Friday, Mar. 25, 2005

What do you think of this story? Click here to send a message to the editor.

House kills district voting

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

A Democrat-led attempt to change the way Fayette voters choose members of the County Commission died Thursday when the Georgia House broke with tradition and defeated a local bill that would have forced a switch from at-large to district voting.

The 82-63 vote against HB 856, sponsored by Democrat Rep. Virgil Fludd of Tyrone, was hailed as “unprecedented” by some longtime observers of the General Assembly.

Historically, legislation that's of a strictly local nature is given blanket approval in House and Senate votes.

But because the five Fayette House members were split along party lines in support of the change, Rep. Dan Lakly of Peachtree City — the measure’s most vocal opponent — was able to convince a majority of his colleagues that the bill violated rules of fairness and home rule.

“It was defeated on the strength of my argument for fairness,” declared an elated Lakly Thursday afternoon.

Along with Fludd, fellow Fayette Democrats Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam and Rep. Darryl Jordan — who both represent a handful of north Fayette precincts — gave favor to the switch to district elections; Lakly and fellow House Republican Rep. John Yates, who serves rural south Fayette, were adamantly opposed.

But despite the 3-2 split vote, Fayette House Delegation rules allow for for local bills to move on to the full House with a simple majority. Based on that rule, Fludd expected the bill would be given courtesy in the House and move on to the Senate.

But Lakly argued that the effort by Fludd, Abdul-Salaam and Jordan was not in keeping with the will of the majority of Fayette voters. Muddling the issue further, he said, is the fact that both Abdul-Salaam and Jordan actually live in Clayton County.

Lakly stated his case before a hastily called meeting Wednesday of the House Planning & Community Affairs Committee, and again in an impassioned five-minute speech from the well of the House Thursday, when he convinced Speaker Glenn Richardson to take the bill off the consent agenda and offer it up for a seperate House vote.

Later, Lakly called the bill’s defeat the “most satisfying political victory of my career.”

Efforts to contact Fludd for comment before press time Thursday were unsuccessful.

After the vote, Fludd did request that the bill be “reconsidered” by the full House again. The earliest that could happen is Tuesday, but Lakly said chances were slim that opinions would change among House members.

Commission Chairman Greg Dunn, who traveled to Atlanta Wednesday for the committee hearing, congratulated the House members who voted to defeat the bill for showing “courage” and standing up for “home rule.”

“I think what we have here is a lot of people understanding that you shouldn’t tamper with local government at the state level unless there’s a legal or moral issue at hand.”