LEE MORRIS

A Lifetime of Public Service

Lee Morris is seeking election as the District 3 Fulton County Commissioner, an office he has held in the past. District 3 encompasses Buckhead, parts of Midtown and southern Sandy Springs. He previously served two terms in that office, and some years earlier served two terms as an Atlanta City Councilmember, with distinction.

Traffic and Transportation

In his service on the Atlanta City Council, Lee was best known for his efforts exposing the corruption that led to almost three dozen convictions, and was awarded the Atlanta Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award for that work. But one of the reasons he ran for office was his desire to tackle traffic congestion.

While in office, Lee –

Introduced traffic calming to the city and sponsored the legislation that allowed speed humps on city streets to slow speeders in neighborhoods.

Initiated the sidewalk building program that continues today.

Sponsored what many consider the first transit-oriented development (TOD), around the Buckhead MARTA Station Special Purpose Interest (SPI) zoning, which required a mix of residential, retail and office uses so that people could live and work in the same area without the need to get in a car.

Oversaw the Atlantic Station development and the Lindbergh MARTA TOD in his district. Lee believes that we must support MARTA and that the state should help with its funding.

Public Safety & Crime

As a Councilmember, Lee pushed through raises and pension increases for the police to foster police retention, and was endorsed by the police unions.

In his prior service on the County Commission, Lee focused on the County’s role in fighting crime. Cities are responsible for policing, but the County has a role in public safety.

Many justice partners in Fulton are separately elected officials. The Board of Commissioners (BOC) cannot tell a judge how to decide a case, the district attorney who to prosecute, or the sheriff how to run the jail. But the BOC funds those departments’ budgets and Lee always supported adequate funding of the justice system. ‍

In 2021, with his support, the BOC allocated an extra $75Million to address the backlog of criminal and civil cases accumulated during the pandemic. As the Commission’s liaison with the justice partners, Lee monitored that effort.

Now more than ever, Lee believes Fulton must ensure that law enforcement officials have the funding needed to keep our neighborhoods safe.

Property Taxes

With rapid increases in home values, homeowners continue to face rising property taxes that threaten their ability to stay in their homes.

Each year Lee served on the BOC, the millage rate for the County’s portion of your property tax bill was reduced, with Lee's vote often being the key 4th vote.

His votes resulted in savings for property owners, with many Buckhead and Sandy Springs homeowners saving over $1,000 each year as a direct result of his votes. Lee also caused the Board of Assessors, which had been improperly applying some city homesteads, to correct its practices and enable more citizens to benefit from the homestead exemptions available under the law.

Lee worked with the General Assembly to help put the voter-approved Atlanta “floating” homestead exemption on the ballot. Floating exemptions increase when valuations increase, greatly reducing net tax increases. Such exemptions had already applied to County, Sandy Springs, and Fulton Schools portions.

One of Lee’s most significant wins for taxpayers was his correction of the excesses of the state-created Development Authority of Fulton County (DAFC). The DAFC grants tax abatements to developments, many of which Lee believed would have been built without abatements, in effect shifting more tax burden to homeowners. While the BOC has no oversight of this state-created authority, it appoints its members. Lee successfully sponsored added seats for the two school systems, because over half of the abated taxes are school board taxes.

Finally, after press coverage of the scandal involving DAFC “per diems,” Lee sponsored public reporting of per diems and financial disclosure by DAFC board members.

Lee sponsored the County’s audit of the undervaluation of commercial properties and has been a voice calling for accurate and fair valuations of such properties, to make sure they pay their fair share of the property tax needed for governments’ functions.

With Lee’s background in accounting and law, he has always emphasized accountability within agencies reporting to the BOC. Lee has always been appreciated by key colleagues as a moderate and a consensus builder. He decries the hyper-partisanship that is so destructive of good functioning government. Lee has worked with the state leaders and the cities and school districts within Fulton County. That’s why he has always been endorsed by so many elected officials.

He has in past campaigns been endorsed by the Atlanta Realtors Association and the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors, and Georgia Equality.

Lee has a vision for the future, a vision consistent with the County’s Sustainability Plan adopted in 2019. The plan sets six priority areas to preserve natural resources and improve the County’s resiliency, including smart transit, high-performance County infrastructure, climate change mitigation and social equity.

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