Rob Woodall: “I come often to this floor to talk about community and service and the notion that, if we work to put a little less…”

“I come often to this floor to talk about community and service and the notion that, if we work to put a little less emphasis on figuring out how to control people from Washington, D.C., and a little more emphasis on trying to serve one another back home in our communities, that America will be moved in the right direction. Mr. Speaker, I come today to have that same discussion and to put a face on that conversation. For me, in north Georgia, Mr. Speaker, that face is Judy Waters. Mr. Speaker, in 1979, Judy Waters was known as the best hairdresser in all of Snellville. By the end of 1979, she was known as the first female ever elected to the Snellville City Council, and her path of service continued from there. Mr. Speaker, for more than a decade, as Snellville grew into the first suburban-from-rural community in Gwinnett County, Judy helped to navigate those challenges. Her fingerprints are on absolutely everything that you see in the foundation that has allowed Snellville to become what it is today. Mr. Speaker, after serving the City of Snellville, seeing that our county was going through some of those same challenges, in 1992, Judy answered the call to serve Gwinnett County. She ran for the District 3 county commissioner seat and was sworn in in 1993 to that post. Over the 8 years that she served, Gwinnett County's population almost doubled to 600,000 people and her hand helped to guide that development. Mr.…”