ATLANTA – One of Gov. Brian Kemp’s former top staffers is Georgia’s new commissioner of human services.
Candice Broce, a former communications director and chief deputy executive counsel in the Kemp administration, was sworn in Thursday to lead the state Department of Human Services (DHS). She also will continue to serve that agency as interim director of the Division of Family and Child Services (DFCS).
Broce is a great fit for both roles, Kemp said.
“Given her experience serving in numerous leadership roles in my administration and her demonstrated commitment to public service, I have no doubt she will continue to make the state of Georgia proud as commissioner of DHS and interim director of DFCS,” he said.
Broce also has served as the state’s chief operating officer. Before joining the Kemp administration, she was legal counsel for elections and legislative affairs in the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
Broce succeeds Gerlda Hines at the DHS. Hines was sworn in Thursday as the new state accounting officer.
Hines was named to head the agency at the beginning of July. Before that, she was the department’s deputy commissioner and chief financial officer.
Hines also held finance-related positions in the Georgia Department of Community Health and the Georgia Student Finance Commission, and was a policy analyst with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget.
“She has a wealth of experience and is a respected, valued leader in state government,” Kemp said.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate and the number of unemployed have both fallen to pre-pandemic levels.
But the state’s labor force is also below what it was when COVID-19 struck Georgia in March of last year and shows no signs of bouncing back.
The unemployment rate declined two-tenths of a percentage point last month to 3.5%, lower than the 3.6% jobless rate posted in March 2020, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Thursday. The number of unemployed dropped to about 182,000, also below the pre-pandemic level of 187,000.
While those numbers represent good news for the state’s economy, the labor force also remained 31,000 below the number of Georgians in the workforce in March of last year.
Job losses in the accommodation and food services and retail trade sectors negated what otherwise would have been a job gain of more than 4,000 in August.
“Job growth will become stagnant if we don’t fill the hundreds of thousands of jobs that we currently have open right now,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday. “We are not seeing the number of Georgians rejoin the labor force at the same pace as we are seeing employers post jobs.”
A survey conducted by the labor department found that 69% of Georgia employers have been increasing pay scales to try to fill vacant jobs. About 46% report they have become more flexible with education and experience requirements of jobseekers, and more than a third say they have enhanced benefits.
Jobseekers responding to the survey said they were discouraged from applying due to a lack of qualifications, fear of COVID exposure and a desire for higher salaries and benefits.
“Based on what we are seeing, it may take months, if not years, for the job market to return to some type of normalcy,” Butler said.
First-time unemployment claims were down 19% last month from July and declined 81% compared to August of last year.
The number of employed Georgians rose by 15,686 last month to nearly 5 million.
The sectors with the most over-the-month job gains included administrative and support services, which posted a gain of 3,500 jobs; professional, scientific, and technical services, which gained 2,500 jobs; and non-durable goods manufacturing, which saw an increase of 1,000.
There are more 200,000 jobs posted on Employ GA. In many cases, employers are willing to train quality candidates and assist with obtaining additional credentials.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger signed a petition Thursday supporting a Georgia constitutional amendment that would limit voting in state and local elections to American citizens.
“This measure has the overwhelming bipartisan support of the American people,” Raffensperger said. “Voting is a sacred responsibility for American citizens, and everyone should agree that only American citizens should vote.”
Raffensperger signed the petition during a news conference at the state Capitol hosted by Americans for Citizen Voting, a non-partisan nonprofit.
“From Maine to California, and everywhere in between including Clarkston, Ga., there is a growing movement in this country to permit non-citizens with green cards to vote legally in our elections,” said the organization’s president, Christopher Arps. “Voting is a sacred right of citizenship and it must be strictly reserved for citizens and citizens only.”
Georgia’s Constitution allows U.S. citizens to vote but, according to the organization, does not prevent non-citizens from voting as well.
The organization said Arizona and Minnesota have precluded non-citizens from voting for years, while Alabama, Colorado, Florida and North Dakota have recently passed amendments to provide only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in local, state and school board elections.
Christopher Bruce, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, said, “It is already the law that only U.S. citizens can vote in Georgia. It is irresponsible to perpetuate falsehoods about the integrity of elections in Georgia and undermines confidence in our democracy.”
