District voting may be forced on Fayette

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The Georgia House of Representatives will be presented a bill Monday that would require the Fayette County Board of Commissioners to be elected on a district basis instead of an at-large basis.

Rep. Virgil Fludd confirmed Thursday that “a majority” of the county’s five-member House delegation voted to create the bill and present it to the full House. Because the bill is considered local legislation, it still could be passed this year by the House and Senate despite missing the crossover day deadline for bills from one half of the legislature to be sent to the other half, Fludd said.

Currently, all county commissioners are elected at-large, instead of limiting voters to decide on one given position based on a geographical boundary. Proponents have said district voting would allow different areas of the county to have a chance at fair representation, specifically the northern Fayette sector, which has a higher proportion of minority voters than elsewhere in the county.

Rep. Dan Lakly said he and Rep. John Yates voted against the motion from Roberta Abdul-Salaam to get the district voting bill rolling for the Fayette County Commission only. Lakly offered a substitute motion that died, which would have encouraged the county, school board and all municipal governments in Fayette to establish districts based on population, but still allowing all eligible voters to vote for each seat, regardless of the geographical boundaries drawn for the districts.

Lakly argues that he wasn’t elected “to dictate” that the county or any other political subdivision go to district voting. While he recognizes that the county is growing, now is just not the time, Lakly said, adding that he wanted the matter held off until the next Census comes in.

“I just think it’s too divisive an issue,” Lakly said.

Fludd wouldn’t say who voted in support of the measure, but he noted that all five House members attended the delegation meeting. That includes Fludd, Lakly, Yates, Abdul-Salaam and Darryl Jordan.

The vote among the Fayette delegation to forward a district voting bill to the House was not unanimous, which could possibly endanger its chances of passing the House or Senate. Fludd said traditionally that legislation approved by the local delegation gets a vote of approval, but he was quick to note “anything can happen” with this bill or any other locally proposed legislation.

The bill will not need to go before Fayette’s Senate delegation of Ronnie Chance and Valencia Seay for their separate approval, Fludd said.

While this year’s bill will only focus on the county commission, all the county’s governments could be considered for a similar bill next year, including the Board of Education and municipalities, Fludd said. The consensus of the delegation is that whatever is done on the matter, it should be applied equally to all of Fayette’s governments, Fludd said.

While Fludd wouldn’t take credit for “carrying the ball” on district voting, he said it was an important issue to many constituents.

“We have a number of constituents, a very large number and a growing number, that would like to see an approach to electing people who represent them who reflect their interests and viewpoints,” Fludd said. The idea was to make it “so all voices in Fayette County are heard,” Fludd added.

Since the county’s inception in 1821, the county commission districts have never been redrawn to take into account population changes, Fludd pointed out. The Fayette County Board of Education, however, last redistricted its boundaries in 2000, he added.

“They have kept pace,” Fludd said of the BOE. “They recognize the population has grown and grown fairly drastically.”

Lakly said Fludd called the “emergency” meeting in a hasty manner and thus did not include Chance; Seay hasn’t attended any of the meetings of the local delegation, Lakly added.

Fludd contends that Tuesday’s delegation meeting was not secret, and it was not an “emergency” meeting, but each member of the House delegation was invited.

The county commission could have petitioned the legislature for a change to district voting instead of at-large voting, but that is not the case in this proposal. Lakly said the delegation should only be making changes after a resolution is approved by the county, or any other governmental entity that wants to have its voting procedure changed.

“What Virgil is doing is unheard of,” Lakly said. He pointed out that only he, Fludd and Chance live in Fayette County, while the other four members of Fayette’s entire legislative delegation live elsewhere.

Lakly accused the Democrats in the delegation of attempting to get Democratic candidates elected in Fayette County at local seats “because they can’t do it at the ballot box. It’s devious.”

Fludd, Abdul-Salaam and Jordan are all Democrats, while Lakly and Yates are Republicans.

Lakly said he went to all three of the public hearings on the district voting issue, and all three had mostly the same core of 60 or so people in attendance, excluding elected officials and members of the media.

Lakly blamed the problem on the Democratic-favored legislative redistricting plan enacted in 2002. He went further to attack Fludd, saying that with one exception, Fludd has always voted without Fayette’s best interest at heart.


		Friday, Mar. 18, 2005