Construction has yet to begin on a controversial plant near Lithonia to burn wood chips for energy, and winter weather has kept at bay the waist-high weeds that sprouted along nearby DeKalb thoroughfares last summer.
But Michelle Emanuel-Harrington is already worried about those issues. Yet she has no one on the county commission who could vote to represent her views.
Lee May, the commissioner for the swath of southeast DeKalb known as District 5, has served as interim county CEO since July. That prevents him from being a voting member of the board, though in an unprecedented situation, he has technically remained a commissioner for the past six months.
Now an increasing number of the 145,0000 district residents, most of them black Democrats like May, are demanding change. This week Attorney General Sam Olens agreed to review state law and offer his thoughts, which would be nonbinding, on what can legally be done.
Emanuel-Harrington hopes the answer is that the white Republican governor will appoint an interim commissioner to serve in Georgia’s third-largest county, a Democratic bastion that has been struggling with a string of bad news for more than a year.
“Look at the school board. God knows where we’d be if the governor hadn’t stepped in there,” the technology account executive said of Gov. Nathan Deal’s removal of board members and appointment of new ones last summer as the district faced a threat to its accreditation.
“It reflects poorly on the county as a whole and the African-American community in particular that we haven’t already pushed for our rightful representation,” she added. “There must be someone who can speak for us.”
May said he welcomes input from the attorney general but argues that he is still representing his district. In the interim CEO role, he can vote if the six other commissioners tie and can also veto laws he opposes, though he has not exercised either power.
Two staffers moved with May to the CEO’s job, but another remains available to handle constituent calls, he said. Those calls reach him, and May said his role as an administrator could mean his district has even more power.
“It’s not ideal, of course,” May said. “But I would suggest our government is working better because there is a greater collaboration between the Board of Commissioners and administration while we work through this unprecedented circumstance.”
Deal has been wary of intervening in local affairs. But he suspended CEO Burrell Ellis on July 16, and hours later appointed May to an interim role, after a state panel recommended the move as Ellis, awaiting trial, fights political corruption charges.
The county government for 700,000 people has largely handled operations as usual amid the upheaval.
Then last month, the routine business of the commission electing a presiding officer, the commissioner who leads meetings for the year, drew new scrutiny.
A vote that would typically take moments instead ate up 30 minutes and three votes, with no one winning the four votes necessary for approval. By the time the commission made its decision two weeks later, residents had urged state lawmakers to act so they could have representation on the board.
“What was already an insult to our right to representation is becoming a problem that’s slowing down business for the entire county,” said Gina Mangham, an attorney who ran unsuccessfully against May. “It is a complex issue but clearly something has to be done to fill that seat with someone with a vote.”
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said there is no timeline for when Olens’ reading of the law will be available.
The office will review only state law, not the county’s charter. That law, known as an organizational act, is largely silent on procedures to follow in this situation, as is the state law that Deal used to remove Ellis.
“The case (against Ellis) could go on for years, so that means we face years of having no say in the county,” said Darold Honore, a Lithonia City Councilman who has pressed for representation. “We need an endgame.”
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