So why did we settle? It became clear to most of us that no matter how much money and time we spent, we were still going to have district voting. We had our day in court. We lost.
We appealed and won on a procedural (not factual) issue. The passing of Pota Coston resulted in an empty seat that needed to be filled. Rather than allowing the county commission to follow the law (at-large voting), Judge Batten forced the county to fill the seat via district voting. This seemed to be a clear signal of the judge’s intentions for the county.
We hired an attorney who is an expert in civil rights law. We paid him a lot of money and we were preparing for trial. The judge postponed the trial and forced all commissioners and board members to attend mediation sessions.
It became clear to me through conversations with the judge (via our attorney) that we were not going to have a successful trial and that we should settle. The settlement that we arrived at on the advice or our attorney was, I believe, the best that we could do given the legal obstacles that we had to overcome.
We reduced the gerrymandering, we avoided paying 7-figure plaintiff legal fees and we retained the right to redistrict as we see fit after the 2020 census. We can add more at-large seats after 2020 if we choose.
If we had continued the fight, what could we have won? It turns out that all of the time, money, and effort would be spent fighting over the 2018 election only. One election. That is the only election left in the “majority-minority” district before the next census.
The NAACP candidates won the 2014 election and there is no possibility of nullifying those elections. The majority-minority district does not participate in the 2016 and 2020 local elections. We were fighting over one election. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars should we spend out of the school system budget to fight for one election?
We should fight for our principles, some would say. I agree that at-large voting is worth fighting for. We fought and we lost. We got some things back in mediation, but we had a judge who was determined to impose district voting on the citizens of this county no matter how many hundreds of thousands of dollars that we spent upholding our principles.
And then you have the issue of conflicting principles. I ran as a fiscal conservative. We closed schools so that we could have a smaller, better paid work force, a balanced budget, financial reserves, and a better credit (bond) rating. We have achieved those goals. Continuing to fight a lawsuit against the good advice of our civil rights attorney did not seem like the fiscally responsible thing to do.
Then there is the principle of “liberty and justice for all.” The disadvantage of at-large voting is that a small group of citizens from the south can sweep all of the local elections and totally dominate local politics. I was the beneficiary of one such small and active group.
I agree with the principles that group stands for and I am proud to be associated with them. However, a small group of citizens from the north may be able to get more organized and more passionate than the group from the south and stack the boards with their own candidates. At that point, the group from the south would probably feel like they had been treated unjustly and begin calling for district voting.
Lastly, we have not been accused of racism. The NAACP attorney made that point in her opening mediation statement. We have not been accused of racism, we have been accused of having an election system that keeps minorities from having a voice on local boards.
That is admittedly true. Our disagreement is what is meant by “minority.” The NAACP argues that the “minority” can be identified by their melanin levels, but I would disagree and argue that the only “oppressed minority” in this county is the “liberal Democrat” and that we should do everything within our power to keep those who gave us Detroit, Clayton County, and the 10 poorest cities in America as far from the decision-making table as possible.
Why people would want to move to our county and then vote to implement the very same policies that created the hell hole that they fled from is a huge mystery to me.
The data shows that our county government and school system has been equally responsive to the needs of the citizens of this county regardless of neighborhood. There was no rationale other than party politics for this lawsuit.
I fear that the fiefdoms to come will make the local governments even more costly and inefficient. I fear that this decision that has been forced upon us will make Fayette County a less desirable place to live and do business, but we can choose our own fate.
It is time to put the divisiveness behind us and begin the process of healing our community. An outside force, like a tornado or a hurricane, has come into our community and caused a great deal of destruction. It is time to clean up the debris, mend relationships, and focus on building a better community by focusing on the issues that unite us.
We need to continue the work of building a world-class school system, a growing economy, and a great quality of life for all Fayette County citizens.
Barry Marchman
Board of Education Post 1
Tyrone, Ga.
