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Climbing the Ranks
RANKED CHOICE VOTING, COURTHOUSE ELEVATORS AND MORE NEWS
By Blake Aued news@flagpole.com
The Athens-Clarke County Commission
narrowly approved a resolution last week
that could do away with costly and often
sparsely attended runoff elections.
The resolution in support of ranked
choice voting, also known as instant run
offs, passed 6-5, with Mayor Kelly Girtz
breaking the tie. The resolution doesn’t
commit ACC to implementing ranked
choice voting—where voters rank the can
didates in order of preference instead of
choosing just one—but asks the state
legislature for permission to explore
the possibility.
“This is just us saying to the state
legislative body, could we have this
option?” Commissioner Melissa Link
said at a called voting meeting Dec. 17.
If the legislature approves, the local
government would gauge public opin
ion, consult the ACC Board of Elections
and possibly hold a countywide runoff
before making the change, Link said.
Turnout for runoffs in down-ballot
races can drop precipitously—for
example, just 160 people voted in a
June runoff for a school board seat
after 893 voted in a May three-person
race. “The numbers drop so, so low for
those runoffs,” Commissioner Carol
Myers said. “This would allow more
people to be involved in the decision
making process.”
Commissioner Dexter Fisher, who
voted against the resolution, said the
public has not been consulted, a cost
analysis hasn’t been done, and ranked
choice voting could confuse the public. “We
need a deep dive into this and really find
out what the community thinks,” he said.
That’s exactly what the resolution would
accomplish, Girtz said in casting the tie
breaking vote. “This is an opportunity for
us to do that next level of exploration,” he
said.
Link, Myers and commissioners Jesse
Houle, Patrick Davenport and Ovita Thorn
ton supported the resolution (despite
Thornton’s previous statement that she
would no longer support any resolutions).
Fisher was joined by commissioners Tiffany
Taylor, Allison Wright, John Culpepper and
Mike Hamby in opposition.
Houle cited the cost of runoff elections
as a reason to support ranked choice voting:
ACC has spent $537,000 on runoffs since
2020, according to a memo from the man
ager’s office. “I think there are better ways
we could spend half a million dollars,” they
said.
Houle also noted that Georgia has
already instituted ranked choice voting for
overseas and military voters, because of
the tight timeframes for sending out and
returning those ballots by mail.
Several Athens residents have been
pushing the mayor and commission for
the resolution in recent months. However,
ranked choice voting faces an uphill battle
under the Gold Dome. During the last leg
islative session, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones intro
duced a bill to ban it, and House Speaker
Jon Burns told reporters at a recent gather
ing of lawmakers at UGA that there is little
appetite among Republicans for any major
changes to elections next year.
Loving an Elevator
The commission will spend $4.5 million
to repair broken elevators and make other
repairs at the county courthouse, even
though it’s slated for a top-to-bottom reno
vation within the next few years.
The inmate elevator was installed in
the 1970s, and the manufacturer stopped
servicing that model in 2001. Both of the
public elevators have been on the fritz
at various times for the past few years as
well. None of them are currently working.
Because parts are not available, it will take
an estimated seven months to make the
repairs.
ACC officials had hoped to cannibalize
parts from one elevator to keep the other
running until the courthouse undergoes
a full renovation as part of an upcoming
space modernization project. $78 million
in sales tax revenue from SPLOST 2020
is budgeted to build a new judicial center
and turn the existing courthouse into city
government offices. But that project is still
years away.
In addition to the elevators, ACC is also
replacing the courthouse’s aging HVAC
system, replacing the roof and making
other, smaller upgrades. The total cost is
$4.5 million.
“The vast majority of these projects are
things that would need to be done as it’s
converted to an administrative building,”
assistant manager Andrew Saunders told
commissioners at their Dec. 17 agenda
setting meeting. A vote on the expenditure
is scheduled for Jan. 7.
The commission will also vote next
month on recommendations for safety
improvements to Newton Bridge Road.
Property tax growth from new develop
ments like General Time is being set aside
for infrastructure along the corridor, and
so far the tax allocation district (TAD) is
taking in about $200,000 a year, according
to Girtz. That funding could be used as col
lateral for a loan or to pay back bonds, he
said.
A committee of property and business
owners is recommending roundabouts at
Kathwood Drive and Vincent Drive, a road
diet study, additional lighting and construc
tion of sidewalks to make the corridor safer.
“As a parent who’s driven this corridor
10,000 times, taking a kid to the ballpark
[the Holland Youth Sports Complex] is not
optimally safe,” Girtz said.
Other items up for a vote in January
include: a design for an $8.3 million recov
ered material processing and reuse facility,
to replace the current outdated recycling
center; an all-way yield sign at Boulevard
and Nacoochee Avenue; a concept plan for
a sidewalk along Sycamore Drive; a con
tract to design a sidewalk, crosswalks and
shared-use path along Lexington Road;
$62,000 in funding for the Athens Land
Trust and East Athens Development Corp.
to provide housing counseling for low-
income homebuyers; a $1.7 million grant
application for intersection improvements
at Oglethorpe and Hawthorne avenues;
and accepting $420,000 from the Athens
Downtown Development Authority to build
a pocket park at the Costa Building parking
lot on Washington Street.
Yalamanchili Sworn In as DA
District Attorney-elect Kalki Yalaman
chili was sworn in on Dec. 16, although he
won’t officially take over as Athens’ top
prosecutor until Jan. 1.
Judge Lawton Stephens—who swore in
Yalamanchili as an assistant DA 12 years
ago—administered the oath of office, with
fellow Superior Court judges Lisa Lott, Eric
Norris and Patrick Haggard, other local
judges, Police Chief Jerry Saulters, other
law enforcement officials and a number
of lawyers also present in Stephens’
packed courtroom.
Yalamanchili had to pause to com
pose himself as he thanked his parents
for the opportunities they provided
and his wife, Caitlyn, for sacrifices she
made in allowing him to run for DA.
He promised to make Athens “a safe
community that applies the law equally
to all people.”
The defense attorney ran as an
independent in the November elec
tion, defeating progressive Democrat
Deborah Gonzalez, the incumbent, by
casting himself as a more moderate
and competent alternative. With the
support of Republicans as well as thou
sands of Kamala Harris voters, Yala
manchili received 59% of the vote in
Clarke and Oconee counties combined.
One of the main criticisms against
Gonzalez was that she was never able
to fully staff her office, operating at
times with as few as three or four
attorneys out of 16 funded positions.
Yalamanchili told Flagpole that he is
already forwarding resumes to Athens-
Clarke County Human Resources, and that
he hopes to bring in about six new AD As
within the first couple weeks of his term.
Holdovers hired by Gonzalez will also be
given a chance to stay, he said. ©
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Kalki Yalamanchili was sworn in as district attorney Dec. 16 before a packed house in Judge Lawton Stephens’
courtroom.
DECEMBER 25, 2024 & JANUARY 1, 2025 ■ FLAGPOLE.COM
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