A typical Tara Blvd. sidewalk. (Photo: Robin Kemp/The Clayton Crescent)

Taking a page from our friends at The Current in Savannah, we present a compilation of all the published agendas for various government bodies and boards meeting this week. This frees us to tackle a few of these items in depth, rather than essentially rewrite each agenda.

The point of this is to make it easier for you to take part in your own government. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. It doesn’t do you much good to complain on social media about what’s already happened or about what you wish would happen. We’re pointing you in the direction of where you can go to seek satisfaction. We are not telling you what to ask for or who to vote for. That’s not our job. That’s on you and your community. Our job is to let you know what’s going on so that you can respond to it and hold your government and your elected officials accountable.

Check these agenda links for items that affect you, your property, your neighborhood, your business, and your community. And be sure to check back 24 hours before each meeting because sone government bodies wait as long as possible—sometimes on purpose—before making the public aware of what they plan to discuss or vote on.

Be sure to recheck these links in case of any changes to the published agenda, which does happen occasionally.

We may add other select government events to this list.

MONDAY 26

The Riverdale City Council has cancelled its business meeting “due to a lack of agenda items.” The next business meeting is scheduled for October 10 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 7200 Church Street. (The mayor and council are holding a retreat this weekend; see below.) Look for Riverdale’s agenda on the city’s home page, then click through one more time. (notice)

The Jonesboro City Council does not meet today; its next meeting will be the October 6 work session. (agenda)

TUESDAY 27

The Clayton County Board of Commissioners does not meet this week. Its next meeting will be the October 4 “pre-agenda” meeting at 5:30 p.m., followed by the regular business meeting at 6:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY 28

9 a.m.: The Georgia State Elections Board meets in Room 341 of the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta (agenda). This will be an important meeting dealing with the investigation of illegal access to election equipment in Coffee County (the state is planning to replace those machines), as well as presentations on risk limiting audits (testing of voting machines), the Dominion Voting Systems Democracy Suite 5.5 as approved by the federal Elections Assistance Commission in 2018, and on state election law (O.C.G.A. Title 21 – Elections). If you go in person, you can sign up to speak before the meeting and you will have two minutes to speak. You can send public comments via e-mail to sebpubliccomments@sos.ga.gov and you can watch the meeting online here:

Here’s a report from 11Alive’s Doug Richards on fired county elections director Cathy Latham:

9:00 a.m.: The Clayton County Board of Assessors holds its work session, immediately followed by its regularly scheduled meeting. The board “hears appeals from property owners regarding their assessments and works with the Tax Assessor’s Office,” according to the county’s website. No minutes appear on the site but the meeting is open to the public.

5:30 p.m.: The Forest Park Development Authority meets in City Council Chambers (accessible also by Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/96431940317?pwd=N2tiV0NacXdJZTBCeVFsdFZBMnUxZz09 or by phone at 929-205-6099), 745 Forest Parkway. (agenda) Items up for consideration include Amendment of 2022-2023 Budget, a unspecified contract with Paramount Consulting (no amount given), an update on the Facade Grant program, the authority’s financials, unspecified property sales, updates on 850 Main Street’s exterior and architecture, and an update on economic development. We’ve asked a city spokesperson why the livestream camera, which cost the city over $30,000 and which The Clayton Crescent’s legal team fought to have installed and staffed, is not being used.

THURSDAY 29

9:30 a.m.: A pretrial conference originally scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 27 has been moved to Thursday, Sept. 29 in the federal case against suspended Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill. The conference will take place in Courtroom 1708 of the Federal Courthouse at 75 Ted Turner Drive in Atlanta. Hill’s trial on charges he abused his power under color of law, allegedly by ordering pretrial detainees to be strapped into restraint chairs as punishment, is set to begin Oct. 12.

5:30 p.m.: The Forest Park Urban Redevelopment Authority will meet. The agenda had not been posted as of press time Monday; keep checking the link: (agenda)

FRIDAY 30

TBA

SATURDAY 1

Community activist Meia Ballinger is calling for a march to protest pedestrian deaths and the lack of sidewalks and crosswalks on Tara Boulevard. The march begins on Tara Boulevard at Southside Commercial Parkway, near the site where a 7-year-old girl was struck and killed by an unknown hit-and-run driver, and will travel down Tara Boulevard to North Main Street, where a crash killed Clayton County Police Officer Armando Mendoza and Hue Phan, 81. See related stories:

9 a.m.-5 p.m.: The mayor and city council of Riverdale will hold a weekend retreat at the Hilton Peachtree City Atlanta Hotel & Conference Center 2443 Highway 54 West in Peachtree City. The retreat continues Sunday, October 2 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Any time that a quorum of a public body gathers outside of executive session, it is a public meeting, and members of the public have the right to attend under the Georgia Open Meetings Act. This includes retreats.

If you value The Clayton Crescent’s reporting, we ask you to consider making a monthly gift of support today. We are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit newsroom allied with the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Unlike other local nonprofits, we do not take money from local or county government grants or from elected officials because doing so would compromise our ability to cover local government fairly.

Without independent news coverage in a given area, studies have proven that public corruption increases. We exist because other local news outlets do not consistently cover Clayton County with the same breadth and depth that we do. Nearly all other coverage you see elsewhere about Clayton County was broken first by The Clayton Crescent: events surrounding poll watchers during the 2020 Presidential election, questions about the Roman United proposed development, the COVID-19 outbreak at the Clayton County Jail, and so many other stories over the past two and a half years. Frequently, we run a story, then see it the next morning on local TV news shows or in the AJC. Our colleagues respect this operation and rely on it for planning their own news coverage.

The Clayton Crescent’s operations are funded by grants through the Institute for Nonprofit News and through your generous donations. Without the financial support of individual Clayton County residents, The Clayton Crescent cannot continue to operate.

Give now at https://donorbox.org/clayton-crescent by clicking the “Donate” button, then choosing “Monthly” and the amount that’s right for you. Then tell five of your friends about us.

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Robin Kemp is executive editor and CEO of The Clayton Crescent, which she founded in 2020. She has worked for Gambit, CNN, The Weather Channel, Clayton News, Henry Herald, and numerous freelance outlets....

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