The Athens-Clarke County Commission voted 7–3 to allow Athens First United Methodist Church to demolish the historically protected Saye Building downtown during a nearly six-hour meeting Apr. 1 that featured a number of other contentious and divided votes.
Commissioners Melissa Link, Ovita Thornton and Tiffany Taylor opposed a settlement with First UMC removing the 100-year-old building at the corner of Lumpkin Street and Hancock Avenue from the West Downtown Historic District, created in 2020 after the church first sought to tear it down and replace it with a parking lot. A 30-day delay proposed by Link was voted down 3–7, with Link joined by Taylor and Commissioner Dexter Fisher.
“It’s clear there is a hell of a lot of passion in this community for saving this building, and there is a hell of a lot more information coming forward about the role this building has played in the community,” Link said.
About 20 people spoke against the settlement, with no members of the public in favor.
“Sadly, last night’s vote disregards years of public process, the building’s formal historic designation and hundreds of community voices,” the preservation group Historic Athens said in a statement after the vote. “It overrules recommendations from the Historic Preservation Commission and the Planning Commission. The Saye’s historic status had already been upheld at both the local and state levels, further confirming its significance.
“It also overlooks a recent discovery. The Saye Building was designed by Captain John William Barnett, the architect of Athens City Hall. That connection only deepens the building’s historic value.
“We are heartbroken. This decision undermines years of work and sets a troubling precedent for preservation, transparency and public trust.”
Former commissioner Russell Edwards and other investors had offered to buy the Saye Building for $3 million, with plans to renovate it using federal tax credits, but the church turned them down. The proposal would have put the property back on the tax rolls and generated an estimated $21 million for the local economy.
Board of Elections: A day after public outcry led state Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens) to pull a bill that would have changed the procedure for appointing the ACC Board of Elections, the commission voted 8–2 to approve a resolution opposing the bill, which Gaines said he would bring up again.
Currently, the local Democratic and Republican parties each appoint one member to the BOE (which may be unconstitutional), with the technically nonpartisan but Democratic-leaning commission appointing the other three. Under Gaines’ bills, the current BOE would be dissolved, and each of the four Western Circuit Superior Court Judges would recommend two nominees for a new board, with the mayor and commission choosing three from among the eight.
Gaines’ rationale is that elected officials should not be appointing the people who oversee their own elections, and that involving judges would create a less partisan process. “It’s not equitable to have four Democrats and one Republican,” said Larry Jordan, who claimed he was denied a commission-appointed seat on the BOE because he is a Republican. Athens consistently votes about 70% Democratic in partisan elections, and due to GOP gerrymandering, five out of its six representatives at the state level are Republicans.
“Letting election officials determine who serves on the board of elections is like the fox in the henhouse,” Jordan continued. As several other speakers pointed out, though, Western Circuit Superior Court judges are also elected officials—elected by voters in both Clarke and Oconee counties. So, why, they wondered, should Oconee County voters have any influence over internal Clarke County appointments? Additionally, the Oconee County Commission has a similar process to ACC for appointing its BOE members, but the bills do not address Oconee County.
Public comment mostly ran in favor of the resolution. Patrick Sheridan described the bill as a power grab. “I was frankly disgusted that our state legislators would try to take the power away from Clarke County,” he said.
“I think we have a stellar board of elections,” Kimberly Patton said. “I’m really impressed with the work they do,” particularly expanding access to early voting.
Jaqueline Elsner, a regular at BOE meetings, urged the commission to “send a message that Clarke County manages its board of elections selection just fine.”
Commissioners John Culpepper and Ovita Thornton voted against the resolution—probably rendering it moot, since the Republican legislators representing Athens have made it clear they will not accept any resolution from the ACC Commission unless it’s unanimous. Those same Republicans in the Athens delegation years ago abandoned a longstanding rule requiring unanimity among Athens legislators to introduce local legislation like the BOE bills, HB 851 and 852.
Culpepper did not explain his vote. Echoing concerns shared by Commissioner Stephanie Johnson, Thornton said, “I don’t like the fact that it was late, last minute,” although expressing hope it would pass.
An unusually irate Commissioner Carol Myers, admitting that she was “red faced,” expressed exasperation at Johnson’s comments about receiving the text of the resolution at the last minute. “I don’t like receiving things at the last minute as well, which is why I was upset when I found out about these bills on Reddit on Friday,” Myers said. “None of our representatives have reached out to us. They have not communicated any problems.” She also noted that none of those representatives received a majority of Clarke County’s vote; they were elected primarily by voters in outlying counties.
“It looks like it singled out Clarke County. I’m not sure why we were singled out,” said Commissioner Dexter Fisher—who benefited from Republican legislators’ unilateral redistricting plan that drew his District 5 predecessor Tim Denson out of the seat in 2022 and put Fisher’s home in the district. “It’s possible there could be some compromises,” Fisher said.
Gaines told Flagpole that the bills would be revisited. “We will be having a discussion this fall on how to address the legal and policy issues with the current makeup of the board, and plan to revisit the matter next session,” he said.
