Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for August 23, 2017

On August 23, 1784, four counties is western North Carolina declared themselves the State of Franklin, setting up its own Constitution and treaties with local Indian tribes. In 1788, they rejoined North Carolina but would eventually become part of a new state, Tennessee.

The Kimball Opera House, serving as the Georgia State Capitol, was sold to the state on August 23, 1870.

On August 23, 1961, four African-American citizens attempted to play tennis at Bitsy Grant Tennis Center in Atlanta, which was informally “whites only.” The Tennis Center was hastily closed rather than allow them to play, but it was the first volley leading to the eventual desegregation of Atlanta’s public recreation facilities.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Eight overdoses since Saturday in middle Georgia are being blamed on counterfeit Percocet pills.

Eight overdoses reported in Houston and Bibb counties since Saturday are suspected to be related to poisonous tablets being sold on the streets under the guise of a prescription pain killer.

One person overdosed in Macon on Monday after taking some of the round white pills Bibb County sheriff’s Lt. Randy Gonzalez called “fake Percocets.”

Seven others were hospitalized for suspected overdoses in Houston County, and some of them are only breathing with aide from ventilators, Warner Robins Police Department said in a news release Tuesday. The patients range in age from 25 to 60.

The suspicious white pill reportedly being passed around now is thick and glossy, Warner Robins police said. The letters “RP” are embossed on one side of the pills with a“10” above “325” on the other.

Warner Robins Assistant Police Chief John Wagner said the first of the overdoses in Houston County was reported Saturday night. One overdose occurred in Centerville, and the remainder in Warner Robins, he said.

Those who overdosed either came into the Houston Medical Center emergency room, or emergency responders were dispatched to their homes and, in one case, to a place of business, Wagner said.

“We can’t say that there is a for-sure link with that,” Wagner said. “But that is something that we definitely investigate to see if indeed they moved from yellow pill to white pill, the same person or the same supplier. … Or do we have a new person or a new type of pill that’s on the street that we need to be worried about from a totally different source?”

Anyone with any information about the fake prescription pills is urged to call Warner Robins police at 478-302-5380 or call Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68-CRIME.

From the Macon Telegraph:

So far, the patients range in age from 25 to 60.

Congressman Jody Hice (R-Monroe) and Doug Collins (R-Gainesville), along with Senators Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, reacted to President Trump’s speech on Afghanistan.

“President Trump’s strategy for South Asia focuses on achieving security for America and stability in Afghanistan within a complex regional context,” Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, said in a press statement. “As an Iraq veteran, I welcome renewed American resolve to defeat terrorism and its enablers so that the world and every person in it enjoys more peace tomorrow than they knew yesterday.”

“I support a strategy in Afghanistan that protects our homeland and prevents Afghanistan from once again becoming a haven for terrorists to plot attacks against the United States,” Senator Johnny Isakson said. “The president tonight (Monday) outlined a tough and thoughtful strategy following the guidance of General Mattis and our military leaders. Our commanders in the field must have what they need to keep us safe and get the job done.”

“While his decision was not reached easily, it must be considered in the context of the previous policies which have failed,” 10th District Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro, said. “Most notably, when President Obama set an arbitrary timeline for withdrawing from Iraq, the coalitions we worked so hard to craft fell apart, setting the stage for ISIS and other terrorist organizations to fill the void. Simply put, we cannot repeat this legacy in Afghanistan.”

“The Trump Administration’s regional approach will take into account the interrelationship of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, while working to counter destructive foreign interests,” Senator David Perdue said. “Last month, I visited with General Nicholson, his commanders, the Afghan military and our troops on the ground, and this is exactly the type of plan and leadership from the White House they said they need.”

Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore will speak in Lilburn this week.

Roy Moore, is expected to be the keynote speaker at a “Defending Our Religious Liberties” Seminar hosted by Citizen Impact — USA in Lilburn this week.

The group will hold the seminar from 12:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. at Berean Baptist church, 1405 Hewatt Road, but Moore is expected to speak at 7 p.m. Moore is currently facing Luther Strange in a run-off for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former seat in the U.S. Senate.

Candidates for governor are also expected to speak during the 7 p.m. segment of the seminar.

Admission to the evening session only is $10, but admission to the entire day of breakout sessions costs $30. There is also an VIP dinner, which costs extra. Tickets can be purchased at https://citizenimpact.ticketspice.com/2017-defending-our-religious-liberties-seminar.

The University System of Georgia has released their annual economic impact study, which shows among other things, that Kennesaw State University has an economic impact greater than $1.4 billion on its surrounding area.

The total impact of all 28 USG institutions on their host communities was $16.8 billion in FY 2016.

