ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Appen Media, which publishes the Alpharetta-Roswell Herald, invited the four candidates running for Roswell City Council Post 1 to record an interview with reporter Chamian Cruz. The answers contain modest edits due to space limitations. While some candidates were more concise in their responses than others, every effort was made to apportion space equally.
Appen has also made the interviews available to hear, in full, as episodes of the Inside the Box podcast. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview by CHAMIAN CRUZ, Editing by AMBER PERRY and PAT FOX
Appen Media: Can you tell us a little about yourself and what that brings to the voters?
Allen Sells: We have lived in Roswell, my wife and I. We raised our children in Roswell, been here since 1995. When we moved here, I still worked in the CNN Center. I have a lot of experience in corporate development, which in Roswell today is a big need. We’re sort of out of balance.
It has been great to live in Roswell. We love the city. We are on the east side. I am the only east side candidate. Roswell needs a perspective for both sides. Obviously, we’re a united Roswell. We have one tax base. We need to understand and believe that we have one balance sheet that we are taking to the market against competitor cities.
Appen Media: A big topic in Roswell right now is the rising cost of living and the lack of affordable housing. The mayor and City Council have made it clear that they do not want to see any more construction of new apartments unless they are part of a mixed-use development. What role if any, should local government have in promoting or restricting affordable housing, which may include multifamily housing?
Allen Sells: Roswell has a good size complement of what I would call “workforce housing.” There’s 11,300 units in Roswell, which is over 30 percent of the housing stock. We have more units than Alpharetta by a good bit. We have almost either double, maybe even triple what Johns Creek and Milton have. Roswell has a fair amount of diverse housing. I do believe that that’s important for a city to have a diverse base of opportunities for housing. But, I do believe as a city, our top priority for all of our residents is to bring good paying jobs so people can afford to live in Roswell. We have to focus on bringing jobs that allow people to live, work, play as well as thrive and grow their family. We want our residents to feel like being in Roswell has bettered their life, and part of that is providing them the opportunity to live here affordably and make a life for themselves.
Appen Media: Do you have any other ideas for how Roswell can address affordable housing?
Allen Sells: I spent a good amount of time with the Roswell Housing Authority. I began my career at KPMG. I’m a CPA, and my clients were Atlanta Housing Authority and several other housing authorities. The Housing Authority of Roswell is an important part of solving any problem that revolves around that issue. Looking at the situation, talking to the residents — I was at their CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) meeting briefly.
If you recall a few years ago they had not passed an inspection in a lot of years, and concerned citizens recognized that if the Housing Authority was taken over by HUD (Housing and Urban Development), Roswell would lose the important part in making affordable housing a reality in Roswell. So, concerned citizens got out, crawling around on the ground picking up glass before the inspection, cleaning up, making sure that the Roswell Housing Authority would pass. The leadership has pulled that housing authority back from the brink. But, I will say you know they’re in a tough spot still.
I should point out that the city has a limited role in Roswell Housing Authority. The only official role is the appointment of the board members by the mayor himself, not by the City Council. But, we have an influential role. We are interested in their success as our citizens and as a means to drive affordable housing in Roswell. The mayor and council can help drive this conversation with HUD, perhaps with state officials to provide the additional resources. But, also, there’s a forensic role for the City Council to play. As a CPA and as someone who has housing authority experience, we should look at those things and see what can be restruck or re-traded. And, try to use the housing authority as it should be used — a local path for people to achieve affordable housing.
Appen Media: In April, a number of Roswell residents pointed to possible racial bias in the City Council’s new apartment ban and asked about the status of the racial impact assessment, an idea that was tossed around in 2020. The assessment would be part of the city’s comprehensive plan and include a full-scale examination process that focused on staving off racial inequalities, particularly when it comes to zoning and land use regulations. Would you support the city completing or going through with the racial impact assessment?
Allen Sells: I don’t know enough about that particular document, but I do know that through the process of the CDBG grants, Roswell is required, and they are currently going through a process of assessing barriers to fair housing. I sat in on two community meetings, the one at the Roswell Housing Authority but also a more full eval of the entire process on the east side. I know that there is action by the city to look at these issues. We should identify ways to raise the level of living for all of our citizens at all times.
There are limited things that the city has in its purview. Clearly, zoning is one of those. Several of the cities in their comprehensive plan are shooting at 30 to 32 percent composition of workforce housing. We are already there. Where we are truly out of balance is in our commercial real estate. Roswell has about 30 percent of our tax digest in commercial property, 70 percent is in residential.
You have to have a balance of that. Otherwise, your tax digest doesn’t cover the operations of the city, so you’re chasing grants or you’re using other resources that could be used to better the city to make up the shortfall because you’re out of balance.
Appen Media: Can you tell me more about your ideal relationship between the city government and its local businesses?
Allen Sells: A lot of times we’re not the ones to light the fire. I think the role of the City Council, different than perhaps state or federal, is to blow on the embers.
We should find ways to take those sparks of ingenuity — let’s face it, most people in their life are not going to start a business. Somebody said, “Ah, I have this great idea.” We, as citizens, have a great opportunity to blow on those embers in different ways. Perhaps the city’s role would be through the operations of the business development offices and those kinds of people to help bring business to help support that cause.
Allen Sells and Chamian Cruz after a Sept. 23 interview.
