The battle of the two Mikes for Flowery Branch mayor is set for Nov. 2.
Mike Miller faces Mike Pitts in the race to succeed Diane Hirling, who resigned in May to retire to Florida. The winner will complete the four-year term she began on Jan. 1.

Miller, 35, comes into the race with some experience, having been elected Flowery Branch councilman last November and serving from Jan. 1 until Sept. 27, when he resigned to run for mayor.

He also served as interim mayor after Hirling, who had been re-elected to a second term, left office.

Pitts, 60, is taking his first shot at elected office. Retired from the convenience store business, he said he is very familiar with Flowery Branch, as his family has worked in the area for about 40 years.

“I felt like I wanted to give back something to my city,” said Pitts, a paid musician on the weekends.

Miller, a Sterling on the Lake resident, teaches in Gwinnett County and serves as an assistant golf professional at the Windermere Golf Club in Cumming.

“I think we need a strong leader with experience and a proven track record,” he said, adding he believes he brings both to the office. “... I’ve got a list of things (City Council has) done that I think are positives for the city and citizens.”

Pitts, who lives on Mitchell Street in the town’s older section, said he ran because he sees a need “for someone with whom everyone feels like they have some kind of representation.

“Knowing so many people here, every day I run into people who say I don’t know anybody on the council, I don’t know anybody at City Hall,” he said. “... I see the mayor as the ambassador to all the citizens of Flowery Branch.”

Miller said he believes Flowery Branch’s biggest challenge “is capital improvements, mainly transportation.”

“I think our city’s infrastructure has been neglected. ... We upped the amount in this year’s budget more than four times (over) what the roads budget was last year,” he said.

But improvements will come slowly, he said.

“We’ve got to take this one step at a time. I think everyone agrees we have growth coming to Flowery Branch — it’s just a matter of time and how quickly,” Miller said.

“We need to be prepared for it. We don’t need to react to it. We need to be standing there with open arms with the infrastructure, with the water and sewer, with the roads — all those things in place.”

Pitts said he believes the city has a dire problem with voter apathy.

“Only 10 percent of registered voters voted in the last election and that probably brought me out (as a candidate) more than anything,” he said.

“People just are feeling like ... the city has gotten too big and too scattered, and I want to bring that back together. We are one city and I want us to move forward as one city.”

As far as growth is concerned, “I’d like to see more businesses than rooftops. I understand that people are moving into our area,” Pitts said.

“But being a businessman all my life, I would love to see us ... attracting small businesses that would hire three or four employees.”

If elected, Pitts said the first thing he would do is hold a public meeting with residents and assure them they can speak to him about any government issues or complaints.

“The mayor in Flowery Branch is not really a decision maker. He is a connection between government and people. That’s what I want to be.”

Miller said he would ask city staff “to start preliminary work on putting together a 10-year plan so we kind of see where we want to be going.”

Also, he said he would like to see the city set up an online payment system for tickets and fines. “We already do that with our utilities, so I want to take that to the next level.”