FLOWERY BRANCH – By a pair of unanimous votes Thursday evening the Flowery Branch City Council approved a couple of additional items for the November 6th general election ballot that will be handed to Flowery Branch citizens.
City Clerk Melissa McCain presented the resolutions to the city council, saying, “Hall County does have a general election going on that date so the City of Flowery Branch would not have to hold a separate special election. We would be on Hall County’s ballot (and) the only cost to us would be advertising.”
Special elections are required to be advertised in local media by state law.
The first item added to the general ballot is the result of Georgia Senate Bill 17, also known as the “Brunch Bill”, signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal in May of this year; that legislation allows municipalities to authorize the Sunday sale of alcoholic beverages starting at 11:00 a.m. rather than observing the current 12:30 p.m. restriction.
The new state law requires a voter referendum on the issue for the times to be moved up. The ballot question will read as follows: Shall the governing authority of Flowery Branch be authorized to permit and regulate Sunday sales of distilled spirits or alcoholic beverages for beverage purposes by the drink from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.?
The second item that will be added to the November 6th ballot is the result of the death of Post 3 city council member Fred Richards. Richards passed away on June 14th and his unexpired term runs through December 31, 2019.
“Our code requires that we call for an election and not fill by appointment,” McCain explained
“We are going to do qualifying July 16th through July 18th,” McCain advised the council. “The qualifying fee is $144, which is 3-percent of the annual pay.”
McCain said every individual who meets qualification requirements and pays the $144 fee by the July 18 deadline will appear on the November 6th ballot.
She agreed that if enough citizens decide to enter the race a run-off could be possible since 50-percent-plus-one votes is required to be an uncontested winner. “The run-off would be in December.”
But even that scenario might not prove costly to the city. “If Hall County has a run-off we’ll just be on their ballot; if not then we’ll have to have our own here at City Hall.”
For more information McCain says to contact the Flowery Branch City Hall at (770) 967-6371 during normal business hours.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/7/689217/flowery-branch-city-council-approves-additional-ballot-items