Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for January 21, 2021

Lieutenant William T. Sherman was ordered to Georgia for the first time in his military career on January 21, 1844.

United States Senator and former Georgia House Speaker and Governor Richard B. Russell, Jr. died on January 21, 1971.

On January 21, 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardoned draft resistors from the Vietnam War era and urged Americans to conserve energy.

On January 21, 1978, the Bee Gees Saturday Night Live album hit #1 on the sales charts, where it would stay for 24 weeks.

https://youtu.be/I_izvAbhExY

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Gwinnett County Board of Elections Chair Alice O’Lenick remains steadfast in opposition to calls for her resignation, according to the AJC.

Supporters of Alice O’Lenick derided calls for Gwinnett’s Republican election board chair to resign as an example of cancel culture and limits on her free speech.

Those in support of O’Lenick stepping down said the demand came after she made partisan comments suggesting election laws should change to give Republicans “at least a shot” at winning in the next election. The request, they said, was a consequence for inappropriate statements made by someone in a position of power.

For more than three hours Tuesday, the two sides heard differing views of the intent behind O’Lenick’s comments during a meeting of the Gwinnett elections board. About 70 people spoke during the meeting, with those calling for O’Lenick’s resignation outnumbering her defenders by a two-to-one margin.

“My closing remarks are good night,” she said to the virtual audience, just before 10:30 p.m. “See you next month.”

“Listening to the ideas of others makes for a better elections department and that’s what adults do, they encourage discussion,” she said. “I swore an oath to uphold the laws and that’s what I will do.”

Two Democratic members of the elections board, Stephen Day and Wandy Taylor, said in a statement read by Taylor that O’Lenick’s attitude “violates the fundamental principles of our representative democracy, and frankly, is un-American.”

Trying to bully fellow citizens for though crimes is, frankly, un-American.

Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday swore in United States Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, representing Georgia, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The two new senators were sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, one of her first actions as vice president just hours after she and Biden celebrated their inauguration.

The power shift marks the first time Democrats have controlled the upper chamber since 2014 and the first time in a decade that Democrats will control the House, Senate and White House. The last time was in 2011 under former President Barack Obama.

The two new Democrats will give the chamber a 50-50 split, which effectively hands Democrats the majority because Harris — who as vice president serves as the president of the Senate — will be the tie-breaking vote.

Harris, who resigned the Senate this week ahead of her inauguration, also swore in her replacement: Democrat Alex Padilla. He is California’s first Latino senator.

Ossoff, who unseated Republican David Perdue, took his oath using a book of Hebrew scripture. His office says the book was once owned by Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, a civil rights leader who led Atlanta’s oldest and most prominent Jewish synagogue The Temple.

Warnock, who unseated Republican Kelly Loeffler, similarly made history. The pastor, who served at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church — where Martin Luther King Jr. served before his assassination — is the first Black senator to represent Georgia and the 11th Black senator in U.S. history.

The Georgia State House of Representatives announced new Committee Chairs, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

The Ways and Means Committee, which handles all tax legislation, will now be headed by Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire. He will take over from former Rep. Brett Harrell, R-Snellville, who lost his bid for re-election last fall.

Blackmon’s former chairmanship of the Governmental Affairs Committee will be assumed by Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville.

Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, will move over from the House Education Committee to chair the Transportation Committee. Former Transportation Committee Chairman Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, left the House last year in an unsuccessful run for Congress.

Rep. Matt Dubnik, R-Gainesville, will take over as the new Education Committee chairman.

With the retirement from the House of former Rep. Tom McCall, R-Elberton, Rep. Robert Dickey, R-Musella, will take the reins of the House Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee.

Rep. James Burchett, R-Waycross, is the new chairman of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee. He’s replacing Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, who is moving over from Judiciary Non-Civil to chair the other House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over legislation related to civil law.

Democratic State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (Decatur) will Chair the MARTOC Committee that oversees the MARTA budget, according to the AJC.

She’s the only Democrat to helm any of the state’s 41 House committees, but hers is no ceremonial post. Though the committee doesn’t handle legislation, the joint House-Senate panel oversees the MARTA transit system’s budget.

And Oliver, a veteran DeKalb County legislator first elected to the House in 1986, was seen as a perfect fit for the post, which was previously helmed by Republican state Rep. Deborah Silcox of Buckhead.

We’re told Ralston was adamant that talking about bipartisanship — a theme of the opening days of the legislative session – wasn’t enough. He wanted to put action behind those words, even if it was a small step.

