Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for September 29, 2021

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

Long before Plymouth, or Jamestown or even St. Augustine, there was another settlement in North American: the very first European attempt to establish a permanent colony on the mainland since the Vikings 500 years earlier.

Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon and 600 Spanish colonists landed on Georgia’s coast on this day in 1526, over 200 years before Oglethorpe founded the Georgia Colony.  It also represents another historic moment: the first time enslaved Africans set foot on what is now the United States.

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.

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

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Federal SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits will increase, according to WTOC.

Typically, SNAP benefits increase around 1 percent each year, but starting Friday, Oct. 1, it will increase 15 percent, which is about $35 a month per family.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reevaluated the Thrifty Food Plan, which is used to determine SNAP benefits. The increase in funds comes from looking at four major categories: current food prices, what Americans typically eat, dietary guidance, and the nutrients in those food items.

Nearly 42 million Americans receive benefits nationwide. In Chatham County, there are nearly 23,000 families receiving SNAP benefits, totaling over $9 million in assistance.

While the demand for SNAP increases, so does the denial rate. Between 2018 and 2021, the number of families denied have doubled in Chatham County. During the 2021 fiscal year, more than 7,000 families in Chatham County did not meet the criteria.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) is racing the clock to prevent the release of inmates accused of violent crimes due to a prosecution backlog, according to CNN via the Albany Herald.

Suspects who’ve been charged with crimes in Georgia are entitled to bond if they’re not indicted within 90 days, and though that law was suspended during the pandemic, it was reinstated over the summer.

That means hundreds of defendants accused of crimes, many of them violent, are now eligible or soon will be eligible for release.

“We walked into an office with an excess of 11,000 unindicted cases,” said Fani Willis, the District Attorney of Fulton County, which includes Atlanta. “In addition to that, we already had another 12,000 that were indicted and were working their way through the court system.”

Willis said her office is prioritizing sexual predator and other serious cases. But the reality, she said, is that “there’s gonna be four or five-hundred defendants that we don’t make the clock on and they, without having the proper evaluation by law, a judge will be mandated to give them a bond.”

Willis said her office would work “around the clock” to make sure murder cases were indicted before the Sept. 28 deadline. Of the 224 murder defendants who’ve been charged but not indicted, more than 50 had to be indicted by this week to remain in custody.

From the AJC:

Court case backlogs have built up around the state during the pandemic, but Fulton’s is the worst. County staff estimate it will cost $75 million and years of additional court sessions to solve Fulton’s problem.

Willis, who has said she inherited the backlog when she took office in January, recently received $5 million in extra funding from county commissioners to hire new employees to help tackle the caseload.

“I’m drowning, I need help,” Willis told commissioners, calling it dangerous for the suspects to be granted bond. “This ain’t emotional, this is practical.”

A shortage of Disability Support Staff has been exacerbated by COVID, according to the Georgia Recorder.

Those workers have become increasingly scarce during the COVID-19 pandemic as they risk exposure to the coronavirus and as less-stressful jobs at stores like Target and some fast-food restaurants offer higher pay.

The low pay for direct-support professionals has been a growing national problem for decades.

But a provider association in Georgia that serves people with disabilities is sounding the alarm over the extent of the current staffing shortages, which have worsened during the pandemic.

In a letter to Georgia leaders, the state Service Providers Association for Developmental Disabilities warned that the staffing shortage has now reached “epic proportions.” Nursing homes and other long-term care providers are also reporting similar struggles nationally.

“Providers must be funded to provide a competitive wage or the dangerous and potentially deadly consequences of ignoring this population will come to bear,” the group wrote in its letter. “People will be dropped off at fire stations, emergency rooms or returned to family’s front doorstep. This is not overly dramatic. Much of this has already occurred.”

The letter continued: “DSPs (mostly single African American women) are exhausted, growing impatient and angry. They are fearful of making a mistake due to exhaustion. They are leaving the work they love to take a job with far less social impact but more money and substantially less rigorous work. These employees are the working poor.”

“This in many ways is the issue of the day,” said Eric Jacobson, executive director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities. “Because we do not have enough workers, the waiting list cannot be addressed. If we get people off the waiting list but there are no direct support people, then we really have not gotten anyone into services.

“Part of the issue is that if McDonalds and other fast food places are now paying $15.00 an hour and DSPs are getting paid $10.00 an hour for much harder work, what would you choose?”

Fewer Georgia residents lack state-issued ID for voting, according to the AJC.

