A coalition of activists, candidates for office, and commissioners-elect plan to hold a press conference to announce an organized effort to place matters surrounding the contentious water provisions in southeastern Bulloch County on the ballot.
Bulloch Action Coalition (BAC) announced Friday that the group will hold a press conference on August 12. The group plans to announce its plan to petition for a referendum for consideration by Bulloch County voters regarding the wells permitted to provide water to the Hyundai mega site in Bryan County. According to the group, the effort will entail two referendums:
- to repeal the passage of the intergovernmental agreement between Bulloch County and Bryan County to provide water and sewer services (Read about the intergovernmental agreement here), and
- to repeal the passage of the memorandum of understanding for a well mitigation program between Bulloch County and Bryan County (Read about the MOU here)
Documents released with the press conference announcement outline a purpose of putting the decision in the hands of Bulloch County residents. A document containing instructions for the petition says, in part:
“The Bulloch County Commissioners have repeatedly ignored the concerns of citizens. The Intergovernmental Agreement is a bad deal for the citizens and taxpayers. Bulloch County does not need to be in the water business. It is just a long term drain on the resources of citizens, despite the county claiming we will benefit long term, logically it isn’t feasible. The mitigation plan doesn’t begin to cover the potential costs for citizens and the plan is to mitigate foreseeable problems for Bulloch County citizens with citizen taxpayer dollars.”
The Process
Under Georgia law, residents of of a county may initiate amendments to (or veto referendums against) local ordinances, resolutions, and regulations. For counties with greater than 50,000 residents, signatures from 10% of registered electors are required. Bulloch County has 83,059 residents according to the 2022 U.S. Census and 44,948 registered voters, meaning the 10% comes in around 4,500.
For two referendums, however, Bulloch Action Coalition plans to try to collect 6,000 signatures from Bulloch County residents for each petition for a total of 12,000 signatures. (Citizens can sign both petitions, but must complete individual paperwork for each). It is common for some signatures to be rejected and the overage offers a buffer to avoid outright rejection of the petition.
Once the signatures are collected and the paperwork is formally submitted to the Probate Judge, the probate judge must call a special election. This will take place between 10 and 60 days after filing. The election must then be held between 60 and 90 days after filing and advertised in the newspaper for three consecutive weeks.
The Press Conference
Scheduled speakers at the press conference on August 12 include:
- Will Anderson – Farmer & Citizen
- David Bennett – Chairman-Elect of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners
- Jessica Bennett – Educator & Citizen
- Ryan Brannen – Farm and Republican nominee for Bulloch County Commissioners in District 1A
- Ray Davis – Commissioner-Elect of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners (District 2A)
- Nick Newkirk – Businessman and Republican nominee for Bulloch County Commissioners in District 2C
- Tim Powell – Businessman & Citizen
- Lawton Sack – Co-Founder of Bulloch Action Coalition
The conference is scheduled for Monday, August 12, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at the Honey Bowen Building in Statesboro (1 Max Lockwood Drive). TheGeorgiaVirtue.com will livestream the event on The Georgia Virtue – Bulloch Facebook page.
You can review documents related to the petition and print your own copy here:
