The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, for the New World on September 16, 1620. Thirty-five of 102 passengers were members of the English Separatist Church seeking religious freedom from the Church of England. Originally aiming to reach Virginia, Mayflower eventually landed at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
A single pistol shot on September 16, 1893 opened former Cherokee land in Oklahoma to white settlers in a “land run” to claim property.
The original stimulus act was announced to bring $70 million in federal money to Georgia to build roads and public buildings on September 16, 1933.
On September 16, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Service and Training Act requiring males 26-35 years of age to register for the draft. On the same day, Sam Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and would go on to hold the post for 17 years total, the longest tenure of any Speaker.
R.E.M. and Gregg Allman were among the inductees into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame on September 16, 2006.
GPB has an article on the 1957 Les Paul Goldtop guitar used by Duane Allman on the first two Allman Brothers records and on “Layla” by Derek and the Dominoes. In 2019, that guitar sold for $1.25 million dollars.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger opposes former Atlanta City Council member Cathy Woolard as Chair of the Fulton County Board of Elections, according to the AJC.
Woolard, who served as Atlanta City Council President and ran for mayor in 2017, is a former lobbyist for the voting rights organization Fair Fight Action. She was nominated to head the Fulton elections board by Commission Chairman Robb Pitts.
The commission voted 4-2 in favor of the Democrat heading the board.
Commissioner Lee Morris said he asked Woolard about her Fair Fight work, and she told him she didn’t actually ever lobby for them.
Woolard will become the deciding vote on polarizing issues before the five-member elections board, which also includes two Democratic and two Republican appointees. Elections board chairs manage the direction of the board, help decide local polling places, create policies and oversee the election director’s responsibilities of running day-to-day operations.
Raffensperger said Woolard shouldn’t chair the board because she is “bought and paid for” as a former lobbyist for Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group formed by Democrat Stacey Abrams — a likely candidate for governor in next year’s elections.
Woolard was as an independent contractor for Fair Fight in 2020 and 2021 before her contract ended at the beginning of the week, according to a Fair Fight spokesman.
Raffensperger threatened to seek the removal of Fulton’s entire election board because of Woolard’s appointment.
The Third Federal Child Care payment was sent yesterday, according to CNN via the Albany Herald.
About $15 billion was distributed to roughly 35 million families with 60 million children. The average payment was $428.
Most parents will automatically receive the enhanced credits of up to $300 for each child up to age 6 and $250 for each one age 6 through 17. The IRS is scheduled to send three more monthly payments in 2021.
The expanded child tax credit, which was created as part of the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion relief package in March, is in effect only for 2021. But lawmakers are looking to extend the monthly payments through 2025 as part of the party’s $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill.
The enhanced credit is expected to cut child poverty nearly in half for 2021, experts say.
Parents who aren’t citizens can receive the payments for their citizen children as long as they have individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITIN) and their children have Social Security numbers.
Fulton County Commissioners voted to appropriate additional funds for the District Attorney’s office, according to the AJC.
“It’s just math,” District Attorney Fani Willis told commissioners. “I need help. I’m here begging you for help. Dangerous people are going to get out. I don’t know how to make it more clear.”
Commissioners voted to give Willis an immediate $780,000 to hire 55 additional staff members — 15 lawyers, 15 senior investigators and 25 support staff. Those hires will cost taxpayers $5 million over the next year.
Fulton has 11,000 cases caught up in the county’s court backlog caused by COVID-19 shutdowns. Fulton’s backlog is worst in the state, which has 206,000 cases choking the system. County staff estimate it will cost $75 million to solve Fulton’s problem.
Law requires Georgia courts to grant bond if the suspect hasn’t been indicted within 90 days of the arrest. The clock — stopped temporarily by the courts because of COVID-19 — is ticking again.
Willis told commissioners the stakes were high if they didn’t give her the money: “We don’t get to as many cases, we half do our job, we skip steps and we’re all in danger. I’m not supposed to say that, but that’s the truth.”
Governor Brian Kemp announced yesterday the creation of a new position, Director of Small Business Outreach within the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
According to Georgia Department of Labor data, businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for 99.8% of businesses in Georgia, and through a recommendation of Governor Kemp’s Georgians First Commission, the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) has established a Director of Small Business Outreach to build on the Department’s current portfolio of services and provide greater direct engagement with this community. GDEcD’s former Director of Creative Industry Partnerships, Allen Fox, will serve in this role.
