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THE WAY IT WORKS
Close readers of this “little g£2ette” will recall that when Sen.
Ralph Hudgens burst upon our scene, this column predicted that
we'd have to pay more attention to him. Occasional readers may
need reminding that Sen. Hudgens, who presently represents a
neighboring district, connived with the Chamber of Commerce and
our Senator Brian Kemp to cut Athens-Clarke County in two. Why?
To create a safer district for Sen. Kemp's brother-in-law, Athens at
torney Bill Cowsert, who is running to succeed Kemp in the Senate.
Hudgens would get the other half of us in his district.
All of this was done, as you remember, without consulting our
elected Mayor and Commission, and in spite of their opposition to
it once they found out. Of course there were no public hearings on
the matter, either.
“That's the way redistricting works,” Sen. Hudgens informed us.
Now he's at it again. Hudgens Kas introduced a bill to put a ref
erendum on the November ballot in neighboring Madison County to
change their form of government. Why did he do it? Because the
Chamber of Commerce wanted it. Then the Madison County Board
of Commissioners went along and passed a resolution requesting a
referendum, too.
Ralph says he's just doing his job, introducing legislation re
quested by the county commission, and all it does is let citizens
vote on their form of government. What could be fairer than that?
Some citizens in Madison County say there are several prob
lems. There was absolutely no public discussion or input about
whether or not Madison County citizens wanted a change in their
form of government or what form that change should take if they
did. When the referendum appears on the ballot, it will simply ask
if they want to change to a county-manager form of government.
These soreheads point out.
moreover, that there has been
absolutely no research done to
explain how much more money
this new form of government
would cost. These citizens see
this change as a power grab by
developers who want to control the commission as they parcel out
Madison County for rapid development.
Ralph, no doubt, would tell us that's the way cflJvernment
works.
Take stream buffers. You remember that Athens-Clarke County
adopted stream buffer requirements of 75 feet. Other municipali
ties require even wider buffers, especially on streams that deliver
their drinking water. This is serious business in Georgia, and the
fight for water quality has gone on a long time, with people gradu
ally coming to understand—with the help of around 2,000 studies,
including one commissioned by the Georgia legislature—that pro
viding a natural-growth buffer between development and streams
is the only way to prevent the silting and sedimentation that kill
streams and the aquatic life within them.
That's just “speculation and not scientific fact,” according to
Sen. Hudgens. That's why he's supporting Senate Bill 510, intro
duced by a north Georgia developer and approved, slightly watered
down, by Sen. Hudgens' Natural Resources and the Environment
Committee.
SB 510 was designed to override the authority of local govern
ments to adopt stream buffers and mandate that the maximum
anywhere—with some technicalities—would be 25 feet. This is
developer-driven legislation, and Ralph is riding shotgun. As usual,
he's defining as the public good what's good for Ralph and his
buddies, let them bulldoze right up to the stream's edge, and let
the people downstream deal with the result.
Ralph says that's the way to protect private property.
Well, Ralph is also the Senator who introduced the bill to keep
school kids from joining a club where they might have gay friends.
And, one would suspect, he's gearing up to try to salvage in the
Senate what the House took out of his billboard industry's efforts
to loosen restrictions on cutting trees.
The bottom line is that District 47 Senator Ralph Hudgens,
whatever his personal redeeming qualities may be, is philosophi
cally and politically opposed to good government as the majority
of people in Athens-Clarke County understand it. If the Governor
signs into law Ralph's bill splitting Athens-Clarke, that means
10,000 of us will be in his district. Instead of lamenting this
fate, let us take it as a challenge to unite with people in Madison
County and Oglethorpe County and Jackson County and the others
in District 47 to elect a Senator who will represent us better than
Ralph does. It looks like Ralph has sort of had a free hand in rep
resenting the chambers of commerce and the developers and bill
board magnates. Maybe the average citizens in his counties have
been shut out. Maybe with 10,000 new voters added to the mix,
Ralph will have his hands full just trying to stay in office.
Hear it, Ralph: that's the way democracy works.
• ’, ' * • > " T- s .*»
Pete McCommons Edilor&Publisher edilor@ffegpole com
This is developer-driven
legislation, and Ralph
is riding shotgun.
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