The DeKalb County Operations Committee voted to forward a revised legislative agenda to the full Board of Commissioners after discussing new priorities and support statements ranging from annexation policy to worker protections and election procedures. Committee Chair Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson led the Jan. 1 meeting and asked members to approve the packet with a handful of textual changes before it is placed on the board agenda.

The package adds a new priority to oppose any legislative annexations and asks the General Assembly to review the so-called 60% annexation method used to determine voter or acreage thresholds for annexations. Commissioner Ted Terry moved to add the priority and described the change as intended to guard counties against “significant legislative annexations.” Dan Baskerville, an outside contract lobbyist for the county, told the committee that there is “chatter” among municipal interests about filing annexation bills this session and recommended broadly-worded language until specifics are known.

The committee also agreed to support creation of a Warehouse Workers Protection Act. Commissioner Terry and Commissioner Patrick told the committee they had both been approached about the issue; the stated concern is that current building and labor codes do not require cooling or ventilation for warehouse workers during extreme heat. Commissioner Terry said legislators and unions are leading similar efforts in other states and that the county will add a support statement in this year’s agenda.

The elections section gained several new support items. The committee endorsed a proposal to suspend code-enforcement sign removal in county right-of-way 30 days before an election and asked the state to mail voter precinct cards at least 14 days before election day (and after redistricting to affected voters). Commissioners also broadened an early-voting priority to include extended early voting the weekend preceding primaries, runoffs and the November general election.

Housing and land-use items added to the packet include a request that the General Assembly amend DeKalb County Code Chapter 13.5-8 to remove the Board of Commissioners from the appellate step in historic-preservation cases and route petitions for review directly to DeKalb County Superior Court. The change was presented by Commissioner Long Spears, who argued the board’s quasi-judicial role on appeals is inconsistent with the commission’s representative duties. The committee agreed to add clarifying language specifying that the chapter referenced concerns historic-preservation committee appeals.

On housing-support statements, committee members approved language asking the legislature to address rising property insurance premiums that affect multifamily and affordable housing providers, and to consider legislation that would eliminate identification of classes of people by ZIP code for insurance purposes. The agenda also keeps a priority supporting work on statewide eviction-resolution or mediation programs and a prior proposed “junk fees” bill (House Bill 1405 was mentioned as a prior bill that could be reintroduced).

Public-health items added include support for the recommendations of the Georgia Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission’s final report—particularly calls for additional state funding for housing initiatives—and several animal-welfare and public-safety items such as limiting transient sales of dogs and cats and tougher penalties around bringing minors to dogfighting events. Dan Baskerville told the committee that similar bills have been filed previously and that county lobbyists will coordinate with legislators if the county adopts the language.

Public safety priorities were expanded to include explicitly allowing certain legally permanent residents to serve as firefighters, and a request to repeal OCGA §30-60-32, the state law that preempts local video-surveillance rules at gas stations. During discussion Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson asked the county legal department to review a separate recent state immigration provision that some committee members said may have affected local city decriminalization ordinances for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana; the committee asked the county attorney to advise whether state law now preempts existing city policies and whether DeKalb should seek restoration of local control for counties as well as cities.

Committee members discussed adding a support statement asking the legislature to study and address the local impact of large data centers on electric grids and community infrastructure. Dan Baskerville and other staff described data centers as a statewide policy issue that has generated bills in other sessions and could lead to study committees. The committee agreed that a general support statement to “review impacts” would be appropriate and that staff and ACCG would watch legislation closely.

Finally, members agreed to remove a drafted support statement that would have asked the county delegation to review the charter-review committee recommendations. Several commissioners said new members on the board should have time during 2025 to review the charter recommendations before sending any formal county endorsement to the state delegation.

The committee approved the packet with the discussed edits and directed staff to prepare a final version for the full Board of Commissioners agenda next week. No formal county-level legislation was enacted at the meeting; the committee approved a recommendation package to be forwarded to the board.

The committee’s discussion mixed substantive policy choices and drafting changes. Several items were explicitly described as support statements rather than priorities, a distinction staff said would affect how much time lobbyists would spend advancing them at the Capitol. Committee members asked staff to monitor pending bills, coordinate with ACCG and NACO where appropriate and to provide legal clarification on state preemption questions raised during the meeting.

Quotes from the meeting:
"There's just chatter out there from some of the cities that they may be putting forward some annexation legislation. We don't know exactly what that's gonna look like yet," Dan Baskerville, outside contract lobbyist for the county, said.
"I would make it a new priority, priority d, that we would oppose any legislative annexations," Commissioner Ted Terry said while proposing the packet change.

Ending: The committee voted to forward the revised legislative agenda to the full Board of Commissioners for consideration; staff will circulate the final draft in advance of next week’s meeting.