The five declared candidates for the Sandy Springs City Council District 3 special election are now officially in the race, with one more day left for other candidates to sign on.
Chris Burnett, Brian Eufinger, Joe Houseman, Suzi Voyles and Larry Young all filed candidate paperwork by the end of the second day of a qualifying period on April 14, according to city spokesperson Sharon Kraun.
Burnett is market president of the Bank of Sandy Springs. Eufinger is founder of school testing preparation company and runs the “Sandy Springs Zoning Coalition” Facebook group. Houseman is a Delta airline pilot. Voyles is a homemaker and acting executive director of the Fulton County Republican Party. Young is an attorney and civil engineer who formerly served as a city judge.
The candidate qualifying period will end tomorrow, April 15, at 12:30 p.m.
The special election will be held May 24. The District 3 seat, which represents much of central Sandy Springs, is vacant after Graham McDonald’s resignation last month for a state House campaign.
This is a real opportunity for District 3 to elect a councilman who hasn’t been handpicked as a “yes man or woman” by the Mayor. Among this group, Brian Eufinger is probably the most independent and the more thoughtful on issues of development, traffic and education. The Facebook group he created, “The Sandy Springs Zoning Coaltion” has helped provide a great deal of transparency on potential development issues and has frankly done a better job of keeping Sandy Springs residents informed than more traditional news sources. I am happy that there are so many good quality candidates who stepped forward but among this group, Brian Eufinger represents our best opportunity to elect someone to the Council who will ask the tough questions and use social media to keep his constituents well informed.