The University System’s measure of economic impact reflects direct and indirect spending that contributes to the regions served by its colleges and universities. Each regional economy benefits from institutional spending for personnel services and operating expenses, as well as student spending.

Of Kennesaw State’s FY 2016 total economic impact, $862 million is initial spending by the institutions for personnel services and operating expenses and student spending. The remaining $546 million of the output impact was created by re-spending – the multiplier effect of the dollars that are spent again in the region.

“We are proud that Kennesaw State serves as a powerful engine of the regional economy,” said President Sam Olens. “It’s so gratifying to know that as the University works to fulfill its primary mission on behalf of our students, it is also playing such an important role in keep the region moving and growing.”

Georgia Gwinnett College totes up an economic impact of $451 million per year.

The college announced on Tuesday that the University System of Georgia’s annual analysis of the economic impact its school have on their communities showed GGC’s impact totaled up to $451 million. That marks an increase of nearly $35 million from the year before, giving college officials reason on cheer.

“GGC has become a catalyst for job creation in the county,” Georgia Gwinnett College President Stas Preczewski said in a statement. “Expanding our reach within the community we serve allows for positive and sustainable economic development.”

For some perspective, Georgia Gwinnett County employed 4,596 people. During the year that was looked at for the research, the college’s student spending impact was pegged at $238.7 million while operating expenses totaled $68.4 million and personnel services rang up to a total of nearly $144.6 million.

“By fall 2017, the college will surpass 5,000 graduates,” Preczewski said. “Those alumni will go on to become entrepreneurs and gainfully employed citizens in the local community who will drive future economic growth.”

The University of West Georgia’s Newnan campus has seen dramatic growth the last year.

Fall enrollment at the Newnan campus of the University of West Georgia soared by nearly one-third over last year, according to figures administrators released last week.

The 979 students signed up for the 83 classes at the campus is 31.5 percent higher than the 744 in place last fall. The number is edging toward the school’s 1,000 interim goal.

“I’m so excited about the growth,” said Provost Michael Crafton. “The rate is fantastic.”

Kennesaw City Council passed a resolution by a 4-1 vote asking the General Assembly to reconsider legislation that prevents local government from removing or modifying monuments.

Kennesaw council members passed their resolution by a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Jim Sebastian the sole vote against it.

“This resolution, at this point, is nothing but a temporary action, placating the proverbial squeaky wheel,” said Sebastian, who was not in attendance but took part in the meeting and cast his vote by phone. “Until the legislature takes action, it’s still going to come back to all the municipalities to deal with and will most likely not be what was requested or intended by any individual or municipality, and then it’s going to become the responsibility of each of those municipalities to have to confront this individually and all the other issues.”

In this particular case, we should be pursuing the ability and the right to have referendums,” Sebastian said. “We can’t do that today, so we should be pushing something like this so our voters can speak to us, and we in the city can act according to their views, not the views of individuals or small groups and their personal agendas.”

The resolution does not take down or otherwise have any effect on the flag that is displayed in the city’s Commemorative Park, as state law prevents officials from state or local governments or any agency to remove monument, plaques, markers or memorials regarding military service of any personnel from the state, the United States or the Confederate States of America.

Gwinnett County election officials sent out their first-ever bi-lingual notices to voters.

The county sent out 12,000 bilingual letter to voters in Lilburn and Snellville on Friday to let them know their city polling locations had changed. It said Lilburn voters must now go to the new Lilburn City Hall at 340 Main St., while Snellville voters must now go to the Snellville Senior Center at 2350 Oak Road.

“The Voter Registrations and Elections Division provides voter registration material and oral assistance in Spanish and continues to seek input from the public about ways to better serve the Hispanic community,” county officials said in a statement. “The division created an online feedback form, and its staff is attending community events to publicize these new changes and recruit for bilingual poll officials.”

Last December, the U.S. Census Bureau added Gwinnett County to a list of jurisdictions across the country that must provide assistance to voters whose primary language is not English. More specifically, Gwinnett was the only county on the list because it is the first county in the state to be declared a language minority jurisdiction by federal officials.

The language assistance requirement falls under Section 203 of the Voting Right Act, and Gwinnett was added to the list because, looking at a five-year period of 2010-2014, the number of Hispanic residents in the county hit an estimated 108,165 people.

Census data released at the time estimated that there were 45,285 voting-age Hispanic residents, and that 10,555 of those people spoke Spanish at home, and spoke English “less than very well.”

More recent population estimates, from the Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey, shows that 174,843 Hispanic residents are believed to live in Gwinnett County, about 20.3 percent of the county’s total population. The demographic data from the 2016, which lists Gwinnett’s total population as an estimated 907,135 people, has not yet been released.

By comparison, there were 64,137 Hispanic people living in Gwinnett 17 years ago, making up about 10.9 percent of the total population at the time, according to data from the 200o Census.

