Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for August 31, 2021

On August 31, 1864, Confederates charged Union forces at the Battle of Jonesboro, in which the CSA suffered more than 1400 casualties in one hour.

On August 31, 1955, the first solar powered car was demonstrated by William Cobb of General Motors.

On August 31, 1965, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which the Senate had previously passed.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

From 13WMAZ:

Governor Brian Kemp and state officials gave an update on COVID-19 in Georgia on Monday afternoon.

In it, he detailed his latest executive order that he signed earlier in the day.

It calls up 1,500 additional Georgia National Guard troops to help with the state’s COVID-19 response. That raises the total statewide up to 2,500 troops helping hospitals and other healthcare groups.

The order also continues the suspension of federal rules and regulations for operators of commercial vehicles to ensure an ‘uninterrupted supply of healthcare supplies.’

Kemp also encouraged Georgians on the fence about being vaccinated to speak with their healthcare providers.

Georgia Department of Public Health commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, spoke next and said the state is behind with the Delta surge.

“We are now approaching among the worst cases in both case numbers and hospitalizations we’ve had since January — in some cases actually worse in some parts of the state than we were in January,” said Toomey.

She says a significant number of those cases are school-age children and they’ve quadrupled in the last few weeks, with the sharpest increase being in the 11-17 age group.

“Children can transmit the virus and they are becoming infected. Fortunately not as many are becoming hospitalized,” said Toomey.

From GPB News:

Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday may have, perhaps, made his most direct plea for Georgians to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

“I mean, the numbers do not lie; 95% of the people in the hospital with COVID-19 have not been vaccinated,” Kemp told reporters during a news conference. “And I would urge you to do that. That is what we need to unite and focus on instead of having, you know, different mandates and all that.”

Now, Kemp told Georgians again that, “Vaccination is our tool to get us out of this pandemic.”

“This is America; and this is Georgia,” Kemp said. “And you can do that, but the fact is you’re going to remain at risk of being in the hospital with COVID-19. And (the unvaccinated) run the risk of being on a ventilator. You run the risk of being on a ventilator for two or three weeks and then dying. And that is the decision that everyone’s going to have to make.”

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Gov. Brian Kemp is preparing to call up as many as 2,500 additional Georgia National Guard troops to help overwhelmed hospitals combat the coronavirus pandemic, the latest in a string of escalating steps to contain a resurgence of the disease that’s nearing new peaks.

For the first time, the governor on Monday also announced a state subsidy designed to encourage more state employees and retirees to receive their vaccinations, in hopes of boosting inoculation rates that are among the nation’s lowest.

Kemp’s executive order allows him to deploy the National Guard troops to health care facilities struggling with a crush of new infections. He said the troops would carry out nonmedical duties, such as helping to direct traffic and clean hospitals.

The goal, Kemp said, is to free overworked health care staffers from other duties so they can focus on caring for patients. He cleared the way for the deployment after consulting with hospital executives who complained of a severe nursing shortage.

n separate measures designed to shore up the state’s health care system, Kemp said he would loosen regulations for shipping compressed oxygen amid supply shortages. And he directed $4.5 million to a state initiative that coordinates hospital bed space and emergency services.

“Those are very significant steps,” said Dr. Carlos Del Rio, an Emory University infectious disease expert who has frequently criticized Kemp’s approach. “He realizes that hospitals are in trouble, and I can tell you, we’re really struggling.”

The governor has long opposed lotteries and other efforts to spur vaccination that he deemed gimmicky and ineffective. He also has firmly rejected vaccine mandates and mask requirements. But his aides have explored other incentives to boost vaccination rates.

Under the new policy, about 325,000 Georgians covered by the State Health Benefit Plan who are fully vaccinated will be eligible for a “well-being incentive” that’s equal to a $150 Visa gift card or $480 in credits for health care expenses. That applies retroactively to those who have already received their jabs, Kemp’s office said.

The Executive Order is #08.30.21.01.

From Georgia Health News:

About 325,000 State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) members are eligible for the incentive, Kemp said at a press conference. It would equate to a $150 Visa gift card or $480 in credits that can be used for various health care expenses such as co-pays and co-insurance.

A state website shows that as of Aug. 16, just 22 percent of SHBP members 12 and older had been vaccinated for the coronavirus. The state’s overall vaccination rate is 43 percent.

Kemp also announced at the press conference a new executive order to speed the delivery of oxygen supplies to help hospitals treating Covid patients.

A rural hospital CEO in Georgia said Monday that “the oxygen shortage is real. And it’s scary.’’ The CEO requested anonymity.

