Much will change when Karen Williams is sworn in as the city of Pooler’s new mayor this month. But one thing won’t: her servant heart. 

As Williams moves from her council seat to the mayor’s office, she’ll bring her lifelong commitment to service with her, using it to benefit the growing city and its nearly 30,000 residents.   

“I knew I would always be serving,” she said. “That was my calling. That was my purpose. Volunteering just makes me feel good.” 

Williams hopes residents feel the same. As she builds an ambitious four-year agenda, she will focus on furthering the pillars of her campaign platform. At the forefront of her plans are community service, citizen involvement, improved communication between city officials and residents, and resident-run committees. 

“It gives residents the opportunity to serve, to be part of the community they love,” Williams said of the proposed committees.

Williams’ advocacy for volunteers should come as no surprise. After all, the absence of city-sanctified volunteer opportunities ultimately led to her mayoral run. 

After Williams and her husband, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. TC Williams, moved to Pooler from Richmond Hill in 2015, she searched for volunteer opportunities that would align with her interests. Intrigued by community growth, Williams spent four years attending the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission meetings as a private resident. When she tried to support the board through one of its posted volunteer openings, she never heard back. That’s all it took for this one-time Fort Bliss Volunteer of the Year to consider a City Council seat. 

She developed a platform and collaborated with two other residents to run for City Council as a block. They all won. 

Her platform then was a lot like the one she has now: communication, service, smart growth. She accomplished quite a bit of it during her four-year council term, incorporating live streaming of the City Council meetings to help residents stay informed, revising the tree ordinance, revamping the Planning & Zoning Commission to include volunteer roles, and enhancing communication with residents through social media and in-person events.  

As the end of her four-year council term neared, Williams realized she had even more she could give.

“I had so much pressure to run for mayor,” Williams said. “It’s unusual to run after just one term. But I’m just continuing what my heart is telling me to do—serve.”

Williams defeated two other candidates, 26-year council veteran Stevie Wall and Pooler resident Tony Davis, to secure the mayoral seat, where she will continue and expand the work she started as part of the six-member City Council, revising her original platform to incorporate her council experience and campaign conversations. 

“You want a list?” she said when asked about plans for her new role. “Better communication, opening meetings for public comment, getting the library finished, establishing a high school, forming those committees, term limits, rewriting and updating our charter.”

The list goes on and will grow as Williams, the city manager and the council tackle tasks large and small. 

The city’s biggest challenge, she said, will be managing its growth, whether that’s funding the infrastructure improvements the city “desperately needs” or responding to urgent requests for housing and schools from growth nearby, like the Hyundai plant in Bryan County. 

Her biggest personal challenge will be keeping residents informed of what, when and why different activities are happening, an effort she started as a councilwoman and will continue as mayor. 

“It’s our job to listen to residents,” she said. “They have a voice.”

That means bringing back the open comment session at the end of each City Council meeting, so residents can raise their concerns, share their ideas, or just provide feedback. 

Williams knows completing her to-do list won’t be easy. Already apprehensive about the transition from City Council to City Hall, Williams faced another hurdle: the departure of veteran City Manager Robert Byrd, who submitted his resignation Dec. 4, 2023, and ended his run Dec. 31.

“Robbie has been an invaluable asset to the city of Pooler and will be missed,” Williams said. “I wish him the best.” 

As for finding Byrd’s replacement while also becoming familiar with her responsibilities as mayor, Williams doesn’t shrink from a challenge. As an Air Force “brat” and long-time Army wife, she’s experienced her share of obstacles, from moving every few years as a child to changing jobs every few years as an adult. 

Those experiences only made her stronger. 

“If you do it right, Army life can teach you a lot of characteristics that are useful in life,” she said. 

Volunteering was just one of them. Throughout her 31-year stint as an Army wife, Williams, who earned an Associate of Science degree in paralegal studies from Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, held a range of both paid and volunteer roles, including as a paralegal for the Judge Advocate Corps in Germany and Attorney James Gardner in Richmond Hill, a substitute teacher for the Department of Defense School System, and a member of the Spouses Club, various PTAs and multiple Family Support Groups. Today, she’s a member of the Georgia Municipal Association, the YMCA Board, and the National League of Cities Community Council.  

In each of those roles, she learned key qualities, including communication, collaboration, advocacy and networking, that will help her accomplish the city’s ambitious agenda.

“If I can help find something that helps my residents, I’m going to do it,” she said. 

That’s why Williams has also earned four leadership certificates from the Georgia Municipal Association and the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government. 

“This is a continuation of a lifetime of service,” she said. “But I would call it a new beginning of Pooler. The changes we’re going to see are new. The growth, the types of businesses, the open communication, the transparency, the involvement. These are all new things.”

This article appears in January 2024.