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DeKalb commissioners review 2026 state legislative priorities; rental registry tops preliminary list
Summary
County staff presented a consolidated set of 64 policy suggestions and a ranked list of priorities for the 2026 DeKalb County state legislative agenda. Commissioners asked legal and lobbying teams to refine items and to assess what can be pursued at the local level.
DeKalb County staff presented a draft of the county's 2026 state legislative platform and told the Operations Committee the next step is a legal and lobbying review to determine which items require state action and which can be handled locally.
The presenter said commissioners provided 64 policy suggestions during a recent work session and then submitted top-10 and top-3 priority lists. After consolidating similar items, the rental-registry proposal received the most mentions on commissioners' top-3 lists, and NextGen E-911 funding and the rental registry were the most-cited items in the top-10 counts.
Commissioners asked staff and the law department to clarify the intent and legal vehicle for proposals. Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson and others raised concerns about the scope of a rental registry versus a landlord contact database and asked the law department and county lobbyists to refine the policy language. One commissioner suggested requiring a registered agent for service of process for rental-property owners, a legal issue the county attorney said the law department would review.
Staff said the full list and proposed language will be sent to the county law department and to the county's lobbyists for review; the law department expects to return findings to the committee before the next operations meeting on 08/28. Staff also said they will compare the county's priorities to those of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) and will identify possible state vehicles or local ordinances that could advance the items.
No formal vote on a legislative agenda was taken at the meeting; staff described the presentation as preliminary data and review work in progress. Commissioners asked that the law department contact commissioners' offices to confirm the intent of individual items before finalizing language for state or local action.
