Politics & Government
New County CEO: State Needs to Reform Cityhood Process
The county also needs to provide voters with "unbiased" cityhood data, Lee May said last week.
New interim DeKalb County CEO Lee May said last week the General Assembly needs to reform the state's process for cityhood to make it tougher and less damaging to county governments.
“If an area organically comes together and decides that they want to become a city, I think they have a right to do that,” May said to county employees July 25, according to CrossRoads News. “But state law is really bad in terms of how areas incorporate. It allows new cities to cherry pick all of the most valuable assets of an area and if they’ve got the political will they can get [the cityhood initiative] on the ballot and they’re a city.”
The county also needs to be more involved in each cityhood process so that it can better educate county residents, he said.
Read the full CrossRoads article for more information.
As it stands, four groups have started cityhood initiatives that could incorporate county land from Druid Hills to Northlake and Tucker. They are the City of Briarcliff Initiative, the Lakeside City Alliance and Tucker Together and Tucker 2014. (The Tucker groups are working together.)
Read also:
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.