Speaker 1: 0:00

And I'll be honest with you I know you said 90 days my first 30 days.

Speaker 1: 0:04

I'm going to call for a full forensic audit. I want to know how much land we got, how many trucks we got, how many trucks is inactive, how many trucks are active, what our budget looks like, what is the clerk's office doing? What does our procurement looks like? What is economic development doing? What are they doing to our economic mobility in the city? I want to see everything. And that's just the first 30 days. I got my first hundred and ninety days kind of still draft.

Speaker 2: 0:28

Yo, I'm not sure if you're ready for this one, stockbridge. Are you ready? Because Jaden Williams sure is. At an age when most people are just trying to find out how to keep their houseplants alive or determining what they're going to do with their lives, jason is fired up and running for mayor of Stockbridge. That's right. Do not let his youth fool you. This brother brings a breadth of experience, sharp focus and the kind of energy that makes you wonder if he's running on caffeine or just pure determination. So we chop it up today about his vision for leadership, what drives him, what frustrates him about the current state of his city and why he believes the time is now for fresh leadership, new perspective in Stockbridge. This guy just turned 22 years old and he has a resume that's heavier than most 35-year-olds. I'm certain you'll be nodding in appreciation as you hear and speak. Before we get into that, though, the only way we grow because, honestly, we bring you the best conversations and I'm only asking for one thing Go ahead and click that follow button. That is the only way we can grow. We ask for nothing else. So let's get into this killer conversation and be ready to be impressed.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Welcome to Manhood Matters. Let's get to it. Jaden Williams, welcome to the pod. I appreciate you being here, man, so I want to start from the very beginning. Tell me about who you are, tell me about your background. We cannot avoid the subject of your age. It's going to come up. I'm sure you're so sick of hearing it.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Yeah, first, thank you for having me. And I'm just a young guy from Metro Atlanta who grew up with both my parents around grandparents, but one of the things that we always knew was we love community service. So, starting at the age of 13, I would say, we started giving back our big baskets to the homeless, going back and helping community centers, kids centers, just to give back and pour back into our community. Whether it's with my parents or my grandmother, one of the things we always can kind of come back to is service to our community. So that's really where it started. And then, at the age of 16, my grandmother decided to run against an incumbent. And here we are. What, seven or eight years later?

Speaker 2: 3:06

in the political world. Yeah, I understand she kind of made history a little bit right.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Yeah, my grandmother is the first black and first female to serve as District 4 Commissioner in Henry County.

Speaker 2: 3:16

Commissioner, Vivian Thomas All right, awesome, she still in office. No, okay, and so that inspired you.

Speaker 1: 3:22

It definitely inspired me that we can take seats and we can actually make a difference in our community. But I think what really inspired me the most is my education at Clark Atlanta.

Speaker 2: 3:31

Okay.

Speaker 1: 3:31

Just going into the political sphere, getting that experience, learning political science from different aspects in every portion of political science that kind of gave me my drive to want to do more.

Speaker 2: 3:41

What exactly does political science entail that the layman would not be able to figure out for themselves? Why four years is cool to learn about politics.

Speaker 1: 3:52

Two things, and this is what Clark Atlanta will teach you. Politics is centered in everything. You can't do anything in our world today without politics. That's the first thing. The second thing is politics is the study of who, what and why something happens or things change. So we don't just look at politics, it's a social science. So we're looking at the social economic growth, we're looking at demographics, backgrounds, history, and we have to combine all of that to make what we call today politics.

Speaker 2: 4:22

Obviously, one of the things that is very common and rather rampant in our own community is we hear so much I'm not interested in politics. The only time that I see our people galvanize to do anything when it comes to politics is when there's a big movement ie Obama, 2008. And when you ask around as to why that is, why aren't you more involved? I hear one of two things Either I'm just simply not interested in politics, or why bother? It's not going to make a difference, they're going to do what they're going to do anyway. How do you respond to that?

Speaker 1: 4:52

One we can't change unless we get out to vote. How our legislative, how our country is made up of, is for the people, and while sometimes it may not look like it because we allow people to take our rights and strip our rights away, it's because we're not doing our part of the Constitution and making sure we're getting out to vote. We're putting elected officials in, we're keeping our population census orders. In fact, if you have five people living in your house but you tell the people that come to your door the volunteers, not the government officials you only have two you're cutting your census. So what does that mean? You're cutting your House of Representatives, You're cutting your state senators and so that doesn't allow you to have that same representation that someone who has a different state, that has a different population from you get more than what you have. So we really have to get out and do our constitutional rights.

Speaker 2: 5:39

That makes sense. Why would someone do that, though? Why would someone lie? What advantage do they?

Speaker 1: 5:43

think they have. It's because our community is not educated on everything to the format as which it needs to be and we also don't take or do our due diligence to make sure we know what's happening, or we don't go and search it now. We'll go and search up who's the new housewife on rural housewives of atlanta, but we won't go search up who's?

Speaker 1: 6:01

our 2028 presidential pick or potential, and so that's an issue for me, because we look at the drama but we don't look at stuff that could change our lives, especially in local government. We really don't do that until it's a presidential election or we got somebody running for Senate.

