The Flowery Branch City Council is full again after new councilman Joe Mezzanotte was sworn in at Thursday's meeting.
Mezzanotte defeated Jennifer Sudderth in Tuesday's special election and took his seat for his first council meeting Thursday, although it was unclear initially if he'd be able to do so. The city had to wait for Hall County to finalize the results of the election, which wasn't done until under than an hour before the meeting, meaning Mezzanotte was unsure if he'd be sworn in that evening or not.
"It's exciting, especially because we were able to do it so quickly," Mezzanotte said after the meeting.
Mezzanotte fills the council seat that was left vacant when Mayor Ed Asbridge left the council to run for mayor. He said he's ready to learn from the other council members.
"How do annexations and zonings really work. You may have your own idea, but you've got to tie in ordinances and laws and all of that," Mezzanotte said. "I'm going to be on this side and not only do I hope to be able to see what happens, but I'm hoping to also be able to impact what happens."
Mezzanotte said he's attended meetings for a long time and has built some familiarity with city officials that he believes will help him get up to speed.
"I know a lot of the guys around the board, I know the mayor, so I've been trying to get up to date over the last couple of months," Mezzanotte said. "This is perfect to get in the first meeting and I'm also lucky because we're having the annual retreat day this Saturday, so I get a chance to get up to speed a lot faster than you would without that type of meeting."
He said he believes his career background will help him deal with the growth that's coming into the city.
"I spent a lot of times running large manufacturing operations all over the United States and Canada and Mexico and Puerto Rico and being involved in building plants, so a lot of these projects that involve things like infrastructure, I do have some familiarity with that. Hopefully I can add something to that," Mezzanotte said.
"I'm also very interested in making sure that we try to keep a balance so that Flowery Branch stays that place that we all love to live."
