Why 91% of Residents Miss the Election That Affects Them Most, With Sugar Hill Mayor Brandon Hembree

(00:00) Brandon Hembree: I've come to really understand the importance of community and investing where you are. God places you in certain places for certain times, and that may be a short period of time or a long period of time, but we're all where we are for a reason. I've always been of the mentality that wherever I am, I'm going to do the very best that I can to contribute towards the community that I live in.

(00:26) Jason Montoya: Welcome to an inspirational people interview on the Share Life podcast. I'm Jason Scott Montoya, and today I'm speaking with the Sugar Hill mayor. If you're not familiar with the area, Sugar Hill is in Georgia. Brandon Hembree is a lifelong Gwinnett County resident, and he's dedicated to making Sugar Hill an exceptional place to live, work, and raise a family, which is a great thing for a mayor.

(00:39) Brandon Hembree: Thanks, Jason, for having me.

(00:52) Jason Montoya: He's been involved in a lot of those initiatives, and perhaps some of those might come out of our conversation. To just get us started, who's Brandon? Where do you come from? You're in Gwinnett. What part of Gwinnett did you grow up in?

(01:05) Brandon Hembree: I grew up in the eastern part of Gwinnett County, so in the Lilburn, Lawrenceville area. I graduated from Berkmar High School. When I was in college, my mom ended up over here in Suwanee, and that's how I came to be affiliated with Sugar Hill.

(01:15) Jason Montoya: Okay. My wife and I moved to Atlanta in 2005 from Arizona. We moved to Norcross. We lived in Norcross until about 2014, and then we moved to Lawrenceville-Snellville. We've been in Sugar Hill since 2017. We haven't been in Gwinnett as long as you, but we've been here a long time and feel like it's home to us.

(01:43) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, well, Arizona has a little bit different weather than here as well, so.

(01:49) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Were you born there?

(01:51) Brandon Hembree: I was born in 1975, and I graduated from Berkmar High School in 1994, so that was some time ago. My mom moved to Suwanee around the time that I finished college, so that would have been 1998 or so. This whole area, as you know, was a lot different then.

(02:14) Jason Montoya: What was Gwinnett County like in 1975, or maybe a few years after that when you weren't a baby?

(02:20) Brandon Hembree: My goodness, it was a lot smaller from a population standpoint, a lot smaller. But, interestingly enough, I went to Georgia State University for college, and at the time it was a commuter school. I literally drove back and forth every day. Even in the 1990s, we had traffic here in Gwinnett County. A lot of people complain about traffic, but we've actually had it for quite some time here in this area.

(02:50) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Now, in the 1970s, what was Sugar Hill like?

(02:56) Brandon Hembree: Well, I was not familiar with Sugar Hill in 1975. To be honest with you, I had not really heard of it as a community up until my mom moved to this area. We just discovered Sugar Hill through locating in Suwanee. But in 1975, Sugar Hill would have been very rural and agricultural in nature. It would have been a lot different than it is now.

(03:34) Jason Montoya: Yeah, that's interesting. I remember when we lived in Norcross, driving to Buford, it just felt like, "Wow, this is so far." And Sugar Hill's right next to Buford. When we moved here in 2017, I just don't remember as much in Sugar Hill as there is now. So it certainly has grown a lot.

(03:57) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Now, what was it like for you growing up?

(04:01) Brandon Hembree: It was great. I enjoyed growing up in Gwinnett County. We were far from family originally. Mom's family is from Blue Ridge, Georgia.

(04:15) Jason Montoya: Okay. Yeah, yeah.

(04:22) Brandon Hembree: It's very much a small-town feel. But she moved here because this is where the jobs were available. Even though we were away from family, we were still very close to Blue Ridge. I would spend my summers with my grandparents in Blue Ridge, so I kind of had the perspective of both worlds. But growing up here in Gwinnett County was great. We had a great school system and continue to do so. I enjoyed it very much.

(04:54) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Now, Gwinnett County is essentially outside of the perimeter highway around Atlanta. I think of it just as part of Metro Atlanta, but when you were growing up, did it feel like part of Atlanta or did it feel like a separate thing?

(05:09) Brandon Hembree: No, it felt very separate, to be honest with you. The exit that we all live off of on I-85, when you first come through Suwanee, that was really literally kind of the end of the world at that point in time. What really opened that up was—and you may remember this—the Falcons training camp, which is now in the Flowery Branch area. It used to be right there off of that Suwanee exit. I think that really contributed a lot to the growth in this area.

