Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for September 28, 2018

William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invaded England on September 28, 1066.

On September 29, 1526, 600 Spanish colonists led by Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon landed on the Georgia Coast, the first European colonists in Georgia.

Ayllon established San Miguel de Gualdape on Sapelo Sound in present–day McIntosh County. He sailed north from Hispaniola during the summer and first landed in present–day South Carolina. Meeting no natives, he traveled south along the coast before settling in Georgia.

To help establish the colony, Ayllon brought with him the very first group of slaves.  But hunger, disease, and conflict with the natives all took their toll, and the settlement survived for only three months.

Other sources say that the September 29, 1526 landing was in South Carolina and Vasquez de Ayllon established San Miguel de Gualdape on October 8, 1526.

On September 27, 1779, John Jay, who previously served as President of the Continental Congress, was appointed minister to Spain to seek Spanish support for the revolution.

General George Washington led continental troops into the siege of British forces under General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia on September 28, 1781.

On September 28, 1863, two Union generals lost their commands after the Confederates routed federal forces at the Battle of Chickamauga.

On September 28, 1889, Georgia Governor John B. Gordon signed legislation designating January 19th a state holiday in honor of Robert E. Lee’s birthday. In 2015, Robert E. Lee’s birthday and Confederate Memorial Day were stricken from the Georgia calendar.

Wyoming adopted the first state constitution to allow women to vote on September 30, 1889.

President Woodrow Wilson spoke in favor of Women’s Suffrage in an address to Congress on September 30, 1918. The bill to pass the 19th Amendment would die in the Senate that year after passing the House.

President Franklin Roosevelt made his ninth visit to Warm Springs, Georgia on September 27, 1927.

On September 30, 1927, Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run of the season.

WSB-TV took to the airwaves for the first time on September 29, 1948.

On September 30, 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter led the Harris Poll for President over President Gerald Ford by a 50-41 margin. In November 1976, the popular vote tallied 50.08% for Carter to 48.01% for Ford, with an Independent taking nearly a point.

September 27 is a red-letter day for the Atlanta Braves and pitcher John Smoltz. The team won a record 14th straight Division Championship on this day in 2005. Smoltz set a team record for regular season wins (24) on September 27, 1996 and extended his team record for strikeouts hitting 276. On September 27, 2002, Smoltz set a National League record with 54 saves.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

A State Senate Study Committee is looking at whether restrictions should be placed on service animals, according to the Dalton Daily News.

State Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, said she is concerned about what she has called “fake service animals,” or pets simply dressed in official-looking vests or bandanas.

“It is a huge problem and it’s not going away,” Unterman said Wednesday. “It’s really people abusing a system and taking it a step further, and it really isn’t fair to the disability community who relies on this for their lives.”

Unterman, who is chairing a legislative panel looking into the issue, said several different industries have aired complaints. Airlines, restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals and others have wrestled with how to accommodate some customers without alienating or harming others.

Some legislative fixes could include creating a certification process and creating a criminal penalty for those who pretend their pet is a service animal. About 20 other states have already cracked down on the latter.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation may be able to clear the backlog of rape kits by the end of 2018, according to the Gainesville Times.

GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said only 73 of the more than 2,700 previously unsubmitted kits still need to be tested.

“The projected timeframe for completion of those kits is the end of this year.”

Georgia Power and Dalton Utilities have reached an agreement under which the publicly-held utility will bear a greater portion of some Plant Vogtle costs going forward, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

On Thursday, the utility’s board approved a revised agreement that will see Georgia Power, Vogtle’s largest owner and the construction project manager since the 2017 bankruptcy of former manager Westinghouse, shoulder a larger share of costs if the $17.1 billion project continues to go over budget.

When Georgia Power announced in August another $2.3 billion in cost overruns, that triggered an agreement calling for all four owners to vote to continue the project. Dalton Utilities, Georgia Power and MEAG agreed to continue. But Oglethorpe said it would only continue if there was a cap on construction costs, which would effectively require Georgia Power to cover any additional overruns.

“George Power would not agree to a hard cap,” said Dalton Utilities CEO Tom Bundros.

But the two co-owners reached a compromise, which the other owners must also sign off on.

Under the agreement, if cost overruns become big enough, Georgia Power would bear a share of those costs larger than it would have previously. The larger the overruns, the larger the proportion Georgia Power would pay.

Columbus City Council is moving forward with regulations for short-term rentals, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

The city received a unanimous verbal vote from council members favoring adoption of an amended unified development ordinance that will require short-term property renters — referred to as “hosts” by Airbnb — to complete a number steps before doing business, including licensing and background checks, while also collecting tax revenue for Columbus.

“What this amendment does is it requires a background check on the owner of the property, and if there is a short-term agent affiliated with the property, that person also has a background check,” said councilor Judy Thomas. “This is the same kind of background check that our Inspections and Codes Department does with other types of businesses in Columbus.”

“I believe that we are to the point now where we can adopt this proposal, this ordinance, and it will do what we need to have done,” Thomas said during Wednesday’s council meeting. “It will make sure that those people who have short-term rentals in Columbus have a business license and pay the property taxes, the hotel-motel tax and any sales tax.”

The amended ordinance is expected to return before Columbus Council at its next meeting in October for a second reading, followed by a formal vote of record on its adoption into city regulations. No other councilors have spoken out against the proposed rules to regulate such rentals that are popular with users of online sites such as Airbnb and VRBO.

Some Macon-Bibb County elected officials are pushing a new sales tax, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Macon-Bibb County leaders are expected to push again for the “other local option sales tax,” or OLOST, as a way to deal with a financial situation where budget shortfalls have left a once flush reserve fund running low.

