Mayors discuss municipal elections at monthly meeting

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — City elections dominated discussions at the Feb. 9 meeting of the North Fulton Municipal Association held at the Avalon 1000 Building in Alpharetta.

The organization, composed of elected and senior staff from North Fulton cities, meets monthly to discuss matters affecting their municipalities.

Over the past month, North Fulton city councils have explored efforts to run their own municipal election this fall in the face of rising charges from Fulton County, which has traditionally managed the polling.

In December, the Milton City Council voted to approve self-run municipal elections this year following the recommendation from a locally appointed election study committee.

While the Alpharetta City Council approved a new city elections superintendent position, other cities are still deciding on whether to remain with Fulton County, run their own election or formally sign with other cities to seat an elections superintendent to oversee municipal elections in Milton, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Roswell and Mountain Park. The agreement, still in draft form, leaves each city to figure its way through election operations.

Sandy Springs has no municipal elections scheduled for this year.

The remaining cities have until the end of March to decide whether to contract with Fulton County or embark on their own to operate polling.

The municipal organization

The North Fulton Municipal Association includes the cities of Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, Roswell and Mountain Park.

A partner to the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, the municipal organization has no webpage, so agendas or meeting schedules are not posted. The group’s chairman, Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, said the association has been “going on” since he was elected, about a decade ago.

“It’s mostly an opportunity for us to get together and share information, kind of talk through common problems and develop solutions, and proposals, for how we work as a region in the North Fulton area,” Paul said.

Meetings generally include the mayor and possibly some city councilmembers from each city as well as city managers and other senior staff. At least four members of the Johns Creek City Council – a quorum that qualifies as an official Johns Creek City Council meeting – were present at the gathering. The city’s official website carries no listing for the council meeting.

The association also regularly invites representatives from other entities, like Fulton County Government, the Georgia Department of Transportation, MARTA and the Atlanta Regional Commission.

A printed handout shows the meetings are held monthly on Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. on the following dates: March 23, April 27, May 25, June 22, July 27, Aug. 24, Sept. 28, Oct. 26, Nov. 16 and Dec. 13.

Municipal elections

The setup in the conference room Feb. 9, positioned officials in a roundtable discussion without microphones, so discussions were sometimes inaudible from the gallery.

Conversation about municipal elections was short, running around 10 minutes. The newly drafted multi-city agreement was not discussed.

However, Fulton County commissioners Bob Ellis and Bridget Thorne provided information on the county’s municipal election budget.

In a split vote, the County Commission passed a resolution Feb. 1 to budget the same amount of money for municipal elections as it did in 2021 — $5.2 million, plus an extra 10 percent for contingencies. The county would then assess its charge for running a local election based on the number of registered voters in the city.

Some estimates for the cost per registered voter were then tossed around.

Milton City Manager Steve Krokoff said he figured the cost per registered voter will be more than $7 for cities that allow Fulton County to conduct their municipal elections this fall.

But, because Milton has already set up an apparatus to run its own election, its cost per registered voter will be less than $3, Mayor Peyton Jamison said.

Following the meeting, Johns Creek City Councilwoman Erin Elwood found herself in a tense conversation with Alpharetta Mayor Jim Gilvin, in which she expressed concerns about the logistics of North Fulton cities running their own election on short notice as well as cost being the determining factor.

Elwood has consistently contested the idea of Johns Creek running its own election or signing an agreement with other cities to coordinate municipal elections.

But Gilvin maintained he has faith in the cities to do a better job than Fulton County this year.

In other action at the meeting, Johns Creek Mayor John Bradberry, who was not in attendance, was elected as the new Municipal Association chair.

Municipal elections

Appen Media has covered the movement in North Fulton toward city-run municipal elections since breaking the story in August 2021.

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