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DeKalb Operations Committee pares a top-10 legislative package, sets vote and delegation meeting
Summary
DeKalb County's Operations Committee reviewed a staff-tallied top-10 for the 2026 state legislative agenda, discussed legal and practical limits on items such as a rental registry, and set a schedule to pick top-3 priorities next week and meet the delegation in October.
DeKalb County's Operations Committee met in a special call to refine the county's proposed 2026 state legislative agenda and agreed to return next week to vote on a final top-3 list from a staff-recommended top-10.
Chair Marita Davis Johnson said the meeting represented “the first year that, we ever had a joint legislative work session between the CEO and the Board of Commissioners,” and asked staff to compile commissioners' input into a packet to present to the county delegation. Dan Baskerville of Dentons said central staff condensed submissions and tallied votes to produce the two-page top-10 and that the next step is for commissioners to select three priorities to focus on for the session.
The packet separates items that can be handled locally from those that require state law changes or further review. Top items discussed included a comprehensive property-ownership database or rental registry, tenant-protection measures (House Bill 687), annexation and cityhood reforms, NextGen 911 funding and a proposed real-time crime center, behavioral-health funding and diversion programs, tire-waste cleanup reimbursements, expanded teleconference authority for some boards, marijuana ordinance parity, and an opt-in community-service-aids proposal.
Commissioners asked legal staff to clarify statutory constraints and to return with data where needed. For example, staff were asked to determine whether technology fees are legally viable locally, whether available utility and title records can be combined to produce an effective owner database, and how often code enforcement cannot reach property owners. The CEO's office indicated it would prepare a packet to present to the legislature and suggested a delegation lunch in October to advance the final platform.
No final votes were taken on legislative items at the special call; the committee moved and seconded to adjourn, and the chair declared the meeting adjourned after aye votes were voiced (exact roll call and tally were not recorded in the transcript). The committee will reconvene at the next operations meeting to vote on and transmit the top-3 priorities.
