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STONECREST, GA—The city’s founder, Jason Lary, made his final address today, announcing his resignation as mayor effective Wednesday, Jan. 5, 10 a.m.
Lary thanked supporters during the virtual address, which was live streamed from his Facebook page today (Jan. 4) at 11 a.m.
Lary, who was re-elected to a second term in November 2019, was supposed to serve through 2023. City officials likely will begin making plans to hold an election to fill the seat upon Lary’s official departure.
Lary, who heads to federal court on Wednesday morning to plead guilty to charges related to the misuse of $6.2 million in CARES Act funds that the city received in 2020. He was charged with Wire Fraud, Conspiracy and Federal Program Theft during a first appearance hearing in Atlanta on Nov. 11.
Prominent Attorney Dwight Thomas is representing Lary in the case.
Lary did not discuss the charges or the hearing during his 45-minute virtual address. Instead, he talked about the years that he and supporters spent working on cityhood and he touted the city’s accomplishments under his administration since taking office in 2017. Among the accomplishments, Lary pointed to the fact that the City of Stonecrest served as a super vaccination site for the DeKalb County Board of Health in 2020, serving more than 100,00 people over a four-month period and as DeKalb’s largest election site for the 2020 Presidential elections and two recounts for the 2020 elections.
About half-way through the address, hackers disrupted the live stream with nudity, sexual content, profanity and loud music.
Lary pressed on, saying “We’re going to handle this with dignity and we’re going to continue.”
Lary thanked supporters, members of his administration, his wife, Debbie, of 35 years, his two adult sons, Jason and James, and even acknowledged the family’s dog, Mollie.
Lary, who is from Macon, Georgia, also gave a shoutout to his alma maters, the Northeast High School Class of 1980, and Clark Atlanta University (1984).
“My thoughts and desires was to always make the city world class and being able to move us forward from there…,” Lary said.
“…I ask that you all measure me by my whole story. I did the best that I could with what we had in place. I‘m forever grateful for those residents who supported the vision that was implanted in me by God, of course, for our city. Thank you for allowing me to be the founder and the first mayor and..the visionary.. I think my team set the groundwork ..”
1 Comment
By right..former Lary should have made this speech when he was almost near the end of his terms but it didn’t quite turn out that way.
Even sadder was at one point,how he had Stonecrest..and perhaps.the states in his hands when he made that impressive sales pitch with Amazon. From there,things went downward when it really didn’t have to .
I admit, the creation of the city of Stonecrest made me a skeptic but tried to be hopeful about the city. Like most citizens in of , I was hoping that Stonecrest would be another South Fulton and it could have been but instead of Stonecrest going forward,the former mayor of took the people backwards.
Worse than taking the people backwards is just slapping the citizens by bringing planned projects that could cause environmental and physical damage to people in Stonecrest and beyond. As a Black man, former Lary should know better but noooo..his greed overtook his common sense .
While I hate the way things have went down at Stonecrest at the same time changes are needed. Though I’m not a resident of Stonecrest,I’m just thankful that there are people who was willing to fight that battle to help the city and South Dekalb. Other wise, Stonecrest will still in a tiresome quagmire.
Nobody is perfect but I continue to pray for a mayor and council that will b ready for their people.