(05:38) Jason Montoya: Wow. Yeah, so you probably remember when we moved here, the whole Gwinnett Place arena area or Gwinnett Mall. When we moved here, it was kind of run down and there wasn't a lot going on, but maybe when you were a kid, it was like a pretty hopping place.

(05:52) Brandon Hembree: Yes. It was the hangout place when I was in middle school and high school. Like parents today, they drop their kids off in the downtown area. In those days, my mom would drop me off at the mall, and I'd hang out there on a Saturday or a Sunday.

(06:14) Jason Montoya: Yeah. So what school did you go to then, and does that school still exist—high school and stuff?

(06:23) Brandon Hembree: From middle school, I went to Sweetwater Middle School, and it's still there, and it's a great middle school. Then I graduated from Berkmar High School, which has a Lilburn address, but it's actually the lower part of Lawrenceville, and it still exists. That school has been there, from what I understand, since the early 80s.

(06:40) Jason Montoya: Okay. Yeah. So a big milestone, there are a lot of big things that happened in Atlanta over the years, but the Olympics would be one of the big ones. So, do you remember when the Olympics came to town? You would have been what, 21, 22?

(06:59) Brandon Hembree: Absolutely. I do remember it. We were—I have a younger brother, four years younger than me—and we wanted to go to some of the events that were taking place here, not just in Atlanta, but the rowing venue was on Lake Lanier, and there were just different places all over Georgia that you could go and kind of take advantage of the opportunity. I remember how hard it was to get tickets for really anything. We were able to get tickets for one of the soccer matches, which at the time I was really not very interested in. We knew that we wanted to go to an event, so I believe it was in Covington where they played, and we were able to take advantage of that being here in Atlanta. It was a great experience.

(07:54) Jason Montoya: Yeah. So, are there any other memories you have in the last 50 years of Atlanta that really stick out to you?

(08:05) Brandon Hembree: You know, going to Atlanta quite a bit for Braves games. It wasn't very often that people this far out went into Atlanta, but the most memorable aspect of that was every time we would go to Atlanta for a Braves game, we would go to The Varsity downtown. It's always been kind of a fun and great memory for me.

(08:26) Jason Montoya: Okay. So, do you remember when they built the expansion?

(08:37) Brandon Hembree: Yes, I did. I remember they opened one up off of Jimmy Carter, and I don't even know if it's still there or not, but there was just something about the Atlanta location that was different than every other extension and location.

(08:42) Jason Montoya: Yeah, yeah, I would agree, yeah. So it's a unique experience. If you've never been to Atlanta, stop by The Varsity and shovel down a hot dog.

(09:00) Brandon Hembree: Right. It's an Atlanta institution. There's no doubt about it.

(09:06) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Any other highlights of Atlanta if someone's never been to the Atlanta area?

(09:12) Brandon Hembree: Near Berkmar High School, there was a place where you could pay to fish. It was called Browns Lake. I remember growing up and fishing on Browns Lake. It is no longer there, but that's just another great memory that I have. One of the reasons that my mom chose to move to this part of Gwinnett County was the closeness to Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River. I remember growing up and developing a love for fishing at Browns Lake, and now I love to fish here.

(10:02) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Okay. And where do you like to fish? Lanier?

(10:05) Brandon Hembree: I love to fish on Lake Lanier. They have great striped bass at certain times of the year; it's just phenomenal fishing. But I'm a fly fisherman. That's what I love to do. There are some great places to fish just on the western border of Sugar Hill along the Chattahoochee River, some great places where you can kind of wade into the water and do fly fishing. That is great fun.

(10:33) Jason Montoya: Yeah, and I assume you still do that today.

(10:36) Brandon Hembree: I do very regularly. I have a spot that I love that I don't tell people about too much, but it's south of the bridge there on Cumming Highway. There's a great area where you can just walk out. You have to get there early because people will take your good fishing spots, but I love to get out on the river as often as I can.

(10:59) Jason Montoya: Now I've heard people say that you can catch stripers in the river. Is that true?

(11:04) Brandon Hembree: Yes, you can. They're not as common, though, because the water, at least just below Beaver Dam, is very, very cold. Mostly what you're going to catch will be rainbow trout and brown trout, a majority of brown.

