On Monday, February 20, State Rep. James Beverly of Macon, who is part of the Macon-Bibb County legislative delegation, attended the MLK,Jr./Brown symposium at the historic Douglass Theatre in downtown Macon.
The first hour of the symposium dealt with the issue of Macon-Bibb consolidation, and Beverly was the only local representative of the eight-member legislative delegation to attend the public forum.
Besides Rep. Beverly, the panel included community activist George Muhammad, former state Rep. David Lucas, educator Kimberlyn Carter and Macon City Councilman Henry Ficklin.
Beverly has really been the only member of the local delegation thus far to talk in-depth and in a pragmatic way in regard to consolidation and how it will affect the majority African-American City of Macon and Bibb County.
Beverly had said if the proposed consolidation gets a majority vote from the local delegation then there is a likelihood that it could be on the ballot in July, not November.
"There's some big, big big issues, right? You have to have proportional representation," he says. "You gotta do that first. You have to deal with, 'How do we create economic opportunities for the whole community if we're going to do this thing?' How do you make people feel like, you know what, these guys were actually very deliberate about it, does it make sense for me to actually vote for it or not? And those considerations are tough."
State Sen. Miriam Paris, who was endorsed by Republican Allen Peake in last year's special election for Robert Brown's former State Senate seat (District 26), has been mostly silent and did not attend the symposium along with Rep. Nikki Randall, who has offered vague, evasive responses in previous public appearances in regard to the issue of Macon-Bibb consolidation.
Beverly did talk to WMAZ-TV on January 25 and had first admitted that a major sticking point is the issue of voting districts and proportional representation.
Beverly has been the only legislator to talk candidly, but staunch Republican Allen Peake and others have been mainly silent.
Macon is Central Georgia's largest and most progressive city, but will the issue of proportional representation include 'packing' African-Americans in these new consolidated districts along with adding conservative leaning swing or 'at-large' districts in an effort to diminish the electoral impact of African-Americans.
Prior to 1975, African-Americans had no elected officials in Bibb County despite a very sizable black population.
Beverly says he still plans to keep an open mind to a fair and equitable consolidation plan, but ultimately Miriam Paris--an African-American Democrat-- will be the deciding factor if Peake's plan is pushed forward for a vote.
Rep. Allen Peake has voiced support of finding an easier pathway of forcing consolidation with limited construct, less pragmatic and disingenuous debate.
Despite Paris being absent from the recent public debate, in November she had voiced support for trying to bypass the majority black community in order to implement Macon-Bibb consolidation. In essence, a forced consolidation without the voters having the final say.
Even though, this idea may face potential legal hurdles, Paris was quoted last November in the Macon Telegraph and said the bypass option was something the local delegation should consider.
“We all kind of looked at each other like, ‘Oh, goodness, that is an option,’ ” Paris said. “We certainly want to do what’s going to bring the community together, and thats to make Bibb County more efficient, more business friendly and to promote economic development. We’ve been fractured enough in some of these past conversations that have come right down in the middle of racial lines.”
Paris faces re-elelction in 2012, and if she votes to push Allen Peake's conservative consolidation plan onto the Georgia General Assembly for a vote, the likelihood for primary opposition in July is inevitable.
The moderator of the MLK,Jr./Brown symposium, C. Jack Ellis-- the former two-term mayor of Macon-- said it is difficult to assess the consolidation plan with the plan still pretty much hidden from the public. Details have been hard to come by.
Peake is determined to force consolidation primarily on his terms, and this flawed plan has a strong chance of moving forward and forced on the ballot for a vote on July 31.
Why July? It is really about timing and the higher likelihood of lower voter turnout would give this conservative consolidation plan a stronger chance of passing and being implemented.