“Georgia’s diverse range of small businesses are the backbone of our state’s economy and the driving force behind Georgia’s record-breaking economic momentum,” said Governor Kemp. “As we stay focused on protecting lives and livelihoods, it’s critical that small businesses are aware of the state resources available to help them start up, expand operations, and create good-paying jobs for hardworking Georgians. As Governor and a small business owner for over 35 years, I look forward to what this new position within the Department of Economic Development can do to strengthen Georgia’s reputation as the top state for business and the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”
Director Fox will conduct meetings and events in the state, including coordinating regional roundtables and meetings with small business-related advocacy groups and other relevant stakeholders. This will help Georgia continue to create a positive vision and cultivate support for entrepreneurs.
Eighty percent of GDEcD’s work is with small businesses. Together, 1.6 million Georgians are employed by these businesses in sectors including manufacturing, retail, arts, hospitality, film production, and more.
“Every division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development touches small businesses across the state, offering resources, guidance, and assistance to help them succeed and grow,” said Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson. “We appreciate the support from Governor Kemp that will allow us to make sure every Georgia small business knows about the opportunities and resources we have available to them.”
Governor Kemp also said a vaccine mandate by the City of Decatur public school system violates an Executive Order, according to the AJC.
“This clearly violates my executive order banning vaccine mandates by public entities,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday.
Kemp was responding to an announcement by Decatur Superintendent Maggie Fehrman on Tuesday that teachers and other employees have to get vaccinated as a condition of employment, or else secure an exemption and submit to daily testing for COVID-19.
The City Schools of Decatur is probably the first of Georgia’s 180 school districts to implement such an employee vaccine mandate; a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Education said the agency was unaware of any other district with one.
Decatur is also considering a mandate for students, but Fehrman offered no timeline for that when discussing the mandates at a school board meeting Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Kemp referenced a May 25 executive order by the governor that prohibits “a state agency, provider of state services, or state property” from implementing a “Vaccine Passport Program.” The order also prohibits requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the premises of or conduct business with a state agency, receive state services, enter state property, work for the state or “enjoy any other rights or privileges” from the state.
I suspect in coming days, we’ll learn a bit about supremacy clauses and the respective powers of the Federal and State governments, as well as between the Governor and local Boards of Education.
Governor Kemp also announced that the HOPE scholarship reached the two million mark in the number of students assisted, according to the Albany Herald.
“The HOPE Scholarship Program has been a game-changer for our state and helped over 2 million Georgia students achieve greater opportunity,” Kemp said in a news release. “With more than $12.6 billion awarded, HOPE has allowed Georgia students to pursue education beyond high school and laid the foundation for Georgia’s recognition as the No. 1 state for business for eight years in a row.”
“For almost 30 years, HOPE has allowed Georgians to pursue an affordable post-secondary education while keeping our best and brightest in the Peach State,” Georgia Student Finance Commission President Lynne Riley said. “Thank you to Gov. Kemp and members of the Georgia General Assembly, whose generous support made this milestone possible.”
“Congratulations to every Georgian who has participated as a HOPE student within Georgia’s universities and technical colleges,” Georgia Lottery President and CEO Gretchen Corbin said. “The Georgia Lottery team goes to work every day for HOPE and Pre-K students, and today we celebrate our 2 million HOPE students and their educational and career accomplishments. The Georgia Lottery is appreciative to Gov. Kemp, the Georgia General Assembly, and everyone who has worked to make 2 million HOPE students possible.”
A judge declared a mistrial in the case of Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Mark Jones (D) after witnesses watched a live stream of the proceedings on Facebook, according to WTVM.
Jones is facing charges relating to his campaign music video where tire marks were left all over the Civic Center parking lot.
During court testimony, it was revealed that a few witnesses had been watching the live stream of the proceedings – something appointed Judge Jefferey Monroe says is not allowed. As a result, the judge declared a mistrial.
Cross examination of [Christopher] Garner’s testimony ended with Mark Jones’ defense Attorney, Chris Breault, asking Garner, “Are you a grown man?”
Garner replied, “That’s correct.”
To which Breault, responded, “Is Mark Jones your daddy?
Garner said, “No, sir.”