“We’ve seen the highest weekly number of Covid outbreaks,’’ with more than half occurring at schools, Toomey said.

A National Guard team arrived at Southeast Georgia Health System in Brunswick, according to The Brunswick News.

The team consists of nine patient care assistants and one unit clerk, and 10 additional members will arrive later this week. They will primarily be supporting the hospital’s Emergency Care Center and intensive care units, said Michael D. Scherneck, president and CEO of Southeast Georgia Health System. The National Guard members will also assist the nursing team with direct care for COVID-19 patients.

“As the COVID patient levels continue to rise, our health system team is doing all they can to meet the needs of those patients,” Scherneck said. “Prior to COVID-19, our Brunswick campus daily patient census averaged 180-200. Also prior to COVID-19, we only had a 24-bed ICU. We had to increase the number of patient beds we have to accommodate the growing number of patients we are dealing with at this time.”

The health system has the equipment, beds and personal protective equipment needed to care for the surge in patients, Scherneck said. But staffing resources are limited.

“Our staff’s resilience and dedication is amazing, but even so the burden of this surge is very challenging, physically and emotionally,” he said. “We are pleased that Gov. Kemp made arrangements with the National Guard to provide staff to supplement our team members and to hopefully give them a chance to restore themselves.”

Governor Kemp also issued Executive Order #08.30.21.03, suspending Augusta Commissioner Sammy Sias from office after Sias was indicted by a federal grand jury.

From the Augusta Chronicle:

Gov. Brian Kemp has suspended indicted Augusta Commissioner Sammie Sias from office.

The move frees Kemp to appoint a temporary replacement to represent District 4 on the commission until the criminal case is finalized.

In a Monday order, Kemp said his appointed review commission had determined Sias’ alleged crimes adversely affect the public’s rights and interests.

Sias, 67, was indicted last month in U.S. District Court on two counts: destroying or altering records in a federal investigation and making a false statement about those records.

Per state law the felony indictment was sent to the governor, who appointed a review commission of two county commissioners and Attorney General Chris Carr.

Under the same law Sias will continue to be paid his commissioner salary until the case is disposed or his term ends. He currently earns $17,258. It also grants the authority to appoint a temporary replacement for Sias if no other manner of selecting a temporary appointment exists.

Former Richmond County Coroner Grover Tuten Jr. pled guilty to charges involving theft while in office, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Grover Tuten Jr., 78, pleaded guilty in Richmond County Superior Court to the reduced charges of five counts of theft and three counts of violation of oath by a public officer and agreed to pay full restitution of $46,087.95 in exchange for a probation sentence.

Tuten worked in the coroner’s office 26 years and was elected coroner in 2004. He resigned after he was arrested on theft charges in December 2013. A federal investigation began when the family of a man who died in 2012 reported their suspicions, said Assistant District Attorney Falin Syms. Tuten kept a credit card, changed the pin number and made a number of withdraws from the account in September 2012.

Tuten was indicted by a Richmond County grand jury and by a federal grand jury. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in 2015 to charges related to the use of the pilfered credit card.

In the Richmond County Superior Court case, Tuten pleaded guilty Monday to theft charges in the theft of property and money of people who died between 2006 and 2012. Syms said Monday that the investigation uncovered a bank account in which Tuten stashed money that should have gone into the county coffers. The money that is still in that frozen bank account, $3,800 in cash found in Tuten’s office, and a check from Tuten Monday for $9,182 will complete the restitution, Syms said.

UGA Political Science Professor Charles Bullock weighs in on the pros and cons of Herschel Walker’s candidacy, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.

“Those who remember his success at UGA will give him a leg up in name recognition,” said Charles Bullock, a longtime political science professor at the university in Athens.

There are examples of football celebrity leading to the halls of Congress. Former University of Oklahoma quarterback J. C. Watts and Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Steve Largent both served in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 1990s and early 2000s representing Oklahoma.

But Bullock said the decades that have passed since the Walker era at UGA likely won’t hurt his chances for the Republican Senate nomination because of the makeup of the GOP electorate in Georgia.

“The voters in the Republican primary are going to be white, older voters,” Bullock said. “They’re more likely to remember his glory days.”

Bullock said another advantage Walker will enjoy with GOP voters is his close ties with Trump. Their friendship goes back to 1984, when Trump was part owner of the New Jersey Generals of the upstart United States Football League, where Walker began his pro career.

“A component of the [primary] electorate will say, ‘He’s Trump’s man. That’s all we need to know,’ ” Bullock said.

But to the extent Trump helps Walker in the Republican primary, his close ties to the former president likely will hurt him in the general election, Bullock said. That has Georgia Republicans who want the party to move away from Trump worried.

