Gov. Brian Kemp introduced Kelly Loeffler (right) last month as his appointee to the U.S. Senate.
ATLANTA – With
the two words “I do,” Kelly Loeffler became Georgia’s new U.S. senator Monday.
Vice
President Mike Pence administered the oath of office to Loeffler during a brief
late-afternoon ceremony inside the Senate chambers.
Republican
Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman and political newcomer, was Gov. Brian
Kemp’s choice to succeed former Sen. Johnny Isakson, who retired at the end of
last year due to health concerns.
Loeffler
emerged from a competition of more than 500 hopefuls who responded when the
governor posted the job opening online.
Isakson, who
suffers from Parkinson’s disease, announced in September he would be leaving
office at the end of December, halfway through his third term in the Senate.
High-profile Republicans who applied for the opening included U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville; former Congressman Tom Price, who also served as secretary of health and human services during the first year of President Donald Trump’s administration; state Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, who serves as House speaker pro tempore; Tim Echols, a member of the Georgia Public Service Commission, and Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton.
Trump let it
be known that he preferred Collins, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary
Committee and a strong defender of the president.
But Kemp chose
Loeffler instead in a move widely seen as a bid to increase diversity within
Georgia Republican ranks.
Until her
appointment to the Senate, Loeffler was CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a
Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange Inc., another Atlanta
company run by her husband, Jeff Sprecher. She also is co-owner of the WNBA’s
Atlanta Dream.
Loeffler,
who is currently serving in the Senate on an interim basis, has said she will
run in November to complete Isakson’s unexpired term.
She is
certain to draw Democratic challengers, and Collins has said he is considering seeking
the seat as well.
ATLANTA – The
11-hospital Piedmont Healthcare system is withdrawing its membership in the
Georgia Hospital Association (GHA), striking a blow at the hospital industry’s
ability to mount a united front in dealing with state policy makers.
In a
statement, Piedmont cited the increasing cost of GHA membership dues.
“As an organization,
we take seriously our responsibility to improve quality and control the rising
cost of health care,” the statement read. “Our GHA dues have increased over
recent years to a point that we can no longer ignore.”
For years, Piedmont
and other nonprofit hospital systems working with the GHA successfully fought
off legislation before the General Assembly industry lobbyists argued would have
put the hospitals at a competitive disadvantage.
But last
year marked a departure from that trend. Lawmakers passed a bill imposing new financial
disclosure requirements on nonprofit hospitals in the name of greater
transparency, including how much they pay their top executives.
The General
Assembly also did away with decade-old restrictions limiting the number of beds
and percentage of patients from Georgia that could be served at the Cancer
Treatment Centers of America hospital in Newnan.
“GHA firmly
believes in the importance of strength in numbers and a unified voice for the
hospital industry,” GHA President Earl Rogers said in a statement reported by
Georgia Health News.
“GHA is
certainly disappointed by the Piedmont decision. However, we respect their
leadership’s right to choose where resources are allocated, and we wish
Piedmont well.”
ATLANTA – Gov.
Brian Kemp infused the University System of Georgia Board of Regents Friday
with some new blood.
Kemp named
five new members to the board that oversees the 26 institutions that make up
the university system, including two who will serve at large and three who will
represent the state’s 10th, 12th and 14th
congressional districts.
The at-large
newcomers are Cade Joiner of Brookhaven, chairman of the state chapter of the
National Federation of Independent Business and founder of Shred-X Secure
Document Destruction, and T. Dallas Smith
of Atlanta, a long-time commercial real estate executive who founded his own
firm in 2006.
Joiner and
Smith will succeed Rogers Wade and Chris Cummiskey on the board.
Harold
Reynolds, CEO of BankSouth Holding Co. in Greene County, will represent the 10th
Congressional District, succeeding Ben Tarbutton III.
The 12th
District’s new regent will be Everett Kennedy, CEO at Berkshire Hathaway
Kennedy Realty in Statesboro. Kennedy will succeed Regent Laura Marsh.
Lowery May,
a member of the Georgia Student Finance Commission and the Rome-Floyd County
Land Bank Authority, will represent the 14th District, succeeding
Scott Smith.
“For many
years, I have worked closely with each of these individuals and found them to
be honest, hardworking and committed to our state’s long-term success,” Kemp
said. “I am truly honored to name them to the Board of Regents to serve our
top-notch university system with integrity and lead by example.”
The new
regents will join the board in time for its next meeting Jan. 8.