[A]t least seven [jurors] who spoke to the Ledger-Enquirer outside the courtroom were of the same opinion: They would have found Jones and codefendant Erik Whittington not guilty, and they did not look favorably upon authorities who pushed the case to trial.
“Waste of time,” is the way one man described the charges, adding, “We could have been taking care of more important stuff.”
He was surprised police charged Jones and Whittington with felonies for the tire marks that Whittington and other custom-car enthusiasts left in the Columbus Civic Center parking lot as Jones filmed a campaign video there on May 17, 2021.
Anyone who looks at the Civic Center lots on Google Earth can see they’re full of black marks from motorists spinning their tires there for years, he said: “All these people did the same thing, but they’re not getting felony charges.”
Columbus attorney Chris Breault, who represented Jones, said he spoke to 10 jurors who told him they would have acquitted his client.
“I think this was a fraudulent case,” Breault said. “I think the evidence was created by the government to influence the election in favor of Mark Jones’ opponent, and after speaking with the jurors, they all believe the same thing, after hearing the evidence. I think this is an enormous waste of resources.”
We have a winner. The City of Brunswick ran the numbers on COVID vaccination versus the costs of hospitalization of employees.
Brunswick City Commissioners voted to approve a $500 incentive payment for employee vaccination, according to The Brunswick News.
Brunswick city employees who have not gotten a COVID-19 vaccine will be paid $500 to get the shots, and those already vaccinated are automatically eligible for the same $500 incentive bonus.
McDuffie said she came up with the dollar amount based on the $500 bonus offered by the cities of Gainesville and Moultrie, where the city employee vaccination rates are now about 75 percent.
A selling point to commissioners is it costs the city insurance about $70,000 for each employee hospitalized with COVID. If 75 percent of city employees get vaccinated it will cost the city $70,000.
An even bigger selling point, McDuffie said, is the incentive bonus money comes from the American Rescue Plan funding the city recently received.
Mayor Cornell Harvey said an incentive should not have to be offered for people to protect their own health, but he also pointed out the cost to the city’s health insurance program every time a city employee is diagnosed with the virus. Those costs also include the overtime other city employees are paid to replace their sick coworkers.
City attorney Brian Corry said the city would rather offer incentives than mandate vaccines.
Savannah’s employee vaccination incentive program will cost $1.3 million dollars, according to WTOC.
Instead of using federal aid to encourage more employees to get fully vaccinated, and reward those who already have, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said the city will use $1.3 million from the general fund to cover the program.
According to the city’s budget office, money is coming from salary savings from employee turnover, planned retirements and position vacancies.
“At the end of the year, the budget has to be balanced. So, if the opportunity is there for us to use it, I think that’s the most appropriate for us to use it,” said Mayor Johnson.
Mayor Johnson said in addition to the general fund dollars being available, another reason he’s in favor of using taxpayer dollars instead of some of the city’s share of $27 million in American Rescue Plan funds, is the fact that we’re still in the middle of hurricane season.
Right now, the City’s vaccination rate for employees sits around 55 percent. Mayor Johnson says the more employees vaccinated will lead to fewer disruptions in taxpayer services like sanitation and public safety.
“To me this is an integral part of our continuity of operations plan. So the fact of the matter is, the money is going to be used for something anyway. So if this incentive program helps us to maintain our service delivery, which our citizens deserve, then I am for it.”
A new analysis of the costs of preventable COVID hospitalizations finds a $5.7 billion dollar cost for the last three months, according to CNN via the Gwinnett Daily Post.
This most recent data takes into account the surge in hospitalizations seen in August, which study authors estimate accounted for $3.7 billion of preventable spending alone.
The data analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation found, using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as studies on health care costs, that each preventable Covid-19 hospitalization costs about $20,000.
The study authors used “preventable” hospitalizations to refer to hospitalizations of unvaccinated adults for Covid-19 treatment primarily, while accounting for any post-vaccination infections that would have been expected if this population had been vaccinated.
The study authors said this number is likely a conservative estimate of costs.
The study did not account for outpatient care costs, and some data indicates inpatient health care costs for Covid-19 treatment may be higher than the $20,000 figure used.
Two Bulloch County Board of Education members said they would favor a mask mandate in the county schools, according to the Statesboro Herald.
Two of the eight Bulloch County Board of Education members informally called for a mask mandate during last week’s meeting, and a third, who is a public health college dean, again declared that “masks help” to slow the spread of COVID-19.