Speaker 2: 6:16

I don't really see too many people caring one way or another, like who votes for a sheriff. I don't think about it.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Nobody does, to be honest with you, but some people do right, Right, but you have that. If we want to really put it on a small margin, it's what 15% of that community or that county that really thinks about it and really galvanizes? And unfortunately it all comes back to money. Who has the most money to put their name and their face out?

Speaker 2: 6:43

Yeah, I want to jump into what you're currently doing. Right now You're graduating from Clark Atlanta, Clark Atlanta. Tell us about your experience from there.

Speaker 1: 6:57

Yeah, experience of a lifetime. When we say there's no place like CAU, we mean it. We literally bleed that red, black and gray to the T because it's truly an experience of what you make. And some people say your college experience is how you make it. But Clark Atlanta, I think, is set up to where you can make your college experience, but the way they set a path for you it's just unmatched, like a lot of the rooms that I've been in today.

Speaker 1: 7:15

It's because of me just saying, oh, I'm a Clark Atlanta student, and then here's an alum in the corner. Oh, yeah, come meet the CEO. It's because of most of our people. Not to mention, we have a US congressman, but we won't talk about that. But we have state senators, state representatives, attorneys, lawyers, and we may not always have the heaviest hitter in the room, but we have the people that have the most impact. And the most important thing for Clark Atlanta, which is one of our mottos culture for service. We do impact, we don't do the cloud and have to take pictures and put you on banners to know that you're making a real difference in the community.

Speaker 2: 7:47

What are two things that you're taking away from Clark Atlanta that, in your opinion, you could not have gotten anywhere else?

Speaker 1: 7:54

The education when I chose my school. The political science Matt Henry Jones Political Science Department is unmatched because we don't just learn one specific portion of political science, we learn all four aspects of it. That is what I wanted to learn, and I've said I wanted to learn it in an HBCU, and not many HBCUs teach you all four.

Speaker 1: 8:13

They'll teach one or maybe two, but I wanted all four. Clark Atlanta was the only one, because we have people from Ghana coming to teach us, we have people from the UK, from America. They all come back and combine all four of the political science aspects and they teach us that. And then the second thing is really it's leadership grooming. I really can't tell you much about it because it's kind of like you just have to be there, you have to be able to experience and talk and you really want to talk to people, learn people. And I have to give a shout out to my president. But what president at HBCU do you know can walk around and sit with you in the cafe just because they're on lunch and you're on lunch at the same time. So it's that homey experience that you really get at Clark Atlanta.

Speaker 2: 8:55

That's pretty awesome. So you're 21 years old, 22. 22. You just turned 22 then.

Speaker 1: 8:59

Yeah, I just turned 22 Wednesday.

Speaker 2: 9:01

Man happy belated. Thank you. You're currently running for mayor of Stockbridge. So before you tell us about why you're running for mayor, tell us a little bit about Stockbridge.

Speaker 1: 9:11

Yeah, I was basically raised from birth shoot before birth to now in Stockbridge. When my family first came to Henry County we started in Stockbridge. We started at Red Oak United Methodist Church. That was our church, that was our home before we kind of started to branch out. So, starting at Red Oak with my family, with my grandmother and grandfather, my mom, her two sisters, this was kind of our community Kind of pushing up a little bit, went to Stockbridge Elementary, a little bit at Red Oak Elementary before I went to Stockbridge.

Speaker 1: 9:45

I left and came back and went to Dutchtown High School, and still living in Stockbridge at the same time, and that's kind of where my service career started in Stockbridge. I've been serving now in Stockbridge for eight years in an official capacity. In my sophomore year in high school I joined as the second guy, the second male to be on the Stockbridge Youth Council Junior year, senior year. I was elected youth mayor. So I served as youth mayor for two years back to back and so then immediately after that going to Clark Atlanta attending, you know, the number one HBCU in Georgia.

Speaker 2: 10:16

That's just my personal opinion.

Speaker 1: 10:19

But also doing that. I'm coming back and I'm serving my community. So I'm back for community meetings. I'm back supporting the youth council. Even I'm coming back and I'm serving my community. So I'm back for community meetings, I'm back supporting the youth council, even though I'm not in official capacity.

Speaker 1: 10:28

But also over the summer I interned, even some of the semesters, in every single department in the city because I wanted to learn what is the background and the backing and the inner works of our local government. So I went from events to economic development, to shadowing the clerk, to shadowing the mayor, who is the current mayor, to shadowing almost every department of public works. I went up there maybe a week. I told I say, look, I give you a week but I don't know how long I'll be out here picking up dirt and stuff for y'all. But I did it. And then my last one was with the community development department where ultimately I went from becoming an intern to becoming the youngest chair in Georgia for a planning commission. So I've been serving there for two years and eight months. I just resigned to run for mayor and so now we're here in a community of 36,000 people, predominantly black, but still growing in its diversity and building its own character.

Speaker 1: 11:20

And so, since now until then, I'm running for mayor to really bring that extra push to take Stockbridge to where it needs to be.

