Legislative Notebook: Hancock County to be redistricted

Hancock County to be redistricted

For the first time in 20 years, voting districts for the Hancock County Commission and Board of Education are being redrawn, under House bills 182 and 183 by state Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon.

Each body is made up of four identical districts. Counties are not obliged to redraw districts to match new census numbers every decade, but if they don’t, they leave themselves open to lawsuits under a federal mandate that each person’s vote has equal weight.

The maps are likely to get quick, courtesy passage, as Hancock has only a single senator, Lucas, who said he has the agreement of Hancock’s single state representative, Rep. Mack Jackson, D-Sandersville.

WR City Council reserved for those 21 and older

All five Houston County state representatives agree: No one should serve on Warner Robins City Council or be its mayor until they attain the ages of 21 or 23, respectively.

Those requirements are being raised from 18 and 21, respectively, at the unanimous request of the current city council, whose members are all above the age of 23.

House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal’s House Bill 383 also says mayors should have lived in the city a year, and council members in the city a year and their own district for six months. Quick, uncontested passage is likely.

-- Maggie Lee