Georgia House Speaker David Ralston announces plans to study state intervention in Atlanta crime during a news conference at the state Capitol on March 25, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Atlanta could face intervention from state police authorities to help crack down on crime in Georgia’s capital city amid a spate of violent and property crimes over the past year.
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, on Thursday called for a General Assembly panel to study Atlanta’s crime problem over the summer and decide whether “state intervention may be necessary.”
“In the past I have resisted calls for state oversight of a city’s operations,” Ralston said at a news conference. “But this pandemic of lawlessness has now reached crisis proportions.”
Ralston informed Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of the legislature’s intentions in a letter sent Thursday. Bottoms’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bottoms recently called fighting crime her “No.-1 focus” and plans to look at how many police officers the city needs, according to an interview with WSB-TV. She has also pledged to address “systemic issues” that attract children to criminal gangs.
“It’s going to take more than me, more than our police chief,” Bottoms told WSB-TV last week. “This is a bigger issue, so we’ve got to tackle it from all sides.”
Ralston’s announcement comes in the wake of mass shootings at three metro-Atlanta spas that left eight people dead earlier this month. Those murders are on top of a total of 24 people killed in homicides so far this year in Atlanta through March 13, up 41% from the same time last year.
Atlanta saw 157 murders in 2020, marking a steep increase from previous years. Assaults and auto thefts are also on the rise, contributing to a crime situation in Atlanta that Ralston said the city “doesn’t seem to be able to bring under control.”
Rep. J Collins, R-Villa Rica, who chairs the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, has been tapped to hold hearings on state intervention in Atlanta crime this summer. Collins said “all possibilities are on the table” as to who would sit on a study committee for the hearings.
Ralston added potential solutions could include increasing state law enforcement personnel in Atlanta including state troopers or other resources.
“There’s any number of forms that this could take,” he said.
A bill to raise the maximum age for youth offenders to be tried in juvenile court from 16 to 17 advanced in the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Sponsored by Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, the bill would make it so 17-year-olds would no longer be tried in court and jailed with adult offenders for misdemeanor charges. Teenagers would still be tried as adults for violent crimes like murder and rape.
Ballinger, who has brought the age-raise bill several times in recent legislative sessions, noted Georgia is currently one of just three states that prosecutes 17-year-olds for low-level crimes in adult court.
“Very few times are we offered to do the pure right thing,” Ballinger said at a hearing Wednesday. “This is the right thing for 17-year-olds.”
The bill passed by 5-3 in the Senate Judiciary Committee and now heads to the full Senate. It cleared the state House of Representatives earlier this month by a 113-51 vote.
On top of raising the juvenile-offender age, Ballinger’s bill would set up a committee of state officials, sheriffs, prosecutors and defense attorneys to look for ways to help police agencies and juvenile detention centers deal with an increase of youth offenders including 17-year-olds.
The age raise would take effect in 2023 if the bill gains final passage and is signed into law.
Supporters pointed out more than 13,000 17-year-olds were arrested in 2020, mostly for minor crimes like theft. With Ballinger’s bill, those teens would not be forced into cells with violent adults and would not carry criminal records when applying for college or jobs.
“By far, it’s the lower-level kids who are 17-years-old that won’t come away with a record,” said Jill Travis, executive director of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “What this bill will do is change how you treat the shoplifters and the many misdemeanors.”
Critics warned that including 17-year-olds in the juvenile system could tax shorthanded jail staff and police agencies, as well as create costs for counties in charge of juvenile detention facilities to absorb.
Law enforcement representatives also cautioned many 17-year-olds can be just as violent as adult criminals and might act as a bad influence on younger offenders in juvenile facilities.
“The kids that are going through the [juvenile detention centers] are not the children that got caught using tobacco,” said Dwayne Orrick, assistant executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police and a former police chief in Roswell.
Ballinger’s bill comes as state lawmakers eye other criminal-justice legislation this session including a measure to repeal Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, which is awaiting a final vote in the Senate.
An aerial view of Plant Scherer in Juliette. (File photo)
ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee put off voting Wednesday on a bill to tighten monitoring requirements for ash generated by coal-burning power plants.
With time running out on this year’s General Assembly session, the decision by the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee to table House Bill 647 puts the measure’s fate in doubt.
The bill, which the state House of Representatives passed overwhelmingly early this month, would require groundwater monitoring at ash ponds that have been closed to continue for 50 years after the closure is completed. A bill the House passed last year that didn’t make it through the Senate would have limited the monitoring to 30 years.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water. Long-term exposure has been linked to a variety of cancers.
Atlanta-based Georgia Power has been working since 2015 on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its coal ash ponds at 11 power plants across Georgia to meet both state and federal regulations for handling coal ash. While the utility plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 of those ponds, the other 10 are to be closed in place.
The bill got some pushback Wednesday from Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, who called it both costly and unnecessary. He said the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has the power to step in and order the cleanup of any groundwater contamination from a closed ash pond, with or without legislation from the General Assembly.