Speaker 2: 11:27

When you were shadowing everyone, which is very commendable because you understood the inner workings or at least you now understand the inner workings of all the different departments and different faces of the political spectrum and so on and so forth. So I know PE firms that before they take over a company, what they'll do is they'll go and interview every single person that works there, at least every department head. I got a question. So when you were shadowing the incumbent mayor and now you're running for mayor, is he looking at you like et tu brute?

Speaker 1: 11:56

He's not too happy with you. He is not. He has stopped speaking to me and everything. But the number one thing we do is we move in purpose and we move in a positive direction. So, while he is probably soaking in a soapbox talking about, why is this young boy running against me? He has no experience. At the end of the day, I've done the work, I've done what I had to do in the background. I've given you eight years. Clearly, I'm not happy with how our city's going. Clearly, community.

Speaker 2: 12:19

So he's been there eight years. Yeah, he's been serving. Can he keep going? I mean there's no term limit.

Speaker 1: 12:23

We don't have term limits.

Speaker 2: 12:24

No way.

Speaker 1: 12:37

Yeah, he's been serving in the city for now 15 years, being a councilman, then the mayor, so now it's time to give the reins to somebody else. Let's bring some fresh perspective, some fresh energy. And I'm not going to pay the he's I'm young, he's old but we do need some fresh energy.

Speaker 2: 12:48

So okay. So what does that mean? Are we bringing fresh perspective because we need to bring fresh perspective or because there's something that you want to fix that is specific? And if so, what is that?

Speaker 1: 12:59

When I say energy and fresh perspective to the community, I'm speaking more specifically to what we can offer to our constituents and to new residents that want to come into the city. We have an amphitheater. It's beautiful, but what is it giving back to our community? What is it doing for our small businesses in the community, which is the heartbeat of our city? We're not thinking in a way that goes into technology, that goes into AI. We're in 2025, but the city's in 2016. That's what I want the people to understand. We're far behind what Stockbridge really can be.

Speaker 2: 13:29

Can you give me a couple examples? What do you mean by that?

Speaker 1: 13:31

Yeah. So I'll give you a small example right now. Some people will say, yeah, the city's broken. Some people will say it's not broken, we're fine, but that's because they do want that homey feel of Stockbridge. I agree I don't want just a mini Atlanta to pop out of nowhere, but we have to be strategic and smart in how we're building our infrastructure and our economic development At the current moment and it has been for the last few years, which is why we've been through three city managers and we've been through almost four financial treasurers in the city we have been stuck and that's because nobody wants to come into the community to actually bring quality.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Even if we try to enforce the quality, they'll deny us and say we can find something better, you have nothing to offer us. That's what business owners are saying. So the taxpayers are now understanding we're taking the harder shaft of the stick because the taxpayers are paying 60% of our taxes while commercial is paying 40. Anybody know local government or just finance? That's opposite Right, why the taxpayer is paying for an amphitheater concert when they could be paying more, so for streets and infrastructure. We have to flip that. So when I say fresh energy and fresh perspective, I'm really talking about those key areas to bringing our tax dollars down, making sure they're not paying more in their fees and then making sure that we have good oversight and structure, because clearly our structure is crumbling, which is why we're going through economic development and our city managers just like that.

Speaker 2: 14:51

Gotcha, and I know you talked about affordable housing, yeah, so can you tell me a little bit about that and what your plans are for that?

Speaker 1: 14:57

Yeah, actually that's a little iffy. I can't say I'm just going to instantly bring affordable housing right. But one of the things I can do and that's going back to me talking about oversight is making sure we're bringing affordable housing with quality housing, building and developments. So one of the things I want to do is something I call an 80-20 rule, where the city's going to put in an ordinance saying we're going to do 80% affordable housing, 20% townhomes, apartments, condominiums.

Speaker 1: 15:20

A lot of people are upset to include some council members, because the city keeps approving townhomes, townhomes, townhomes, apartments. That's good, and their number one reason is that my generation does not want to buy a house. That's not true. My generation just can't afford a house. Okay, I was gonna say really we can't afford that. Not only do we want a house for ourselves and we want a house for our family, but who's to say the young brother that went to Stockbridge high school Just might come up on some money and don't want to buy his mama a house because that's his number one dream, Right? So we can't say that young people don't want to buy houses so we're not going to build them. We still want to bring in those older residents. We want to bring in those residents that are newlyweds, those new families trying to start their life, not just saying, well, we're going to build a townhouse.

Speaker 1: 16:03

One district, which is six square miles, in the city of Stockbridge District 4, just got approved for nine townhouse complexes. Nine Nine, yeah, in six square miles. That's ridiculous compared to how much space we have across the entire city. So we got to fix stuff like that. And so when I'm talking about affordable housing, that's really what I'm talking about Making sure we're bringing quality affordable. Our median in Stockbridge is $309,000. That's our median 2025. You can check it in the Henry County fact sheet. Why are we doing townhouses for $450,000? Why is a townhouse more expensive than a house? We've got to talk about those things, and if it's because of the quality that they're trying to bring, you can still have that quality with a different developer.

Speaker 1: 16:46

You can have that same quality with a different interest or a different layout of your plan, but we can't just keep giving in to people because they want to build into our city, and that's something I'm going to stop immediately.

