Bills to add third mayoral term, seats to Macon Water Authority stall

Bills to change the governing charters for Macon-Bibb County and the Macon Water Authority did not make it off the ground in the most recent legislative session under the Gold Dome.

One of the bills would remove term limits for county commissioners and add a third, four-year term for the mayor. 

The other bill would change the seven-member Macon Water Authority Board to a nine-member board, increase board members’ salaries and allow the county one appointment to the board instead of its current two. 

Both bills were introduced and sponsored solely by Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon. Lucas’ wife, Elaine, currently serves on the Macon Water Authority board after she was term limited on the Macon-Bibb County commission.

“Politics is involved in all of it,” Lucas said.

Bibb County’s legislative delegation normally meets before the session to discuss local bills such as charter amendments, but Lucas said organizing a meeting has been challenging. The local senate delegation also includes Sens. John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, and Rick Williams, R-Milledgeville. 

“I guess I’m going to end up having to call a meeting for us to meet since nobody else has done it,” Lucas said. 

Lucas said he discussed the bill to amend the county charter with Kennedy and Williams.

“Kennedy told me there are some folks who support and others who don’t,” Lucas said of the bill to add another term for the mayor. “Rick Williams told me he had no conversation with the mayor about a third term. … It takes two senators out of the three to do it.

“I think the mayor has done a pretty good job. I don’t agree with his politics all the time, but the man has done something.” 

Removing the three-term limit for county commissioners, Lucas said, would be fair to those who only serve partial terms upon appointments. 

Recent examples include county commissioner Stanley Stewart, who was appointed in October to serve out the remainder of Elaine Lucas’s term following her resignation to run for the Macon Water Authority Board, and commissioner Brendalyn Bailey, who was appointed last January to serve the remainder of Al Tilllman’s term following his resignation. Both are technically in their second terms despite not serving a full four-year term.  

Lucas said he proposed amendments to the Macon Water Authority’s charter because, “the water authority takes care of the entire county and they’re too big” and represent thousands more people per district than the county commission. 

The bill Lucas introduced calls for eight elected district seats instead of five and reduces the county’s appointment to one seat instead of two. Lucas said the board’s setup used to be one appointment from the City of Macon and another from the county, but the county got two appointments after the 2014 city-county government consolidation. 

The bill also bumps the salary for board members from $10,800 per year to $15,000. The chairman’s salary would increase from $16,200 to $25,000 per year, according to the legislation. Salaries for the board were last changed by the local delegation in 2015.

“They’d be making the same thing as the county commission,” Lucas said. 

The bills may be taken up again when the legislature returns to finish the second half of its legislative session next year.