Attempts to settle CAT dispute flounder

This story was updated Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, at 1:03 p.m. to add comments from Sen. Mallow regarding his plans to introduce CAT-related legislation when the General Assembly convenes next month and his comments about claims regarding his communications with other members local legislative delegation about his efforts to resolve the CAT dispute.

An attempt by a local state lawmaker to broker a deal to end the monthslong dispute over Chatham Area Transit’s new board of directors appears to have gone awry within hours after it was unveiled.

The Chatham County Commission and its chairman, Chester Ellis, have sought to undo a new state law that replaced CAT’s former nine-member board with an expanded board that the lawmakers who sponsored the measure said would make the panel more representative and better positioned to take on the transit challenges facing the area.

The dispute has become an expensive legal struggle and an embarrassing political one that has shed unflattering light on longstanding issues and tensions in the county’s governance. Ellis has called the new law “unconstitutional,” threatened to withdraw the county from the widely used transit system and leveled so far unsubstantiated allegations of financial improprieties against members of the new, 11-member CAT board, which was seated on July 1, in accordance with the new law.

On Thursday, state Sen. Derek Mallow (D-District 2) entered the breach. Standing alongside Ellis at the county commission’s hearing room, he offered a plan to resolve the dispute, which includes granting both the county and City of Savannah an additional seat on CAT’s board. It also called for setting a formal deadline for completion of an audit of CAT’s finances.

In effect, the plan would scrap the new state law, which was backed by a bipartisan group of local lawmakers, including Mallow himself, and approved by Gov. Brian Kemp in May and need to be codified in fresh legislation. To be implemented, it must be codified in fresh legislation.

But in his apparent haste to press for a resolution of the dispute, Mallow, who is widely regarded among lawmakers for his expertise on transit matters, has angered other members of the local delegation to Atlanta, according to three of its members who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal delegation deliberations.

These lawmakers say Mallow failed to inform both the sponsors of the CAT reform bill, House Bill 756, and other members of the local delegation of his proposal to replace it with his own measure, as well as his plans to hold a news conference with Ellis on Thursday to announce it.

Local lawmakers who gathered Friday at a public hearing at Savannah Technical College to discuss next year’s legislative agenda were said to be “furious” with the senator for not only what they said was his failure to consult them but also for advancing a plan they said rewarded the county commission and its chairman for their attempts to sabotage the CAT board overhaul. Those efforts have included unsubstantiated allegations of financial impropriety by members of the current board.

Must ‘step in’

Mallow told The Current on Tuesday that he intends to introduce his proposal as fresh legislation when the General Assembly convenes next month. “If we don’t step in and do this, it’s not going to end.”

The legislation, he said, would “amend what has already been passed into law” and not “change fundamentally what is already there.”

“We’re going to tighten [HB 756] up and perfect it, and add a couple more things in to help get more public trust back to CAT,” he said.

Mallow, who was first elected to the state Senate in 2022 following one term in the House, also described as a “gross exaggeration” the claim that he did not inform other members of the local delegation to Atlanta in advance of his Dec. 4 letter to Ellis and Thursday’s news conference.

He said he told the House bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Edna Jackson (D-District 165), on Dec. 3 — a day before the news conference — of his plans to “work on the issue.” Over those two days, if any member of the delegation had told him to “hold off,” he would have done so, he said.

Commissioner’s plan not supported

Meanwhile, another attempt to end Chatham County’s challenge to the CAT board overhaul — this one by County Commissioner Patrick Farrell (District 4) — failed when the commission refused to include his motions on the agenda of its regularly scheduled meeting on Friday.

In a 5-3 vote, the commission refused to consider the motions offered by Farrell, who is running for the Republican nomination to succeed Coastal Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter, who is vying in next year’s midterm elections for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Farrell’s motions, if approved, would have rescinded Ellis’s threat to withdraw from the area’s transit system, dropped the county’s lawsuits against CAT, and required the county commission to immediately fill the three seats allotted to it on the transit system’s board of directors.  

Voting for consideration and discussion of the motions were Farrell, Anthony “Wayne” Noha (District 1), and Malinda Scott Hodge (District 2).

Voting against consideration and discussion of the motions were Ellis, Bobby Lockett (District 3), Tanya Milton (District 5), Aaron “Adot” Whitely (District 6) and Marsha Buford (District 8).

Dean Kicklighter (District 7) was not present at the meeting.