But several of the others expressed opposition to requiring face masks for students, teachers and staff members.
Glynn County Board of Education members voted down a proposal to repeal their existing mask mandate, according to The Brunswick News.
School board member Mike Hulsey made a motion at the end of the board’s meeting, after the members returned from private executive session, to immediately remove the current mask mandate in schools, which are operating in the “yellow” level due to the number of COVID-19 cases among students and staff.
The motion failed 2-4. Hulsey and board chairman Marcus Edgy voted to remove the mandate, and members Eaddy Sams, John Madala, Audrey Gibbons and Hank Yeargan voted against it. Board member Jerry Mancil was not present for the meeting.
“I’d like to stick to the plan,” Yeargan said. “It’s confusing enough. I’m with everybody that I would love not to have to have masks, but this is the plan we set forth on last week. And we’ll reevaluate it on Friday.”
The Dalton Board of Education approved higher pay for substitute teachers and additional leave days, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
School employees had paid COVID-19 leave until Dec. 31, 2020 thanks to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act which Congress elected not to extend into 2021, and the measure adopted 4-0 — Chairman Matt Evans was absent — provides seven days of paid leave this school year for employees “for anything COVID-19 related,” said Mendy Woods, Dalton Public Schools’ chief human resources officer. That includes a positive test, need to quarantine or having to care for a family member with COVID-19.
The policy is effective retroactive to July 1, so employees who have already taken leave due to COVID-19 can use these seven days for coverage, said Superintendent Tim Scott. The policy will continue through June 2022.
The board members also approved 4-0 a $10 increase for substitute pay. The daily rate for substitute teachers is now $85, the daily rate for substitute paraprofessionals is now $75, the daily rate for long-term substitute teachers is now $120 and the daily rate for long-term substitutes with teaching certification is now $135.
Also approved 4-0 is a $35 stipend for teachers who forfeit their planning period to cover another classroom.
The Columbia County School District continues to face a substitute teacher shortage, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
On Aug. 24, superintendent Dr. Steven Flynt announced the district only had 60% of substitutes needed. The Board of Education approved a stipend system that would pay $500 at the end of each semester to those working 80-100% of school days, $250 to those working 50-79% of school days and $125 to those working 25-49% of school days. The district had a similar stipend last year.
According to the district’s online salary schedule, substitutes make $80-$85 per day depending on their rank or $130 per day for short-term assignments. Applicants must also complete a training course, which costs $39.95, and must pass with a score of 85% or higher. The diploma for the course must be uploaded with the application.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Flynt said they are now at 55% of needed substitutes and that the district may explore increasing pay for those positions as neighboring counties have done the same. Board chairman David Dekle proposed the idea of looking into benefits for substitutes as well. Flynt said the district would put together a recommendation for the board in the coming weeks and make sure it fits within the budget.
Rome city schools will take teacher work days on September 20th and 27th, according to the Rome News Tribune.
“Because our students have been having lunch in the classrooms, our teachers have been using their planning period to cover other classes as a result,” Byars told the school board. “We want to give them an opportunity to plan their lessons and give our students an opportunity to catch up on any lost class time due to being quarantined.”
The 2021 AthFest Music & Arts Festival has been canceled after Athens-Clarke County did not issue permits due to COVID numbers, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
LaGrange Police said they’re concerned by the number of overdoses this year, according to WTVM.
LaGrange police say they’re concerned about the small increase in fatal drug overdose cases they’ve investigated so far this year.
“Our concern is that people are taking these drugs thinking they’re taking something else, but then they’re dying,” said Lt. Mark Cavender at the LaGrange Police Department.
Lt. Cavender says some people have been buying laced pills off the street.
“They think they’re actually buying the Roxycodone or the Oxycodone when in actuality they’re buying a cheaper version of it that’s being made somewhere else, stamped somewhere else,” said Lt. Cavender.
Lt. Cavender says the four deaths they’ve seen were because of people taking pills laced with deadly amounts of Fentanyl.
“Instead of it having the Oxycodone in it, it actually has fentanyl,” said Lt. Cavender. “You don’t know what amount of fentanyl you’re actually getting. One pill could not kill you, whereas the other pill could have a fatal dose of fentanyl mixed in.”
The City of Perry will host a job fair to help restaurants and other businesses having trouble hiring enough employees, according to 13WMAZ.
