Fulton still mulling using outside lobbyists

Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts will try again Wednesday to get enough votes to solicit bids for an outside lobbyist. The county still doesn’t have a strategy for handling the upcoming state Legislative session, when Northside lawmakers could start efforts to dismantle the county government’s powers.

Last month the commission shot down more than $240,000 in contracts for both state- and federal-level lobbyists, partly out of concern that the bid process had been manipulated to hand the state work over to the spouse of a current hired lobbyist. Commissioners have since been unable to agree on whether to hire an outside lobbying firm, use lobbyists on the payroll, or both.