The number of voters who don’t have an ID number on file decreased from 272,000 to 154,000 because the Georgia secretary of state’s office recently updated registration records to include more ID numbers from the Department of Driver Services.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained an updated list of voters without ID numbers matched to their registrations from the secretary of state’s office through the Georgia Open Records Act.

An ID number is required for the easiest method of requesting an absentee ballot under Georgia’s new voting law. Voters who don’t have a driver’s license or state ID number must provide a photocopy of another form of ID for absentee voting.

The first proposed Congressional Redistricting map reunites Columbia County in a single district, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

The traditionally Republican-majority county would fall entirely in House District 12, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Rick Allen. Augusta-Richmond County would stay in the district unchanged.

Beginning with the 2012 election, Columbia County’s representation in Congress has been divided between District 12 in the county’s southern half and District 10, currently served by U.S. Rep. Jody Hice.

Under the proposed redistricting, Allen’s District 12 would claim the rest of Columbia County and gain seven more counties to push its boundaries northward – Glascock, Jefferson, Johnson, McDuffie, Warren, Washington and Wilkinson.

District 12 also would take the southern portion of Baldwin County, below Milledgeville. But the district would lose Jeff Davis and Coffee counties to [Cong. Austin] Scott, and Appling County to District 1, represented by U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter.

U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Jackson County) would be removed from his current district under that map, according to the Gainesville Times:

A proposed map for new congressional districts in Georgia would draw U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, out of Hall County’s district.

The proposed map would still keep all of Hall County in District 9. But because Clyde lives in Jackson County, the new lines may take him to District 10. Under the proposed map, Jackson County and neighboring Madison, Elbert and Clarke counties would move from District 9 to District 10. The current map was last updated in 2013.

The U.S. Constitution does not require representatives to live in the district they represent, as long as they reside in the same state.

The representative for District 10, Jody Hice, R-Greene County, is stepping down from his position to run for secretary of state.

New lines will also need to be drawn for state legislature districts, a process which will take place during the special session, but no proposal for those districts has been proposed yet.

The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit stayed proceedings in the Georgia “heartbeat” abortion case until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a Mississippi case, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.

The court made the announcement on SisterSong v Kemp Monday night.

The Supreme Court case in question is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which has the potential to challenge Roe v. Wade. The case involves a Mississippi abortion law and will be heard by the Supreme Court on Dec. 1.

The Chatham County elections board discussed changes in voting procedures resulting from Senate Bill 202, passed this year, according to WSAV.

“This upcoming November Election is important county-wide. It is not just an Election for the municipalities although there are a number of municipalities that will have Elections for their council and commission seats. There is a county wide vote for the very important ESPLOST measure, so all Chatham County voters will have something to vote on in November,” said Colin McRae, Chairman of Chatham County Board of Registrars.

Some of those new guidelines include having to physically request an absentee ballot through your local board of registrars, their website, or on the state Elections website.

Absentee ballots will no also longer be verified through signature. Instead, they will be verified through either your state issued ID or the last four digits of your social security.

“Our early voting period will begin on Monday, October 12 and run through the three week period up through October 29,” said McRae. “We have five early voting locations this year: the main office, mosquito control, civic center, islands library, and southwest library.”

The new deadline to submit your absentee ballots is October 22nd, exactly 11 days before Election Day. That is not a postmark deadline, all absentee ballots must be received by the 22nd unless you’re in the military.

Drop off boxes for absentee ballots have been dialed back as well. In Chatham County, there’s now only three drop off box locations, all of which will be inside early voting locations.

Officials say, even though they don’t expect quite as big of a turnout this Election season compared to last year’s, the Special Election of House Seat 165, formerly held by the late Mickey Stephens should generate a large turnout.

NOTE: I believe the WSAV story is incorrect about the October 22d deadline. The October 22d deadline is for the elections board to receive Absentee Ballot APPLICATIONS, not Absentee Ballots. Click here for the Secretary of State’s 2021 Voting Dates Calendar.

Columbia County public schools has lifted their mask mandate, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

The decision was made at the Board of Education meeting Tuesday night. The district’s mask mandate in schools and on buses is no longer in effect as of Sept. 29 after a steady decline in cases across the school district and area.

The mandate was put into effect Aug. 26 as positive cases reached 506. The week of Sept. 3 cases dropped to 427, followed by 220 the week of Sept. 11. On Friday the district reported 102 cases.