Speaker 2: 16:57

Gotcha and not to jump all over the place, but you did mention AI a little bit ago.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:02

And I'd be remiss not to ask, especially with your generation. You understand technology a lot better than the incumbent, I'm sure. I'm sure you understand better than me. How do you see that impacting Stockbridge specifically and what are you prepared to do to use it to your constituents advantage, so that it benefits you as a mayor and it benefits your citizens?

Speaker 1: 17:24

One of the things I want to do with tech, with AI, and one of the things that we're learning today is AI can literally put a city on a map and it can be the most rundown city in all of hillbillyville right your city can be made up of 50 tractor trailer parks and a railroad and it will make your city look good for me.

Speaker 1: 17:40

I want ai to make our city look more advanced. I want it to lay out certain things that we don't see. How can we communicate more to our residents? How can we bring more residents into our city? But the number one thing is, if I'm trying to bring in and of course I'll be a young mayor, so it's going to have to happen anyway a multi-generational city, how can I make sure I use AI to attract those young people, to attract the older residents and making sure that we're building a good blend to make Stockbridge what it is?

Speaker 2: 18:08

So can you talk about maybe a couple of quick wins or long-term wins for local businesses, things that you will implement so that they can see it as a big win for them?

Speaker 1: 18:21

local businesses but also to attract other businesses coming into Stockbridge. I can say commitments. I don't really like big wins because that's sort of similar to a promise. In politics we got to be very specific with our words. But my commitments to local businesses would really be making sure the city does more than just the ribbon cutting. Making sure that we're telling people to patronize with you. Making sure we're patronizing with you. Making sure that, while you're there, how can we keep you there? What's different? What do you need fixed? Do you need the lawn outside to be beautified? Do you need a sidewalk? Are people having issues with parking in your area? How can we make it look like you are a premier local restaurant or local business?

Speaker 1: 18:54

I just went to a beauty shop the other day and she's in the cut. I kid you not. She is in the cut in Stockbridge. I drove past it four times before I realized that I was driving past it. She and I was talking and we were just looking around. I said we need something that attracts your area. She's by, it's a plaza, but she's by a apartment complex, and then she has a big wall on the side of her building and then it's another apartment complex.

Speaker 2: 19:19

No, one could find her Nobody.

Speaker 1: 19:20

Really, truthfully, I drove past it, not intentionally, I just didn't realize it was there. I knew it was there but I didn't realize that's where she would be. And I'm like, literally me and her, we walked outside and I said we need to clean up out here. The trees are dying, we need to bring some more greenery, bring some flowers, maybe power washer building. How can we as the city make sure we're accommodating you and not just draining you of your dollars? And to our new businesses come, please, come.

Speaker 1: 19:46

Come, because we want that new experience, we want that new opportunity and we want to give people the opportunity to say hey, well, I'm not in Atlanta, but I'm in Stockbridge. We're 25 miles south of Atlanta, but we're in an area where the city's booming. We get that traction, there's constant traffic through our local business, and so let's bring those businesses and try them out. Like a lot of those, these boutiques out here are literally just because local residents are attending daily. Boutiques out here are literally just because local residents are attending daily. She said it's the lady that comes to see her once a week to get a new outfit, either for church or just because she's going out with her own girls. She's 80 years old, ok, and so you know we have to keep the trend of making sure our businesses are getting that patronism, but also we as a city we're doing it as well and not just trying to take advantage no-transcript.

Speaker 2: 20:54

And if you're elected in the first 90 days, what are you going to do about it? What kind of audit are you going to conduct and how are you going to ensure that something like this never happens again?

Speaker 1: 21:04

Yeah, let me correct something you said. It's not alleged. It is actually something that was brought to the mayor and council after the money was gone. Gotcha, the treasurer brought it up and they so-called corrected it you can't correct money without putting money back in but they corrected it by saying we're going to take $32.9 million from our 2025 budget and push it back to the 2024 budget, which is where that money was gone. Now the thing is and they're going to tell you this, and this is false the only reason that it was mismanaged was because nobody ever brought the millions of dollars before the council to approve, at which the mayor would have had to sign off on it. They just did it. Head of a district for our city, how do we allow them a limit to go over a certain amount of dollars? It's no way somebody should have been able to spend $32.9 million on their own.

Speaker 1: 21:59

It's no way. It's insane for a city especially what I just tell you where the 60% of our money comes from taxpayers. So they're trying to say that it was a mishap. Our amphitheater budget is below what it should be, and so that's why that $32 million was gone. But if it's below, why don't we have a transparency within our budget? Why are you all redacting we put almost $200,000 in open records requests a local organization out here. Why are they redacting certain strips of the budget so that they can't see where that money's gone?

Speaker 1: 22:30

They've been trying to play a ploy, saying no, we haven't lost it, it's been corrected. When you mismanaged $32.9 million, you simply coming back to taxpayers and telling us we've corrected it is not enough. That's right. I want to know answers. I want you to have a town hall, and the number one thing I want you to talk about is I want you to show me the breakdown of the budget. I want you to break it down to the city, because it's my money.

