by Dave Williams | Sep 16, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – State School Superintendent Richard Woods announced Monday he will push for additional state funding for school safety initiatives during the 2025 General Assembly session in the aftermath of this month’s school shooting in Barrow County.
The goal will be providing a school resource officer and a crisis alert system in every Georgia school.
“Building on the strong commitment to school displayed by Governor Kemp and the General Assembly in previous sessions – including the addition of line-item funding for school safety in 2024 – these are common-sense measures that will increase the security of schools throughout our state,” Woods said. “There is also early evidence they made a difference at Apalachee.”
Two students and two teachers were shot and killed at Apalachee High School near Winder on Sept. 4 and nine others were injured. Two school resource officers played a key role in taking 14-year-old Colt Gray, the alleged shooter, into custody and preventing further violence.
Gov. Brian Kemp has included school safety measures in previous state budgets. This year’s spending plan set aside about $109 million for school districts to use in safety efforts.
The governor also signed the Safe Schools Act last year, which requires schools to conduct “intruder alert drills” and submit school safety plans to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.
But legislative Democrats, and some Republicans, are calling for more. Democrats are pushing for legislation requiring gun owners to lock their firearms and store them in a safe place and for a “red flag” law allowing the temporary seizure of firearms from a person deemed a danger to themselves or others.
On the GOP side, Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, late last week called for legislation offering tax credits to Georgians for the purchase of firearm storage safety devices including trigger locks and gun safes. The House overwhelmingly passed a tax-credit bill this year, but it failed to reach the Senate floor for a vote.
Woods also announced Monday that he will propose expanding a state program that promotes mental- health counseling in the schools and the enactment of policies requiring more timely and effective sharing of information between law enforcement agencies and school districts.
by Dave Williams | Sep 16, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – An Atlanta woman told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Monday she was suffering through a doomed pregnancy last fall that was putting her health at risk, only to be told by a doctor to rest in bed and drink plenty of water.
That’s all the doctor could do under Georgia’s restrictive abortion law that essentially bans the procedure after six weeks, Mackenzie Kulik testified during a field hearing of the Senate Human Rights Subcommittee at the Fulton County Government Center chaired by Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
“Instead of giving me the science, my doctors told me to drink water,” said Kulik, a public health researcher who had done her own research showing her pregnancy should be terminated.
“Despite the fact that my baby was not going to make it and continuing the pregnancy posed a risk to my health, my case apparently did not qualify for an exception under Georgia’s abortion law. The only way I could get the medically necessary care was to travel to another state.”
“Our state’s abortion ban puts the lives of Georgia women at unnecessary risk and drives OB-GYNs out of Georgia, where already 50% of Georgia’s counties have no OB-GYNs at all,” Ossoff said at the start of Monday’s hearing.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp steered the “heartbeat bill” through the GOP-controlled General Assembly in 2019, prohibiting most abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy. There are exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies.
Courts blocked the law from taking effect until 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion that had been established in the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.
Abortion is a key issue in this year’s presidential election, with Vice President Kamala Harris calling for Congress to codify abortion rights into law at the federal level and former President Donald Trump arguing abortion should be left to the states to decide.
At Monday’s hearing, Atlanta OB-GYN and Emory University professor Dr. Carrie Cwiak said confusion over the law and the short time it gives physicians and their patients to decide what to do about problem pregnancies is literally killing women in Georgia.
“Make no mistake, this restrictive ban has increased maternal mortality and poor health outcomes,” she said. “Because of Georgia’s abortion ban, hospitals, clinics and physicians have no choice but to turn away patients in need of essential health care. Every day that it’s in effect, Georgians suffer an assault against their autonomy and needless risk to their health and lives.”
by Dave Williams | Sep 16, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The head of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia has exonerated Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in an investigation of the then-Republican state senator’s activities following the 2020 presidential election.
Jones was among a group of GOP alternate electors that met at the state Capitol in December 2020 and voted to cast Georgia’s 16 electoral votes for then-incumbent President Donald Trump even though Democrat Joe Biden had won the popular vote in the Peach State the previous month.
But Pete Skandalakis, who appointed himself to investigate Jones’ involvement after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the case, concluded that Jones did not commit a crime.
“The evidence reveals Senator Jones acted in a manner consistent with his position representing the concerns of his constituents and in reliance upon the advice of attorneys when he served as an alternate elector,” Skandalakis wrote in a new release last Friday. “The evidence also indicates Senator Jones did not act with criminal intent, which is an essential element of committing any crime.”
According to Skandalakis, Jones was among a group of Republican state senators that urged GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to call a special session of the General Assembly to investigate complaints from constituents alleging election irregularities and voter fraud during the November election in Georgia.
After Kemp declined to call a special session, lawyers for Trump began focusing on plans to have legislatures in Georgia and other states Biden had narrowly carried send alternate slates of electors to Congress to contest the election results when federal lawmakers moved to certify them.