“If any Republican in Georgia told you they didn’t have concerns about his candidacy, they’d be lying to you. We all have concerns,” Chip Lake, a Georgia-based GOP strategist told Roll Call, a Washington, D.C., newspaper and website that covers Congress.

Here’s what I want to see: I want to see Herschel Walker in the State of Georgia. If he’s been here since registering to vote and announcing his candidacy, I want to know about it.

First responders are being hit with the COVID wave, according to the Savannah Morning News.

As COVID-19 infections surge within the community, the virus is spreading to local police, emergency responders and firefighters as well, compelling local agencies to explore ways to increase staff vaccination rates.

The recent outbreak is keeping dozens of Savannah-area first-responders out of work, either because they are infected with COVID-19 or were in close contact with others who have the disease, forcing them into quarantine.

Savannah Fire and Savannah Police were down 11 and 10 staffers respectively last week due to COVID-19. The Chatham County Police Department had eight at home and Chatham Emergency Services, which provides countywide ambulance service as well as fire protection to the unincorporated areas, was down six personnel members.

Dougherty County Commissioners voted to pay for a mobile morgue to handle overflow from COVID deaths, according to the Albany Herald.

Several months ago, Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler declared he did not want to order an emergency morgue to deal with an influx of COVID-19 deaths as he implored residents to get vaccinated.

The Dougherty County Commission on Monday approved paying any expenses associated with the mobile unit such as electricity costs and rental space.

As of Monday, 307 county residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died, the coroner said during an interview following the commission meeting. Fowler said his most recent cases involved pronouncing the deaths of two individuals who died in their homes.

Phoebe officials reported Friday that 17 patients had died of the disease over the previous seven days.

The morgue space the county rents inside the hospital has space for only three bodies.

“We’re not full right now,” Fowler said. “(But) along with the drug overdoses we have and homicides we get and COVID, the morgue can fill up overnight. Drug overdoses are definitely spiking. The way we’re filling up with COVID cases right now, we definitely need a backup plan.”

In some instances, Fowler said he is having to hold bodies for longer periods, waiting on the Department of Public Health to take a sample for testing for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 or while waiting to transfer bodies to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation laboratory for autopsy when required.

“They are backing up at the GBI right now,” he said. “They’re backing up; they have staff on quarantine.”

Fowler said bodies must be taken to the GBI in cases of homicide, overdose, suicide or when the cause of death is undetermined.

Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson is considering declaring a state of emergency, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

With over 170 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Columbus, a resolution to re-impose a public health state of emergency will be up for a vote at Tuesday’s Council meeting.

“There’s a lot of folks who are a little nervous because the numbers have gone up,” he said.

The city uses hospitalization numbers as a key indicator of how the community is holding up to the spread of the virus, Henderson said, and Columbus is hovering around 174 people hospitalized.

“The biggest challenge (the hospitalization number) represents is there’s a lot of folks that need non-COVID medical care,” he said. “And so, it’s hard for them to get in there, get a room and have access to the care they need.”

The resolution to declare a public health emergency states that all citizens, vaccinated or not, are strongly encouraged to wear masks in indoor settings. Those who are unvaccinated are encouraged to get the vaccine.

The resolution does not create a mandate for masks or vaccinations, but it does give Henderson authority to implement social distancing and face mask requirements in the future in response to changing COVID conditions.

Protestors outside Georgia State University voiced demands for stricter COVID protocols, according to the AJC.

About two dozen Georgia State University educators and students held a rare demonstration on its Atlanta campus Monday to demand a mask mandate to limit the spread of COVID-19

Chanting “Stop the spread!,” the demonstrators asked Georgia State officials to break with the University System of Georgia and the state’s Board of Regents, which have strongly recommended, but have not required students wear masks or face coverings.

“It doesn’t make sense to not mandate masks or vaccines and take other measures to keep people safe,” said Wendy Simonds, a sociology and gerontology professor at the university for more than 25 years.

Pike County has closed several schools to go online due to COVID, according to the Pike County Journal-Reporter.

As COVID-19 cases in Pike continue to climb, school officials announced the closing of several Pike schools, including the middle school, Ninth Grade Academy, PCAP, Zebulon High and Pike County High School. Students went to school Friday, Aug. 27 in order to get materials for distance learning this week and they will return to the classroom after the Labor Day holiday.

Pre-K, primary and elementary schools will remain open for in-person learning.

