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An anticipated Atlanta City Council vote on a ballot referendum ordinance backed by Stop Cop City activists was postponed on Monday after municipal attorneys raised concerns about whether the measure violates existing state law.
The original legislation introduced by Atlanta City Council member Liliana Bakhtiari on Jan. 8 would codify a process for Atlanta residents to put ballot referenda up for a citywide vote. It was proposed in response to the battle over a referendum on whether to continue building a new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, but would impact on any ballot issue going forward.
The City Council was scheduled to vote on the matter during its regular 1 p.m. full meeting Monday at City Hall. But members of the city’s law department informed lawmakers prior to the meeting that the ordinance may violate Georgia’s Home Rule Act and the state’s constitution, according to multiple City Council sources.
Council member Howard Shook introduced a substitute measure during a Monday morning Committee on Council meeting. It included revised language aimed at satisfying the law department’s legal concerns.
But lawmakers on the committee ultimately voted to table the legislation for further consideration, a delay that could last roughly two weeks, said Atlanta City Council member Jason Dozier.
“Just based on [the law department’s] analysis, there are some things that would potentially put the city at risk of violating the constitution,” Dozier said. “The decision was to hold the legislation for a couple of weeks, so we’ll get that figured out.”
The would-be ballot referendum law is an outgrowth of community frustration with the stalemate between Cop City Vote organizers and city government over a proposed ballot initiative to allow voters to determine the fate of the developing public safety training center, dubbed “Cop City” by critics.
The measure’s introduction earlier this month followed months of outcry from training center opponents upset about the city clerk’s office refusal to process petition signatures collected in support of putting the Cop City Vote referendum on the ballot.
The city clerk’s office has said it is legally barred from counting the estimated 108,500 signatures activists gathered because they submitted their petition after the original 60-day deadline. Attorneys for the activists filed a related lawsuit last year.
In July, a federal judge granted them more time to collect signatures after determining Atlanta officials had erroneously required that the people collecting the signatures live in the city. The ballot referendum has remained in legal limbo since the city appealed the judge’s ruling.
Cop City Vote supporters had hoped Bakhtiari’s ordinance would compel the city clerk to process their referendum petition. The original legislation would have required the city clerk to accept ballot referendum petitions and given that person a five-day deadline to tally the total number of signatures submitted.
It also required the clerk to randomly select signatures to verify and established what characteristics would disqualify them. Those characteristics include missing or mismatched information when comparing those signatures to the ones included on the government’s list of registered voters.
Activists, including Micah McClure, say the ballot referendum process is a safeguard against elected officials who gerrymander Black constituents and ignore voters’ wishes.
“We can’t assume that elected leaders are acting in the interest of the people they represent,” McClure told Capital B Atlanta last Thursday. “Finding ways to ensure that deep, direct democracy is something that’s a mainstay in our city is the only way that Black voices can be heard.”
During Monday’s City Council meeting, Cop City Vote supporters, including Devin Barrington-Ward, called on the council to pass the original ordinance drafted by Bakhtiari with the help of attorney Mark Elias, who has litigated voting rights cases on behalf of Democrats nationally.
Barrington-Ward serves as managing director of the Black Futurists Group, an Atlanta-based social justice nonprofit. He and others who spoke during the public remarks period of Monday’s full council meeting said denying Atlanta residents the right to vote on the training center disrespects the city’s civil rights legacy.
“Your actions will put you more in alignment with the George Wallaces of the world, with the Strom Thurmonds, with the segregationists that impede the democratic process,” Barrington-Ward said.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ office didn’t immediately respond Monday afternoon to an emailed request for comment regarding the city law department’s rationale that the ballot referendum ordinance is unlawful.
Republicans, including Gov. Brian Kemp, have voiced their support for the training center, arguing it’s needed to give first responders a place to train and to boost recruitment and retention.
Kemp made the training center a key part of his State of the State address on Jan. 11 while applauding Dickens, a Democrat, for his efforts with the training center and with overseeing a 21% year-over-year reduction in the city’s murder rate.
Dickens has repeatedly stated his support for voting rights while insisting the city is simply following the law regarding the ballot referendum process amid the Cop City Vote controversy.
Barrington-Ward suggested the city law department is doing the mayor’s bidding by throwing legal hurdles in the way of the referendum ordinance and the Cop City Vote referendum.
“The law department is proving that they are not being an impartial body here,” he said. “They are using the legal process, under the guise of what the mayor says needs to happen.”
Voting rights advocates from the New Georgia Project Action Fund, Black Voters Matter, and Fair Fight Action expressed their support for the original proposed ballot referendum ordinance after it was introduced earlier this month.
Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond has been a staunch supporter of the training center, saying previously that the city is responsible for providing adequate facilities for its first responders to train.
But over the weekend, the son of voting rights champion Julian Bond also suggested he’d be in favor of the ballot referendum ordinance.
“I’m in support [of] making sure that we have a clear procedure and rules going forward for a referendum,” Bond told Capital B Atlanta during a Saturday phone interview.
Bond also criticized those suggesting the city’s position on the Cop City Vote referendum shows elected leaders don’t want to let their constituents vote on the training center.
“It’s dangerous when groups and individuals come out and say, ‘Oh, the city government is corrupt and don’t want people to vote,’” he said. “That kind of propaganda undermines public participation in voting, public participation in local government, public participation at every level of government.”