I believe that story is incorrect in at least one detail. The CDC and United States Department of Transportation still requires masks on all buses.

Q: Are school bus operators and their passengers required to wear masks?

A; Yes, school bus operators, including operations by public school districts, and their passengers are required to wear masks as defined by the Order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The CDC Order provides limited exemptions to the mask requirement for certain small categories of individuals, including: children under the age of 2; persons with disabilities who cannot wear a mask, or cannot safely wear a mask because of a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.); and persons for whom wearing a mask would create a risk to workplace health, safety, or job duty.

In an FAQ concerning the CDC Order, the CDC states that passengers and drivers on school buses must wear a mask unless the driver is the only person on the bus.  This requirement applies to all school buses whether publicly or privately owned.

Gwinnett County parents argued in court against the public schools’ mask mandate, according to the AJC.

“What she was seeing every day at school reinforced the idea that there’s something floating in the air out to get her, and it was damaging her psyche,” Verrier said.

Terei tearfully said her family pulled two of their children from Cooper Elementary School because of the mask mandate. Terei said the masks hampered her fifth-grader’s social interactions and exacerbated a medical condition that gives her third-grader breathing problems.

School district lawyers and assistant principals said all the children identified in the lawsuit obtained exemptions to the mask mandate or were no longer attending Gwinnett schools.

Two DeKalb County Commissioners want to remove a cannon from the Decatur Square, according to the AJC.

Commissioners Ted Terry and Mereda Davis Johnson introduced on Tuesday the resolution targeting what activists have called the “genocide cannon,” an aged piece of artillery that has sat on a granite perch near the square since it was installed more than a century ago. It purports to be a “relic of the Indian War of 1836,” an apparent reference to the bloody conflicts that ensued when the U.S. Army and militias from Georgia and Alabama forced thousands of Muscogee people from their native lands.

A local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed the cannon near what’s now known the DeKalb Historic Courthouse in 1906, two years before it erected a nearby 30-foot obelisk honoring the Lost Cause.

Last December, the Decatur City Commission approved a resolution supporting the cannon’s removal.

The cannon, though, rests on DeKalb County property. And it’s a little complicated.

According to the resolution introduced Tuesday, there is no documentation of the cannon ever being formally donated to DeKalb County, nor any indication that it should be considered public property. Its current-day ownership is unclear.

The Glynn County Commission’s Finance Committee recommended increasing the budget for the Sheriff’s Department, according to The Brunswick News.

The county finance committee is recommending $301,000 in funding for the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office to cover COVID-19 related expenses during the last fiscal year.

Sheriff Neal Jump told commissioners at Tuesday’s finance committee meeting the jail’s kitchen had to be closed twice because of COVID outbreaks among staff.

The FBI will move some offices from Rome to Cartersville, according to the Rome News Tribune.

“In the Rome RA we have three FBI special agents and 10 task force officers from various state and local law enforcement agencies,” said the FBI’s Atlanta office Public Affairs Specialist Kevin Rowson. “The only thing that is changing is that the physical location of the Rome RA will be relocating to Cartersville for logistical reasons.”

U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Atlanta) wants his solar tax credit initiative included in the federal budget reconciliation bill, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Rome News Tribune.

“We have a generational obligation, an historic obligation, to address climate change, and to move from our dependence on fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy,” Ossoff said. “The president has laid out an ambitious agenda to achieve a 40% solar mix by 2035. The solar tax credit inclusion will supercharge solar manufacturing in the U.S., because solar demand is skyrocketing in the nation.”

Bulloch County will work with Ogeechee Tech and the Bulloch County Development Authority to create a Georgia Industrial Systems and Industrial Robotics Training Campus, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Suggested as potentially resembling the Alabama Robotic Technology Park in Tanner, Alabama, the facility would be the first of its kind in Georgia. It would triple Ogeechee Tech’s available space for training in robotics, industrial systems and related skillsets and allow for expansion of training relationships with employers, such as those the college already has with the world’s largest manufacturing robotics maker, FANUC, and largest online retailer, Amazon.

“Ultimately, the main goal is to use this facility to help create what we could call high-paying job opportunities that would occur as a result of trying to attract and retain advanced manufacturing, not only for our community but for the region,” said Bulloch County Manager Tom Couch, who works for the county commissioners.

Couch and Board of Commissioners Chairman Roy Thompson suggested that this facility could help maximize the industrial development advantage area leaders hope to gain from the 2,284-acre Bryan County Mega Site. The state government provided most of the money that the four-county Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority needed to close on the $61 million purchase of the site near Ellabell in July.