(11:24) Jason Montoya: Okay. And is there something about fly fishing that you enjoy so much more than reel fishing?

(11:34) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, it just seems to be more relaxing. You're out in the water with your waders on, and there's something that's just relaxing about having that water flow around you.

(11:49) Jason Montoya: Yeah, more of an immersive experience, it sounds like. And did you fish from a young age, or did that come later?

(11:57) Brandon Hembree: I started fishing at a very young age. It was something that both of my grandfathers enjoyed doing. I've just developed a lifelong love for fishing.

(12:08) Jason Montoya: So what did you start becoming a mayor? Like right out of high school, or did you do something else at the beginning?

(12:18) Brandon Hembree: No. Long story, but when I bought a home here in Sugar Hill, I just felt like, like most people feel, I just wanted to put roots in the community where I chose to live. I started out serving on my homeowners association. Then there was a vacancy that opened up on the city's Downtown Development Authority, and somebody appointed me to one of the board positions. I served in that a while. I can't remember the year exactly, but I want to say that was probably around the early 2000s or so. Then I served in that position for a while, and then became a City Council member. There was a position that opened up. Then, four years ago, Mayor Steve Edwards decided to retire essentially, and it opened up the opportunity for me to run for mayor, and I did that. I'm just in a first term; I happen to be at the end of the first term.

(13:35) Jason Montoya: Yeah. What was the—it sounds like you kind of had the opportunity come up, you took advantage of it, and it kind of went from one thing to the next, and before you know it, you're the mayor.

(13:44) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, that's right. It's like so many other things in life; you try to plan, but life doesn't really work out that way sometimes. I really enjoyed serving on City Council and developed a great relationship with Mayor Edwards. He was a mentor to me, so things just kind of naturally progressed. He supported me when he moved on, so I was able to win the election and to become the mayor.

(14:25) Jason Montoya: Yeah. So to rewind a little bit, your mom had moved to Suwanee, you end up in Sugar Hill. What made you transition from Suwanee to Sugar Hill?

(14:36) Brandon Hembree: Well, she bought a home in Suwanee, and I lived with her through college—all four years of college. I commuted back and forth, as I said earlier, from Georgia State University. It came time for me to buy my own place, and I had the ability to do that. I looked all over, even as far away as Newnan, Georgia, with the idea at that time, I was like, "I'm going to get as far away from my mom as possible." And then I was like, "I'm just going to stay here, stay close to her." So we just started looking together. She helped me look, and we found a new neighborhood, and I bought a starter home, and I still live in it. That's how I kind of ended up in Sugar Hill.

(15:10) Jason Montoya: Wow. Okay, and so what year was that that you bought the house?

(15:39) Brandon Hembree: Oh, my goodness. So I just paid my mortgage off. I want to say it was between 25 and 30 years ago.

(15:43) Jason Montoya: Yeah, yeah, that's quite a journey. So when you think about Sugar Hill, there probably are very few people that have been in Sugar Hill as long as you have. Is that accurate?

(15:58) Brandon Hembree: That's accurate, and that seems to be the case with the people that I meet. Of course, there are people that have lived here their entire life, and for multiple generations, but a majority of the people that I meet are relatively newcomers to the community. I think that 20 to 30 year timeframe, I think that was a big time for a lot of people to move to this part of Gwinnett County.

(16:20) Jason Montoya: Yeah. And what would you say is it about Sugar Hill that makes Sugar Hill, Sugar Hill? What makes it unique compared to Suwanee or other surrounding cities?

(16:34) Brandon Hembree: I think it's location. We are equally distant between I-85 and Georgia 400. I think, just from a convenient standpoint for people that work elsewhere outside of Gwinnett County, that makes everything easily accessible. I also think, too, that a lot of young families come here because they enjoy the outdoors, and because we have Lake Lanier and we have the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area on our western border. I think that's very attractive to outdoor enthusiasts—people that like to fish, that like to hike, and that like to be on Lake Lanier but maybe can't afford to actually live on Lake Lanier. I think that's another very attractive feature. We also have the North Gwinnett cluster and the Lanier cluster that serve the students in this area, and those are the top two clusters that there are in Gwinnett County. I think, at least for my mom, she moved to Gwinnett County because of the school system. I think if you talk to most parents, that is a top decision maker for them when they're choosing to locate somewhere.

