Oliver Playing Major Role In DeKalb Redistricting

A North Druid Hills-Briarcliff lawmaker is playing a major role in this year’s efforts to redraw DeKalb County commission and school board districts.

State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, is a member of two House DeKalb caucus committees that will be proposing the new boundaries. She also hopes to reduce DeKalb’s school board from nine to seven members.

Oliver’s District 83 includes the Sagamore Hills, Oak Grove, Northlake, Clairmont Hills and ValleyBrook communities.

Every decade, after the U.S. Census is completed, state governments, or an independent body, make changes to district lines at all levels of government.

This means, a citizen who lived in one county commission or school board district last year may live in another district after the boundaries have been redrawn and approved.

Oliver’s HB671 “addresses the issue of just how we go about reducing the school board’s size,” she said. “We can’t just decide to suddenly shorten the term of office of someone who has been duly elected by DeKalb citizens without taking the proper steps. So this bill is designed to work out all of those questions.”

Oliver’s proposed legislation:

• Eliminates two positions from the school board as of Jan. 1, 2013;

• Stipulates that board members from districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 remain in office until their terms expire;

• Calls for a nonpartisan election for the remaining two districts – which have yet to be drawn – to be held later this year.

The two committees are being chaired by state Rep. Simone Bell, D-Atlanta.

“We’ll be working with representatives from both the county commission and the school board to determine the new lines, and then bring those maps back to the full delegation,” Bell said. “These committees will be doing the legwork.

“Our timetable is to have everything reported out of the legislature by Feb. 14,” she added.