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Rep. Lakly tries to stop district voting; bill may die in Senate

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A bill introduced Monday that would require the Fayette County Commission to adopt district voting in time for the 2006 elections may not have enough time, or support, to pass by April 1, the last scheduled day of the Georgia General Assembly.

The commission met Saturday evening in a special session, adopting a resolution against the proposal authored by Democrat Rep. Virgil Fludd in House Bill 856.

The bill would require commissioners to be elected by voters in certain geographical districts only, instead of at-large by all county voters as is currently done.

Rep. Dan Lakly of Peachtree City, who is opposing the bill, is slated to voice his opposition at a meeting this afternoon of the State Planning and Community Affairs Committee, to which the bill is currently assigned.

Even if the bill passes the House in quick fashion, it must be approved by both senators Ronnie Chance and Valencia Seay, since the Senate requires a majority vote from the local delegation before a local bill can be voted on by the full Senate, according to Freida Ellis, a bill clerk for the Secretary of the Senate.

Opponents of the at-large voting process currently used for county commission elections say it can prevent minorities from getting elected. In this case there could be enough of a minority contingent in north Fayette County that district voting proponents say would allow for a minority to be elected if such a district were drawn up. The commission candidates must also reside in the district they run for, the bill states.

Lakly, who joined Republican Rep. John Yates in voting against the resolution to create the bill when the local House delegation voted on it, said Monday that he was pulling out all the stops to put a halt to the bill. That includes asking one of the bill’s Democratic sponsors to remove his signature from the bill, he added.

Lakly also put copies of the county commission’s resolution against the bill, along with newspaper articles about the district voting issue, on the desks of all 180 members of the House, and he met with various House leaders to drum up support for halting the bill in its tracks.

“I have received nothing but support from everyone I’ve talked to,” Lakly said of his colleagues in the House who have inquired about the disputed bill.

The assembly’s session is scheduled to end April 1, leaving precious little time for wiggle room in terms of getting the bill to a vote by the House and Senate.

Lakly said he opposes the bill because “it is not the right time” to consider such a change. He prefers waiting for the 2010 Census figures to come back and then revisit the idea, and he hopes to still be in the legislature so he can help that happen.

The county’s resolution against the bill points out that of the three Democrat House legislators voting to introduce the bill, only one resides in Fayette County. Fludd, who lives in Fayette, joined Roberta Abdul-Salaam and Darryl Jordan as voting in favor, splitting the vote along party and racial lines as Yates joined Lakly in voting against the resolution to create the bill.

The county’s resolution also claims that the legislation contradicts the home rule provisions of the Georgia constitution “and is symptomatic of the dampening of the voices of the citizens of Fayette County in the legislature of the state resulting from redistricting by a previous General Assembly.”

The resolution indicated that the commission couldn’t support the bill “as the citizens of Fayette are not supportive of such measures and the parties proposing these measures do not provide a representative voice for Fayette County.”

Lakly said Monday that Fludd secured the necessary public notice advertisement for the bill the day before the House delegation voted on the matter. Typically, ads for local legislation are handled only after the delegation has voted on the particular bill, Lakly noted.