Judge allows Chatham Area Transit reorganization to proceed

A Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit aimed at blocking the overhaul of the board of directors of Chatham County’s transit authority, handing the county commission and its chairman, Chester Ellis, a political, as well as legal, defeat.

Republican and Democratic state lawmakers from the county supported the overhaul, which called on members of the nine-member board of Chatham Area Transit (CAT) to vacate their seats by June 30 and to be replaced by a new, 11-member panel the following day. The state legislature approved the measure earlier this year and Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law in May.

Six members of the board, along with the county, sued to stop implementation of the law, House Bill 756, arguing that the loss of their seats before the end of their terms and the state legislature’s move to alter the operations of a local agency violated Georgia’s constitution.  

In his 13-page ruling handed down late Thursday, Judge Timothy R. Walmsley rejected those arguments and threw out the lawsuit. In doing so, he sided with the Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who took the unusual step of entering the case and moving for its dismissal.

The loss of a seat on the CAT board — or the uncertainty of whether one would win appointment on the new board — is not the type of “concrete” injury barred under the state’s constitution, Walmsley wrote.

As for the power of the state legislature to intervene in governance of CAT or any local transit authority in the state, Walmsley was equally emphatic. What the state legislature created, he wrote, it can modify or take away:

“None of the plaintiffs have a legal right to continue in those seats for any particular length of time where that board may be altered, amended, or dissolved by the General Assembly at any point.”

‘Neither requested by the county nor discussed’

County spokesman Will Peebles said Monday that no decision had been made on whether to appeal Walmsley’s ruling, which capped a hasty effort by Ellis, chair of the Chatham County Commission, to overturn the law.

The stakes in the fight were high.

Local state legislators, along with business leaders, who promoted HB 756 and shepherded it into law said CAT’s board was too parochial and too saddled with a history of dysfunction to address the challenges of a booming regional economy desperately in need of improved regional transportation.

In a bid to make the board more representative of the areas and interests it actually serves, the measure that made it to Kemp’s desk in May expanded the size of CAT’s board from nine to eleven members. It also allocated seats to, among others, business and tourism groups and the Savannah-Georgia Convention Center Authority.

But they faced resistance from Ellis and others, according to officials close to the chairman and who are familiar with his thinking. Reached by phone Monday, Chester declined to comment to The Current on his reaction to the judge’s ruling or on why he opposed HB 756.

To many Chatham residents, CAT is an obscure local government agency that operates a bus system they seldom, if ever, need or use. But that perception is misleading.

For one thing, the transit authority always finds itself at the intersection of the conflicts that play out across local government and the community: Black versus white, Chatham County versus City of Savannah, incorporated Chatham v. unincorporated Chatham, rich versus poor, young versus old, “bus people” versus “ferry people.”

To Ellis and others, in particular, Black participation on CAT’s board represents the local Black community’s progress in making inroads in a political system that, though Savannah has had a Black majority intermittently since the late 1800s, did not see its first Black mayor in the city until 1996 or its first Black chair of the Chatham County Commission until 2012.

Which is one reason, say those officials familiar with Ellis’ thinking, why HB 756, which reduced the number of CAT board members chosen by the county commission and weakened Ellis’ appointment power and influence on the board’s operations, rankled him and led him to support a lawsuit.

His bitterness and anger at the local legislative delegation over what he considered an infringement on his, as well as the country commission’s traditional prerogatives, are apparent in the plaintiffs’ lawsuit, which alleges that HB 756 “was neither requested by the county nor discussed with the Board of Commissioners before its introduction.”

‘A new era’

As time wound down to the June 30 deadline to dissolve it, the CAT board over which Ellis had significant sway seemed to act like it was business as usual.

It discussed the transit authority’s FY2026 budget. It continued the search for a new executive director. At the end of a scheduled board meeting, it fired acting interim director Stephanie Cutter without publicly disclosing the reasons, keeping her on as CEO.

But Walmsley weighed his decision last week, the overhaul of the board went ahead as called for under HB 756, and a new board convened.

Its chairman is Savannah Alderman Detric Leggett, who represents District 2 on the Savannah City Council. Its members include three prominent local business and government leaders appointed by the area’s legislative delegation to Atlanta: Bert Brantley, president and CEO of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce; Michael Owens, CEO and president of the Tourism Leadership Council; and Faye DiMassimo, head of planning and development for the City of Savannah.

DiMassimo served as CAT’s executive director and CEO for two years before leaving out of frustration with the authority’s flawed operations, said one state lawmaker, who spoke to The Current on condition of anonymity to discuss her departure.

In taking over as the CAT board’s new chair, Leggett proclaimed “a new era of public transit in Chatham County.”

The new board, he said, “is united by the legislative vision laid out in House Bill 756 …, which calls for greater service delivery. Together, we are ready to meet that challenge.”

As of Monday, Ellis and the county commission had not made their three appointments to the new CAT board, as called for under the new law.