(18:02) Jason Montoya: Yeah, one of the reasons we picked, a little different for us, but we picked Sugar Hill because we're part of Gwinnett Church, which is part of North Point Ministries. Yeah.

(18:09) Brandon Hembree: Yes, I forgot about that, and I discovered that very recently, actually, because we have great churches in this area. Your wife, Caitlyn, and I serve on the school council together for Lanier Middle School, and they have about 30 Ukrainian refugee children at Lanier Middle School. I wondered why, and we have discovered that it is because there are Russian and Ukrainian oriented churches in this area, and members want to be close to their church, and so that's why they locate here.

(18:54) Jason Montoya: Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. So on the school front now, we do have someone in our neighborhood that moved from Las Vegas to Sugar Hill because of the district, the White Oak and Lanier cluster. So they picked this school district when they moved across the country.

(19:15) Brandon Hembree: I hear that often about White Oak Elementary School, and it is a STEM certified school, and that is quite unique in the Gwinnett County school system, so that's a big draw. A lot of people come here because of White Oak Elementary School.

(19:35) Jason Montoya: And I think we moved here not really—I mean, you kind of think about the community in like an abstract way—but I think we realized just how much we've benefited with how awesome this community is, both our neighborhood and the city, without really fully realizing it before we moved here. But once we got here, it was like, "Wow, this is a really special place."

(19:53) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, I hear that a lot from people. That's right.

(19:56) Jason Montoya: Yeah. So you become mayor. What would you want people to know about being mayor that the common citizen resident doesn't really think about or understand, but that you think would be useful for them to appreciate?

(20:11) Brandon Hembree: I think most people assume that it's full-time compensation. It is a full-time responsibility, but it is—I call it volunteer compensation. The compensation level is basically $400 a month for the mayor and $300 a month for council members. I think people kind of misunderstand and think that it is a career. It is not for anybody that serves in one of those local elected positions. It is something that they do because they love the community. Most often, unless they're retired, they also work a full-time job in addition to it.

(21:01) Jason Montoya: So vocationally, what are the things that you do or have done over your career outside of being mayor?

(21:07) Brandon Hembree: A great question. I have been a partner in a public affairs firm for almost 25 years, and that is what I do professionally. I'm also an adjunct professor at Georgia State University, and I teach the Georgia politics course to graduate and undergraduate students.

(21:30) Jason Montoya: Okay. Did you do that before you became mayor?

(21:32) Brandon Hembree: No, I did not. That's something that I started recently within the last several years. It's something that I've always wanted to do. I'm a graduate of Georgia State University and came out of the political science department, and it's just one of those goals that I had in life. The opportunity presented itself several years ago.

(21:55) Jason Montoya: What are some things you've learned in just how to do that well?

(21:58) Brandon Hembree: That is an excellent question because, to be open and transparent with you, one of the things that I struggle with as an individual is just focus. I have the type of mind that is just all over the place all of the time. To be able to do all of those things, you have to be really disciplined with my job. I wish I could say that I do a great job at it, but I do the best that I can, and I'm constantly learning and growing in understanding of how to do that. That is one of the most difficult things that comes with anybody, I think, that serves in an elected position.

(22:47) Jason Montoya: Yeah. For people that are not familiar with the role of being a mayor, authority, what role does the mayor have? What do they not have that people might think that they do?

(22:55) Brandon Hembree: Like the structure at the state and federal level, we have a legislative, executive, and judicial branch. I am the head of the executive branch. City Council serves the function of the legislative branch. They are the members, the elected officials in Sugar Hill that actually vote on items. If there's an ordinance change, an annexation, or a policy change that is made from a city standpoint, the five members of City Council are actually the members of the team that will vote on those types of changes. My job is to implement the policies and implement the budget that City Council puts into place. I don't do that by myself. I do that along with the 130 employees that we have as a city, and that's my primary function as the mayor. I also have the responsibility of being the chief spokesperson for the city. That means if a document needs to be signed, I sign it. If the media reaches out with an inquiry regarding the city, it's my role and responsibility to respond. My interpretation of being the chief spokesperson for the city also means that I'm going to be the person that goes to the school event and supports our kids, and that is something that I take very seriously.

(24:36) Jason Montoya: Yeah. So, and is there things that people think the mayor does that are misconceptions?

