New maps for Athens-Clarke County’s ten commission districts may come from the county’s Board of Elections. ACC Commissioners are set to debate and vote on that idea tomorrow at a special session scheduled before their agenda setting meeting tomorrow evening.
Among the items up for a vote is the thorny problem of redrawing local commission districts. Because of a very tight timeline – state legislators are expected to deal with local redistricting in January – county officials had planned to have new maps reflecting changes in the county’s population drawn by the county’s Geospatial Information Office. That proposal prompted pushback from several commissioners at last week’s work session, who want to keep the process of drawing political boundaries as far removed from the Commission as possible.
District 10’s Mike Hamby made the point that, since the county’s GIS office reports to the county manager, and the manager reports to the commission, there could be an appearance of impropriety.
Commissioners discussed the idea of turning the responsibility for drawing the new district maps to the county’s Board of Elections, which, while it has some members appointed by the commission, has more independence from the commission. That idea was crafted into a resolution, and commissioners are expected to vote on it on Tuesday.
Also on the agenda for the special session is an eviction relief program that could help Athenians in danger of losing their homes. At the commission’s behest, county staff issued a request for proposals in late August. Only one organization responded, and staff had reservations about that group’s ability to do the job. Now staff are asking commissioners to re-issue the request for proposals with a longer timeline to apply.
Commissioners will also be voting on a pair of public-safety related items – a transfer of money from the county’s general fund to help the Clarke County Sheriff’s Department meet higher-than-expected medical costs at the jail, and the approval of some $213,000 in SPLOST 2020 funds to purchase new turnout gear for the ACC Fire Department.