“Why are we trying to codify something EPD already has the power to do?” Ginn asked. “It’s not going to make it any safer.”
“I just feel like it’s a safety issue … looking to the safety in the future of our children and grandchildren,” answered state Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, the bill’s chief sponsor.
On the other hand, Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, suggested strengthening the bill by requiring holders of ash pond permits from the state to “control, minimize or eliminate” seepage from closed ponds into groundwater, storm water or the atmosphere.
Legislative Democrats have been pushing since last year to require Georgia Power to install liners for the 10 ponds that are being closed in place to prevent contamination of drinking water supplies serving communities near the plants.
The utility is being sued by residents of Juliette who claim coal ash stored in an unlined pond at nearby Plant Scherer has contaminated groundwater around the site.
“We want to make sure these containment systems protect from water seepage from the side and the bottom,” Jackson said.
Committee Chairman Tyler Harper, R-Ocilla, wouldn’t allow Jackson to propose her amendment because she had missed the 24-hour deadline under committee rules to present amendments to the chairman.
However, further changes are expected in the bill. Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, is preparing a Senate substitute to Smith’s House bill, the reason the legislation was tabled.
Legislation to create a new driver’s education course on how to interact with police officers during traffic stops advanced Wednesday in the General Assembly.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, would require a school and driver-training course in Georgia to include recommendations on how drivers should act when an officer pulls them over.
The course also would include instruction on the consequences for defying officers’ orders as well as when police have the authority to request a driver’s license, make arrests and use force.
“This is just more information that [drivers are] going to have to learn while behind the wheel doing driver training,” said Rep. Martin Momtahan, R-Dallas, who is carrying the bill in the state House of Representatives. This is about making sure they know what to do when the car is pulled over and their interaction with law enforcement.”
The bill passed out of the House Motor Vehicles Committee on Wednesday and now heads to the House floor. It cleared the state Senate by a 36-13 vote largely along party lines with some Democratic lawmakers voting in favor.
Opponents questioned the need for specific training on police interactions while driving and called for any new course to include instruction on driver’s constitutional rights to avoid improper police intrusion.
“I think we’re trying to deal with this problem the wrong way,” said Rep. Gregg Kennard, D-Lawrenceville. “Certainly, training needs to be in play here … but I think that this is misplaced and we’re deflecting responsibility away from law enforcement [officers] who are paid professionals and bearing this burden on the citizens.”
Robertson’s bill follows nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice last year that drew loud calls from Democrats for criminal justice reform in Georgia as well as reaction from Republicans to double down on supporting police officers.
The bill also comes as Robertson, who is a retired major with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, pushes a separate measure in the Senate that would make it a felony to damage property or injure someone during a protest and hold city and county governments liable for not quelling rowdy demonstrations.
Additionally, state lawmakers are close to passing another measure by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, that would limit most local governments from reducing funds for police by more than 5% over a 10-year span.
Both of those measures have prompted backlash from criminal-justice reform advocates worried stricter rules on protests and police funding could erode citizen protections. The measures are now awaiting votes on the Senate floor.
ATLANTA – Online sports betting in Georgia has come one step closer to landing on next year’s statewide ballot.
The state House of Representatives’ Economic Development & Tourism Committee voted 14-6 Tuesday in favor of a constitutional amendment asking Georgia voters whether to legalize sports betting.
The state Senate passed the measure earlier this month by a margin of 41-10, three votes more than the two-thirds majority needed for constitutional amendments.
Supporters of legalizing sports betting argue 2.3 million Georgians already are betting illegally on sports each year.
“We’re not creating something new,” Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, the House committee’s chairman, said following Tuesday’s vote. “If we make it legal, we’ll get revenue out of it.”
If the constitutional change passes the General Assembly and voters ratify it next year, 20% of the net proceeds from online sports betting would go to the state, up from 16% in the version of the legislation passed by the Senate.
Of that amount, 40.5% would go to Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs and 20.5% would be set aside for need-based scholarships. The Senate had added a need-based component to the mix to benefit low-income Georgians in order to gain votes from minority Democrats.
Another 12% of the proceeds would be used to expand broadband deployment in rural Georgia, 12% would be earmarked for rural health care and 12% would go toward mental health services. Three percent would go help attract major sporting events to the state.
Stephens said those percentages are locked into the constitutional amendment, so they could never be changed once voters approve it.
“That was important to the minority caucus,” he said.
Stephens said the committee also agreed to remove a provision in the legislation that would have allowed betting on college sports. The version the panel passed Tuesday would limit betting to pro teams.
The committee also agreed to scrap a proposal to establish kiosks at sports venues for betting and limit betting instead to online devices.
The panel also approved a separate “enabling” bill outlining how sports betting would operate in Georgia.
The bill would put sports betting under the jurisdiction of the Georgia Lottery Corp. Companies interested in running sportsbooks would pay a nonrefundable application fee, and those selected would pay annual license fees.
Both measures now head to the House Rules Committee, which could schedule floor votes as early as Thursday.