“It sits just outside the county line further down I-16, and we know if they can get an electric vehicle manufacturer down there, then we’re going to get a lot of suppliers coming to Bulloch County and that’s going to equate to a lot of tax dollars and money coming into Bulloch County,” Thompson said.

From WTOC:

“Go to just about any advanced manufacturer in the world these days and you’ll see a significant amount of robotics on the floor,” said Benjy Thompson, Development Authority of Bulloch Co.

Ogeechee Tech already offers robotics training. The new site would triple their room so they could serve more students and companies at a time.

“You don’t want to have to send them two states away. What an attraction if you can send them just 15 miles or 30 miles up the road for training,” said Jan Moore with Ogeechee Technical College.

“Having this site close, but not on the mega-site, allows us to help train employees not just for industries at the mega-site but all over the region.”

County leaders say they hope to use federal grant money to cover as much of the cost as possible.

Fort Valley Mayoral candidate Jefferey Lundy was disqualified and removed from the ballot for failure to meet the requirement for 12 months residence, according to 13WMAZ.

The city says there was a challenge filed on August 29, and it said Lundy did not meet the 12-month residency requirement as laid out in the Fort Valley charter.

[Lawyer Gordon] Joyner says among the more than 20 pieces of evidence he laid on behalf of his clients, four concerned voters, two of them were the most damning- Lundy’s driver license and personal vehicles.

“He changed it to an address in Fort Valley on August 18, 2021, which was the date that he qualified to run for mayor.”

He adds, “Every single one of them in 2021 is registered to his address in Peach County, not to any address in Fort Valley.”

Joyner says Lundy can legally file for an appeal, but in an appeal process, no new evidence can be presented.

If Lundy is not eligible to run, councilman Lemario Brown would run unopposed on the November ballot, and Fort Valley voters would have the option to write-in their own candidate.

Dalton City Council candidates met in a debate, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

Americus will celebrate “Georgia Cities Week,” according to WTVM.

The weeklong event starting Oct. 3 through Oct. 9 is to celebrate the city and services they provide.

Columbus City Council approved a plan to spend nearly $50 million to purchase and renovate some Synovus properties in uptown Columbus, according to WTVM.

The facilities will be used to house portions of the Columbus Consolidated Government. Synovus CEO Kevin Blair see’s the acquisition as a win for both the city and the Columbus-based banking and financial services company.

Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson calls the deal a key component in a plan to meet the needs of a growing city.

“We’ve spent millions of dollars in some of the systems that have failed and also in some of the life safety issues that we’ve been warned about,” explained Mayor Henderson.

The mayor says he believes that the Columbus Government Center is beyond repair and is in support of the city purchasing five buildings from Synovus in Uptown Columbus to house hundreds of employees.

“We saw an opportunity to negotiate and bring all of our employees who work in other buildings under one roof,” he said.

“1,200 individuals come in this building every day and that excludes employees. We owe it to them to make sure they have a building that’s not costing so much to operate and a building that is safe,” the mayor said.

From the Ledger-Enquirer:

The properties will need to be renovated for its new purposes. The purchase and renovations will be funded through the issuance of roughly $50 million in Columbus Building Authority Bonds. There’s no expected increase in millage rates beginning in 2023, according to council documents.

Synovus would vacate a majority of the buildings by July 31, 2022, and the remainder by June 30, 2024. Synovus will pay the city $500,000 to rent some of the office space after the deal closes. The sale is expected to close no later than March 1, 2022.

Both measures regarding the deal were approved by a 9-0 vote. Councilor Glenn Davis was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

Carver Park in Columbus will remain closed on weekends due to violent crime, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

The council voted 7-0 to close Carver Park on Saturdays and Sunday for an additional 30 days due to safety concerns. It will open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday until Nov. 1.

The vote comes at the end of the 30-day weekend closure that council members unanimously approved Aug. 31.

District 4 Councilor Toyia Tucker proposed the initial closure. She told the Ledger-Enquirer she was concerned about the safety of people in the park after two homicides there this year.

“The calls that I get from the neighbors are that there are shootings throughout the day,” Tucker said in a previous interview with the Ledger-Enquirer. “The increased crime is on the weekends … there are shootings, mostly on Saturday and Sunday and, what we saw that occurred two weekends (ago), that happens every weekend.”