The OLOST would provide relief to property owners by reducing the county tax rate; a property assessment “freeze” would create a 2 percent cap on how much the taxed value of a home can increase each year; and people from other communities also pay the tax, former County Commissioner Gary Bechtel said.

“You get an opportunity for those who are traveling through and those who come into the county on a daily basis to work to contribute to the cost of services that the government has to provide,“ said Bechtel, who continues to advocate for the tax. “I think it’s an opportunity to give taxpayers relief and not have an additional full tax burden on them because a consumption tax is a choice. It’s not a mandate like property taxes.”

Several county commissioners spoke this week about not only getting the local legislative delegation to support an OLOST bill but also getting the word out to residents who could vote for the tax referendum as early as next year.

Ronda Colvin-Leary was sworn in as a Gwinnett County State Court Judge, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

“This represents putting on the robe of wisdom, putting on the robe of knowledge, putting on the robe of compassion,” [Cobb County Judge Angela] Brown said, zipping up the robe. “I stand here as a baby judge from Magistrate Court in Cobb County, but you have all these judges here in Gwinnett County, you have statewide judges who are proud of you, and even though it’s just me in (front of you), there are thousands of judges behind me. With that, we confer this robe, this mantle of wisdom and compassion, upon you.”

Colvin-Leary’s swearing-in ceremony was a momentous occasion for the new judge, who is the first African-American to be elected to the State Court bench in the Gwinnett Circuit.

In achieving that, Colvin-Leary is also the first African-American candidate to be elected to a countywide Gwinnett seat, something Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Charlotte Nash said was past due, though appropriate this year in particular.

“It is fitting that this historic moment is happening in our bicentennial year,” Nash said. “It’s a shame that it took 200 years, but we’re happy that it happened. I know that Judge Colvin-Leary is going to do a great job.”

The Athens Banner Herald looks at the effects of criminal justice reform in Georgia.

Georgia’s prison population was about 53,000 at the end of 2017, down from nearly 55,000 at its peak in July 2012.

More than two-thirds of those people, 68 percent, were behind bars for violent crimes, up from 57 percent in 1999.

There was also less racial disparity, the reported noted. In 2009, about 67 percent of the Georgia prison population was African-American; in 2017, that had declined to 60 percent.

The change in the juvenile justice system was even steeper: The number in “youth confinement” was down 36 percent, and new commitments was down 46 percent.

Meanwhile, the recidivism rate had declined slightly, from about 30 percent returning to confinement down to 28 percent.

Admissions to prison last year declined to 17,616, down nearly 20 percent since 2009. And while the overall number of new prison admissions was down, the rate for violent offenders was actually up.

The Valdosta Board of Education is seeking candidates for appointment to the District 2 seat recently vacated by Vanassa Flucas, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

City school officials have been searching the past two weeks for a school board member; it has heard from six interested candidates.

However, only two meet the requirement of living in District 2: Billy Thomas and Sirena Gosier, school officials said.

Thomas is retired military who now works at the Post Office, and Gosier works at the Southern District Attorney’s Office, school officials said.

Normally, three candidates are presented to the board of education to select a replacement, but they could move forward with only two candidates, Dr. Todd Cason, Valdosta City Schools superintendent, said during a Thursday committee meeting.

The board agreed to extend the deadline in hopes of attracting more candidates.

Savannah City Council voted to approve an agreement to renovate an historic building into housing for police officers, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The Savannah City Council on Thursday approved an agreement with the Historic Savannah Foundation to restore a late-19th century building that will be used to house officers operating out of the Central Precinct police station being built across the street.

The city plans to renovate the structure into a duplex apartment, which will be rented to Savannah Police officers assigned to the station at a reduced rate in exchange for them undertaking certain caretaker duties, such as mowing the lawn, at the precinct.

Savannah Police Director Roy Minter praised the agreement as a great opportunity for his department’s officers to live in and be a part of the community where they work, according to a city news release issued Thursday.

“It helps us close the gap between our officers and the citizens we serve,” Minter said. ” In addition, having an officer live next to the precinct will enhance the upkeep of the property.”

The Macon Telegraph looks at how a turnaround is working at Appling Middle School.

[New Appling Middle School Principal Shandrina Griffin-Stewart] had been at L.H. Williams Elementary School in the heart of Macon where she got a reputation for leading that school out of academic danger and into safer waters.

Now she is tasked with doing the same at Appling Middle. As she takes that on, she will be one of 18 principals in the state working with the new chief turnaround officer.

Griffin-Stewart sat down at a conference table behind her office for one of her regular meetings with Betty Jones. Jones is from the turnaround office. She’s what they call a transformation specialist. She came with highlighters and stacks of data, some from the past and some to be met in the future.

Jones stressed that she and her office are at Appling Middle for partnership, not a takeover. Back in the summer, Bibb schools officials and turnaround staff got together to list the trouble spots at Appling. Because lists like that can quickly become intimidating, Griffin-Stewart said they pared it down to four distinct goals.

The first two goals are purely academic. They are to get kids on grade level in math and reading. Appling Middle’s eighth-grade reading scores are in the bottom 5 percent of Georgia middle schools.

Griffin-Stewart called the third goal cultural. It’s about getting teachers on the same page in terms of creating a positive environment in school for students and for each other.

Gainesville City Council will consider changes to the municipal code to address panhandling and “urban camping,” according to AccessWDUN.

The Hall County Elections and Voter Registration Office will host an ethics presentation by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, according to AccessWDUN.

It will be held Oct. 3 from 10:00-12:00 at the Hall County Elections and Voter Registration Office for anyone considering a campaign for any state, county or city election.  The topics to be covered include what to do before accepting a campaign contribution, campaign disclosure reporting, record keeping and more.

There is no cost but you must RSVP to attend.  To sign up, contact Lori Wurtz at lwurtz@hallcounty.org or 770-531-6945.