“They each respect each other despite their differences, and you don’t find many people sharper than Oliver,” said a Ralston deputy.

Pay raises for correctional officers are proposed to stem employees loss, according to the AJC.

Commissioners of the Department of Juvenile Justice and Department of Corrections said they have struggled to retain officers and often cite the low pay as one reason many leave. For example, DJJ officials said during fiscal 2020, 97% of new corrections officers left the agency.

Juvenile Justice Commissioner Tyrone Oliver said that by not filling nearly 300 vacant positions, the agency is saving about $2.5 million, enough to cover the cost of the raise for about 840 officers without requesting additional money from the state. Department of Corrections officials will also not fill positions to pay for the raise in their agency.

Oliver said during exit interviews, low pay and benefits are always listed as the top reasons officers leave the agency.

Georgia’s court system faces a backlog of jury trials due to COVID-19, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

[Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court Harold] Melton ordered jury trials suspended last March as the virus broke out across the Peach State, the first in a series of judicial emergency orders he has issued every month since.

The backlog of cases that has piled up won’t go away, even when all Georgians who want COVID-19 vaccinations have received them and the pandemic eases, Melton told members of the state House and Senate Appropriations committees during the second day of budget hearings.

“It can easily take a year to two years to dig out of a jury trial backlog,” he said.

Superior Court Judge Wade Padgett of Augusta said it might even take as long as three years to get rid of the backlog, even though courts resumed jury trials for six to eight weeks last year at a time COVID-19 cases were on the decline.

A silver lining in the suspension of jury trials is that the delays helped the Georgia Bureau of Investigation clear nearly half of the roughly 46,000 cases backlogged in the agency’s crime lab, GBI Director Vic Reynolds told lawmakers. The backlog now stands at about 24,000 cases.

Macon-Bibby County Commissioners voted for moratoriums on new liquor stores and pawn shops, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Middle Georgia’s [most populous] county is banning new pawn shops for six months, and is enacting limits on liquor stores that will ban new liquor stores indefinitely.

Local news outlets report the Bibb County Commission voted unanimously to approve the moratoriums on Tuesday. Commissioners must vote again next week on the rules, which would begin Feb. 22.

Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller proposed the bans when he took office recently.

“Certain liquor stores open up in certain parts of the county that are already poverty stricken, crime stricken. I think it adds to the situation,” Miller said. “I think it depreciates the values of certain properties, certain stores do.”

“If I get off on an exit somewhere and I’m driving through, out of town, and I see a bunch of that, I know I’m in a bad area. I say bad area loosely. Nothing against the people that live there, but I know it’s an area a lot of focus has not been put on for good businesses,” Miller said.

No word on whether the thriving middle Georgia massage parlor or billboard industries will be affected.

Augusta is considering how to protect municipal employees during rising COVID-19 diagnoses, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Since the virus hit, city departments and county agencies have reported 306 COVID-19 employee cases, about 12% of the full-time workforce. Cases spiked in August with 72 and December with 76, but by Jan. 9, the city had 29 cases, more than the entire months of September, October and November.

The data was compiled by a new city working group created by Administrator Odie Donald to look at ways to stem the rise and stop it from impacting service delivery, according to a report he provided the Augusta Commission on Tuesday.

Federal laws allow employers to require employees to get the vaccine, but Donald said that is not the working group’s current recommendation because most workers already want the shots.

“We issued a survey and we saw that close to 75% of employees are willing to take it voluntarily,” he said.

The anonymous survey of 911 personnel found 72% were willing to take the vaccine right away. Of 28% who would not, 53% questioned its safety and effectiveness, 36% feared negative health effects and 9% had religious reasons, the report said.

The Brookdale Warming Center in Macon serves the area’s homeless people, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Glynn County Commissioners will begin discussing hiring a new police chief, according to The Brunswick News.

Chief Jay Wiggins announced earlier this month he is retiring at the end of January. On the agenda is a proposal from County Manager Alan Ours to expedite the process of selecting a replacement by hiring the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police (GACP) to help with the hunt for applicants.

Ours’ proposal to select the GACP isn’t entirely his own decision but a recommendation from the Police Advisory Panel. The panel is made up of current and former law enforcement professionals and typically keeps tabs on local police issues and offers guidance to the county commission.

Statesboro Mayor Jonathan McCollar announced he was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early January, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Three new members were sworn in to the Coweta County Board of Education, according to the Newnan Times-Herald.