Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for February 10, 2023

On February 11, 1733, the first military formation in Georgia was held, as male colonists assembled with their muskets.

Sunday is “Georgia Day” celebrating the two-time National Champion Georgia Bulldogs founding of the Thirteenth Colony on February 12, 1733.

After years of planning and two months crossing the Atlantic, James Oglethorpe and 114 colonists climbed 40 feet up the bluff from the Savannah River on this day in 1733 and founded the colony of Georgia.

George II granted the Georgia trustees a charter for the colony a year earlier. The trustees’ motto was Non Sibi Sed Allis—not for self but for others. Georgia would be a philanthropic and military enterprise that would provide the “worthy” poor a new start and serve as a buffer between Spanish Florida and the English colonies.

The trustees prohibited slavery and large landholdings….

February 12, 1733 is also considered by some the founding of Savannah as the first English settlers landed at Yamacraw Bluff on that day.

In November 1732 Oglethorpe, with 114 colonists, sailed from England on the Anne. This first group of settlers landed at the site of the planned town, then known as Yamacraw Bluff, on the Savannah River approximately fifteen miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, on February 12, 1733.

On February 11, 1776, Georgia Royal Governor Sir James Wright escaped from house arrest in Savannah to a waiting British warship HMS Scarborough.

On February 10, 1787, the Georgia House of Assembly named William Few, Abraham Baldwin, William Pierce, George Walton, William Houstoun, and Nathaniel Pendleton to the Constitutional Convention called to revise the Articles of Confederation at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Congress enacted the first fugitive slave law, on February 12, 1793 requiring states to return runaway slaves to their owners, even if the state in which the slave was captured did not permit slavery.

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky.

On February 10, 1861, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi received word that he was chosen as President of the Confederate States of America.

On February 12, 1867, the editor of the Milledgeville Federal Union expressed dismay at the rapidity with which Atlanta was growing and basically everything about Atlanta.

“Atlanta is certainly a fast place in every sense of the word, and our friends in Atlanta are a fast people. They live fast and they die fast. They make money fast and they spend it fast. They build houses fast, and they burn them down fast… . They have the largest public buildings, and the most of them, and they pass the most resolutions of any people, ancient or modern. To a stranger the whole city seems to be running on wheels, and all of the inhabitants continually blowing off steam.”

Burt Reynolds was born on February 11, 1936 in Lansing, Michigan, though some accounts say Waycross, Georgia. Beginning with Deliverance, filmed along the Chattooga River in North Georgia in 1972, Georgia rose to number three in the nation for film production while Reynolds’s star rose to prominence. Other Reynolds movies filmed in Georgia include The Longest Yard, Gator, Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run, and Sharky’s Machine.

On February 10, 1972, David Bowie made his first appearance as Ziggy Stardust.

On February 12, 1999, the United States Senate voted 55-45 against convicting impeached President Bill Clinton on a charge of perjury. Senator Paul Coverdell voted guilty and Senator Max Cleland voted not guilty. On the second charge of obstructing justice, Coverdell and 49 other Republicans voted guilty and Cleland joined 49 other senators in voting not guilty. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required to convict a President, so Clinton was acquitted on both counts.

On February 10, 2015, on the anniversary of the United States House of Representatives passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Gov. Nathan Deal signed legislation proclaiming February as Black History Month.

On February 12, 2014, most of Georgia state government was closed by Executive Order because of an ice storm.

Savannah celebrates the 290th anniversary of its founding today, according to WTOC.

On February 12, 1733, the city of Savannah was born.

That means, this weekend, the Hostess City will turn 290 years old.

In honor of Savannah’s birthday on Sunday, get out and enjoy all the city has to offer this weekend, maybe once the rain stops!

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Vice President Kamala Harris praised the Biden Administration’s record in Atlanta, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Albany Herald.

The Inflation Reduction Act Congress passed last year includes nearly $370 billion to address climate change, enough to launch a “whole new industry,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday on the campus of Georgia Tech.

“There are going to be a lot of new jobs, a lot of new work,” Harris said during an appearance promoting the State of the Union message President Biden delivered Tuesday night. Biden was promoting his speech to the nation almost simultaneously with Harris during a presidential visit Wednesday to Wisconsin.

Harris’ remarks in Atlanta were focused on the portion of the State of the Union message in which Biden called climate change “an existential threat” that the IRA will begin addressing with “the most significant investment ever in climate change.”