(24:46) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, I think most people assume that because I am a member of City Council and I actually preside over the City Council meetings that I vote, and I am not allowed to vote unless there is a tie on City Council. Because we have five members, that is very, very, very infrequent. We would need to be missing someone in order for that to happen. In the entire four years that I've been the mayor, I've never had the opportunity to vote on anything.

(25:18) Jason Montoya: When you talk about the structure of the council and the mayor, is that something that the city designed when it was founded, or is that imposed by the state?

(25:27) Brandon Hembree: Each city is a creature of the state, meaning that in order for a city to exist, they have to be legislatively incorporated by the Georgia General Assembly. The city of Sugar Hill was created in 1939 by an act of the General Assembly. Whenever that happens for a new city, there is a charter that is adopted, which really outlines the structure of the government and how the branches interact with each other. We have a charter, which essentially is just like our state constitution or federal constitution.

(26:07) Jason Montoya: Okay. And does that mean most cities in Georgia are going to be pretty similar with maybe some differences?

(26:14) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, mostly similar. Again, that just comes out of that model that we have for our country of having the three branches of government. Mostly the structures are going to be very, very similar across Georgia.

(26:35) Jason Montoya: Yeah. So when you think about living well, living better, what does that mean to you?

(26:41) Brandon Hembree: Living well to me means that you are a part of the community that you live in. My wife and I, we had to discover that as a couple. We married late in life; we were both in our early thirties when we married. When you don't have children, you have to be really focused on how you're going to engage in community because there are so many things that are designed around families—athletics, you name it. We had to figure out what community meant for us as a couple. I don't think we realized how significant that is, how significant it was for us individually, but also as a couple. Once we started to engage in community and to be involved in the best ways that we could, then we really, really, I think, felt like we were thriving here.

(27:52) Jason Montoya: Yeah. And so, I think on one end you could have thriving together community, and on the other end you have isolation, survival, this sort of opposite. How do you, like your vision of thriving together, go into some of the details of what that looks like and how you make that happen?

(28:05) Brandon Hembree: In a couple, and you know this with Caitlyn, you're going to have things that are passions for you, and you're going to do those individually probably, but there are things that you share together that you're both passionate about. And you're going to want to do those things together. Tara and I have been married for 18 years, and we've kind of figured that out. We are always going to be in this state of learning. But for us, the common thing that we have a passion about is being involved with our church. That's where we started getting involved. After we did that, we started to meet people and just to make connections, and we found things to do together but things to do individually that kind of helped us really get involved.

(29:23) Jason Montoya: Yeah. So let's talk a little about that, because your faith is a big part of who you are, and it's shaped who you are; it shapes how you live. But as a mayor, you're also dealing with a community where you have people that are coming to the table with a variety of different religions and points of view or worldviews. So what are your thoughts on that dynamic, and how do you do that well?

(29:30) Brandon Hembree: That's such an excellent question because, as the spokesperson for the city, I have to be the spokesperson and I need to be the spokesperson for everybody, and that can be challenging at times. We have a lot of religious diversity in our community. I'm going to be honest with you, none of that matters to me. If someone reaches out to me and they want me to go to an event at their church, if they want to support an effort that they're doing as a church, even if it's different from my own church, I'm going to say yes; I'm going to be there supporting them. I think diversity makes a community stronger.

(30:41) Jason Montoya: So you see that as an act of strengthening the community by supporting, right? Yeah, bringing people together.

(30:47) Brandon Hembree: Absolutely. Bringing people together, being open-minded. There are things that I don't know that I need to learn, that I can learn from other people.

(30:59) Jason Montoya: Yeah, blind spots and such.

(31:11) Brandon Hembree: That's absolutely right. I think when you're in a position like the mayor's position or another elected position, I think you have to have that open-mindedness about it.

(31:19) Jason Montoya: Yeah. So that's a bit on the living side. What about working? What does it mean to work smarter and be efficient and effective and hold values while you're doing your work?

(31:31) Brandon Hembree: It's hard. That goes back to the time management conversation that we had earlier. The hardest thing for a mayor to do is to say no, and so I find myself saying yes a lot, and yes to everything, and that can be overwhelming. I think what I've learned is that good leaders let other leaders lead. Even though someone reaches out to me about a need in our community, it's not always right for me to assume that they're asking me to do it. Most often, they're asking me for the opportunity to come alongside of me so that I can help them. I can open the door or to be a voice for them. I think with that mindset—the mindset of you're going to be most effective when you enable other people to do the things that they're passionate about—I think that makes time management easy, and it just has a force multiplier from an effect standpoint in the community.

