HOMER – Banks County officials say they believe that county would be better served by changing to a judicial circuit that includes counties more its size.
Banks County Commission Chairman Jimmy Hooper says Barrow and Jackson, the other counties in the Piedmont Judicial Circuit, are simply too large to share much in common with Banks County. Additionally, the vast population difference makes it almost impossible for someone from Banks County to get elected as judge or district attorney.
“It’s not a secret,” Hooper says. “There’s been kind of a fact-finding mission by the commissioners and the sheriff and the clerk of court here in Banks County of maybe going from the Piedmont Circuit to the Mountain Circuit.”
Hooper says the current judicial circuit makeup has been this way probably the 1950s, but that things have changed since it was formed.
“At a point in time, Jackson County and Banks County were not so far different in population, but as it stands right now Barrow County and Jackson County have much more – the population difference is great,” Hooper says. “We’ve got 17,000, Jackson County has got somewhere around 60,000, and Barrow may be getting close to 100,000. That doesn’t mean a whole lot until we go to the voting booths. When we go to the voting booths, we’re such a small county and really our votes don’t count toward much.”
Hooper says that under the current system, a circuit-wide official can lose the vote in two counties and still be elected.
“As it stands right now, a candidate for the D.A.’s position or a judge position, if they can carry just Barrow County they can win it all outright,” Hooper says.
Hooper says Rep. Dan Gasaway will have to introduce the proposed change as local legislation when the legislative session begins in January, and the other counties in the circuit will need to sign off on it.
“We get into quality of service,” Hooper says. “The fewer in number, you can get around more often if you’ve got a smaller population to deal with. We’re looking for quality of service in a timely manner in disposing of our criminal cases in the county. We’re not saying anything bad about any of the judges. We have a good relationship with all the superior court judges in the Piedmont circuit. It has nothing to do with that. There are some issues with efficiency and representation at the polling booths. Those are the two main issues.”
Already, parts of Alto and Baldwin are inside Banks County, so moving to the Mountain Judicial Circuit would unite most of the county in one circuit.
“It makes more sense for Banks County to be in the Mountain district,” Hooper says. “We all know that Barrow County is a great county, but it’s more urban than Banks County, and of course Jackson County is going toward the trend of being more urban than Banks County. We’re still a farming and agrarian community, and we like that feeling.”
Hooper says preliminary talks with officials in the counties of the Mountain Judicial Circuit have been positive.
“On initial visits and meetings with each individual county, at this point in time there seems to be a receptive attitude from all the counties,” Hooper says. “So, we’ll see how it plays out. If we go to the Mountain district, it’ll be great for us. But if we do remain in the Piedmont circuit, we’ll continue on as it is now, maybe with some different initiatives and maybe a little more interest placed in some areas of the judicial system.”
Hooper sums up Banks County’s interest in changing by saying, “Our biggest issue is we think we have more in common, we have more likes, with Habersham County, Stephens County and Rabun County than we do with Jackson and Barrow,” Hooper says. “We’re agricultural, we’re more rural, we have some of the same issues, and I think money-wise our dollars would be more beneficial probably to the Mountain district than it would to the Piedmont district.”