“While hard-working Georgians … are burdened by the high cost of everyday goods, Kamala Harris’ visit today proves just how out of touch this administration is,” Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said, echoing Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Republican response to the State of the Union address.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause upheld a state Administrative Law Judge’s ruling that some documents from the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission will remain out of reach of open records laws, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Upon the request by the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, Administrative Law Judge Stephanie Howells in June ordered that the Commission’s matters be designated confidential.

“Any documents submitted or filed, any transcripts, or recordings are not subject to the Georgia Open Records Act and therefore will not be publicly disclosed,” her order concluded.

In a Feb. 9 order, Fulton County Superior Court Rachel Krause upheld Howells’ decision in response to the Georgia First Amendment Foundation’s request to amend Howells’ order and unseal the records.

The Georgia House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee voted Feb. 8 to advance HB 196, which its sponsor, Republican Alan Powell, hopes will speed up medical cannabis production in Georgia by appeasing the medical cannabis applicants who filed the lawsuit.

The bill, if approved, would allow the Commission to award up to eight more licenses by July 31: Four more Class I licenses that allow growing, cultivating and manufacturing THC oil in an indoor space no more than 10,000 square feet; and up to five more Class II licenses, which allow up to 50,000 square feet on indoor space for growing, cultivating and manufacturing low THC oil.

Last year, the Commission issued two Class I licenses and four tentative Class II licenses. The tentative licenses are still on hold as the lawsuits are underway.

HB 196 would make the Commission subject to the to Administrative Procedure Act and laws governing open meetings and open records, and establishes a legislative oversight committee. The legislative oversight committee would look into and review the operations of the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission and “conduct any independent audit or investigation of the commission that it deems necessary,” the proposal states.

The Capitol Beat News Service has more on HB 196 via the Rome News Tribune:

House Bill 196, which cleared the House Judiciary Committee (Non-civil) late Wednesday, would expand the number of medical cannabis production licenses the state awards to 14, up from the current 6.

The 8 licenses not already awarded would go to companies that filed lawsuits when their bids for licenses were denied. Those legal protests remain pending and — if unresolved — could drag on for up to 2 years, preventing the program from moving forward and providing low-THC cannabis oil to Georgia patients suffering from a range of diseases.

“I’m recommending a fix to get this thing up and going,” state Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, the bill’s chief sponsor, told the committee. “This gets us out of litigation. The licenses could be issued, and (the companies) could go forward.”

The General Assembly first legalized possessions of cannabis oil for medicinal purposes back in 2015.

However, it wasn’t until 2019 that lawmakers passed legislation allowing commercial businesses to grow marijuana indoors under close supervision, convert the leafy crop into low-THC cannabis oil and sell the product at dispensaries they own.

Kristen Goodman, a lawyer representing four of the losing bidders, called the commission’s procurement process a “train wreck” veiled in secrecy. Without naming names, she said donations were made by winning bidders to some of those involved in evaluating the bids.

Goodman said the licenses the commission has awarded — both tentative and final — have gone to out-of-state companies that have concentrated their planned dispensaries in the more populated areas of Georgia around Atlanta, Macon, and Augusta.

“They’re not serving the children who have excessive seizures in Northwest Georgia. They’re not serving the children with cancer in Southwest Georgia,” she said. “They have all the market they need right here in the central part of the state.”

Savannah and Chatham County leaders went to Atlanta for “Savannah Day,” according to WSAV.

Around 100 members met from Savannah gathered at the Georgia State Capitol, including members from the school board, city council, county commissioners and CAT to talk to state lawmakers on key issues impacting Savannah.

“This is the day the first city takes over the capital city,” said Savannah Mayor Van Johnson. “The best way to do that is to do it face to face. We have a variety of issues like hotel-motel tax, getting that category changed.”

“I think we have to worry about gun control and the guns in our community, affordable housing to make sure people have a decent place to live,” said State Rep. Edna Jackson.

“Our big concern now with the economic concerns is to do something about our roads and bridges and widen I-16,” said State Sen. Jesse Petrea.

“The top three issues are public transportation in Savannah, finish up the Convention Center, economic growth with the Hyundai plant,” said State Rep. Derek Mallow.