(32:53) Jason Montoya: Yeah, that's interesting. Tell me what you think of this: I think a lot of it is if you listen to them and hear them, that's most of the battle.

(33:03) Brandon Hembree: It is. Most people just need encouragement. If someone's reaching out to me about a food drive that they want to do in the community, they're just looking for encouragement. They might be looking for, again, a door opener or someone to be a voice for them. I think that's just kind of the perspective that you have to look at it from.

(33:31) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Now you mentioned a little bit about mentoring earlier. Tell us about the importance of mentoring.

(33:37) Brandon Hembree: It is so important. I and others talk about this all the time. I'm really big on young people in our community, and I call it modeling. We have to model to them what it means to be a community, and that's mentorship to me. I am also involved with, and Caitlyn may have told you this, with an organization called Brothers Making Moves. It is an enrichment program for young men at Lanier Middle School. We do two-year cohorts. We are at the very beginning stages with a new cohort this year. We spend two years with about 20 young men from Lanier Middle School, and we coach them, we support them and their parents, and it's helped me understand the importance of mentorship. Once these boys go on to high school, you would think they'd probably forget you, but let me tell you, when you invest a couple years into their life, they remember you, and it's so great to go into the high school and see some of the boys that we have mentored in years past, and they recognize me, and they're thriving, and that's what mentorship is all about.

(35:10) Jason Montoya: Yeah. What about, let's talk about stories. How do you think about stories, and have any specific real or fictional stories shaped or narratives shaped you as a person?

(35:23) Brandon Hembree: I consider myself a storyteller. I write a lot, and I think I've written over 45 articles on Sugar Hill history for the North Gwinnett Voice, so I value the art of storytelling. That's a little bit different than maybe some other views on storytelling, but I also value storytelling about Sugar Hill. Everywhere I go, I say great things about our community because I want people to know that we live in a great place. It also just helps me in my own mind continue that love that I have for community. So I'm a storyteller in that way as well. I'm also a reader. I love to read a little bit of everything, to be honest with you: history, biographies, mysteries, you just name it. I'll read it if you give it to me. Stories through books have greatly enhanced my life as well.

(36:50) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Tell me about storytelling in politics and storytelling in elections. How do those two go together?

(36:56) Brandon Hembree: They go together very well. We all have a story to tell. I think that when you're telling your story, people pick up on whether or not you're passionate about what you're talking about. I feel a great love and passion for the community that we call home, so when I talk to people, I'm hopeful that they feel the passion that I have for the community.

(37:35) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Another key component is systems. Systems keep the city running, right? They keep chaos in somewhat of a controlled manner. So talk to us about systems, and how you think about them. Do you have a system type of mindset?

(37:44) Brandon Hembree: Somewhat. Yeah, so this is something that I teach about at Georgia State University. We talk a lot about political systems. The great thing about the political system that we have here in Sugar Hill, and in Georgia, and in our country, is that there's a document that's associated with those systems. We have a federal constitution, a state constitution, and we have a charter here that defines how we function as a city. It literally creates order out of chaos. I rely very heavily on the system that we have here in Sugar Hill. In addition to having elected officials, a mayor and city council, we have a day-to-day city manager that we call the city manager. Again, he fits within that structure of our charter, and that's how everything is able to function here in the city.

(39:05) Jason Montoya: Does a system become tyrannical?

(39:07) Brandon Hembree: That's a great question. It becomes tyrannical when the system begins to break down. That can be for a variety of different reasons. It can be political in nature. We are at a point in this country, and I think most people would not disagree, that we are very polarized. That is something that takes a while to get to the local level, but we're seeing a little bit of evidence of that here in Sugar Hill. I'm hoping that we don't become like the federal level.

(39:55) Jason Montoya: Yeah. I looked at some research recently from Lynn Vavreck; she's at UCLA, and essentially she was looking at the data, and she said the last couple years have been the most intense local elections in like a long time, like a century. The intensity has gone, has risen on the local level.

(40:20) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, that's right. Thankfully, because of the charter, the constraints that are put in place, it mitigates some of that.