Speaker 1: 22:57

Yeah, I could get $500,000, which we've had in the past but one of the things that's really interesting to me about that is typically, when money's missing from the city and it's never been this large of an amount. The mayor is always the acting city manager, and so I'm curious to know really where that money's going, who's signing off on it and what's happening behind the scenes. As a community member not even as a candidate what's going on behind the scenes in City Hall with our elected officials that you all can't be transparent enough to let us know in advance? $32 million is missing, yet you decided to hide it and try to cram it in a meeting when you knew people weren't going to show up.

Speaker 2: 23:29

Yeah, transparency, it fixes a lot.

Speaker 1: 23:32

Yeah, and I'll be honest with you. I know you said 90 days no-transcript. Within our budget to our community is going to be that full forensic audit and immediately after that I'm going to do a mayor's town hall, once elected, after that audit is done, to show and present to the community members what happened, what's going on in our city, so that they are abreast of what's happening with their money.

Speaker 2: 24:20

Has something like that ever been done before? So you're about to hit that hornet's nest like a piñata? Absolutely, man. Okay, let's go.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Only way we can fix what was broken is if we find out and see what's actually broken, acknowledging it is big right To say, okay, here's what it is.

Speaker 2: 24:35

We missed not we you weren't in office at the time but taking accountability for it, saying this is what I've discovered, uncovered, rather, and, from this point on, this is how it's going to go. How often do you plan on doing these town halls? Because, honestly, they're hiring you right, so you work for them, absolutely so how often do they get to audit your work?

Speaker 1: 24:55

I implore anyone. I'm going to set office hours throughout the week to at any moment, not just one specific day, and set an appointment. You come see me. Open door to the residents of Stockbridge.

Speaker 2: 25:06

That's just going to be my number one, but I'm going to man, listen, I've had 15 employees and that was a headache. Don't do that. You got 36,000 people.

Speaker 1: 25:13

But that's where you come in with transparency.

Speaker 1: 25:15

Yeah, and if I'm going to be the mayor for the city and for the people, I have to stand with the people. I can't just say, oh well, I don't want to talk to him because he owns this. No, I really have to be direct and since we haven't had that in years, we have to kind of show that transparency back before we start to put back our appointments and our blockage and kind of holding ourselves to our own standard before we start to push it forward. One of the biggest things would be is to make sure that when we do those town halls I want to do at least three for the forensic audit so that people can have ample time to see what the findings and research is. But for me, I'm going to do town halls regularly. I'm not going to say monthly or bi-monthly right now, let me get an office and get situated but I plan on doing a lot of events socially, just alone as the mayor, to make sure that the community knows who I am, what we're doing and how we can better serve them.

Speaker 2: 26:05

And you know the reality is, once it's that open, almost nobody wants to look. That's not the plan. You know what I mean. But if you're just like, if I'm one of your constituents, and you go hey, Stefan, we're doing a town hall.

Speaker 2: 26:15

Man, you got it. Man, I believe you at this point it's just because you're so open and so willing to show here. Look, I'm going to pull back the curtain so you guys can look behind here and see what's going on. Absolutely I don't have to worry, knowing that it's that open of a book. The youth guys, your age guys, a little younger, you know these YNs.

Speaker 1: 26:40

They call them out here. How do you reach those?

Speaker 2: 26:42

guys, man.

Speaker 1: 26:46

My generation is unique, but I love it. Yes, they are, I absolutely love it. It's not really more so reaching them to me, because I'm kind of with them and around a lot, but I can say that you got to reach to where they are. So if they're at the basketball court, go to the basketball court. If they're at the food spot American Deli, we get in a 10 piece smile and pepper. Meet them at American Deli. But we can't just say, oh, we're not going to talk to them because they're YNs, or instead of judging and talking about them from a distance, you come and help them up close.

Speaker 2: 27:10

Do you have any plans to work with that group? And the reason I asked this because one of my aspirations is something I'm going to be working on is mentorship reaching out, talking to these guys. I want to catch them as early as middle school and just put them on a certain path, because so much of our youth is thinking, music or sports, but there's so many other things that they can be doing. You know, entrepreneurship is big. Do you have any plans to reach them in that aspect? And what are you thinking about when it comes to showing them something a little bit different and getting those guys to be more involved in the community?

Speaker 1: 27:45

Yeah, so, um, like I said, number one thing is reaching them where they are. So I'm going to the basketball courts. Currently I'm like, hey, I need y'all to vote.

Speaker 1: 27:59

They're like we got you, we got you, we got you. You made this point, we got you. So you know, just kind of getting engaged in what they like to do rather than just trying to show them and shove down politics. Right, that's my number one focal point, but I'm happy to also tell you to come out in the next few months. I've been endorsed by both of the school of school board members that represent the city of Stockbridge, district 2 and District 5. That's how we start to build relationships with our school board.

Speaker 1: 28:15

A lot of the school board members and I hate to say this aren't too fond of the leadership in Stockbridge right now. How can we bring that trust back, since they've trusted us to build one of the most premier and up-to-date STEM schools in the state? They're building in Stockbridge as we speak? So we need to build that connection back and I want to bring those mentorship opportunities, but again reaching them where they are, if we got to reach them in the school. I'm partnering with the school board, me and your education, your board education and we're coming to your school. We're going to do a pep rally to let you know this. We're going to do a boy's lunch to let you know this to let me know hey, this is what we're doing, this is how we're going to educate them, because that's how they get that experience. And so when they leave Stockbridge or they go on about their day, they're like, hey, somebody loves me, somebody trusts me, somebody knows I can do something in the world.

