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Municipal sovereign-immunity bill draws lengthy debate; committee tables measure for more work
Summary
A municipal judiciary bill that would (1) create a senior municipal judge designation and (2) impose caps matching the State Tort Claims Act on certain municipal liabilities drew extensive testimony from the Georgia Municipal Association, mayors and municipal attorneys. Committee members asked for more work and tabled the measure.
Committee members heard more than an hour of testimony on a measure that combined two issues: certification for senior municipal judges and proposed changes to municipal sovereign immunity and liability caps.
Senior municipal judges: Supporters asked the committee to authorize a senior municipal judge designation for experienced municipal judges who could be called on to cover calendars. Backers said the Judicial Council supports a certification and oversight role so experienced part-time municipal judges can provide temporary coverage without disrupting local court operations.
Sovereign-immunity proposal and debate: The more contentious portion of the proposal would set a limit on municipal liability patterned on the State Tort Claims Act (commonly phrased as $1,000,000 per claimant and $3,000,000 per occurrence in state law). Ruchi Patel, legislative counsel for the Georgia Municipal Association, said GMA sought parity with the state's limits so cities could insure and budget for catastrophic claims. "We think what is good for the state should be good for cities," Patel said.
Mayors from College Park and Braselton told the committee large verdicts would force cities to raise taxes or cut services. "If College Park received a verdict of $10 million, our millage rate would have to go from 11.608 to 18.748," Mayor Bianca Motley Broom said, adding that many residents rent rather than own and would be directly affected by tax increases. Braselton Mayor Kurt Ward walked the committee through an illustrative municipal tax calculation to show the potential budget impact of multi-million-dollar judgments.
Opponents and questions: Several members pressed municipal witnesses on risk-management steps cities take to prevent liability and asked whether insurance markets would supply coverage for large verdicts. Committee members also raised constitutional and drafting concerns about merging two topics in one bill and about whether the proposal would functionally waive immunity rather than only limit recoveries. Representative Briggs questioned whether statutory caps should be paired with changes to notice-of-claim periods; the bill before the committee did not revise the six-month municipal notice-of-claim period that currently applies.
Committee action: After prolonged discussion, the committee accepted a motion to table the municipal bill and recommended further work with stakeholders. No final vote on liability caps was taken; sponsors indicated possible substitute language had been circulated but they were not advancing a substitute at the hearing.
Ending
Committee members urged additional drafting and stakeholder discussion. The bill was tabled to allow sponsors, municipal officials and counsel to reconcile drafting, constitutional and insurance-market questions before returning the measure for further consideration.