From WTOC:

“It’s our day for our city to shine in the spotlight in Atlanta. The leaders in Atlanta know how important Savannah is to the state’s economy so it’s our chance to remind them of that and also remind them of our legislative priorities . We are asking for a lot from our leadership but we are going to go and make sure we know what those are,” said Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce President Bert Brantley.

And for legislation, the Chamber has priorities for tax policies and incentives to do business in the state as well as new workforce development programs to start up in the region.

“It’s exciting to see the people from our city come to their capitol, this people’s house as we call it, I get elated because we get a chance to see young people from youth commissions, youth ambassadors to teachers, administrators and professionals, they come to the capitol, they lobby and we fellowship,” said Rep. Carl Gilliard, (D) Garden City.

“We’re a little different in all of coastal Georgia than in Atlanta and North Georgia and others so the things that affect us especially in natural resources, our roads and even this phenomenal explosion of economic growth and the jobs that will be coming is a big deal so it’s different than the rest of the state,” said Rep. Ron Stephens, (R) Savannah.

House Bill 77 by State Rep. Gerald Greene (R-Albany) creates a new judgeship for Dougherty County Superior Court, and passed the House unanimously, according to the Albany Herald.

The measure, sponsored by House District 154 Rep. Gerald Greene, the “dean” of the state legislature, now moves to the state Senate for consideration.

Two bills to increase tobacco taxes by State Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah) , according to the Georgia Recorder via the Albany Herald.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including several who work in health care, has lined up behind a proposal to raise the tax rate on cigarettes and vaping products in the name of public health.

Georgia’s 37-cents-per-pack tax is one of the lowest rates in the country — second only to Missouri — still efforts to increase the rate in the past have gone nowhere fast.

But House Speaker Jon Burns has appeared to leave the door open to a potential increase when asked by reporters this session, leaving proponents optimistic about their chances. It also helps that it’s not an election year.

“If you’re going to smoke, you will get sick if you smoke long enough and hard enough,” Stephens said this week. “And so, it shouldn’t be up to the taxpayers of the state of Georgia to come in and fund your health care costs for either product, vaping or cigarettes.”

The increase would represent about a $90 million boost to state revenues, which supporters say should go toward health care services.

Stephens filed a pair of bills this month that would deal with cigarettes and vaping separately in case one of them gets hung up in the legislative process. One bill would increase the tax on cigarettes by 20 cents, bringing it up to 57 cents per pack.

The second bill would bump the tax on vaping products to 15%, up from 7%.

Rep. Michelle Au, a Johns Creek Democrat and an anesthesiologist, had initially filed a proposal that would bring the tax to the national average. But she has since joined her GOP colleagues in their push for a smaller increase.

Au said she had hoped for a steeper increase that she argued would serve as a greater deterrent, particularly with younger smokers who are more price sensitive. But still, she argued it’s likely to have some impact on behavior, noting it’s more than a 50% bump and the most significant increase in two decades.

“It’s always that balance, balancing the public health benefits with the political reality and trying to not upset the apple cart by going too far too fast,” Au said.

For now, the tax proposals still have a long journey in the House, and a key deadline is March 6, which is when a bill needs to clear at least one chamber to have the clearest path to becoming law.

The bills in question are HB 191 (cigarettes) and HB 192 (vaping consumables), though you wouldn’t know that from the article alone. That’s one of my pet peeves.

House Bill 189 by State Rep. Steven Meeks (R-Screven) would raise the maximum weight limit for tractor-trailers, according to Atlanta News First via WRDW.

Right now the weight limit in Georgia is 80,000 pounds, but a new bill would increase that to 90,000. It’s important to note that this would only apply to state roads, not interstates.

Representative Steven Meeks sponsored House Bill 189. The idea came when Governor Brian Kemp issued an executive order to expand the limit that truckers can carry during a state of emergency and again with supply chain issues.

More than 100 local leaders throughout the state wrote a letter to voice their opposition. They expressed concerns about traffic problems and wear and tear on their roadways. The extra five tons is equivalent to the weight of one and a half cars. The US Department of Transportation studies show that heavier trucks do more damage to roads and bridges.

The Transportation Committee will then give their recommendations to the House members.

Senate Bill 107, “Izzy’s Law” by State Senator Max Burns (R-Sylvania) would require safety plans for aquatic activities with children, according to WRDW.

Izzy’s Law would require the Department of Public Health to develop of a safety plan for aquatic activities based on the standards for nationally accredited private swim instructors.

