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In 1975, the Georgia General Assembly passed a
law (OCGA 45-2-5) that prohibits your city and
county governments from requiring you to be a
resident as a condition of employment. Let’s say
you work in Hellhole, Georgia and because of the
nature of your job as a police officer, you want
to minimize the chances of your family crossing
paths with the thugs you lock up, so you live in
Pleasantville, Georgia. Thanks to OCGA 45-2-5
you now have that option. But if HB 413 passes
you may be required to live in Hellhole.
Representative Mark Hatfield, a lawyer from
Waycross, will change your right to live where
you want to live with his bill, HB 413. His
original plan was just to create a mechanism for
a city or county to make residency a requirement
of employment. A city or county would just have
to go through their local state legislative
delegation and have them submit and pass
legislation to exempt that city or county from
state law.
HB 413 was introduced in the Georgia House of
Representatives and assigned to the House
Committee on Governmental Affairs. The Chairman
of Governmental Affairs is Representative Austin
Scott, an insurance agent from the Tifton area.
He assigned HB 413 to a sub-committee headed by
Representative John Meadows, an insurance agent
from Calhoun.
The General Government Sub-Committee of the
House Governmental Affairs Committee met on HB
413 on February 18th at the State Capitol.
Representative Hatfield, who is also a voting
member of the Governmental Affairs Committee,
stated that no one had expressed any problems
with OCGA 45-2-5 and no one had asked him to
introduce legislation to allow residency to be a
condition for employment, but he thought it
would be a good idea.
During the sub-committee meeting Representative
Jill Chambers, a business owner from Dunwoody,
suggested it would be better to just do away
with OCGA 45-2-5. That way the cities and
counties would not be hampered by a pesky state
law and making residency a condition of
employment would be much easier and quicker. The
motion was made to delete OCGA 45-2-5 as a
committee substitute. A vote was taken and the
only person to vote against this was
Representative Mary Margaret Oliver, a lawyer
from Decatur. Even Representative Alan Powell, a
self-employed businessman from Hartwell, either
voted for or was silent on the bill.
Legal counsel was instructed to draw up the
substitute legislation on HB 413 and have it
ready for the full Governmental Affairs
Committee meeting on Monday (02/23/09) at 1:00
PM. It is not currently on the calendar, but the
Chairman can add any bill at any time for a
vote. If it passes out of this committee, it
must go to the Rules Committee. If it passes out
of the Rules Committee, then the full House
would vote on it. Please contact your state
representative and have them vote - No on HB
413.
See link to HB 413:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/hb413.htm
To find your state representative go to
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/house/alpha.html
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