Nearly one month after a federal appeals court granted an appeal of a prior ruling mandating district voting in Fayette County, there is no word from the Board of Commissioners regarding how the county will proceed.
After an email sent to all five commissioners late last week inquiring about the county’s next move, the board was united in its response: “No comment.”
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten and sent the case back to federal court for a bench trial. The appeal was made by the Board of Commissioners as well as the Board of Education.
The three-person appellate panel ruled Jan. 7 that Batten made a mistake in granting summary judgment in favor of the NAACP – and against the county commission and school board – in a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination under the federal Voting Rights Act.
The county and the school board can now go back to Batten’s court for a bench trial, allowing the judge to rule after all of the evidence is presented.
At the Jan. 22 meeting of the BOC, Larry Mapp, who identified himself as the leader of the North Fayette Community Association, urged the commissioners to rethink funding the appeals process beyond what has already occurred, “in the interest of financial responsibility.”
Mapp said that the process itself will cost a great deal of money, and the outcome could possibly void some previous decisions made and voted on by the board, which would cost even more money to correct.
The commissioners declined to comment, calling the matter “pending litigation.”
Word of the appellate decision spread quickly and several citizens commented publicly about it at the Jan. 8 meeting of the Board of Commissioners. Four people that night urged the board not to proceed, citing the cost to taxpayers of further legal action and saying it would be in the best interests of all Fayette County citizens to let the process stop right here. One person speaking that night disagreed, saying that four-fifths of his right to vote had been taken away by not allowing all members of the commission and the school board to be elected at large.