Speaker 2: 29:00

One of my core values and something that I'm really really big on, is just seeing young black men thrive and grow, because I've seen so many lives wasted, so much potential talent just go by the wayside. So that's why I had to come talk to you. I'm really impressed by what you're doing and anytime I see someone like this at such a young age doing. You know, when I was 22, I wasn't doing this, you know. You know there was a different mindset, but watching this is very, very impressive. So I had to come talk to you, but I'm not super familiar with Stockbridge itself as a city, you know, so I don't know the community. Do you have any issues with crime, safety or anything like that? It seems like you wouldn't.

Speaker 1: 29:39

We have potential in crime but we have a plethora of programs that kind of combat, that um, and so a lot of the crime that you I guess you would see are not really germane to stockbridge, but it may be a surrounding around. Of course you're going to always have your crime. Burglary, uh, that's the regular, because anybody can come from anywhere and make your town, your town can have zero days of crime and the next thing you know, somebody from out of town shoots and then it's Stockbridge. You're going to always have that small, minor daily crime. But it's not, I would not say it's a crime issue, but ways that we can kind of start in the moving forward in the future to prevent crime it's not really a thing out here.

Speaker 2: 30:15

I guess you know it's rather a safe city relatively.

Speaker 1: 30:18

I served as state president for the Georgia NAACP, youth and college for two years maybe three.

Speaker 1: 30:24

I visited all 159 counties in this state with my position and having to go meet my memberships and delegations. It is fairly in the middle. Stockbridge is in the middle of, I can say, one of the safest communities I've been in out of all 159 counties in the state. It's always ways to do better.

Speaker 1: 30:44

One of the number one things that I've learned is community policing and enforcement is something that you have to be strict on. One of the plans that I want to do is, while we engage in community policing with our police department, let's make sure that we're engaging with citizens as well. And I'm not going to give you the Disney the officer is throwing the ball outside with your son in your yard type of fantasy. But at least you can say, hey, I know that officer, I know that patrol car, that's officer so-and-so. We're you know we're 36,000 people. It's not super big, but we're just enough for you to at least know what's happening in your community. So just some local, small community initiatives from our police and our academy, that really will take us over the top.

Speaker 2: 31:22

And not to beat this to death, but skeptics I'm sure you've ran into them already. A lot of them will say well, you're too young, you don't have the experience. Just from talking to you and a little bit of what I've read about you even what you just mentioned going through all hundred and how many counties 59. 159 counties who else has done that? Very few people even have a working knowledge of their local government, let alone just throughout the entire state. So I would disagree with that statement personally. But what do you say to skeptics and point to maybe two or three decisions you've already made to prove that you have that experience?

Speaker 1: 31:59

Yeah, I'm blessed to see 22, because a lot of black men like me don't have that same privilege, and so for me to run for mayor is a little different for me. I look at the skeptics when they say, oh, he's too young. I'm blessed to have people around that response for me. I don't typically try to respond to those type of statements because I want my work to speak for itself. And so the skeptics of, oh, he's just 21. Oh, that's young. I've actually not gotten that many. I don't think I will vote for him. I've actually gotten good luck, god bless you. I've gotten well wishes, but the number one thing is what is your experience? And then when I tell you the experience you're like and how old are you? You 21?.

Speaker 1: 32:36

Henry Hero did an article on me, or it may have been the AJC, I can't remember. And the number one thing at the top and it kind of like boosted everywhere and that's kind of when the skeptic died down with my age. It was one statement and I forgot. My mom showed it to me. It was a 21-year-old running for mayor and his resume beats him twice his age. And so then people started to go to my website read about me, look for my resume. I kid you not. I had my advisor at the time at Clark Atlanta call me and it's like Jaden, people are calling the university asking for your resume and so with that, that skeptic kind of died down. But you do have those few that are like eh, I can't respond to that. But what I can say is look at what I've done in the community, look at what I'm still doing in the community, whether a candidate or just a community servant, and know that I truly mean what I say. I'm not going to say something and I don't mean it in regards to making sure that I'm representing the people, but a few wins that I can tell you I have done, serving as the youngest planning commission chairman in state I think the country, but I'm going to let them have the state is. I made sure that we did quality assurance to all of the hotels that want to come to our community and so when anybody came and said we want to build a hotel, I required them to have a three-star or higher to come into the city of Stockbridge.

Speaker 1: 33:52

The second thing is I work with the community development department, going back to technology and AI to build more, easier accesses and avenues to what we're doing in the community. So we have the online interactive map. If you go to the Stock Bridge website under community development, that allows people to literally look up their address. All right, am I in the city limits? Am I out? What does the future land use map look like? What does the zoning map look like? Can I build this here? They don't have to call us anymore, nor do they have to print. They can literally go on their iPad, share their screen to the TV if they're meeting with the team and literally go through it, and it's interactive.

