Newly-formed Brookhaven’s recent election yielded only one clear winner for a city council post. Real estate broker and businessman Jim Eyre will represent residents in council District 2.

Residents will vote for the rest of Brookhaven’s city officials Dec. 4 in a runoff election which will take place less than two weeks away from the date set for the official establishment of the city.
After Brookhaven residents voted in favor of cityhood July 31, Governor Nathan Deal appointed a volunteer commission to help ease the formation of a new government.
Kim Gokce, a Brookhaven resident and co-founder of The Cross Keys Foundation, is on the five-member commission. Gokce said a runoff was expected and the commission will continue to do groundwork for the city until all of Brookhaven’s elected officials are chosen.
Gokce said the major items are the requests for proposals (RFP) for city services that are required to be submitted no later than Nov. 23 at 3 p.m.
“That will be the focus between now and the runoff; making sure the integrity of the RFP process continues,” Gokce said.
The day after the election, Gokce said they were required to submit a report of the commission’s findings to all of Brookhaven’s newly-elected officials. Since only one was elected, Eyre was provided with the preliminary report.
“He got the commission report,” Gokce said. “Even though it’s not required we’ll have an additional report to provide to all the elected officials.”
Eyre, a board member of the Brookhaven-Peachtree Community Association, received 54.63 percent of the overall vote.
“I can’t tell you how good that feels,” Eyre said. “What I want to do is get up to speed on the Brookhaven Commission report—I’m going to start looking at the reports on the RFPs.”
Since the official establishment of the city is Dec. 17, almost a month away, Eyre said he has a head start to become familiar with the commission’s findings and review the different services that have been proposed.
Eyre also said that he thinks the first thing he and his colleagues should do, after they’ve been elected, is to begin working on a budget for Brookhaven’s first year.
“The city is going to grow but for year one, we’ve got to get the city on strong footing with a balanced budget—we’ve also got to put away some reserves,” Eyre said.
During the time leading up to the July election, residents for and against the creation of Brookhaven voiced their concerns. Eyre said the debate was contentious at times but now, as far as he’s concerned, “Brookhaven YES and NO went away July 31.” Eyre said he would do his best to form a good working relationship with his fellow council members.
“I’ve told all my fellow council candidates that I have the best interest of Brookhaven in mind,” Eyre said. “If it’s the best for Brookhaven then let’s get it done.”
Each term of office lasts until 2015.