehensive review of the City’s infrastructure should be completed, and we should be working with our staff to plan ahead for replacement and renovations of our major assets. The City Manager and department heads have begun a similar process and presented it to the City Council in October 2025 and again at the Strategic Summit in February 2026. It’s an excellent start and reflects the dedication and hard work of our city employees, but the simple fact is – leadership has to come from the top. It’s not the duty of our hardworking city employees to add what should be the Council’s job to their existing duties.

Notably, at the February 2026 Strategic Summit, in the report from the City’s regional planning and development agency – Southeast Tennessee Development District – the top four items of “Strategic Topics for Continued Discussion” were all about developing plans: “Develop a Citywide Comprehensive Staffing Plan”, “Develop a FOCUSED 5-year Plan to Implement and Apply the current plans we already have”, “Infrastructure Comprehensive Plan” and “Downtown Improvement Plan”. Our City Council should not need to be told by a consultant that it is necessary to plan for Athens’ future both in terms of staffing and capital development/maintenance.

As a member of the Athens City Council, Abby will work with our employees to develop and implement plans which address not only the current needs of Athens, but which will also provide sustainability and guidance for our future. Every asset has an expected lifespan – whether that’s three years or thirty.  By planning ahead, we can budget appropriately and reduce the need for large debts and/or tax increases for capital outlay and other foreseeable expenditures.

It’s impossible to grow up in Athens without hearing about the history and significance of Athens’ downtown. The Battle of Athens, Ronald Reagan’s speech from the courthouse, the underground tunnels – all of it forms an essential part of what it means to be an Athenian. As Athens moves into the second half of the 2020s, it’s more important than ever that we cultivate the vibrancy of our downtown. Athens is blessed to have an excellent Mainstreet program and many property owners who have worked hard to blend our history with just enough updates to draw in new and exciting businesses and restaurants. As a councilmember, Abby is excited to continue to work towards the renovation and preservation of our downtown.

Since 2007, 76% of Athens’ commercial buildings downtown have undergone substantial façade renovations. Owners are already investing in their properties – replacing broken or outdated windows and doors, repainting, repairing damaged masonry, updating signage and awnings, etc. A historic overlay district won’t just slow such updates – it could stop them completely. And, let’s be honest, there’s a significant irony in saying we want to preserve the historic location of the Battle of Athens by taking away our citizens’ right to do as they please with their own properties.

Luckily, there is an answer to how we can promote the growth and renovation of downtown while also respecting the property rights of our citizens. The solution isn’t punishment and restrictions – it’s incentives, and surrounding cities such as Cleveland are already using them with significant success.

As a member of the Athens City Council, Abby will work to enact incentives for property owners in the downtown commercial district to revitalize the area and attract new business. Specifically, she will work to enact a series of tax breaks designed to foster renovations and reward restorations which preserve the traditional historic qualities of Athens’ downtown buildings while allowing property owners freedom to develop economic growth and new business opportunities.

An example of what that could look like would be a property tax rate freeze for 3 years following the substantial renovation of a commercial building in the district, with the added incentive of an additional 3 years’ freeze if the renovation is in substantial compliance with the Historic Preservation Committee’s design guidelines. This would allow the property owner to recoup a portion of the cost of their renovation while allowing the city to receive more income from other tax sources such as increased sales tax revenue when new businesses open in the renovated spaces. This would allow the property owners to retain full rights to their buildings but give them a financial incentive to preserve downtown’s traditional facades - all without costing our taxpayers even a dime to fund.

‘Government of the People, by the People, and for the People.’ Democracy, at its core, is designed to ensure that you know what your elected officials are advocating for and to ensure that you know how to make your voice heard. On the Council, Abby will promote initiatives to ensure that every line of communication is open between the Council and the People of Athens.

That begins with ensuring that any restrictions on citizens’ right to speak at meetings are in strict compliance with T.C.A. 8-44-112 which only allows “reasonable restrictions on the period for public comment, such as the length of the period, the number of speakers, and the length of time that each speaker will be allowed to provide comment. The governing body may require a person to give notice in advance of the desire to offer comments at a meeting.” It also includes reinstating comments on all social media posts on City accounts and providing livestreaming, if possible, and posted recordings, at minimum, of all Council or committee/commission meetings where any vote is taken or any work session of the City Council.

Additionally, Abby will work with MTAS and the City Attorney to develop and propose updates to the Athens Municipal Code outlining the responsibilities and function of all boards and committees which are subject to the jurisdiction of the Council. Currently, the Municipal Code has “Title 2 Boards and Commissions, Etc. (Reserved)” with no actual codes. Meanwhile, many committees function with little to no guidance on how to conduct their work sessions or meetings, no set rules of order, and no reasonable means for citizens to identify their rights at such a meeting. The community members who serve on these boards and committees are providing Athens with invaluable resources and knowledge. The least we can do is to give them the basic protection of a roadmap to follow.

Finally, City Council is, ultimately, responsible for one set of policies – the Athens Municipal Code. Abby has read every line of the Code as well as the Athens City Charter. As a member of the City Council, she will implement an annual review of the entire Code by the Council to ensure that no update or necessary change is missed. This will be done by dividing the Code into separate sections to be reviewed at each monthly Work Session. She is further committed to never passing any amendment or addition to either the Code or the Charter which she has not personally read in full.

Too often, the use and expenditure of government resources is ‘political’. A truly representative democracy is guided by leaders who promote initiatives that benefit not just their own supporters or voting bloc, but the whole community. As a member of the Athens City Council, Abby will utilize the Capital Improvement Plan and the most recent budgets as well as city records to identify those areas of our community and government which have not historically received their fair share of attention and funding and to then address and prioritize those deficiencies through the strategic planning outlined above in Section 2.

As an example, our Director of Public Works stated at the 2026 Strategic Summit that “paving shouldn’t be political” – a statement Abby absolutely agrees with. Most sources, including our public works department, agree that the average lifespan of a city street before it needs major repair or replacement is about 25 years. Obviously, main thoroughfares will likely need more frequent attention. On the Council, Abby will consult and utilize the timeline of when each of our streets was last repaired or replaced – and when it will reach that expected 25-year lifespan. She will then incorporate that information into the strategic long-term planning and budgeting discussed in Section 2, prioritizing streets which currently exhibit the highest levels of disrepair and which have exceeded their anticipated lifespan and budgeting to ensure that we will have the ability to repair or replace every street based on the projected lifespan. Using objective metrics and intentional planning, we can eliminate conflict and provide reassurance to our citizens that each of their needs are recognized and accounted for moving forward - a move which also provides our employees with support and insulation from political pressures and accusations of disparate treatment.

This measured, research-based approach will be applied to budget considerations, infrastructure needs, capital improvements, and all other areas of Abby’s work as a council member.