Flemington voters won’t have much choice in who their next council will be, but they can choose their mayor in the city’s first contested race in recent memory.
Mayor
Voters in Flemington will choose between incumbent Mayor Paul Hawkins and challenger Timothy Byler, pastor of Connections Church, for the city’s top post.
Paul Hawkins (I)
Hawkins, who served 24 years as a councilman before becoming mayor in 2018, has been absent from council meetings since July 8 for health reasons, with occasional visits to the office. He’s also been opposed to a land deal that would place a future city center on the other side of U.S. Hwy. 84 from Parker’s at McLarry’s Curve, instead pushing to expand public amenities next to City Hall.
Hawkins, a retired certified master electrician, ran his own company for 48 years and did a lot of work on Fort Stewart. As early as 2017, when he first ran for mayor, Hawkins pushed for a traffic light at McLarry’s Curve. That light now allows for safer turns across Hwy. 84 to and from Parker’s and Fort Stewart.
His administration also went after a contractor who botched the sidewalk installation along Hwy. 84 (E. Oglethorpe Hwy) between the Performing Arts Center and Liberty County High School, resulting in a settlement.
Timothy Byler
Byler, who chairs the Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission, is also pastor of Connection Church in Hinesville, which has more than 200 members. Byler, a Tennessee native who grew up in Baltimore, ran the Greyhound Bus station as well as Toyota and Ford dealerships before entering the ministry.
Byler says he’d like to see a city center, along the lines of Old Town Bluffton, S.C., with ground-floor commercial and second-floor residential development, to keep local dollars in the county as well as attract visitors. Byler also told The Current GA that he wants to see more trails and recreation in Flemington.
In May, Byler was nominated to the Flemington Downtown Development Authority.
City Council
Only six candidates are running for the six at-large seats. Four are incumbents: Leigh Smiley, Hasit Patel, Larry Logan, and René Ryon Harwell. The two newcomers include Manish “Mike” Patel and Paul Martin.
Hasit Patel (I)
Hasit Patel, Flemington’s first Indian-American councilman and past president of the Hinesville Rotary Club, has owned the La Quinta Inn and Suites on East Oglethorpe, although his name does not appear on the current Georgia corporate filings.
He also is CEO of PAL 108, Inc., at 110 S. Commerce St. in Hinesville, the Parrot and Frog Pub. His business partners are Andrew and Lillian Gray of Hinesville. His personal financial disclosure statement lists two other companies, Liberty Commercial Cleaning Company and NHN Investments.
Hasit Patel also said that he owns a piece of land at the I-95 interchange in Midway, where he plans to build a hotel. The property is on the southbound exit, just past an 8.22-acre parcel owned by the Liberty County Development Authority. County tax records list the owner as NHN Investments.
Manish “Mike” Patel
Manish “Mike” Patel, who is not related to Hasit Patel, owns Kohiman, Inc., the company that owns the Quality Inn on Eas. Oglethorpe Highway in Hinesville. Georgia Campaign Finance System’s website showed no filings for Manish Patel and Flemington’s city clerk said she did not find any paper filings for him there. Kohiman, Inc.’s corporate address is the Best Western at 46 Eisenhower Drive in Savannah.
Leigh Smiley (I)
Smiley, a real estate agent, is an ex-officio board member of the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce and now serves as board member on the Liberty County Chamber Foundation. Smiley has served in numerous real estate industry roles, including the Georgia Association of Realtors Legislative Committee and Hinesville Area Board of Realtors Local Director.
The Current GA researched and spoke with Smiley about her real estate transactions in Flemington, as well as her recent council votes on real estate matters.
Smiley emphasizes that, while her real estate signs are visible on properties along East Oglethorpe owned by the Stacy and Floyd families, neither she nor her husband own those properties, that she has distanced and recused herself from city-related transactions, and that she is allowed to conduct business in Flemington.
Smiley’s 2023 personal financial disclosure, filed June 27, 2024, showed she had ownership interests in five businesses: Smiley Real Estate, LLC dba Coldwell Banker Southern Coast; Southeast Georgia Commercial Real Estate; Southern Coast Properties, LLC; Southern Coast Hauling, LLC (now dissolved); and Smiley Investments, LLC. She also owns several rental properties around Hinesville.
Smiley Investments LLC owned an 18.6-acre investment property at 2289 E. Oglethorpe Hwy. in Flemington valued at over $200,000. On March 28, that property was sold for $500,000 to Flemington Development, LLC, which Smiley told The Current GA is owned by her husband and Timothy Strickland.
Smiley’s 2024 personal financial disclosure shows her husband’s company, Flemington Development, also bought 16.62 acres at 2736 E. Oglethorpe Hwy. in Flemington in 2023 from the late VIP Office Supply founder Dianne Horton.
On June 10, Smiley recused herself from a vote on a $975,000 revenue bond request to the Liberty County Public Facilities Authority to buy land for a new city hall, which the rest of the council passed unanimously. Smiley was absent from a June 27 executive session involving a resolution to secure funds and a reimbursement resolution for unspecified real estate acquisition.
In 2019, the Smileys sold an 8.64-acre wooded tract on Old Sunbury Road to the City of Flemington for $120,000. At its July 8 meeting, the council, including Smiley, voted unanimously to ask the Liberty County Planning Commission to rezone that property from agricultural and single-family to multi-family residential in order to sell it. At its Aug. 12 meeting, the council voted to contract with Crexi, a commercial real estate broker, “for disposition of city-owned real estate and to authorize the payment of personnel expenses.” Even though the Smileys had sold the property in 2019, she says she recused herself from that vote to avoid any conflict of interest.
“I did not want to be part of it,” she said. “I wanted to be completely away from it. I sold to the city before I was on council, so I wanted nothing to do with the selling or authorizing of it.” Smiley added the city hopes to use the proceeds to pay down debt on another property.
Crexi is taking bids on the property as of publication until two days after the election. Smiley said, “I took myself away from that, too.”
Larry Logan (I)
Logan, Liberty County’s former emergency management director who retired in 2020 and was elected Flemington’s first African American councilmember in 2022, listed a Hinesville address on his personal financial disclosure. However, county property records show Logan’s address falls within the Flemington tax district. (It’s not uncommon for Liberty County’s smaller municipalities to show addresses in an adjoining city, as is the case with Walthourville and Allenhurst.) He serves as trustee chairman of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Shaw Road in Hinesville.
René Ryon Harwell (I)
Harwell is director of marketing and public relations at Liberty Regional Medical Center. Previously, she was assistant vice president and branch manager of Coastal Bank.
Paul Martin
Martin, a Flemington native, is parks superintendent for Liberty County and an avid hunter and fisherman. He holds trustee positions with Flemington Presbyterian Church and his daughter’s college fund.
Write-ins
The ballot does include six spaces for write-in candidates. However, most voters don’t know the rules for write-ins. Any write-in vote has to be for a candidate who has been certified by the Georgia Secretary of State before the election. No write-in candidates qualified in Flemington this election cycle, according to the county elections office.
Further reading
Candidate financial statements filed with the Georgia Campaign Finance System
Previous City Council meeting minutes
“Flemington considers first property millage rate,” Dec. 12, 2024
“Flemington city council decides not to levy property taxes,” Dec. 20, 2024
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