The Chatham County Commission is set to vote Friday on a resolution that calls for the reinstatement of transit authority board members who were unseated by a new state law. It’s the latest attempt by the commission chairman, Chester Ellis, to recapture the sway that he and the commission until recently held over the board.
Under a measure shepherded through the legislature by a bipartisan group of local lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in May, the nine-member board of Chatham Area Transit (CAT) was replaced by an 11-member panel on July 1.
The resolution scheduled for a vote Friday would re-establish the law that was superseded by the new legislation approved in May and would restore the former board, according to a staff memorandum prepared for Ellis and the commission, a copy of which was obtained by The Current.
The resolution is the latest attempt by Ellis to torpedo the new state law, House Bill 756, which effectively diluted the influence that he and the commission held over the board.
The law reduced the number of board appointments allotted to the county commission and the Savannah City Council, while apportioning some to municipalities and groups not previously represented on the board, including Garden City, the Savannah-Georgia Convention Authority, and the local delegation to the Georgia General Assembly.
‘Unconstitutionally created’
At stake in the continuing fight by Ellis and the commission are legal and constitutional, as well as political, issues.
The draft memorandum, dated Aug. 22 and signed by county attorney R. Jonathan Hart, contends the new board as “unconstitutionally created” and a violation of both the county’s home-rule powers and Georgia’s Transit Authority Act.
Those arguments were, however, largely rejected last month, when Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley threw out a lawsuit filed by the commission that sought to prevent the new law from being implemented.
Walmsley said that when it comes to transit authorities in Georgia and set up by the legislature, the state legislature can take away or amend what it creates.
“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,” he wrote in his 13-page ruling.
The court defeat has not deterred Ellis and the commission. The county has appealed Walmsley’s decision to the state Supreme Court, though the logic for seeking passage of the resolution while also challenging last month’s decision to a higher court is unclear.
A county spokesman did not return a phone call seeking clarification and comment.
‘Devastating’
In another move that signaled Ellis’ determination to return to the status quo, Ellis and the commission voted late last month to cut the transit authority’s millage – or tax – rate, to the surprise of other local officials and against the urging of the new CAT board chairman and Savannah City Council Alderman Detric Leggett.
The millage rate cutback, which Ellis described as amends for previous, unfair CAT-related levies against unincorporated Chatham County, will result in a budget shortfall for the agency of nearly $2 million.
After the vote, a furious Savannah Mayor Van Johnson called the possible impact of the reduction on public transportation services in Chatham “devastating.”
“It’s about people. It’s about independence. It’s about dignity. It’s about the working parents who rely on Chatham Area Transit to get to their jobs. It’s about the seniors who need it to get to their medical appointments,” he said.
‘Strategic mistake’?
How far Ellis and the commission will go in the continued effort to overturn House Bill 756 is unclear. But besides the legal issues it poses, there political perils, too.
The decision of Walmsley to dismiss the county’s lawsuit, are likely to be treated with widespread deference, both by state Supreme Court justices and the wider public. He earned widespread praise for his oversight of the state trial of the three White men who killed Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County in 2020.
The costs to county taxpayers of continued litigation to overturn the measure, especially at the appellate level, are not known but are likely to be hefty.
The bipartisan local legislative delegation who unanimously supported the bill to revamp the CAT board said it had become too parochial and was too saddled with a history of dysfunction to address the challenges of a booming regional economy desperately in need of improved regional transportation.
“Ellis may be successful in the short term” in putting off implementation of the new law, said one person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal county deliberations.
But when the legislature goes back into session in January, the person said, Ellis could quickly see what a “strategic and myopic mistake” he and the commission have made in their handling of this issue. While the chairman is limited by law from seeking re-election and may be operating from a “place of comfort,” other members of the commission will face the voters again.
“Ellis says he’s doing this to protect members of the staff and the former board. But the only thing he’s really doing is putting in jeopardy the very people who rely on CAT’s service.”
