Gov. Brian Kemp accepted Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Mariah Parker’s resignation on Thursday, more than a week after Parker announced it, but a date for a special election still has not been set.
Although it was not on the agenda and thus should have been off-limits under commission rules, several speakers used their three minutes of public comment at the Sept. 6 commission meeting to question the circumstances surrounding Parker’s resignation.
At the time of the meeting, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office had not received Parker’s resignation letter, meaning they had not technically resigned, according to local Republican activist Joan Rhoden. “Who is holding Commissioner Parker’s resignation papers hostage?” Rhoden asked.
Cshanyse Allen, a District 2 resident and frequent critic of the ACC government, accused Parker of colluding with Commissioner Melissa Link to clear the way for Link to run for Parker’s seat. “We have a commissioner who has moved to Atlanta for a flashy, high-platform, high-dollar career who quit her job last week, submitted a letter to the mayor and commissioners, and now is holding the seat hostage and won’t send a letter to Gov. Kemp because she’s holding the seat for her commissioner friend,” Allen said. “What kind of games are you all playing?”
Parker said in their Aug. 29 resignation letter that they had grown frustrated with the commission’s inability to tackle issues like health care and affordable housing and wanted to focus on activism. They took a job last month organizing restaurant workers with the group Raise Up the South.
Parker told Flagpole that they’re temporarily living in Athens but outside the district because their landlord opted not to renew their lease in August and put the house up for sale, but have signed a new lease within the district that starts in December. Their intent was initially to stay in Athens, but recently they and their family have been having discussions about whether to move.
In regards to colluding with Link, several commissioners told Flagpole they were blindsided by Parker’s announcement. Link then contacted Parker to say that she was considering running for the seat. After the ACC government made conflicting announcements about whether a special election would be held under the current district or the new one that takes effect Jan. 1, Parker said they held off on sending the resignation letter to Kemp until the Board of Elections clarified the situation. However, after learning that the BOE can’t make a decision until Parker’s resignation is official, Parker said they sent the letter on Sep. 7. Kemp officially accepted their resignation the following day.
Link and any other candidates who might run are also in a holding pattern until the BOE’s ruling. Link was barred from running for re-election this year because Republican state legislators moved her District 3 from the downtown/Prince Avenue area to Winterville during the once-a-decade post-Census redistricting process. She could run in District 2 if the special election is conducted using the new district lines, but not the current ones. Other commission races this year—for districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9—used the new lines, but state law is ambiguous about whether that’s the case for a special election held before the new lines officially take effect Jan. 1. Mayor Kelly Girtz is pushing for a March special election instead, which would clear up the issue. However, that would leave the seat vacant for an additional four months.
The Board of Elections is meeting this afternoon but is not expected to take up the special election issue, chairman Rocky Raffle told Flagpole.
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