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Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Tolleson nixes 8th District run

Scratch state Sen. Ross Tolleson off the list of 8th Congressional District challengers for U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall next year.

Tolleson, R-Perry, was one of the last established Republican politicians said to be considering a run against the four-term incumbent, but he said this week he’ll sit this one out. He wants to run for Congress, but he also wants to wait until his twin daughters finish high school in a couple of years, he said.

“My family comes first over politics,” Tolleson said in a text message to The Telegraph.

Tolleson also sent a text message saying this, which may well be the first salvo of the 2012 campaign: “I am very disappointed in Congressman Marshall and his strong support of the left wing leadership he keeps supporting in Washington, D.C. I think that Congressman Marshall is risking the safety of America by supporting Nancy Pelosi and the left wing leadership. I wish he would stand up and fight for America instead of his party.”

Marshall’s chief of staff, Doug Moore, declined to comment on that.

Tolleson will serve as an adviser for Angela Hicks, a Bibb County businesswoman who has already declared for the GOP’s 8th District primary. Tolleson described Hicks as “a very good lifelong friend,” but he said he’ll let all the candidates battle it out in the primary.

There are three other announced Republican candidates in the race: Houston County preacher Ken DeLoach, Valerie Meyers of Warner Robins and former Bibb County Republican Party Chairman Paul Rish.

Fight over EMA, separation of powers continues in Macon

The fight over replacing Macon and Bibb County’s Emergency Management Agency director is by no means over.

Mayor Robert Reichert could soon try to force his first choice through over City Council objections. And Councilwoman Elaine Lucas said she is “pondering” her own flanking action around the mayor to install interim Director LaTravious Smith as the permanent director.

The whole thing boils down to a power struggle between Reichert’s administration and the council, which have clashed repeatedly over the city’s separation of powers during Reichert’s nearly two years in office.

Now Reichert has a written opinion from the city attorney’s office that says he can make this nomination on his own and have it confirmed by the head of Georgia’s Emergency Management Agency.

That would let him hire North Carolina EMT Michael Smith without the council, which rejected that choice 9-4 earlier this month.

Whether Reichert will pursue that path remains to be seen. His spokesman, Andrew Blascovich, said this week that the administration is using the Thanksgiving holiday to “kind of reassess the situation” and decide what to do.

It’s also worth noting that Reichert didn’t request this opinion from the city attorney’s office. His chief administrative officer, Thomas Thomas, asked for it after noting an apparent oversight that the city attorney’s office made before the initial vote.

So the attorneys plowed through the city charter, city code, state regulations and at least two state attorney general’s opinions, one of which dated to 1958. It found inconsistencies and determined that state regulations hold sway, meaning “the mayor, without council approval, has the authority to nominate a director of EMA,” according to a memo produced by the office and e-mailed to council members

That would mean the administration submitted the nomination to the council even though it didn’t have to, which has apparently been common practice going back to at least 1984. Langstaff said that since all other department heads must be confirmed by the council, he was “shocked” to learn that EMA directors are treated differently.

He said the mayor nominates them, with the head of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency confirming that nomination.

“It’s one of these things where, institutionally, I think the city just forgot,” Langstaff said.

That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in this new opinion, and council members have clashed with the city attorney’s office before.

Where things go from here is hard to say. If Reichert pushes ahead on his own, that won’t do much for his relationship with the council. And if Lucas tries to give LaTravious Smith the job through a council vote, that effort will be at odds with the city attorney’s reading of the situation.

So Lucas said she’d like to see the issue more simply resolved.

“I would like to see the mayor go ahead and nominate LaTravious Smith,” she said. “That’s, I think, just the right thing to do.”

Staff writer Travis Fain compiled this report.