By Steve Hughes
DACULA, Ga. | My name is Steve Hughes. I am a 70-year-old retiree and have lived on Four Seasons Court in Dacula for 35 years. Recently, I filed the first lawsuit of my life. That lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the charter for the proposed City of Mulberry.
Hughes
Since my suit was filed, it has been criticized by The Citizens for Mulberry, Inc. They said, “No court in Georgia has ever declared this city charter structure as unconstitutional and we expect the lawsuit will fail. Unfortunately, the motivations behind the filing have nothing to do with constitutionality.”
It is true that no court in Georgia has ever declared this city charter structure (aka city-lite} as unconstitutional. There is a reason this is true. It is because no court has ever had the opportunity to rule on the merits of the city-lite structure.
The original charter for Peachtree Corners adopted the city-lite structure. Later Peachtree Corners had to amend their charter to avoid a legal challenge. Here is what Mike Mason, the Mayor of Peachtree Corners, said in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article published on Jan 12, 2018: “No one ever told me, or anyone with the ‘Yes Campaign,’ that what we were proposing had an unconstitutional element,” Mason wrote. “We were assured this innovative concept would work.”
In a recent town hall Chuck Efstration told the attendees that “they folded.” But did they? In 2015, residents of Forsyth County were considering the creation of the City of Sharon Springs. They were going to use the same city-light structure used in the original charter of Peachtree Corners.
The Forsyth County Attorney wrote an opinion on the city-lite charter. He determined that it violates the Georgia Constitution. I quote from an article by Appen Press Kathleen Sturgeon on May 16, 2017, concerning Sharon Springs: “The first iteration of Sharon Springs included the formation of a ‘city lite.’ However, later that year, the bill’s sponsor, then-District 25 State Rep. Mike Dudgeon, said the delegation decided the bill was “unconstitutional.”
Citizens for Mulberry, Inc states that my motivation for filing a lawsuit has nothing to do with constitutionality. You decide if this is true.
Ask yourself why an unconstitutional charter was presented to the citizens of this area for a vote. Why have a charter that states that Mulberry will not have the ability to levy a property ad valorem tax, when the Supreme Court of Georgia has ruled that every municipality in Georgia has that right. Check Peacock v. Georgia Municipal Association.
My legal challenge is not a last-minute attempt to rob our community of the right to vote for local control. It is the voice of a citizen using the only means at his disposal to shout out to the voters, “Beware! The city for which they want you to vote is not the city you are going to get.”
- Have a comment? Send to: ebrack2@gmail.com
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