There were 32,735 registered Hispanic voters in Gwinnett County as of Aug. 1, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. That is up by 5,795 people from roughly 26,940 Hispanic people who were registered to vote in the county on Nov. 1.

Banks County Commissioners voted to loan the county Development Authority $700,000.

The development authority is an arm of any local government,” Hooper said. “They are in a position right now that we’ve built Diana Foods, and as part of the economic development they needed to put in some roads. Right now, they’re a little short on money and need to put it in, and we’re going to give them a short-term loan.”

Commissioners said the development authority’s income and assets will secure the loan.

“They’ve got plenty of collateral with the property and the tipping fees that come in from the landfill,” Hooper said. “They’re just in a cashflow problem right now and will be for a while, but we’ve got a lot of other things in the works and it’s just the beginning of a lot of big improvements and projects in Banks County.”

Hall County Commissioners were asked to remove a confederate monument that stands in Gainesville Square.

“Today I want to appeal to your sense of decency and honor to do all that you can to remove the Confederate monument from the center of Gainesville Square,” Anderson told commissioners.

“I realize that you need to try to renegotiate, or simply break, the unfortunate lease that Hall County renewed with the United Daughters of the Confederacy,” she continued.

Erected in 1909 by the Longstreet Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the 99-year lease with Hall County, owners of the land beneath the statue, expired in 2008.  The lease was subsequently extended for an additional 25-year term.

But simply removing the statue is not so simple according to Hall County officials.  There are legal implications.

“We do have a lease arrangement…that was completed in 2008,” County Administrator Randy Knighton said.  “The latest iteration of it…runs through 2033.”

“The 238-square feet in the center of the square is actually owned by Hall County,” Knighton added.

The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority awarded nearly $13 million in grants to five Northwest Georgia communities.

The League of Women Voters Rome Chapter will hold a voting rights forum on Saturday from 10:30 AM to 1:30 AM at the Rome-Floyd County Library, 205 Riverside Parkway in Rome.

“This is for everybody — civics teachers, candidates, anybody who’s even just mildly curious can come and learn from credible sources, reliable sources,” member Lou Ella Hobgood said Tuesday.

Born out of the century-old suffragette movement, the nonpartisan national organization is dedicated to ensuring that all eligible voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots.

In Valdosta, no law prevents more than four unrelated women from living together. Urban legend.

Once upon a time, there was a held belief that sororities in Valdosta were unable to have designated sorority houses due to a “brothel law.”

The “law” supposedly stated if more than four unrelated women lived in a house together, it was deemed a “brothel” and made illegal.

As it turns out, it is a common belief among some Valdosta students and residents that has no historical standing, according to area officials.

“Obviously we had residence halls on college campuses that were only same-sex years ago,” said Dr. Vince Miller, Valdosta State University vice president of student affairs.

Temple City Council adopted the rollback millage rate for property taxes.

Members of the Muscogee County Board of Assessors are not interested in getting publicly flogged.

After weeks of avoiding Columbus Council meetings, two members of the Muscogee County Board of Tax Assessors showed up Tuesday at the request of frustrated council members.

Chester Randolph, chair of the tax assessors board, and Matthew Moorefield, the youngest and newest member, spoke only after councilors insisted that they do so.

Randolph said other tax assessors didn’t show up because of strong comments made by some city councilors regarding unprecedented tax assessment increases throughout the county. Those absent were Lawton Grantham Jr., Daniel Hill and Pat Bettis Hunter.

“They don’t want to stand here and get beat up by City Council,” Randolph said of his fellow assessors. “We’re doing the best job we can do. We’re a part-time board, not full-time. And yet, some of these council members have gone out and encouraged people to beat us up; put our phone numbers out there, put our emails out there and just bombarded us with stuff that we don’t need to be bombarded with.”

“You had my deputy chief here three weeks ago for six hours asking the same questions,” he continued. “Each one of you got to ask the same questions over and over again. I’m saying, ‘That’s dumb.’ … Why beat us up for something that we feel we’ve done right, by the law?”

Randolph said many of the unprecedented tax assessments occurred because some properties were missed over the years due to insufficient resources in the Tax Assessors Office.

“With that being said, the council right here has the ability to control that,” he said. “… You set the millage rate. You set the tax rate, not us. Please understand that. So if the taxes are too high you have the ability to change it by changing the millage rate.”

Elections

State Rep. Brett Harrell (R-Snellville) will face Democrat Faith Chikwekwe next year.

“As a longtime resident of Gwinnett county and the child of a working-class, immigrant family, Faith wants to run for office because there are so many voices in her community who feel unheard,” the group said in a statement. “She will fight to make her district and her state a better place for everyone who lives there.”