The Department of Public Health would be required to make the aquatic plan widely accessible and downloadable.

Izzy’s Law is named after Israel “Izzy” Scott, a 4-year old who died via drowning during a backyard swim lesson in Burke County, Georgia on June 14, 2022.

“No child should die while receiving swim instructions,” said Sen. Burns. “Izzy Scott’s death was a tragedy that shook our entire community and devastated the Scott family. No parent should experience the pain of a lost child, especially in a circumstance that was preventable. It is our duty to ensure that we protect our children by creating safety plans that aligns with national guidelines.”

The bill outlines that the Georgia Department of Public Health shall develop and make available for download from its internet website a model aquatic safety plan based on national standards for private swim instructors.

From the Augusta Chronicle:

In August 2022, The Augusta Chronicle reported there are no laws in Georgia restricting or regulating lessons at residential pools and the pools themselves are not evaluated for safety by the Georgia Department of Public Health. In most instances, lessons held in public-use pools are also unregulated.

“We reached out to anybody that would listen,” [Izzy’s mother Dori] Scott said in an interview with The Chronicle Wednesday morning. “[State Sen. Max Burns] reached back immediately and agreed that there should be laws, and it just kind of went from there.”

The new bill, spearheaded by Burns and state Sen. Harold V. Jones II, will require private swim instructors in Georgia to follow an aquatic safety plan approved by the state Department of Health before providing swim lessons.

House Bill 73 by State Rep. Joseph Gullett (R-Cobb County) would require solar installers to be licensed by the Georgia Public Service Commission, according to the Associated Press via AccessWDUN.

The House Energy, Telecommunications and Utilities Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to advance House Bill 73, which would require companies that install panels at residences to be certified by the state Public Service Commission and make certain basic disclosures to consumers.

“We want this industry to flourish; solar is a big part of where we’re going, but we want to get the bad actors out,” Rep Joseph Gullett, a Dallas Republican who is sponsoring the bill, told the committee.

The Georgia Solar Energy Association opposes the bill because it sees the five-member elected Public Service Commission as a foe of rooftop solar, a spillover from fights over how much Georgia Power Co. is required to pay for surplus electricity generated by residential solar panels. Commissioners last year set a payment rate that solar supporters say is too low.

Beginning Jan. 1, every company selling solar panels would have to get a certificate showing that the all employees that would visit a buyer’s property have been subjected to PSC criminal background checks; that it has enough money to fulfill its obligations; and that its contact data is publicly accessible.

From the Capitol Beat News Service:

In reality, trucks weighing up to 95,000 pounds already are being allowed in the Peach State under an emergency order Gov. Brian Kemp signed nearly three years ago at the beginning of the pandemic, said Rep. Steven Meeks, R-Screven, the bill’s chief sponsor.

While truck weights have been a contentious issue the General Assembly has debated for years, supporters said the three years of experience with the emergency order are good reason to approve higher truck weights permanently.

“We’ve been doing this,” former Georgia Rep. Chad Nimmer, a board member at the Georgia Forestry Association, told the committee. “We’re at a unique time because we have evidence now.”

A coalition of Georgia’s agriculture and timber industries support the bill.

Will Bentley, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, said the proposed increases in truck weights would let farmers move their products on fewer trucks, saving 172,000 truck trips per year, according to a University of Georgia study.

Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry said his agency would be forced to redirect funds from critical highway projects to repair the damage the legislation would cause. He put price tags on what House Bill 189 would cost the DOT: $500 million a year to rebuild state roads that would be damaged because of the higher truck weights and $7 billion to replace 1,408 bridges that would be posted as unsafe for heavier trucks.

State legislators are considering a pay raise for qualified caregivers, according to the AJC.

Georgia officials are moving ahead with a $5 an hour wage increase for workers who care for people with disabilities, in a push to slow its hemorrhaging workforce for this vulnerable population.

On Thursday, officials with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities briefed their board members and providers on the state’s proposal to hike wages for these caregivers. The workers are now paid about $10.63 an hour through government funds, and the state is proposing a boost to about $15.18 an hour, based on recommendations from an outside firm. Changes in the job market have led to a severe shortage of caregivers, who are exiting the profession for better wages in lower stress industries.

“We’re in a workforce crisis,” said Kevin Tanner, who serves as the commissioner for DBHDD. “I cannot underestimate how important and significant this [wage increase] is to the safety net here in our state.”

