Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Race ‘not a factor’ in debate over districts

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@thecitizennews.com

Opinions from both sides of the debate on whether Fayette should abandon at-large elections of county commissioners in favor of single-district voting say race is not the factor.

Lane Watts, chairman of the county Republican Party, said Tuesday the issue is really about party affiliation.

“I’m not naive enough to think there’s no racism in Fayette County,” said Watts, who attended a Saturday meeting of the Fayette County NAACP chapter in which Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown urged a campaign to change the way commissioners are elected.

“The real intent is to get Democrats elected. They don’t think Republicans can represent them,” he said, “and casting it in racial terms really does a disservice to the community.”

State Rep. Virgil Fludd, a Democrat whose House District 48 seat covers a portion of North Fayette, said it “just makes sense” for at least some of the commissioners to be elected by voters who reside solely within their own districts.

“The reality is because of the increased diversity of the community, and by that I mean geographic interests as much as demographic differences, we need fairer representation” at the county level, Fludd said.

Currently, three of the commissioners represent districts on paper but are actually elected by countywide vote; two other seats are considered “at large.” All of the sitting commissioners live south of Ga. Highway 54, according to Fludd.

“The concept that makes sense, as many other counties do, is to have three elected from their districts and two at large” to avoid regionalism, said Fludd. Besides, he said, no decisions on county business could take place without a majority vote anyway.

Watts suggested that the present leadership has been effective and deserves credit.

“But why do you move to Fayette County? What drew you here? The quality of life, the school system, the general aesthetic nature of the county: How did it get like that?” asked Watts.

“It wasn’t by accident. It’s through Republican leadership that we got here. We have something here that works, so why mess with it?”

Fludd said there are three things that can happen to change the way commissioners are chosen: A lawsuit could be filed against the county charging it with violation of the Voting Rights Act; local legislation could be introduced in the General Assembly to authorize the change; or the commissioners themselves could act on their own.

“No commission has changed the boundaries, I think, ever,” said Fludd, and for obvious reasons.

“Part of the reason for keeping the current boundaries as they are is it helps to maintain the people who are currently in office,” he said.

Fludd said changing the way county commissioners are elected won’t necessarily force a change in the way Fayette’s school board members are chosen.

Board members are elected countywide, but each resides within one of five districts drawn in attempt to equally divide the population.

Neither would it affect city council elections, said Fludd. But Mayor Steve Brown said he’d be willing to change the way Peachtree City holds elections as well “if that’s what it takes.”