With just days left before the board of directors of Chatham Area Transit is due under a new state law to be dissolved and replaced, lawyers for the county and some of the panel’s imperiled members go into Superior Court on Tuesday to urge a judge to block the overhaul.
The law, approved almost unanimously earlier this year by both chambers of the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in May, calls for current members of the CAT board to vacate their seats by this Monday, June 30, and for the new board to replace it the following day, July 1.
The revamped board would be expanded from nine to 11 members, including the allocation of board seats to representatives of the area’s legislative delegation to Atlanta and to the Savannah-Georgia Convention Center Authority.
A lawsuit filed May 27 by the six members of the current CAT board argues, however, that the new law, House Bill 756, violates Georgia’s constitution by removing current board members before the end of their terms without a “judicial trial.”
The measure also breaches the state’s constitution, the plaintiffs claim, because the City of Savannah and Chatham County enjoy the right under current state law to have a majority of the board’s members.
While legal and constitutional issues will be the focus in the courtroom on Tuesday, politics is driving the lawsuit, too.
To the chagrin of current CAT board members and some county officials, the legislation to overhaul the board, which was vetted by the state legislature’s office of legal counsel before passage, was supported both by Republican and Democratic members of the local legislative delegation, and led by state Rep. Edna Jackson, a Democrat and former Savannah mayor.
It was born out of frustration with the board’s history of dysfunction, ineffectiveness and scandal, the lawmakers and local business leaders said. It was also prompted, they said, by the belief that the board, as currently constituted, was too parochial and ill-suited to address the challenges of a booming regional economy badly in need of better regional transportation.
Deidrick Cody, chair of the CAT board, said the resulting legislation was “ludicrous.” After “some bumps in the road,” the board “has come together” and is “doing what it’s supposed to be doing for the community,” he told The Current last month.
Whatever the case, the move by state lawmakers and local business leaders disrupted the traditional balance of power and was met with resentment by current CAT board members and some county officials, not least because it dilutes the appointment power of the Chatham County Commission and its chairman, Chester Ellis.
That power gave the commission and Ellis sway over both the CAT board and the activities of the transit authority, whose operating budget in FY2023 was about $30 million and service area covers 438 square miles.
For this reason, despite the expense to taxpayers of retaining outside counsel, the lawsuit to challenge the new law is no surprise. The anger at what the present board’s supporters view as the legislative delegation’s circumvention of local prerogatives is evident in the complaint:
“Though local legislation should be a partnership between local officials and their legislative delegation, HB 756 was neither requested by the county nor discussed with the Board of Commissioners before its introduction.”
Besides Chatham County, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit being heard by Judge Timothy Walmsley are Bobby Lockett, Anthony “Wayne” Noha, Marsha Buford, John Taylor, Tabitha Odell, and Gertrude Robinson. Lockett, Noha, and Buford also sit on the Chatham County Commission. They are being represented by Allen Lightcap of the Atlanta law firm of Mayer & Harper.
The office of the state’s attorney general, Chris Carr, will defend the law.
Tuesday’s hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 4D of the Chatham County Superior Court, 133 Montgomery St. in Savannah.