Appen Media: The East Roswell Economic Action Committee presented its final report in 2020 and includes recommendations on how to better promote economic development in this area. How would you decide where to begin tackling the recommended improvements and how to fund them along with having other additional new priorities?
Allen Sells: East Roswell is unique challenge. The Chattahoochee is sort of a moat. But also, 400 is the Great Wall. As someone who lives on the far east side, coming over to City Hall can be, at the wrong time of day — better pack a tent. It’s a challenge for our businesses. It’s a challenge for our residents.
If you think about a small shop, they tend to be very thinly capitalized and of the size that if the wind blows the wrong way, you’ve got a derelict business.
We need to attract some corporate clients that go out shopping at lunchtime or go support these restaurants, so they can make it. We need to focus on businesses as a city in these areas that are under stress. We need to focus on bringing in some clients that bring almost a destination, whether it’s just a work destination, or it’s a true destination for leisure. Replacing one failed business with a second thinly capitalized business is not doing favors to the business owner who’s risking the capital or to the community that gets to pick up the pieces.
Appen Media: Do you have any ideas on how to do that?
Allen Sells: My career has been made through negotiation. One of the things that I learned early in my career in negotiations is you need to begin the negotiation with a clear model of what your business model is. What is it that I’m trying to accomplish for our team, our capital, our company, our city?
The next thing that I do, which I think is a relatively unique approach, I try to cross the table. I’m a chess player, so I try to turn the chess board around and say, “OK, what moves would I do?”
We can’t make people invest in Roswell. We invite them to invest in Roswell. What I want to do is to understand exactly how they make money so that we can try to preserve those opportunities and still get what the city needs to start that business.
Appen Media: What role do you see transparency playing in how the City Council operates?
Allen Sells: The way Roswell’s government is structured is pitch perfect for that. And that is a part-time position that should be occupied by a citizen. This is not a profession. We don’t have professional council members. It’s intended to be citizens.
The way Roswell does it, and I’m sure all the other municipalities do too, you go through some training after you become a council member about how this stuff works because that way you can add value. The purpose is to bring citizens to the table to allow them to guide government with a clear eye. I think Roswell is structured in a correct way for that purpose.
I say get the bad news out early. Hiders always lose. If there is bad news to be told, you need to make sure it’s on the table quickly. I can’t remember what wise person said this but, “We may not solve all the problems we face, but we won’t solve any that we don’t face.” As citizens we have to be presented with the clear, unvarnished truth and react to that. I’m all about transparency. I have no purpose in this other than particularly to provide as much authority to the residents of Roswell themselves as humanly possible and the least amount of government as humanly possible.
I have nothing to hide. I choose clarity over agreement. We may disagree, but we should both be clear about what our positions are.
Appen Media: The Roswell City Council often talks about what the city of Alpharetta does right, and what can be done in Roswell to duplicate that. Is this the right approach? Or, what can Roswell do differently using its own unique resources and characteristics to be successful?
Allen Sells: I’m not sure that the talk that you’re pointing to is Roswell saying, “Let’s be Alpharetta.” I don’t think that’s a characterization that I would agree with. I think Roswell has a uniqueness that is a strength. I have to say we can be united and unique at the same time. But, what I see when I hear those comments is that old saying, “Seek not to imitate the masters, but rather seek what they saw.” What Alpharetta and other cities have seen is to have a balanced economic model for their city. They intentionally did things over the last 20 years to build that balance.
I think it was absolutely appropriate for Roswell to say, “Where did we miss that? What can we do to get back in balance?” I don’t think that’s the same as Roswell saying, “We need Avalon or whatever the case may be.” Nobody has the riverfront that we do. Nobody really has the quaint, historic downtown, quirky as it is, that we do. We’re clear that we have assets that are unique. But, we should seek to fulfill the objectives of our citizens using a process that’s tried and true as opposed to just making it up as we go. We need a better plan.
Appen Media: A lot of longtime Roswell residents take a lot of pride in being here for so long or growing up here. How do you see that as being an advantage running for City Council?
Allen Sells: So much of culture is geography. There is a lot about Roswell that’s caught, not taught. You may have taken Georgia history in school, but you didn’t take Roswell history. The only way you’re going to pick that up is by being here, meeting the people, catching the culture of Roswell. You’re not going to learn it in a book. It’s important to have roots here. We’re on our fourth address in Roswell. We had bought a place in Midtown and were thinking of moving in Midtown. We owned it for seven years. We never sold our house in Roswell. We love Midtown. But, we were like, “Our peeps are out here.” So, we sold the house in Midtown right before COVID and instead bought a townhome in Roswell, so we could stay here with the people that we raised our kids with, the people that we go to church with.
Appen Media: If you have to give one last pitch, why should Roswell residents vote for you?
Allen Sells: I have real world experience in a lot of things that matter to Roswell. It is not a slight on Roswell to say that we face some challenges that are probably imminent and need immediate care and attention. The Housing Authority is clearly one of those. We cannot afford to have another decade where we fall farther behind, and business opportunities leapfrogs us to go to the other cities. I believe that a vote for me is a vote for, “We need to do what we need to do in Roswell now. We need to do it wisely. We need a good negotiator who understands how to close billion-dollar deals at the table.” There are businesspeople on the council today, but I do think my skills are different than the rest of the council in terms of negotiations and being a CPA.
Appen Media: What’s the best way for residents to learn more about you and your platform and campaign?
Allen Sells: allen4roswell.com