Speaker 1: 34:24

That's the second one. And third one, I think for me and this is going to be the most important is I've worked on a plethora of budgets. My highest budget that I've worked on was $11 million and that was a student at Clark Atlanta, working between certain projects and campaigns to make sure that we can actually actively run our campaigns for the business, run through our initiatives and still pay staff at the same time. So my highest is 11 million that I paid and I look forward to working and reading and seeing what our current city budget is so we can make sure it's working on behalf of the people.

Speaker 2: 34:55

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you know where every dollar of a million dollars went.

Speaker 1: 35:00

Yeah, I can tell you exactly where every dollar went, because we zeroed out when we were done.

Speaker 2: 35:05

Nice, nice, nice, nice Name. One issue you've changed your mind about.

Speaker 1: 35:09

None, really None. Every single initiative that I've put out addresses an issue and if the issue was changed or shifted from now, I would have taken it out completely. But every single thing that I've put out has been consistent and I've been campaigning for a year now. The 20th marked a year that I've been campaigning and no issue that I've addressed in my campaign to the community has been addressed or changed.

Speaker 2: 35:33

Interesting, so you're running against Mr Ford.

Speaker 1: 35:36

Yes.

Speaker 2: 35:36

Your former friend not so much anymore, former friend, former mentor, everything.

Speaker 2: 35:44

I think that it's sad that he sees it as a threat. I think it'd be a welcome challenge. If I have someone that I've mentored. Maybe you're pushing me to be even better, because now, if I beat you, it's because I'm really focused on certain issues, right, as opposed to just being upset about the fact that how dare you run against me? I mean, that's the society we live in. It's designed that way for a reason, but you're running against them. So what's one thing? I mean you did at some point look at that person and say, hey, I want to shadow you, right? So what's one thing that he's got right and what's another that you're like? No, he's dead wrong on this and I'm changing it immediately.

Speaker 1: 36:18

I'm going to say this Now Mayor Ford is a great guy, great black man. However, I'm running for the office of the mayor of Stockbridge. I'm not running against Mayor Ford. If he sees it in that perspective, then that's just a perspective. He's going to have to see it. But ultimately, a seat is a seat. Whoever sits in the seat at that time, you lead that city and you lead it in the way that you see fit. But I'm not running against him. I'm running for a seat, I'm running for a seat. I make that very clear. I don't do negative campaigns, I don't do negative politics and so whatever they have going on, let them do that. I'm going to keep focusing on the people in my initiatives.

Speaker 1: 36:51

He did a great job in making sure, as the first black mayor of the city, black people were represented. We were. We finally had an opportunity to fully show and embrace what we are in our culture and our history. However, in that same doing, we deflected and pushed back on the others and while we are the majority in our city, we still want to show that diverse look of what Stockbridge is, because that welcomes new residents.

Speaker 1: 37:16

If I had to pull something that, I would personally believe that Mayor Ford is not the best at it's really delegation when it came to leading the people on the DS. Any council meeting it's always a council member, maybe two, that are leading the meeting more than the mayor or is speaking out a term when the mayor has not acknowledged him, and that's something that we got to get back on track, because it looks like confusion from the floor. When the community member looks at it, they're like what is happening? And that's because there's no order and no structure. And so, while he's a great guy and he's done a great job in building diversity in our community, there's stuff that we still have to do to make Stockbridge a premier community, and that's what I plan to do.

Speaker 2: 37:56

Quick lighting round Jaden. Okay, you ready. First hundred days it's going to be different, completely Okay. Days it's going to be different, completely Okay. So I want to break that down a little bit. I do I do Because it's one of those things that you hear In fact, I hear it a lot in politics. Right, you hear there needs to be a change and I go what needs to be changed? Why does it need to be?

Speaker 1: 38:19

changed and how are you going to change it? How is, because of representation, the people are going to see their mayor actively fighting for them?

Speaker 2: 38:24

Okay.

Speaker 1: 38:25

What we're going to change policy. We're going to change the way our city is structured. We're going to change how you see the city being represented. Why is because for the last eight plus years, the city has been represented in a way that does not represent the city. We need to keep up in time. We're 30 years back and we should be in 2025 with the rest of the other cities, and so, while we're getting awards for being premier in some of the local individual positions, the city is not being recognized for the active work that we're doing and the good looks that we're presenting.

Speaker 2: 38:52

Describe a Stockbridge family for me in 2030.

Speaker 1: 38:56

Yeah, a long time ago, when Henry County was first established, it was established to be a retirement community. It's literally meant to be older people and vets, people who are retired from their jobs. But our leaders in the county level has kind of changed the trajectory on that. So now our cities have to play catch up 2030, which is what five years from now. That's it. That's such a short time for me to kind of give you a good example, but I can say maybe the medium range of price would probably be about 320,000.

Speaker 2: 39:21

The reason I picked that number is because, say, you do four years when you leave, there's a legacy left behind. Maybe you run again, right, but if you do four years and you leave, what is your legacy in terms of what that looks like for that family in 2030?

