Mayor Pro Tem Patti Garrett (seated, third from left) at the ceremony earlier this year honoring the City of Decatur as the Atlanta Regional Commission’s only Platinum-level Green Community.
At the regular meeting on Tuesday, September 8 the Decatur City Commission elected Commissioner Patti Garrett Mayor Pro Tempore. The previous Mayor Pro Tempore was Kecia Cunningham, who resigned her District 2 seat on the City Commission last month to take a job out of state.
“Thank you to my fellow commissioners and to the Mayor for this honor,” said Mayor Pro Tem Garrett. “Kecia Cunningham’s years of service on the City Commission contributed greatly and positively to the Decatur we live in today. I have some big shoes to fill.”
Patti Garrett was first elected to the City Commission in 2009. She has been active in the community since moving to Decatur in 2001, serving as chair of the Decatur Tour of Homes committee, house captain on the Martin Luther King Jr. Service Project, a board member of the Oakhurst Community Garden Project, and as secretary of the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association.
Mayor Pro Tem Garrett is a 2012 graduate of Leadership DeKalb, a member of the 2010 class of the Regional Leadership Institute and serves on the Environmental and Natural Resources Committee of the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA). A graduate of Texas Christian University and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Garrett teaches nutrition at Georgia State University, works as a Clinical Dietitian at Emory University Health Services, and is active in the Atlanta Local Food Initiative network. She also received the 2010 Georgia Dietetic Association Distinguished Service to a Community Award.
Five City Commissioners are elected in nonpartisan elections for overlapping four-year terms – two from District 1, two from District 2, and one At-Large. Each January, Commissioners elect two of their fellow members to serve as Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem.