“As most of you know, our school system has been hit hard with both Positive Cases of COVID-19 and the requirement that we quarantine students and staff that are identified as a close contact to each positive case,” said a message from the school. “Our district is now at a place where we have a large percentage of students and staff at grades 6-12 who are not able to come to work or school. We are also having those same challenges with our bus drivers and are having difficulty getting all of the routes covered. Our hope is that next week gives everyone a chance to get healthy and allow quarantines to expire so that we are all ready for a fresh start on Sept. 7.”

Bulloch County Schools will close Friday to allow staff and students a “vaccination holiday,” according to the Statesboro Herald.

The Bulloch County Schools system has added Gov. Brian Kemp’s state “vaccine holiday,” this Friday, to its calendar as a day when the schools will be closed.

Two weeks ago, Kemp announced the closing of nonessential state offices Sept. 3 as an added opportunity for state employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and as a reward for those who have already done so.

Bulloch County Superintendent of Schools Charles Wilson, after conferring with Board of Education members and other leaders in the school district, made the decision Aug. 27 to close the schools on Friday, Sept. 3, according to a press release issued Saturday.

Added to what was already to be a four-day Labor Day holiday weekend for students and a three-day weekend for teachers and other faculty members, the day will allow school employees who want to get the COVID vaccine time to do so and parents of children age 12 and up who are eligible for vaccination to make decisions, stated the news release issued by Hayley Greene, the Bulloch County Schools public relations director.

Some Lowndes County parents want a virtual attendance option for public school students, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

The groups main goal is working for a virtual option for students. The virtual option would help eliminate the overcrowded buses and relieve the stress of bus rides and allow students and parents who want to attend face-to-face with or without masks to continue and those who want to attend virtually the option.

“Being stressed lowers the response of defending against infections of any illness,” Chaney said. “Students don’t feel comfortable going to school which is a mental health issue.”

Bushey said, “My husband and I chose to move to this area based on the school system, and from our research, Lowndes County Schools ranked the highest in the benchmark and set the standard for the area.

“This past school year we were able to allow our children back face-to-face when schools reopened because LCS were mandating masks and there was no issue. But this school year has been infuriating.”

Wayne County public schools will go virtual beginning today, according to WTOC.

The Wayne County School System has announced that students will return to virtual learning on Tuesday, September 7 due to rising COVID-19 cases in the county.

Tuesday, August 31 will be an “optional attendance school day” for Wayne County students, according to the release. Staff will be required to work.

Wayne County schools will remain closed from the week, from Wednesday, September 1 through Friday, September 3. Staff and students have Monday, September 6 off for the Labor Day holiday, and virtual learning will begin on Tuesday, September 7.

The district also announced that all extracurricular activities are postponed beginning Tuesday, August 31.

More Henry County schools are transitioning to virtual, according to the AJC.

Rock Spring Elementary School, Stockbridge Middle School and Locust Grove and Luella high schools will switch to virtual classes through Monday, Sept. 6 because of increasing numbers of individuals required to quarantine, the district said.

They are joined by Locust Grove and Ola middle schools, which pivoted to online education last week because of quarantines related to the coronavirus and is doing so again.

The Floyd County Board of Education will eliminate an attendance incentive for teachers, according to the Rome News Tribune.

“We decided that this is not the time to do it,” Superintendent Glenn White said at a called board meeting and work session. “I don’t want that kind of stress on teachers and I don’t want sick teachers in our schools.”

Over the summer, the school board and White implemented a new attendance incentive for teachers and para pros who don’t take more than two days of sick leave to qualify for a $500 bonus at the end of each semester, with the possibility of receiving an extra $1,000 for the whole school year.

Going off the attendance incentive, White came up with the idea of offering all employees a $500 incentive after they get fully vaccinated.

“Just show us the card and you get it,” White said. “I want them to take the vaccine, but I won’t mandate it.”

After running some numbers, White estimated that if all of their employees choose to get vaccinated, it would cost the school system $685,000.

The school system is so close. They ran half the cost-benefit analysis on vaccination. If the school system is self-insured, it could be a huge savings from preventing just one hospitalization. But we won’t know unless they estimate the benefits.

Georgia State Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) campaigned for Lieutenant Governor in Statesboro, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Sen. Butch Miller, president pro tempore of the Georgia Senate, was elected to that role by Georgia’s state senators of both parties. But campaigning to step up to lieutenant governor, the Republican takes credit for the controversial “election integrity” law enacted after Democrats carried Georgia in key federal races.

His role in the passage of that law, as Senate Bill 202, amounted to getting the final version “across the finish line” after ideas from a separate bill he had introduced were rolled into it. But it was also Miller who, joined by other Republican legislators, first called for an ongoing “performance audit” of Fulton County’s election practices under provisions of the new law.