Speaker 1: 39:33

Yeah, median increase. For sure that's going to be a priority. Making sure that we have sustainability within our homes, making sure our infrastructure is key, because we can't keep building and we don't have the infrastructure to accommodate. And I know the DOT and I don't know the next five years is going to be very weird because the DOT and the cities already have proposals and projects that are already ongoing. Currently, that is expanding certain roads in our community. So in the next five years I may expect just a little bit of traffic because some of our main roads will be worked on consistently, but it'd be a good flow. What I'm looking for in the next five years is those young professionals to come in and take some of these townhomes and these apartments. What I'm looking for is a mini hub for excellence, and when I define excellence I'm defining it as a community that's safe, that's thriving. People know you, know your neighbor, your neighbor knows you. You go out of town. Your neighbor will watch a dog.

Speaker 2: 40:23

That hasn't happened in 30 years.

Speaker 1: 40:25

But it's about the leadership, yeah, and so in a small city like this and how we're structured, it can happen. So that's what I'm kind of looking for and I'm looking for a generation where we have more single family households and married kids kind of feel to the community and then we triple down to young professionals and immediately after that our seasoned saints are our older generation. That kind of just keeps the yoke from cracking right in the middle. That'll be what Stockbridge will look like in the next five years or so.

Speaker 2: 40:52

Okay If you're in a room with a very diverse audience in fact, just forget a large group just three or four people, totally from different backgrounds. What is your message to them if you only have one or two minutes to speak to them? To say, hey, this is who I am, this is why I'm running and this is why you should vote for me, considering that everyone has a totally different background and a different ethnicity.

Speaker 1: 41:13

Yeah, you want me to give you my picture or you want me to break it down?

Speaker 1: 41:16

Whatever you're comfortable with Well number one thing I applaud a multitude of diversities in one room because that shows the character that Stockbridge is becoming.

Speaker 1: 41:25

But two I tell them up front I'm a country boy, I've served Stockbridge for eight years now. I tell them at which the capacities I've served, which we've talked about in this podcast, and then I let them know this is what I want to see in the community. I see this specific blend, but how can we blend all of our cultures to make Stockbridge's beauty? How can we make sure that our businesses are being boosted? How can we make sure that our businesses are being boosted? How can we make sure the number one thing they want to know about is where their money going, and how can we talk about our specific dollars and how they're being allocated? That's really what I would kind of pitch to the room if I had maybe three minutes to pitch, and then I'll take some questions which I know typically for, like officials or candidates. We're going to get some questions, and so I try to leave most of the space I have for questions so that they won't feel like they were unheard in that moment, got it?

Speaker 2: 42:08

What message do you have for anyone listening to this?

Speaker 1: 42:12

My number one message is, especially for my Stockbridge residents, that I'm all in for Stockbridge. When I say I'm all in, I'm talking about trust, transparency and building back good governance in our community. Whether you've seen the work I've done in Stockbridge, whether you've seen the work I've done from DC back to Georgia or even across the state, you know I'm committed to what I say I'm going to do.

Speaker 2: 42:35

That's what I plan to do for Stockbridge as mayor and that's what we're going to fight for until November 4th. That's fantastic. I actually have one more question I'm going to say. This is Jaden 2.0, right, 1.0 was from like 13 years old, service in the community all the way through college. Now you're. It's about to get real. Yeah, right, so that's Jaden 2.0. Tell me about Jaden 3.0. If you can think about the future, tell me what that looks like.

Speaker 1: 42:56

The Jaden 3.0 would be. If I had to put it short, it would be from the words of Shirley Chisholm and I'm going to flip it a little bit, I'm going to give it 3.0. She said if they don't give you a chair at the table or a seat at the table, you bring your own seat. Now, when I'm talking to the next generation, when I'm talking to my generation and making sure we're moving communities forward, that was good for back in the day. But if it was Jaden 3.0, they would flip the Honorable Chisholm's words and If they don't give you a seat at the table, you take their seat, Because the fight is going to start when you take their seat.

Speaker 2: 43:27

Nice, when can we find you Website, social media et cetera.

Speaker 1: 43:31

Yeah, you can find me on all social media platforms at Jaden for Stockbridge, and the four is spelled out. You can also go to wwwjadenforstockbridgecom. Or you can reach out to me because I have a campaign sale and I like to hear from my constituents directly at 470-219-8679. Oh, that's real man.

Speaker 2: 43:49

You're about to give your phone number out.

Speaker 1: 43:50

Listen, that's my campaign number. You call me anytime. If not, I'll call you back.

Speaker 2: 43:54

And that number will be disconnected up to November 4th.

Speaker 1: 43:56

No, it's been connected for about four years now. You can call me at any time.

Speaker 2: 44:00

All right. So we have a tradition on the show At the end of every episode, someone has to read the outro notes. It's just a couple of bullet points and you have to do an impression Now, if you want to keep it more serious though, I mean, I mean I so. Are you Jaden today or Jaden from future? We'll be Jaden today, Jaden today. Go ahead and read the outro notes. Man, let's get it All right Please support us by following the show.

Speaker 1: 44:21

Leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. We'll catch you next week when we share conversations surrounding real issues we deal with every day. Manhood matters and we're out.

Speaker 2: 44:33

Jaden Premier, let's do it, let's go man issues that never end for our perspective, or, true, a podcast for all but our point of view.