Broad Street Roundabout: A Georgia Department of Transportation project to construct a roundabout at the intersection of West Broad Street and Hancock Avenue nearly went down in flames, despite the fact that it had previously been approved unanimously.
The issues appeared to be the fact that the county may have to use eminent domain to acquire slivers of property—which the commission has always known—and the fact that Mayor Kelly Girtz had to correct two minor errors in a resolution authorizing a more detailed version of plans for the roundabout.
“I’m not going to support last-minute stuff unless somebody’s life is in danger,” Johnson said. Yet the reason for converting the hazardous intersection into a roundabout is that somebody’s life is in danger—roundabouts are shown to reduce car crashes by 80%.
Commissioner Mike Hamby quickly interjected. “There’s no reason not to vote for this, because we’ve been talking about it since 2018, and this is a simple clarification the mayor read,” Hamby said. “These are basically scrivener’s errors—very, very minor,” Link added.
While GDOT and ACC staff have either worked out agreements with owners or initiated proceedings to clear titles for most of the properties around the roundabouts, the reference to “eminent domain” alarmed Thornton. “I don’t do eminent domain unless I know what we’re eminent domaining,” she said. The properties involved have been known for several years and were laid out in the packet given to commissioners and the public before meetings.
Acting Manager Brad Griffin told the commission that there is only a small piece of land near the corner of Broad and Minor streets that needs to be acquired in order to relocate a sidewalk.
“It’s going to affect that gentleman’s business, what we’re going to do with the sidewalk and stuff, so that’s an issue for me,” Fisher said.
According to Commissioner Patrick Davenport, the business in question is a paint shop where a wall will need to be relocated in a front parking lot that is already difficult to access due to Broad Street traffic. “The business won’t go under,” Davenport said.
He still voted no, joined by commissioners Tiffany Taylor, Fisher, Johnson, Culpepper and Thornton. Hamby then quickly moved to delay the vote by one week, which passed 9–1, Taylor opposing.
At a called meeting before the commission’s Apr. 9 work session, the roundabout blueprints were approved unanimously.
Equity Resolution: After months of drama, the commission voted 8–2 to approve a resolution listing its racial equity accomplishments so far and more goals for the future. At issue was whether a resolution meant anything and whether a resolution could be turned into an ordinance that carries the force of law. However, it became clear that no one behind the rail had taken the initiative to turn the resolution into a law, if it were even possible to do so. Originally proposed by the Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement, the resolution became so divisive that co-author Fisher said at a previous meeting that it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.
Davenport made a motion to approve the resolution and assign the commission’s Legislative Review Committee to look at the procedure for introducing resolutions. Johnson made a substitute motion, seconded by Thornton, to reject the resolution. Culpepper, Taylor and Fisher joined them. Girtz broke the tie, and Davenport’s original motion passed 8–2, with Johnson and Thornton opposed.
Gaines School Road: The commission voted unanimously to hold a rezoning request for 69 townhouses, 10 accessory dwelling units and 10,000 square feet of commercial space on 7 acres at 450 Gaines School Road, across from the Cedar Creek subdivision. The developer requested the delay because it appeared the rezoning was going to be voted down, based on comments commissioners made at their March agenda-setting meeting. Nearby residents opposed the development because of concerns about traffic and density.
Electric Vehicles: Taylor, Fisher and Johnson voted against spending $5 million to buy electric vehicles for the county fleet with funds voters agreed to set aside for that very purpose. This was despite assistant manager Andrew Saunders telling them that there was a backlog of $10 million in purchasing vehicles, and Girtz explaining that the Transportation Special Option Local Sales Tax, approved by three-quarters of Athens voters, obligated them to buy electric vehicles. “As a matter of T-SPLOST law, T-SPLOST requires that we make the purchase,” Girtz said.
Commissioners Clash: Thornton launched several broadsides against Link during the meeting, including implying that the Saye Building settlement was Link’s fault. “You let folks who represent you, represent you in a very narcissistic, nasty way,” Thornton told demolition opponents. (Though not always enforced by the mayor, commission rules prevent commissioners from addressing each other directly.) “… Don’t come to me and expect me to clean up the mess when you let other folk make the mess.” Link represents downtown and led the charge for creating the West Downtown Historic District.
Earlier, Thornton took offense to a comment Link made about Republican state legislators who supposedly wanted more diversity on the county commission turning around and taking the power to appoint the board of elections away from a commission with five Black members.
“I am really kind of getting mixed messages from my colleague Commissioner Link,” Thornton said. “She almost made it sound like the fact that we got more Black representation was a bad thing.”
Girtz gave Link an opportunity to respond. “I’m just expressing my confusion at the intent of our Republican state legislators who redrew our district maps, putting forth that they wanted more minority representation on this body, and now that we have it, they want to take that power away from us. I am extremely confused at the hypocrisy of those representatives,” Link said.
“Commissioner Link confuses me all the time,” Thornton responded. “The issues that we deal with is because of Commissioner Link, unnecessarily. I’m not going to make this personal, but the same things we accuse our Republican elected officials, we do it here on this commission.”
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