(40:37) Jason Montoya: I think of like an engine. Inside of a car engine, there's an immense amount of combustion and pressure, but the engine's designed to contain it, hopefully. Sometimes the engine breaks and then it goes out. So that's always a risk, is there's so much tension that it breaks the system, but ideally it contains it instead of breaking. So, what words of wisdom would you want to give other people, people in Sugar Hill, but outside of it? What would you tell them, just about your life experiences, being a mayor, doing all this stuff?

(41:17) Brandon Hembree: I think as I've gotten older, and certainly in the last four years of serving as mayor, I think I've come to really understand the importance of community and investing where you are. You and I are obviously both spiritual. I believe very strongly that God places you in certain places for certain times, and that may be a short period of time or a long period of time, but we're all where we are for a reason. I've always been of the mentality that wherever I am, I'm going to do the very best that I can to contribute towards the community that I live in. I think most people have a heart for that. They might not know how to do it. But if I could leave someone that's listening to this with one bit of wisdom, again, I just think that that is so important. As I said earlier, it's something that Tara and I have discovered as a couple about where we live.

(42:40) Jason Montoya: Yeah. Well, talk to us a little bit more about that in the sense that, because of the way that media is, I can learn about something that's happening in Arizona. You can learn about something that's happening in a different part of the world. We kind of get to see everything, right? But there's something to the power at the local level that we both kind of abdicate that we could actually take advantage of and take responsibility for. Talk to us about that.

(43:12) Brandon Hembree: That's such an interesting question. I read an article recently by the George W. Bush Institute talking about how we've moved from local media to national media. It became very apparent to me recently. We have a local media outlet called the North Gwinnett Voice, and they have historically been very focused on Buford, but they recently made a decision to expand their coverage to include more of Sugar Hill, and I really think that that is going to be a game changer. For whatever reason, as a society, we've become less localized or less focused on where we live. Local media outlets play a role, but we also play a role as individuals. We just need to take time to become more aware of the community that we live in, the people that live around us, and the needs that exist right here where we have been planted at this point in time.

(44:30) Jason Montoya: Yeah, so we can actually make an impact in the media world around us in ways that may be a lot more difficult to do on a state or national level.

(44:40) Jason Montoya: Yeah. I think of local as a great laboratory to experiment. If you can figure out how to get along with your neighbor that you're struggling with, then maybe you can kind of scale that up in a different context, right?

(45:00) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, absolutely. I think too, like if you're someone that is—and if you're someone that's our age and you're still trying to discover your purpose, right—local opportunities create the ability for you to discover what you're passionate about if you haven't found that out yet.

(46:27) Jason Montoya: There's a lot of opportunity if someone wants to get involved politically to step in and take responsibility. Across the US, there are 500,000 elected positions in the US, and 70% are uncontested.

(46:38) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, and that is at the local, state, and even sometimes at the federal level. In Sugar Hill, every two years we have municipal elections, so there are always opportunities for people, if that's something that they're interested in. But, we also have boards and commissions like the Downtown Development Authority. That's where I started before I was elected to City Council. There are board and commission positions that are non-elective that you can be appointed to that are great opportunities to serve in. I'm reached out to all the time by people that have maybe a passion for the arts and they want to serve on our arts commission, or maybe they love history and they want to be involved with our Historic Preservation Society. The opportunities for you to be involved are endless.

(47:34) Jason Montoya: When it comes to dealing with people that you disagree with or that have a different point of view or even become difficult when you interact with them, what's the vision and values that you hold to, like, "Okay, I can't control how they're going to interact, but I can decide how I'm going to navigate this?" What is it for you that helps you through that?

(47:51) Brandon Hembree: I think you have to go into it from a listening standpoint and not a speaking standpoint. I have found that most people, they just want to talk about their concern or about their opinion. I approach every opportunity as a learning opportunity because I don't know everything, and I'm never going to know everything. If you have that philosophy, it helps you to slow down enough to listen to individuals that might have a different opinion than you on a subject matter.

(48:27) Jason Montoya: So we have a sign with your name on it in our yard. Something's coming up. Tell us about this.

(48:33) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, so we have a municipal election this year, and there will be three positions that you have the opportunity to vote for. The mayor's position is up for consideration, and then we have two posts as well. Those elections are coming up. We actually have early voting that starts on October the 14th and it ends on Friday, October the 31st. The regular voting day is on November the 4th, and all of that takes place here at City Hall. It's real easy. It's like a five-minute activity.