Richmond Hill will see some changes in City Council after this year’s elections.

The mayoral position will most certainly be filled by a new person as current Mayor Harold Fowler is in serving the fourth year of his second term and cannot run again due to term limitations the city council voted in during his first term.

Also up for grabs are the city council seats currently held by Russ Carpenter and Johnny Murphy.

Carpenter has qualified for the mayor’s race and thus will not run for reelection as a council member. As of noon Tuesday he was the only candidate who had qualified for any race, although Murphy said he would be qualifying either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.

The general election will be held Nov. 7. If a runoff is required it will be held on Dec. 5. The advanced voting period runs from Oct. 16 through Nov. 3 at the Wetlands Center in J.F. Gregory Park from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Anyone wishing to vote must be registered by 5 p.m. Oct. 10.

The Gainesville Times discusses candidate qualifying in Hall County municipalities.

Cobb County municipal qualifying has been slow so far this week.

As of Tuesday, the local races are mostly uncontested.

In Acworth, incumbent Mayor Tommy Allegood, Post 4 Alderman Tim Richardson and Post 5 Alderman Tim Houston are currently the only candidates for their positions.

In Kennesaw, Antonio “Tony” Jones is set to run for the Post 3 City Council seat currently occupied by Councilman Nimesh Patel, who in July said he was undecided on whether to run again. Jones described himself as a “serial entrepreneur” who currently owns a landscaping business and a logistics business and consults with other small business owners on website design.

David Blinkhorn is set to run for the Post 5 seat held by Councilman Jim Sebastian. Blinkhorn is a buyer for Kennesaw State University.

Neither Patel nor Sebestian have qualified to run as of the end of the day Tuesday.

In Marietta, there is one competitive race so far. Arthur Vaughn, an educator and member of the Marietta High School Governance Team, will challenge banker Jason Waters for the Ward 2 School Board spot.

Albany City Council qualifying has produced a single contested race so far.

The Rev. Ivey Hines and community advocate Haryl Dabney qualified to run for the Ward II seat currently held by incumbent Bobby Coleman on Monday. Coleman told The Albany Herald he plans to complete qualifying requirements Wednesday.

Incumbent Ward III City Commissioner B.J. Fletcher said she too plans to qualify for a run at a second term Wednesday, while Ward V’s Bob Langstaff has not yet said when he plans to complete requirements to seek a fourth four-year term.

Qualifying continues Wednesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Elections office in the 222 Pine Ave. Albany-Dougherty Government Center. Potential candidates for any of the three seats must be at least 21 years of age, have lived in Albany for at least two years, have lived in the ward they want to represent for at least three months from the election date and must pay a $450 qualifying fee.

Johns Creek City Council member Stephanie Endres has qualified for reelection.

Endres was first elected to the Post 5 seat in December 2015, which was vacated by Kelly Stewart when she launched her bid to run for the State House of Representatives.

“I kept my promises to reduce the millage rate, streamline business taxes, increase transparency of financial data, address traffic congestion and effectively advocate for the residents desire to preserve our premier residential bedroom community,” Endres said in her press release.

Endres added she was instrumental in reducing the city’s millage rate and led the city’s efforts to call on the Fulton County Commission to rollback 2017 residential property assessments to the previous year’s levels. She also said she worked to bring residents and city staff together for “better engagement and communication related to the individual resident concerns, neighborhood/HOA concerns and overall city wide issues.”

If she’s re-elected, Endres said she will continue advocating to preserve the city’s quality of life and work on a plan to provide much-needed traffic congestion relief.

Roswell City Council member Lori Henry will run for Mayor.

Henry was elected in April of this year in a runoff election to fill the Post 4 seat, which was vacated in November 2016 with the resignation of Kent Igleheart following his arrest on child sex charges. She notes she brings “vast experience” to the race, including her service in the public and private sector as well as an understanding of the challenges Roswell faces.

“Roswell is in need of leadership and this presents both a challenge and an opportunity,” Henry said. “We’ve seen how leadership has been defined in the past. I believe we have the chance to give that word new and vibrant meaning. Leadership should be inclusive, innovative, build consensus, and consider the rights and wishes of each and every member of our community. I can and will bring this kind of leadership to Roswell.”

Before her special election win, Henry served on the council between 2001 and 2009.

Along with Henry, Councilman Don Horton and residents Michael Litten and Sandra Sidhom are also in the running for the seat. Incumbent Mayor Jere Wood, who was determined by a judge to not have been eligible to qualify for a fifth, four-year term in 2013 due to the City Charter imposing term limits, has said he will not run for re-election.

The Telegraph reviews qualifying in Middle Georgia municipal elections.

The Cherokee Tribune & Ledger News looks at municipal qualifying within Cherokee County.