Ward II Albany Commission candidates push agendas for economic growth

ALBANY – If the two state Public Service Commission races don’t get voters excited to get out to the polls on Tuesday, there are three local contests that might stir up more interest.

In Ward II, one of three Albany City Commission races on the ballot, that race pits one-term incumbent Vilnis Gaines against 2023 mayoral candidate Omar Salaam. 

While Gaines generally has few words to say during meetings, when he does speak up it’s usually meaningful and to the point.

Gaines, asked about his priorities for the city, put his answer succinctly: jobs.

Albany is a hub that brings in residents from other locations, including Lee, Mitchell, Terrell and other counties to work during the day, but the residents here also need good-paying work, the commissioner said.

“What we need is more jobs,” he said. “Basically, it’s the growth in Albany. We need jobs in Albany.”

The MillerCoors Brewing Co. retiree is seeking his second four-year term in the Tuesday election that also has two Georgia Public Service positions on the ballot.

Job growth won’t  come in a vacuum, however.

The commissioner said that safety, quality of life and affordable housing are pieces of the puzzle for making the city more attractive for workers and the companies that would move in and hire them. 

The commission gave a 15% pay raise to officers for the current budget year that began on July 1 and increased the starting pay for new officers to $55,000. Those measures were approved as an incentive for officers to join the force and remain in Albany long-term.

“What we have done is implemented base pay in order to make Albany safer,” Gaines said.

The city has also increased its investment in technology. That includes the Albany Police Department’s “real-time crime information” center through which the city’s auto plate readers, cameras and other technology are monitored to help solve crimes.

Another purchase was a gunshot-detection system.

“We’ve brought in drones, more Flock (Safety) cameras,” said Gaines, who is a member of the commission’s Public Safety Committee.

The commissioner is a proponent of an initiative to more strictly enforce the city’s curfew. The city has a curfew on the books requiring individuals under age 18 to be home between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. on weekdays and from midnight to 6 a.m. on weekends.

“Now we’re trying to make sure we enforce the curfew, which we should have been doing,” Gaines said. 

The commission also has worked during his time in office to address recreation, with community/recreation center renovation and replacement projects completed, in progress and close to starting.

An expanded gun buyback event scheduled for Nov. 15 dubbed “It’s my neighborhood, it’s my city, it’s my community” is a chance for city residents to express their concerns and potential solutions to Albany’s crime issues, and Gaines is encouraging residents to come out in numbers.

“What we’re trying to do is have a round table meeting and people come in,” he said. “We (also) want to find out what they’re doing in other communities to deter the crime.”

Downtown revitalization is a component in improving the economic outlook for the city and one that Gaines said he wants to see to fruition. Projects under way that have city involvement  include an apartment development, the relocation of the Albany Museum of Art and revitalization of the Harlem District. The city expects to have a hotel development in the former Hotel Gordon/Water Gas & Light and former Albany Herald buildings on track in the next few months.

“Downtown is a big piece of the puzzle,” Gaines said. “If we can bring it back, that will be a big help.”

He said he also wants to bring more affordable housing to the city, and pointed at projects ongoing in south and east Albany. When many people hear “affordable housing,” they think “low-income housing,” but Gaines’ focus is on work force housing, where the workers of today and tomorrow can live.

A big part of being in local government is listening to constituents and helping with their problems, and that is one area where Gaines said he thinks he is of service. Some of the most common calls deal with speed bumps and dilapidated housing in neighborhoods.

“The reason I say I deserve four more years is my hands-on work with my community and just being able to be reached,” he said. “I’m hands-on, (and) I have the connections I have with them and partnerships with different organizations in the city. I’m here for them.”

This week the commission approved a $125 rebate on utility bills to qualified senior citizens scheduled for February 2026, and Gaines said he will work to continue that rebate in future years.

One of Salaam’s biggest passions is downtown Albany, which he remembers as a bustling place when he was a boy and even into the 1980s.

But, despite years of the city commission hiring consultants to draft plans, changes in commission members, city managers and planners, the area still remains a shell of its former self, he said.

“I’ve been around this for 40 years,” Salaam said. “We don’t have the leadership. We need leadership.”

A member of the city’s Downtown Development Authority, the candidate said that he has been frustrated by the lack of the pace of revitalizing downtown. The area is particularly lacking in retail businesses that will bring people back, he said.

In the 1980s, after the opening of the mall in 1976 had sucked much of the wind out of the downtown area’s sails, Salaam opened a business, O&S Fashions, at 207 W. Broad Ave. that he said enjoyed success for a number of years.

With the right team in place, he said, the area could be booming again. 

“They hire people with their certificates and their success stories,” he said of previous attempts at reviving downtown. “Almost all of them have left us in worse shape. Money ain’t the issue. It’s the management or the misspending of the money.”

The re-opening of the revamped St. Nicholas Hotel, planned for the end of the year, as well as other projects in the works are good things, Salaam said. But he said he envisions downtown as a place that attracts visitors for everyday needs as well as tourists.

“You need basically the everyday convenience, that type of deal, where people buy and socialize and (go) for personal items,” he said. “You need that level of development.

“The money that’s been (spent), you could have developed the whole downtown. There’s a place for big development. There’s a place for small development,”

He said his solution is for a new team of city employees, along with a commission working in unity to make the area booming again. Salaam pointed to other cities in southwest Georgia that have a vibrant downtown as examples.

“Tifton still has their downtown,” he said. “Thomasville still has their downtown … Pelham, Camilla. We must develop small businesses again down here and give it the help it needs.”

More private investment is another need for the area, the candidate said.

“When government got involved in it, it just went south,” he said. “They’ve got to get the partners. We definitely need to build a new team of people with the right ideas.”

On the topic of crime, Salaam said that education and better jobs are the key to making the city safer in the long run, rather than a law enforcement build-up.

“The police don’t stop anything,” he said. “They come after. You’ve got to educate them (young people) on the consequences of what it will cause. You’ve got to have programs to try to change people’s behavior.

“You’ve got to have the right education for people to change their behavior. Locking them up won’t do it.”

As a commissioner, Salaam said he would meet with youths in town hall meetings to address violence and help steer young people in a better direction.

“It’s only a small number that want to do the shooting,” he said. “Hopefully, we can develop a strategy over time that can lead to a behavior change. This is where our city can get involved.”

As an Albany resident for 71 years, Salaam said he has a perspective to bring back the glory days.

“I’ve had some success in business here,” he said. “Albany’s a good town. I like the people here. We live in a time when changes are happening. I want to be a part of it in the right way. I want to see Albany do better. I just want to get the town moving again.”