(49:10) Jason Montoya: Is that the only thing—just those three positions? Are there anything else on the ballot?

(49:14) Brandon Hembree: Those are the only three things from a municipal election standpoint. There are some opportunities for people to vote on the renewal of the E-LOST, and that'll be at a different polling place that is at the county level. I think there's a special election for two Public Service Commission posts at the state level, and those are also opportunities. But from a municipal standpoint, it's just those three: two city council positions and then the mayor's position.

(49:48) Jason Montoya: Okay. So why should someone cast their vote for Mr. Brandon Hembree, the current mayor, to be mayor for another four years, I assume?

(49:56) Brandon Hembree: I love the question. There are some things that I'd like to continue, and it takes more than four years to get some of these things accomplished. For me, I have been really focused on partnerships with our schools and just connecting with youth here in Sugar Hill. We've made some tremendous progress, but we have a lot more that needs to be done. One of my big focuses has been on mental health, on suicide awareness and prevention. Unfortunately, in the last couple of years, we've had some teen deaths by suicide, and we are working on some programming with our schools to just, again, increase awareness about suicide. That is one of the more important things that I want to continue. I've also been really focused on parks, recreation, and green space. We are at the beginning stages of an inclusive playground, which would be for children with special needs. We are at the community input part of that, and that's another thing that I just want to continue to work on and to hopefully create an opening in Sugar Hill.

(51:25) Jason Montoya: Anything else you want to say about that?

(51:28) Brandon Hembree: I do want to just say, and this is really all over Georgia, for whatever reason, residents don't take city elections very seriously. For the last election two years ago, which I was not involved in—it was not part of my election cycle—we only had 9% turnout from the residents of Sugar Hill. That means that 9% of the residents are making the decision for everybody. I've actually discovered through serving at the city level that from a day-to-day standpoint, you are most impacted by the decisions that are made at the local level. I think that those elections are more important than at the state and federal level.

(52:23) Jason Montoya: I think so, and then I think people too, just they get complacent. It's very easy just to come home from work and just to go inside and to not be engaged and involved. But I've discovered too that when people really make an effort to connect to the community, then elections become more important.

(52:43) Jason Montoya: Yeah, if there's something you're trying to do or accomplish, and then it becomes more clear, the connection. A lot of people may think, "Well, it kind of doesn't matter who wins; it'll work out." Yeah.

(52:52) Brandon Hembree: This year for me, I'm trying to not make it so much about me. I'm really just encouraging people to vote. I think the election will take care of itself. Right.

(53:02) Jason Montoya: Yeah, 100% participation. How do we get more people out? Is there anything you want to share that you haven't yet had a chance to?

(53:13) Brandon Hembree: I'd also just like to say, and you said this earlier, there really is something special about Sugar Hill. I hear it from everybody that I interact with in the community. There's a very unique connection that happens between the city, the school system—particularly the Lanier Cluster and the North Gwinnett Cluster—and our churches. We're able to do, as a team, really extraordinary things in our city for our young people, and I think that that is unique. I just want people to be aware of it, and I want people to also to find ways to connect. If there is something that you value, something that you love, that you're passionate about, and you want to get involved and you want to make a difference, I just want to encourage people to reach out to me and let me know, and I will find a way for you to get involved.

(54:13) Jason Montoya: Yeah. How would they do that?

(54:16) Brandon Hembree: They can just reach out to me. I make my cell phone available on everything, and I'm going to just give it here. It is 404-372-3270, and you can literally reach out to me anytime—call me, text me. That is the best way to connect with me.

(54:49) Jason Montoya: Okay. And if anyone wants to learn more about like what you're doing, like stay up to date, is there any kind of place online or any way that they can get updates about the city and what you're doing?

(54:53) Brandon Hembree: Yeah, I have a Facebook page as the mayor, and it's real easy to find, and anybody's welcome to go to that. We also have a city Facebook page that's very active, and we post about activities and various other things related to the city, and I think that's a great way to learn as well, if you're into that method, into the method of social media. The city has a great website too, and we do regular updates and post newsletters to that, and that's another way to get in tune with what's happening. I appreciate you. Thank you for the opportunity to do this today.

(55:35) Jason Montoya: Yeah, I appreciate you sharing your life with us. I'm Jason Scott Montoya. This has been an episode of the Share Life Podcast, and we'll see you on the next one.