Stephanie Johnson

Stephanie Johnson, ACC Commissioner for District 6

2025 – present

Represents West Athens, Lavender Road and the Georgia Square Mall area.

stephanie.johnson@accgov.com
762-402-3315

Johnson’s website

Signature Issues

Fiscal Conservatism – Johnson says she supports “responsible” spending and wants to stop “wasteful projects” without getting into specifics. Johnson also says she wants to create a public database for all expenditures, similar to the one in Glendale, Arizona. The ACC government has such a database for American Rescue Plan funding only. She supports cutting property tax rates.

Fighting Crime – Johnson wants to keep Athens safe by better funding the ACC Police Department and helping fill officer vacancies.

Belief in a SPLOST Conspiracy – Before becoming a commissioner, Johnson sued the ACC government for allegedly taking SPLOST funds intended for an economically disadvantaged district and using them in another district. She later dropped her lawsuit after admitting under oath that she had no evidence to support this claim. As commissioner, she has made comments that show she continues to believe in this conspiracy theory. For example, she attempted to delay approval of sidewalks for Vincent Drive on February 4, 2025, because she doubted the legitimacy of the project’s large price tag (almost $4 million).

Voting Record

Controversy: Johnson’s tenure as ACC Internal Auditor

Johnson’s tenure as internal auditor was marred by controversy, poor management and low productivity. Her employees complained about a hostile work environment repeatedly until they finally quit, one after another. She never re-hired for the empty positions, greatly reducing her already low productivity during her final two years in the position.

The ACC Auditor is a charter position equivalent in rank to the ACC Manager, a fact which prevented the ACC Human Resources Department from doing anything about her employees’ complaints. When Mayor Kelly Girtz was elected, Johnson’s employees pleaded for him to act to address their hostile work environment. In 2019, Girtz placed Johnson on an improvement program, which she failed to complete.

The ACC Commission and Audit Committee fared no better at holding Johnson accountable for her office’s poor performance. After over a year of very low productivity, the Audit Committee disbanded and was completely restructured in an attempt to stop this kind of failure from happening again.

Johnson was placed on another work improvement plan in 2021 in a last attempt to allow her to continue in this role. The plan included monthly check-in meetings with the commission, which Johnson failed to attend. Then, Johnson was fired by the ACC Commission in a unanimous vote.

Johnson later sued Girtz and ACC Manager Blaine Williams for unlawful retaliation, a case that she recently dropped after admitting she had no concrete evidence for her primary claim.

Interviews and Media

Right-wing group Athens Classic held a candidate forum on March 27, 2024 with a specific slate of candidates they support, which included Johnson:

Johnson went on Tim Bryant’s radio show on March 5, 2024:

Election Results