Those who work in the industry fear that the increase is still not enough. Providers are pushing for more than $18.50 to $22 an hour, said Diane Wilush, president and CEO of United Cerebral Palsy of Georgia and United Cerebral Palsy of South Carolina.

The turnover rate for these caregivers, who are formally known as “Direct Support Professionals” is about 47% in Georgia, according to a survey from 2020.

The state doesn’t track how many caregivers are in Georgia, but about 13,400 people with disabilities now have waivers for government-funded services. Approximately 7,000 people are still on a waitlist, some of whom have been on there for years. The shortage of caregivers has meant that even some people who have waivers can’t access these services.

Former United States Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-Atlanta) called for an investigation into DeKalb County’s acceptance of a grant for election administration, according to the AJC.`

Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her conservative elections group are calling for an investigation into DeKalb County after it accepted money from an outside organization to help it run smoother elections.

The county commission voted last month to accept a $2 million grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a national nonprofit that has backing from Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, among many others. The new money, DeKalb officials said at the time, would go toward “planning and operationalizing safe and secure election administration infrastructure in DeKalb County.”

It’s at least the third grant DeKalb has accepted from CTCL. The other two, though, were awarded in 2020 — before Georgia’s newest election law, Senate Bill 202, was adopted.

“After the 2020 elections, Georgia lawmakers acted swiftly to ban Zuckerbucks — and all other outside money — from influencing our elections,” Loeffler, a Republican who founded her nonprofit Greater Georgia in 2021, said in a Wednesday morning press release.

“Today, two years later, deep-blue DeKalb County is blatantly skirting that law to get the same money, while undermining trust and fairness in our electoral process.”

In a lengthy statement provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, DeKalb Elections Board Chairwoman Dele Lowman Smith said Loeffler’s “baldly partisan accusations do not reflect an accurate reading of state law and undermine the work of already overburdened, underpaid public servants.”

“Since Ms. Loeffler was unsuccessful in using her own Zuckerberg-sized net worth to buy a U.S. Senate seat, perhaps she should consider using it to hire better attorneys,” Lowman Smith wrote. “The DeKalb County Finance Department applied for the grant in accordance with state law, and our county attorneys conducted a diligent review to ensure the grant award met the letter of the law.

The State Elections Board is considering broadening the scope of their periodic reviews, according to the Georgia Recorder via the Albany Herald.

Georgia’s State Election Board is considering recommending to state lawmakers that the local election board inspection process be changed into a periodic review that will cover all 159 counties to develop best practices and shore up areas of weakness.

The future of the state’s independent election review panel was a topic of discussion at Tuesday’s State Election Board meeting, the first meeting since the independent review panel recommended in January that the state should not take over Fulton County elections board following an extensive year-and-a-half assessment. It is unlikely to be feasible to continue the time-consuming process of reviewing local elections boards that are deemed to be troubling without more financial support from the state, board members said.

According to Fulton review panelist Steven Day, a Gwinnett County election board member, the state election board, the secretary of state’s office, and the Georgia Association of Voter Registration Election Officials should consider a new periodic performance review that provides metrics about best ways to manage voting.

This is preferable to waiting until a county has problems and trying to intervene in a potentially hostile situation, he said.

“It is better to be a partner than an adversary, better to improve systems before dysfunction rather than trying to fix them after the fact,” Day said.

Any review process, however, needs more support from state lawmakers who control the budget of the Secretary of State’s office and the statewide board, and can determine which rules that local elections offices must follow, Day said.

The Glynn County Board of Elections and Registration is moving to a new office next to its current location, according to The Brunswick News.

The new building has plenty of windows for the public to watch nearly every part of the election process, including viewing areas for absentee voting, accuracy testing and processing absentee ballots.

Some of the windows, including at the front entrance, are bullet proof because of the threats made to elections officials after the 2020 elections, Redden said.

The move became necessary when elections officials ran out of space because of the additional equipment required by the state to conduct an election. Redden said it was also challenging for elections officials because the operations were scattered across two floors in a building shared with juvenile and drug courts and veterans services.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center donated $11,000 in furniture for the new building that Redden said is better than what they had in the old offices.

Because the new building has additional space, the 15 voting machines the state loaned local elections officials will stay here. Redden said the state wants to store the machines here with the understanding that they will be available if one of the surrounding counties needs them.

