Candidates tout their qualifications to serve

A businessman, a CPA and a former Augusta commissioner want to be the city's new tax commissioner and want you to vote for them in the July 15 Democratic primary.

Steven Kendrick, the vice president of Augusta Blueprint, had a knack for politics long before he thought about running for anything.

"One of my favorite times I would spend as a child was to sit on my grandmother's porch on the corner of Seventh and Walton Way and smile and wave at people in the cars as they drove by," he said.

As an adult, he has been involved in a variety of community projects and organizations and ran for mayor of Augusta in 2006.

"My favorite community activity is the Youth Leadership Richmond County program that I coordinate," he said. "It is absolutely the most satisfying community activity that I have ever done, and it is growing and getting better every year.

"The juniors who participate from our Richmond County school system are bright, eager and willing to learn and gives me confidence that our community's future is in good hands."

He attended Richmond County public schools and graduated from Westside High School, where he was involved in numerous school-related activities and programs including student council, the gifted program, band and high school basketball.

Mr. Kendrick said his spiritual foundation was built at Williams Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and he currently attends Beulah Grove Baptist Church.

"My twin daughters, Alexandria and Leigha, are the light of my life," he said. "They were born 16 weeks premature in 1995 and I count my blessings each day for their being here. They continue to give me a reason to do better in my life."

TOMMY BOYLES SERVED as Richmond County's Recreation and Parks director for 32 years. After retiring in 1997, he ran for the Augusta Commission, where he served as finance committee chairman. In 1995, he resigned from the commission to run for mayor.

"I have served in the military, as a major county department administrator, as a county commissioner, and as an aide to Sen. Donald Cheeks in the Georgia Senate," he said. "I have the experience and the people skills to manage an office as critical as the tax commission."

As finance chairman on the Augusta Commission in 2004, he "assembled" nine other commissioners and cut the 2005 operations budget by 6.9 percent, he said.

"I am the only finance chairman in the consolidated government to present a reduced budget."

Since then, he has become a licensed real estate agent and helps his wife, Kathy, with her catering business. He is also very active in Woodlawn Methodist Church.

SANFORD LOYD WORKED for the Internal Revenue Service when he graduated from college in 1977 with an accounting degree, and it didn't take him long to find out that wasn't what he wanted to do with his life.

"I really didn't like it," he said.

So he resigned and started his own accounting firm in Augusta.

Mr. Loyd grew up in Louisville Ga., and the only person he ever wanted to be like was his father, he said.

"It took me about 19 years to determine his name was Willie, mine was Sanford, and as much as I admired him I was a different person, and maybe the parts of him I like I could incorporate in me, but I was a different person," he said.

"I had to learn to be me. And I spent most of my life trying to make sure I'm comfortable with being me."

In the seventh grade, he transferred from an all-black school to an almost all-white school, which he said was the worst year of his life because he was taunted by the students from his old school and those at his new school.

But it taught him that no matter what you do, you're going to end up getting more out of it than you thought, even when there are struggles, as long as you're doing it for the right reason and putting the right things first, he said.

"And that's what my life has been," he said. "I'm one lucky little guy."

Mr. Loyd sees the tax commissioner's job as an extension of what he does now as a certified public accountant.

"In terms of my educational experience and work experience, it's a movement toward another professional job that requires my skill set and I would be providing a service to the community, " he said.

"And that's kind of my philosophy. Put yourself in the capacity you can provide the best service."

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylvia.cooper@augustachronicle.com.