Georgia state lawmakers will decide whether a mayor of Macon-Bibb County is entitled to a third four-year term, the same as provided for county commissioners under the decade-old consolidated government charter.
Mayor Lester Miller floated the idea of a third term last summer on social media, but it was Mayor Pro Tem Seth Clark who proposed the resolution seeking the charter change during Tuesday’s night’s meeting.
During September’s Ask Mayor Miller program, the mayor said the county is “hurt” by having its chief executive limited to two terms.
“You’ve got to have some continuity on funding, on building relationships with this state,” Miller said. “At the same time, to me, it makes absolutely zero sense to have commissioners that serve three terms, and a mayor who is actually a full-time mayor — they’re part-time commissioners that serve three terms and a mayor gets two terms.”
Clark explained that he put together the resolution with county attorneys over the holiday break because he “thought enough ink had been spilled about it outside of this body,” and that it might be time for the commission to talk about it with the pending legislative session.
“This is not about a certain person or persons,” Clark said, but equalizing terms for mayor and commission.
The resolution only asks the legislature to change one word of the charter from “two” to “three.”
Three former mayoral candidates, Shekita Maxwell who Miller soundly defeated in the spring, and Commissioners Paul Bronson and Stanley Stewart spoke against the third term.
Bronson said the status quo allows for succession plans and enables commissioners to take a greater role, while Stewart suggested equalizing the terms by reducing commissioners to two terms.
“I still want to go on the record saying I think this is a bad idea for Macon-Bibb County,” Stewart said before voting against the resolution.
A few other members of the public spoke against the change, asked for public meetings or more time to decide whether it’s in the best interest of the county.
Commissioner Donice Bryant expressed concern about a leadership vacuum if commissioners and the mayor had to leave office at the same time, but Miller noted that anyone could be voted out of office after any term.
The charter change would not line up those terms to run concurrently or guarantee the whole body would rotate off at the same time. Only two current commissioners could possibly have two additional terms ahead, the newly elected commissioners Bryant and Joey Hulett who are beginning their first terms.
Stewart and Commissioner Brendalyn Bailey are only eligible to run for one more term after this one. According to the charter, they now are in their second terms because they were appointed last year to fill the unexpired terms of Elaine Lucas and Al Tillman.
The charter states: “Each commission member shall be limited to serving a total of three four-year terms. An initial term of less than four years shall nevertheless be deemed a full term for the purposes of this subsection.”
NAACP President Gwen Westbrooks said the organization does not have a stand on term limits but would like to see other changes in the charter.
Bronson proposed tabling the resolution for more discussion, but the motion failed and the resolution passed 6 to 3 with him, Stewart and Bryant voting against it.
The term limit resolution was the major point of contention at Tuesday’s meeting where commissioners also approved $2 million for up to 30 new fully-equipped sheriff’s vehicles.
Here are highlights of other agenda items captured in social media posts during the meetings:
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities and can be reached at [email protected] or 478-301-2976.