The City of Perry says restaurants will offer wages up to $17 per hour. The job fair happens next Wednesday at the Perry Events Center from 2- 4 p.m.
Georgia state and local government payrolls are down since the pandemic began, according to a national report cited by the AJC.
State and local government hiring has lagged the economic recovery from the COVID pandemic, a new report says.
And Georgia has seen a bigger decline in non-education state and local government jobs than most states in the Southeast, according to the report by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The public policy non-profit looked at the number of non-school, state and local government jobs — from police officers and prison guards to library and roads workers — before the pandemic and this summer.
In Georgia, those jobs fell 4.4% between July 2019 and this July, from 245,500 to 234,600.
Many state and local governments shed jobs or furloughed workers when the pandemic hit as they feared a recession and big loss of tax revenue.
State and local governments have also seen a steady stream of retirements and other turnover, and the report said they are finding it difficult to fill jobs in areas such as health care, road maintenance and corrections.
State agencies in Georgia were already cutting unfilled jobs before the pandemic in an effort to meet Gov. Brian Kemp’s call to slash budgets. Kemp asked for the spending reductions in late 2019 because he feared an economic slowdown.
The Gwinnett County Fair opens today after being shut down for 2020, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
The Georgia State Senate Study Committee on University Fees heard testimony, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Athens Banner Herald.
The fees even part-time and graduate students are forced to pay each semester have grown significantly, particularly since the Great Recession, Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, told members of a Senate study committee created this year to examine the issue and make recommendations.
“Every parent of a USG student sees a long list of fees when they pay the tuition bill,” she said. That bill doesn’t make them happy, especially when the HOPE scholarship doesn’t cover fees.”
Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, who joined Harrell in sponsoring the resolution creating the study committee, said the fees became a greater concern when the coronavirus pandemic shut down college campuses last year, making student activities financed by many of the fees unavailable.
While there are dozens of mandatory and elective fees, Harrell said one of the largest – the institutional fee – was a product of the Great Recession. She said her daughter, who attends Georgia Tech, is being charged an institutional fee of $544 per semester.
Teresa MacCartney, the university system’s acting chancellor, said the institutional fee was intended as a temporary measure to help offset the economic impacts of the recession when the Board of Regents approved it in 2009.
However, state tax revenues were slow to recover during the years following the economic downturn, even as enrollment across the system grew with students laid off because of the economy signing up for college classes.
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College President David Bridges announced he will retire at the end of the year, according to the Albany Herald.
Yoon-mi Hampton was sworn in to the Lilburn City Council, according to the AJC.
Yoon-mi Hampton is now the first Black councilmember in Lilburn and the first person of Asian descent to hold that role in Gwinnett County, but said she hopes one day her race won’t matter.
Hampton took office during Monday’s City Council meeting after running unopposed in a special election for Post 1. The new councilwoman will complete the unexpired term of Lindsay Voigt that ends in December 2023. Voigt resigned earlier this year due to relocating outside of city limits.
Yoon-mi Hampton is now the first Black councilmember in Lilburn and the first person of Asian descent to hold that role in Gwinnett County, but said she hopes one day her race won’t matter.
Hampton took office during Monday’s City Council meeting after running unopposed in a special election for Post 1. The new councilwoman will complete the unexpired term of Lindsay Voigt that ends in December 2023. Voigt resigned earlier this year due to relocating outside of city limits.
My congratulations and condolences to Council Member Hampton.
Alpharetta City Council candidate Donna Murphy was found to be eligible for the ballot, according to the AJC.
City Council candidate Donna Murphy has met the qualifications to run and serve in office according to state law and the city charter, Erin Cobb said in a Tuesday statement. Cobb, who is also City Clerk, announced her decision Tuesday following a public hearing on the matter that was held on Monday.
“I feel it was purely political and it was personally difficult,” Murphy said, Wednesday, of questions raised about her eligibility to be a candidate.
Murphy, 61, is running for City Council Post 1 against incumbent Donald Mitchell. Her candidacy was questioned by Clifford Martin, a longtime resident. He alleges that Murphy doesn’t live in the city, as required to run for office, and filed an official challenge to her qualifications with the city clerk’s office on Sept. 1.
Martin said he plans to take action through the Secretary of State’s office to have Murphy’s voter registration card invalidated.
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