Jones took part in the meeting of alternate electors in Georgia, voting for Trump. However, Skandalakis concluded Jones did so on the advice of legal counsel.
“Prior to the vote, the electors were advised that their votes were needed to preserve a legal remedy for Trump should the pending lawsuit in Georgia be successful,” he wrote. “If the court cases moved forward and they prevailed, this was an insurance policy.”
Jones used the same argument during his successful campaign for lieutenant governor in 2022, the race that led to Willis being disqualified from prosecuting him. Willis had hosted a fundraiser for Charlie Bailey, Jones’ Democratic opponent, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that conflict of interest enough to remove Willis from the case.
A Fulton grand jury voted last August to indict some of the Republicans who served as alternate electors and voted for Trump during the December 2020 meeting. However, Willis chose not to bring charges against others who served in that capacity.
by Dave Williams | Sep 13, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The role private water systems can and should play in meeting the demands of Georgia’s growing population will be the focus of a legislative study committee that will begin meeting next week.
Private water systems became an issue earlier this year when the Republican-controlled General Assembly voted largely along party lines to allow private utilities to provide water in areas where no public service can be provided within 18 months.
Three Republicans from the Georgia coast introduced House Bill 1146 to clear the way for a private company to provide water to new homes being built in Bryan County for workers at the massive Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant under construction west of Savannah.
“If cities or counties can’t or won’t supply water to an area, if someone does have the capacity in a private system, they ought to be able to come in and supply water,” said state Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, the bill’s chief sponsor.
The need for private water systems to step in where public water service is not available or – in some cases – is extremely expensive is being felt in other areas besides the Georgia coast.
Residents near Lake Oconee have complained about high water rates. In fact, Rep. Trey Rhodes, R-Greensboro, whose House district includes the Lake Oconee area, will serve as the study committee’s chairman.
Martha Revolo, associate director of governmental affairs for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), said private water systems are a particularly attractive option in fast-growing rural areas of Georgia, where population increase is outstripping public water supplies.
“We’re having a lot of housing issues … especially in rural areas,” she said. “We need the infrastructure, and it takes three to five years to have a fully implemented water plan for a county or region.”
However, the ACCG opposed Stephens’ bill because it allows private water systems to operate in an area without the approval of the local government.
“Bypassing local government was our No.-1 concern, setting a precedent for the rest of the state where industries could come in and say, ‘We don’t need local consent,’ ” Revolo said.
During the debate on the bill, legislative Democrats argued that letting private water systems start serving communities along or near the Georgia coast would hamstring local governments’ ability to manage limited water resources. Saltwater intrusion has long been a concern of officials in coastal counties.
“We’ve worked for years to try to keep the people of Savannah from having to drink salty water,” said Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, who voted against Stephens’ bill. “A private company could come in and drill a well and upset the apple cart.”
But Buckner said she welcomes the study committee as an opportunity to learn how many private water companies exist across Georgia and whether they have to abide by the same rules as public water utilities.
“If we’re going to be the No.-1 place to do business, we have to take care of our natural resources,” said Buckner, who will serve on the committee. “[Water] is a finite resource. We have to be very careful about it.”
by Dave Williams | Sep 13, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did not appear before a state Senate committee Friday to testify about the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump, defying a subpoena the panel issued last spring.
Willis has argued the subpoena is unlawful and has gone to court to block it.
Friday’s hearing was the sixth the Senate Special Committee on Investigations has held to look into a romantic relationship between Willis and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case, and whether she misused taxpayer funds.
In Willis’ absence, the committee spent about 90 minutes hearing from two witnesses who testified the panel had the legal right to issue the subpoena and has the authority to compel the district attorney to testify if she refuses to appear voluntarily.
Legislative counsel Stuart Morelli cited state and federal court rulings asserting the authority of legislative bodies to conduct investigations and compel testimony.
“The investigative power has to be inherent to the legislative process,” Morelli said. “[Otherwise], you’re legislating in the dark.”
Former Secretary of the Senate David Cook delivered one caveat to the Senate’s power to enforce a subpoena. Cook said the law allows the legislature to find in contempt a subpoenaed witness who refuses to testify only while the General Assembly is in session. The legislature adjourned the 2024 session at the end of March.
However, Cook said the Senate can go to court to seek a declaratory judgment finding an uncooperative witness in contempt. Toward that end, the committee has hired a lawyer to pursue its subpoena of Willis in court.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted along party lines in January to form the committee after one of Trump’s co-defendants in the case filed a motion accusing Willis of being involved in an improper relationship with Wade. Trump later joined the motion, which sought to disqualify Willis from the case.
Willis argued the relationship did not constitute grounds for dismissing the indictment against Trump and others for participating in a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Wade stepped down from the case in April after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could continue prosecuting Trump only if Wade discontinued his role as special prosecutor.