Miller had been scheduled to speak Monday to the Rotary Club of Statesboro. But after the Rotary meeting was cancelled, he spoke to an informal group of two dozen or more people over box lunches at the Bulloch Fertilizer headquarters. In a brief interview preceding the luncheon, his stance on elections was not the first issue he mentioned, but it followed soon after economic development and “law and order.”

“We want to make sure that we have economic development. We want to make sure that we have quality jobs,” Miller said. “I want Georgia to continue to be the state that young people can raise a family in and thrive, not to come home to at Christmas and Thanksgiving to see their grandparents and parents. I want Georgia to be the state that leads.”

Miller mentioned his role in passing “the largest tax cut … in the history of Georgia,” as well as Senate Bill 202, among his credentials.

“One of the big issues across the country, across the state that I’ve been hearing, is the elections integrity bill,” he said during the interview. “Again, I was the person who got that across the finish line, I was the person that initiated the performance audit of Fulton County; 26 of my colleagues signed onto that; I initiated that letter, so I’m the one that’s driving that investigation.”

“When I found out how profoundly disabled my oldest child was, I was a broken man spiritually, emotionally and mentally and truly didn’t know how I was going to go on, and the people of Georgia picked me up, dusted me off and put me back on my feet, and that’s why I’m running for lieutenant governor,” Butch Miller said. “I want to do the same thing for people all over this state, help people all over this state.”

I’m not sure I’d have wanted to be the person to tell a politician that due to a venue change, they’ll be speaking at a fertilizer company headquarters. Too many irresistible jokes there.

Some Athens liberals protested in favor of teaching Critical Race Theory, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

Activists, officials, educators, and residents gathered in support of teachers and to speak out against the banning of critical race theory in classrooms. critical race theory, often shortened to CRT, is a decades-old academic concept examining how race and racism shaped U.S. history, and how laws and systems today perpetuate racism.

“This resolution to ban critical race theory and talking of systemic racism, in general, is just tragically comic to me,” Andrews said. “Systemic racism is present in the Declaration of Independence, I know because I’m an American Literature teacher.”

Brunswick will apply for a $17.6 million dollar federal grant to improve broadband access, according to The Brunswick News.

High-speed, affordable broadband could become available to nearly 6,900 households in Brunswick if the city is awarded a $17.6 million federal grant to improve service citywide.

City Manager Regina McDuffie told members of the city’s finance committee at Monday’s meeting that the grant covers “last mile” service, meaning the direct connection to residents’ homes.

The good news is there is the grant does not require the city to pay for a portion of the project.

“There is not financial commitment by the city at all,” McDuffie said.

The city has also applied for a state grant to help enhance broadband service, but McDuffie said she is uncertain what financial obligation, if any, the city would have to pay for the state grant.

The Whitfield County Board of Education voted to retain the same property tax millage rate it has had for ten years, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

With the property tax rate of 18.756 mills, the school system projects revenues of $28.5 million, said Kelly Coon, chief financial officer. That’s in line with the number outlined in the fiscal year 2022 budget approved this summer by the school board. The fiscal year started July 1.

The budget for fiscal year 2022 has $125.9 million in estimated general fund revenues and approximately $127.2 million in general fund expenditures. The projected general fund balance at the end of fiscal year 2022 is roughly $31.4 million.

To calculate the tax bill, one can take the assessed value of a home, which is 40% of fair market value, according to Coon. A mill equals $1 per $1,000 of assessed value, and then the resulting figure is multiplied by the property tax rate for the final total.

A tax bill increase applies only “if your neighborhood was reassessed this year,” she said. “If your property was not reassessed, there will be no increase to your tax bill.”

Though the rate remains at 18.756 mills for another year, state law requires this to be advertised as a tax increase since the state measures not against the actual prior-year rate but rather against the “rollback rate,” according to Whitfield County Schools. The rollback rate is calculated by subtracting any increase in the tax digest due to reassessments. Without the increase, the property tax rate would be no more than 18.461 mills.

Floyd County Board of Education members are considering a new Local Option Sales Tax for Education (E-LOST), according to the Rome News-Tribune.

As the Floyd County school system begins to plan its next education local option sales tax package, the Armuchee community voiced frustration and said they’re still waiting on the school system to finish the high school modernization project.

When the 2017 ELOST was passed, two projects were labeled as “top tier”: a new Pepperell Middle School building and an Armuchee High School campus modernization.

[Superintendent Glenn] White and the Floyd County Board of Education plan to address many of the stated issues from Armuchee in the new ELOST, but the proposal would fall under an umbrella with the other high schools.

The ELOST process is a very long and drawn out process and includes both the county school system and Rome City Schools.