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro, in his campaign to unseat Raffensperger next year.
According to widespread reports, Trump was angry at Raffensperger for his refusal to overturn last year’s Georgia presidential election results, in which Joe Biden carried Georgia by less than 1%. Biden’s victory in Georgia was the first time since Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory that a Democrat carried the Peach State in a White House contest.
The secretary of state denied his support of the measure is designed to win back any disgruntled Trump supporters, and said he has been a longtime advocate of citizen-only voting measures.
“I’ve been a Republican all my life,” Raffensperger said. “When I was in the legislature, I sponsored a bill allowing only U.S. citizens to sit on local boards. That bill died in the state Senate.”
A constitutional amendment to clarify that only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in Georgia would need to pass both the state House and Senate by a two-thirds majority, and then be approved by a majority of Georgia voters during the 2022 general election.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – New cases of COVID-19 on University System of Georgia campuses started to come down this week after increasing at the beginning of the fall semester.
The number of positive tests reported at nine schools – including the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech – declined this week, mirroring a trend that occurred at the same time last year.
“Whenever we see a decline in cases, we are grateful, and we hope this downward trend holds,” said Dr. Shelley Nuss, co-chair of UGA’s Medical Oversight Task Force. “We saw a similar pattern last fall: a peak in cases shortly after we began classes that then fell markedly and leveled off.
“We hope that with our continued push to encourage vaccinations, testing and masking, our numbers will continue to decline. COVID-19 is a very serious disease, and vaccines remain our best defense.”
The decline in positive tests for the virus came as the campuses ramped up vaccination campaigns stressed continuing health and safety protocols.
More than 313,000 COVID-19 tests have been sent to campuses, and an additional 50,000 tests are on the way. The university system also has distributed 942,000 gloves, 432,000 masks and face shields, 21,400 gowns and about 1,000 gallons of sanitizer and disinfectant solution.
“Thank you to the students, faculty and staff who have gotten vaccinated and taken seriously all we’ve asked them to do to keep themselves and their campuses safe,” Acting Chancellor Teresa MacCartney said.
“We appreciate everyone who’s wearing a mask on campus, staying home when they’re not feeling well, getting tested and, most of all, getting vaccinated. It’s making a difference.”
But those efforts haven’t been enough to satisfy groups of students, faculty and staff, who have conducted demonstrations this week on campuses across the state demanding the university system impose a mask mandate.
Other campuses experiencing a decline in positive tests for COVID-19 this week include Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Clayton State University, Columbus State University, Fort Valley State University, Georgia Southern University, Kennesaw State University and the University of North Georgia
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
ATLANTA – The federal government has changed the way COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments are being distributed in the United States, including Georgia.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said this week the decision comes from supply shortages and demand for the treatments across the country, mainly due to the delta variant’s rapid spread.
Health-care providers will no longer be able to order the treatments directly. HHS said it will determine each state’s weekly allocation of monoclonal antibody products based on use and the number of new COVID cases.
The Georgia Department of Public Health said it will identify which sites in the state will receive the product and the amount each site receives.
Health-care providers must record their administration of the products in order to be eligible to receive additional shipments.
On Tuesday, Dr. R. Chris Rustin, director of the department’s Division of Health Protection, told a virtual Board of Public Health meeting preliminary data shows monoclonal antibody therapy is effective mostly early in treatment.
“You have to get it early on,” said Rustin, who added the state Department of Public Health is collaborating with the Department of Community Health to support the existing, 136 sites across the state. “It’s important to stress this is not a substitute for vaccines,” Rustin said.
Monoclonal antibodies are synthetic, laboratory-created antibodies. They help people at high risk for severe COVID illness, individuals who have tested positive for the virus within the last 10 days, or people who are close contacts of persons who have tested positive for COVID.
“We have safe and highly effective vaccines to protect against COVID-19. It is much easier to get a vaccine than risk becoming seriously ill with life threatening complications,” said Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the agency’s commissioner.
“Monoclonal antibodies are in short supply and high demand and hospital beds are full. What Georgia does have is enough vaccine for all Georgians aged 12 and over to be vaccinated.”
As of Wednesday, 53% of Georgians have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine and 46% of Georgians are fully vaccinated.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
