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Committee approves changes to annexation arbitration process, expands pool of potential arbitrators
Summary
House Bill 155 passed the House Governmental Affairs Committee with provisions to expand the panel pool for annexation arbitration, extend administrative deadlines, permit DCA to replace panel members, and clarify pay for arbitrators.
The House Governmental Affairs Committee voted to pass House Bill 155, a bill that adjusts procedures for resolving annexation disputes and aims to reduce referrals of such disputes to the judicial system.
Sponsor remarks and committee discussion said the measure responds to implementation issues that arose after the passage of earlier legislation, including House Bill 1461. The bill expands the pool from which the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) may draw arbitrators to include county managers, county administrators, city managers and city administrators (with qualifications). It also increases the timeline for DCA to compile and present lists for strikes from 15 calendar days to 15 business days plus an additional five business days (a total of 20 business days), authorizes DCA to replace panel members who step down, and permits random selection from the pool if local governments fail to exercise strikes.
The committee also addressed pay for arbitrators. Committee members debated whether the additional $100 described in the bill should be a single flat payment for the entire service or a per diem for each day of service. Representative Oliver said, "you wouldn't object if we changed it to an additional $100 for the entire service," and the committee adopted an amendment clarifying the payment as $100 total for all days of service. Representative Alilayaye asked why administrative managers were added to the pool; the sponsor and committee said managers and administrators were included because they generally possess the requisite technical expertise and experience for arbitration panels.
Sponsors said the bill resulted from stakeholder discussions among the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), and the Department of Community Affairs, which worked together after implementation problems emerged following earlier statutory changes.
The committee approved the bill by voice vote after adopting clarifying amendments; no roll-call was recorded in the transcript.