A Dougherty County “Black Lives Matter” group was cleared of allegations of illegal campaigning, according to the Albany Herald.

Back in 2020, the group was accused of illegally campaigning outside of the Candy Room in downtown Albany. Group members said this ruling has exposed a lot of flaws when it comes to voting in southwest Georgia.

“I think it just has more to do with kind of the society and mindset in general about what it means for African-Americans to, in mass, participate in voting,” Albany City Commissioner Demetrius Young, said. “That makes a lot of folks nervous. That was kind of caused by the mass participation in the 2020 elections. But it definitely should not be an issue because you see Black people in black t-shirts that say ‘Black Voters Matter’ that it becomes some type of intimidation or threat.”

“Senate Bill 202 basically smacks everything that we feel supports voting, supports people exercising their right to vote, supports just making it normal and a celebrated thing for people to do their civic duty,” Young said.

Three candidates qualified for the House District 75 seat vacated by the resignation of State Rep. Mike Glanton, according to the AJC.

Democrats Eric Bell and Herman “Drew” Andrews and Republican Della Ashley will compete for the seat in the March 21 special election. Bell works in government affairs, according to his filing with the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, and Andrews is retired from the military. Ashley lists her occupation as a self-employed nurse caregiver.

Clayton voters also will elect a sheriff while Jonesboro residents will elect a mayor during the special election.

Glanton resigned from his Clayton County area seat in late January after 14 years in office. The retired U.S. Army combat veteran was reelected in November with 89% of the vote.

The Brunswick Downtown Development Authority wants to ban train horns in downtown, according to The Brunswick News.

According to a CSX Transportation handout provided at the meeting, “Trains sound their horns to warn motorists and pedestrians that a train is coming. The Federal Railroad Administration has very specific requirements as to when, where, how long and how loud a train must sound its horn.” CSX also requires engineers to sound the horn when approaching a passenger train or station, railroad workers and tunnels.

The rule was established in the 1980s, according to the CSX handout, following an increase in car-train collisions. It was expanded in 1994 but rolled back in 2005 with the allowance of designated quiet zones.

In place of the horns, the municipality or county government requesting the quiet zones must finance upgraded safety equipment and signals – including gates, barriers and potential permanent closing to public traffic – which could cost upwards of $200,000, the handout states.

Other cities successfully have gone to their representatives in the Georgia General Assembly and Congress to pay for the equipment, Torras said.

A quiet zone designation is also based on a safety evaluation to determine the danger. Quiet zones are established by the federal government and must be requested by a government agency, not CSX.

The Glynn County Board of Education heard about dramatic increases in disciplinary problems, according to The Brunswick News.

In the 2020-2021 school year, the district reported 899 total incidents. That number rose to 1,601 during the previous school year and 2,154 this past semester.

“FY21 is the year that we were returning from COVID, so we had about 78% of our kids in school during that time,” said Senetra Haywood, director of student services.

There’s been an obvious rise in disciplinary incidents over the past three years, she said.

“We have a lot of things that we think are attributing to that,” Haywood said. “There’s a lot of social skill deficits with our kids being able to resolve conflicts and talk through issues.”

Social media also creates new challenges, she said, and brings the outside world into school buildings.

“As we’ve discussed many times, our schools are a microcosm of our community, and so we’ve seen an uptick of violent behavior in our community and we are seeing it in our schools,” Haywood said.

Bibb County Sheriff David Davis announced he is seeking grant money to install FLOCK tag-reader cameras, according to 13WMAZ.

Davis says his office applied for a state grant to install 150 FLOCK cameras around the county. It would add Macon-Bibb to a network of Central Georgia law enforcement agencies currently using the system.

“It registers a license plate and keeps a track of every vehicle that comes through,” Davis said.

‘It’ is a FLOCK camera system, similar to other cameras in Warner Robins and Milledgeville. Davis says it may help them solve crimes, like an August shooting at the Harrison Road Walmart.

“Black car, possibly a Volkswagen Passat. But if we had a Flock camera there, we could go back and look through all the vehicles, run their tags, and maybe come up with some suspects that way,” Davis explained.

Davis says once the money comes through, they expect to start rolling out the system within a couple weeks.

He says they’ll go to the county commission for it if they don’t get the grant. Sheriff Davis estimates it would cost about $1 million to install the cameras over several years.