Statesboro resident voters who think they catch a break after 2024 probably have another think coming. 2025 is a city election year with the mayor’s office and two council seats due for votes.

In fact, City Council formally set the qualifying fees for candidates during its first meeting of the year, 9 a.m. Tuesday. After the meeting, all three incumbents with terms expiring this year said they will run again.

Council’s vote was a legally required formality. The qualifying fees are prescribed by state law as 3% of the annual salary of an office. So the fees are $560 for candidates for mayor and $330 for candidates for City Council in District 1 and District 4, as stated in the resolution, which was approved 5-0, on a motion from District 1 Councilwoman Tangie Reese Johnson seconded by District 4 Councilman John Riggs.

Exactly how the election shapes up will be determined during candidate qualifying week, which City Clerk Leah Harden reports will begin at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 18 and end at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 22.

In Georgia, a city can cancel its elections if all candidates are unopposed. Unless that occurs, this year’s elections for Statesboro and other Georgia cities will culminate Tuesday, Nov. 4, after an early voting period.

But based on Tuesday’s brief interviews, don’t expect any pending vacancies.

“Absolutely …  I’m committed to run one more time,” answered Mayor Jonathan McCollar, now beginning his eighth year in office, the final year of his second term.

“With that being said, I think that in the years that we’ve been here, we’ve seen a lot of progress,” he continued. “We’ve seen a lot of growth, and we’ve really championed some initiatives that’ve really moved this city forward, everything from public transportation to neighborhood revitalization, a tremendous drop in poverty since we’ve been in office, as well as decreasing violent crime.”

That objective to create “a safer community,” McCollar said, was accomplished by “refurbishing our Police Department, our team” by raising salaries and filling vacancies, and the use of technology, such as camera systems “throughout the city.”

“So we’re doing a lot of good stuff, and the work is still not done,” McCollar said.

When first elected in 2017, he made history as Statesboro’s first African American mayor but displaced its first female mayor, Jan Moore. McCollar was re-elected by a large margin over a challenger in 2021. A lifelong Statesboro resident, now age 50, he was employed during his first term in office and into his second as an administrator at Georgia Southern University, where he earlier attained a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in public administration.

But McCollar now works for the New Georgia Project, a nonprofit organization engaged in voter registration and voter education, as its chief of field operations.

In the last six years, Statesboro City Council has evolved from having only men representing the five districts ever before to currently comprise four women and one man, besides the mayor.

Councilman John Riggs, the longest serving member, represents District 4 and so is up for election this year. So is the most recently arrived member, District 1 Councilwoman Tangie Reese Johnson.

John Riggs on ‘go’

Back in 2021, Riggs was an off-again, on-again candidate for re-election, at first announcing that he wouldn’t run again, then changing his mind before qualifying time. But in 2025, he is starting as a candidate from the word “go,” or at least as soon as anyone asked.

Four years ago, “I was starting to get burnout at that time, and by announcing that I wasn’t going to run, it took a weight of my shoulders,” Riggs said Tuesday. “I got to relax a little bit, and then a whole bunch of people came to me and said, ‘Please run again,’ and I got reinvigorated, and I feel just as excited now as I did my first year.”

Now beginning of his 16th year in office, the final year of his fourth term, he answered, “Yes, sir,” he is seeking a fifth term from District 4 voters.

Tangie Johnson, sure

Even though Johnson won a November 2024 special election, it was only for the remainder of former Councilman Phil Boyum’s term, after he resigned last summer. So if anyone else qualifies as a candidate, Johnson will have to run again to keep the District 1 seat for four years beyond Dec. 31, 2025.

Of course, she didn’t go to the trouble of qualifying and campaigning door-to-door in that special election, which she won over two other candidates without the need for a runoff, just to serve 13 months. So Johnson plans to campaign again, if necessary, to secure the 2026-2029 term, and said she wants to hear from people anyway.

“So far, so good,” Johnson said. “I’m anxious to get back out still, greet my constituents that we have here in Bulloch County and in Statesboro, just to get out and talk with everyone again just to make sure that their needs are being met and any concerns that they have. So, I’m excited and I’m looking forward to my actual term.”