Different native elected officers largely make greater than Hendrickson. DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond makes $174,053 yearly, whereas Cobb County chairwoman Lisa Cupid’s wage is $140,631. Fulton County is the outlier, the place part-time Chairman Robb Pitts makes $50,735 a 12 months.
Laws that may remake the county’s elections board may even be thought-about by state legislators. The board got here beneath hearth after the present chair, Alice O’Lenick, was quoted within the Gwinnett Each day Put up saying she was “like a canine with a bone” in her deal with altering some elections legal guidelines, together with these regulating absentee by mail voting and poll drop bins.
“They don’t have to vary all of them, however they’ve obtained to vary the most important components of them in order that we at the very least have a shot at successful,” she said at a Republican Party assembly.
Legislators stated they have been involved that the present board was unconstitutional as a result of members have been named by political events and never by elected officers. Democrats and Republicans alike appoint two members whereas a fifth, nonpartisan member is chosen by the opposite members.
The proposal to reconstitute the board would require the chief committees of each the Republican and Democratic events to submit three names to the county fee inside 30 days of there being a gap on the board. Commissioners would appoint two folks from every checklist.
If no lists are submitted, commissioners might appoint who they wished. A fifth member of the board could be appointed by the fee with out regard to occasion.
If the county management fails to nominate somebody inside 60 days of a gap, the chief Superior Court docket choose will appoint members.
Election board members may very well be eliminated with a majority vote of the board of commissioners.
County commissioners additionally help the measure, although Republican lawmakers expressed concern at a neighborhood delegation assembly that the board of commissioners would have an excessive amount of energy over the elections board.
Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, stated he was involved that the election board’s make-up was being modified solely as a result of Democrats took management of the county fee for the primary time in a long time. He pushed for adjustments that may “stand the check of time” and proposed having a nonpartisan elected official, like a choose, appoint the fifth member.
Democrats pushed again on his evaluation, saying that payments in different counties — that Efstration and others had voted for — would eliminate bipartisan election boards there. Rep. Shelly Hutchinson, D-Lawrenceville, stated the Gwinnett invoice was modeled after these in different counties that members of the delegation had already voted in favor of.
If the measure is permitted by each homes, the brand new board will probably be fashioned July 1.
