Power struggle prevents representation | www.myajc.com

Don’t send county commissioners to do the voters’ job — they haven’t gotten it done.

DeKalb’s commissioners have gridlocked for seven months over filling a vacant seat on the board, leaving roughly 140,000 southeast DeKalb residents without full representation.

The impasse could come to an end this week.

Amid building public pressure to take action, the commission conducted live-streamed interviews of five candidates last week, and they’ll try to vote in a candidate when they meet Tuesday.

The stalemate arose because six quarreling commissioners are in charge of approving a seventh commissioner who would immediately become a swing vote.

Residents of southeast DeKalb have lacked a district representative for more than a year and a half. They lost their elected commissioner, Lee May, when Gov. Nathan Deal appointed him interim CEO in July 2013. May replaced CEO Burrell Ellis, who is suspended as he faces criminal charges.

via Power struggle prevents representation | www.myajc.com.