Committee hears heated debate over Mulberry incorporation: service agreements, annexation and sovereign immunity at issue

Senators spent the longest portion of the hearing on two linked local measures affecting the newly incorporated city of Mulberry and Gwinnett County: Senate Bill 138, aimed at bringing county practice into alignment with the transition statute and prompting an intergovernmental service-delivery agreement, and Senate Bill 139, an annexation bill for primarily commercial parcels.

Sponsor Senator Dixon told the committee the county had refused to enter a service-delivery agreement and had not returned the mayor’s calls, and that county crews had refused to repair a knocked-down stop sign on a county road within the new city’s boundaries. Multiple members challenged that account: Representative Whit Parks said he had been shown written communications from Gwinnett County, including a draft intergovernmental agreement, and asked whether the county had provided…