DeKalb commissioners try to restore representation
DeKalb County commissioners plan to conduct public, live-streamed interviews Tuesday of five candidates seeking to represent the southeastern part of the county.
The selection process is the latest attempt to resolve an impasse over representation for 140,000 people who have lacked a county commissioner for more than 19 months since Gov. Nathan Deal appointed then-Commissioner Lee May to lead the county while criminal charges are pending against CEO Burrell Ellis.
Voters can’t choose a commissioner for the southeast DeKalb seat because May was elected to that post and hasn’t resigned it, leaving the decision in the hands of the six remaining commissioners from across the county. They could vote on a candidate as soon as Tuesday, but it’s more likely that they’ll take action next week.
Commissioners nominated five people for the job. They were among 20 applicants last summer for the position:
- Markus Butts, a DeKalb planning commissioner and manager in the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management.
- Gina Smith Mangham, an attorney who ran against May in the 2012 election for the southeast DeKalb seat.
- Kathryn Rice, the leader of the movement to form a city of Greenhaven in South DeKalb and the founder of the South DeKalb Improvement Association.
- Kenneth Saunders III, a member of the Parks Bond Advisory Committee and a former member of the DeKalb Community Council.
- George Turner, president of the District 5 Community Council and a retired MARTA manager.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
