People packed Thursday’s meeting of the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections over concerns about selection of officers, while the River Edge Community Service Board faces a looming deadline to vacate county building.
This On The Agenda report brings highlights from both meetings and shows how the boards plan to proceed.
Board of Elections
Proposed changes to the by-laws of Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections could come in October after months of delay due to board member absences.
Last Thursday, after the Macon-Bibb Democratic Committee put out a “call to action” to attend and speak out, about two dozen people came to the monthly meeting to weigh in on the proposed change governing selection of board officers.
But the by-laws revision was not on this month’s agenda due to the anticipated absence of Mike Kaplan, the “fifth member” of the board and is the only one not selected by a political party.
This year’s fifth member nomination deadlocked along party lines, which upset the traditional rotation of officers and prompted the proposed revision.
Although it was the fifth member’s turn to lead the board, the nomination deadlock resulted in Republican Robert Abbott becoming the second Republican in three years elected to chair the board.
Under existing county law, the board is made up of two members each selected by the local Democratic and Republican parties. Every odd year, a majority of the four partisan members of the board are supposed to submit to the county a nominee or list of nominees for the fifth member.
This year, they couldn’t agree on any names to send to the county commission.
In May, Democrat Tom Ellington nominated Mike Kaplan, who has served for several years in that at-large position, and Republican Abbott nominated David Sumrall, recent chair of the local GOP.
Ellington said he could not support a list that included a prominent Republican leader, and Abbott and Republican Barbara Boyer did not approve Kaplan’s solo nomination being sent to the commission for approval.
Procedurally, the fifth member cannot vote for nominees for that seat, so Kaplan could not break the tie. He will remain on the board because the county did not select a replacement within the allotted time.
Attorney William Noland said fifth members continue to serve until they are replaced.
“Going forward, I think we need to cooperatively find candidates who are agreeable to members of both parties,” Ellington said in May.
The nomination debacle broke a long-standing tradition of rotating the board chair position among the Democrats one year, Republicans the next year and the fifth member the third year, before the rotation started over.
Because Kaplan’s seat on the board was in question during the May meeting, he nominated Abbott, who was approved as chair.
In June, Abbott proposed formalizing the chair selection process by changing the by-laws, but with the rotation over five years, not three.
After consulting with other boards of elections, Abbott’s plan calls for all the partisan members to serve as chair before it’s the fifth member’s turn. The rotation would follow the pattern of Democrat 1, Republican 1, Democrat 2, Republican 2, fifth member.
The existing policy also calls for the chair and vice chair to be from different parties, which could create succession complications in the event of a resignation.
In recent months, the board briefly discussed the proposed changes, but agreed all members should be present and delayed the vote which is now expected in October.
“Next meeting we need to bring that up and dispose of it, giving everybody a month to look into it,” Abbott said.
Some of those attending this month’s meeting urged the board to make the meeting agendas more accessible to the public, and Ellington wants the elections supervisor to explore the possibility of being included in the county’s Civic Clerk portal for official documents.
Board meetings are livestreamed on the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections’ YouTube channel.
Elections Supervisor Tom Gillon also said a new voter education guide should be ready to present to the public next month.
$32.5M River Edge project up against the clock
River Edge Behavioral Health’s Community Service Board needs more time and money to move forward with plans to build a $32.5 million Behavioral Health Outpatient Clinic & Headquarters complex at 2770 Riverside Drive.
Construction has been delayed by environmental concerns over contaminated soil from an old dry cleaning shop that used to be on a portion of the 6.2-acre building site behind the QuikTrip.
The Environmental Protection Division reduced remediation requirements from an initial 3,500 cubic yards of soil to be removed to an estimated 600 yards, but questions linger about what type of backfill and vapor barriers could be required.
The environmental compliance issue jeopardizes the organization’s ability to vacate county offices at 171 Emery Highway before the end of the first quarter of next year, a deadline mentioned by Mayor Lester Miller in July’s Ask Mayor Miller program.
Miller has plans for a $400 million development on the property that will bring “good quality jobs.”
Although River Edge executives expect to meet with the EPD soon to sort that out, they also have not secured the necessary funding.
With only about $8.8 million in reserves, they are relying on local foundations, the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities, or DBHDD, and Macon-Bibb County to generate the remaining $23.7 million.
River Edge’s Chief Operating Officer, Tommy Barnes said they want to be financially secure before beginning construction.
“It’s our desire, one, to have definitive answers about all funding sources before we
start. Two, that we don’t create a situation that even if we accept the funding, in order to execute it we put ourselves at a financial disadvantage. The money’s not front-loaded,” Barnes said.
Barnes said the organization is now charged with coming up with “plan C, D, and E.”
They will look for temporary buildings to lease for the outpatient clinic and administrative offices, search for other county properties that could be renovated and repurposed to meet their needs without new construction, or build the new complex in phases when funding is available.
Alternative locations create their own challenges as state permitting is tied to precise locations, so services could be disrupted if new permits are not secured in time.
River Edge’s Adult Peer Support & Community Integration Center at the corner of Ingleside Avenue and Riverside Drive is 77% complete and is expected to be finished by the end of the year and in operation by spring.
River Edge also secured funding from Macon-Bibb County and DBHDD to begin building two new group homes in the community.
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at [email protected] or 478-301-2976.
