Polk County’s newest commissioner is sworn in.
Polk County’s newest commissioner was officially sworn in to take his seat for District 1 at the beginning of last week, and he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work for the meetings to start off October after press time.
José Iglesias was sworn in to office by Probate Judge Linda Smith on Monday, Sept. 25 ahead of the Oct. 2 and Oct. 3 meetings held after press time earlier this week.
He was unanimously selected by the Polk County Board of Commissioners to fill the vacant District 1 spot from among 8 candidates who stepped forward for the job.
Iglesias was born in El Salvador and moved to the United States when he was 10. He became a naturalized citizen in 2005, and three years later moved to Cedartown with his wife Giovanna and their two children, Ethan and Isaac.
Iglesias and his family run Taxes de America, where he provides tax prepa- ration services to the local community utilizing his degree from Suffolk College in New York.
Locally, he’s been involved in a number of initiatives. He’s both a member of the Cedartown Planning Commission and the Primary Healthcare Board of Directors, was in the 2014 Biz Builders program and is in the 2017 class for LEAD Polk. He also served as a Cedartown stakeholder for the latest 10-year combined plan for the cities and county submitted to the state.
Iglesais also is serving as a mentor in the Take Back Polk program this year.
Though he comes to office with several major ideas in mind - from ensuring the budget remains balanced to working with the State Department of Transportation to get more pedestrian signage on South Main Street, among others — he also wants to be a unifying force on the Board of Commissioners.
Iglesias will take his District 1 seat for the first time during a combined night of meetings on Oct. 9 after meetings were postponed following the death last Friday of detective Kristen Hearne.