ATLANTA – Georgia
launched a marketing campaign Friday to spread the word about the upcoming 2020
U.S. Census.
The campaign
– Every. One. Counts. – is aimed at generating strong public participation in
the population count, conducted every 10 years to determine how federal funds are
distributed among the states. Census results also will be used to redraw
Georgia’s congressional and legislative district boundaries.
“Every. One.
Counts. is committed to ensuring that every Georgian is heard – and counted –
in the 2020 Census,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “The campaign will work closely with
census-focused organizations at the state, local and federal levels to ensure
Georgia is best prepared for the next decade.”
For the
first time this year, the census will be conducted primarily online through a
secure Census Questionnaire. However, hard-copy versions still will be
available for submission via telephone and mail.
Under an
estimated timeline released by the governor’s office, Georgia households will
begin receiving invitations to complete the questionnaire between March 12 and
March 20. Those will be followed up with reminder postcards and letters.
If the
household has not responded after April 27, the U.S. Census Bureau will send workers
door to door to collect responses.
Kemp is
encouraging Georgians to learn more about the process by clicking on www.census.georgia.gov.
ATLANTA – Electric
scooters started showing up on city streets and college campuses in Georgia a
year and a half ago, but the General Assembly has yet to figure out how to
regulate them.
A state
Senate study committee has released a report recently on how to approach the
issue that is expected to become the starting point for a bill lawmakers will
consider during the 2020 session that kicks off Jan. 13.
The panel’s
recommendations seek to balance concerns for public safety driven by an
explosion of e-scooters in Atlanta and its suburbs with a desire to encourage
an industry with potential to help alleviate the metro region’s chronic traffic
woes.
“I’m not
against some common-sense regulations,” said Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, the
study committee’s chairman. “But we need to create innovation. … There’s an
opportunity here for Georgia to offer a private-sector solution to a problem
that’s been around for years.”
Georgia
cities’ reactions to the sudden proliferation of e-scooters reflects the
uncertainty surrounding the technology. While Atlanta, Brookhaven and Decatur allow
scooters, 12 cities have either banned them outright or imposed a temporary
moratorium on scooters while elected officials consider how to regulate them.
Even the
cities that allow scooters have imposed restrictions on their use. In Atlanta,
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an executive order last year prohibiting
nighttime use of scooters, while the Atlanta City Council passed an ordinance
repealing the city planning department’s authority to issue new permits to
scooter companies.
The
crackdown followed several deaths involving e-scooters and complaints from
pedestrians about the number of scooters parked illegally on sidewalks.
The study
committee’s recommendations caution against overregulating scooters, suggesting
local governments refrain from either banning them or capping the number of
scooters allowed on local roadways.
Gooch said a
scooter bill that failed to make it through the Georgia House of Representatives
last year included so many restrictions it would have discouraged scooter
companies from setting up shop.
“The last
thing you want to do with an industry like this is overregulation,” he said.
But Michael
McPherson, a governmental relations associate with the Georgia Municipal
Association, said cities need time to weigh lingering uncertainties about the
safety of e-scooters.
“If we can’t
do a moratorium, how can we address safety concerns everybody agrees are
there?” he asked.
McPherson
said he has other questions about the study committee’s report, including its
recommendation that the state model rules of the road for e-scooters after
existing rules for bicycles whenever possible.
“Bikes are
allowed to go out on any highway that does not have limited access,” he said.
“That means roads with speed limits of 65 miles an hour.”
Gooch said
lawmakers and representatives of local governments and the scooter companies
will work to reach a consensus on such concerns during the upcoming legislative
session.
Although a
scooter bill Gooch introduced into the Senate last year is still pending, he
said he expects to start over with a new measure.
“There
should be common-sense guidelines for scooters, just like with automobiles,
bicycles and motorcycles,” Gooch said. “[But] the technology is continuing to
evolve. We don’t want to box them in too much.”
AT A GLANCE
Here are
some of the recommendations of the Georgia Senate study committee on electric
scooters:
The state should set the rules of the
road for scooters and match them with existing rules for bicycles whenever
possible.
The state should clearly define
scooters in statute broadly enough to anticipate future technology.
State and local governments should be
careful not to overregulate scooters.
State and local governments should
embrace safer roads with dedicated infrastructure for bicycles and scooters and
lower automobile speed limits in corridors with high scooter and bicycle
traffic.
Local governments should not restrict
access to scooters either by banning them or capping the number of scooters
allowed on local roadways.
State and local governments should
encourage the scooter industry to provide charging stations at fixed locations to
help reduce clutter.
