Bills that would annex Gwinnett County land into the city of Mulberry and force the county to pay for certain costs are awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature.
The legislation advanced to the Republican’s desk after an unusual 90-minute debate Thursday on the state House floor.
The bills are the most recent example of a northern Gwinnett issue spilling over from the local delegation to the full Legislature. They highlight the increasingly partisan nature of Mulberry’s position as a conservative-leaning city, in a Democrat-led county, in a state led by Republicans, who are on Mulberry’s side.
“These are needed measures for the city of Mulberry,” said state House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, who proposed the new city in late 2023 and is the only legislator who lives there. “Since Mulberry was proposed, Gwinnett County has worked against the effort.”
Voters across a 26-square-mile swath of northeastern Gwinnett ratified the city’s charter and elected a council last year. About 41,000 people live in Mulberry, which was formed as a response to a developer’s proposal for hundreds of apartments near the affluent Hamilton Mill subdivision.
Mulberry was incorporated Jan. 1 and is in a two-year transition period.
The charter says the city will provide zoning, code enforcement and stormwater management services but will not levy a property tax — spawning at least eight lawsuits, including one from Gwinnett County, alleging those restrictions are unconstitutional and therefore voters approved the city under false pretenses.
Efstration and Democratic legislators alike complained Thursday about the time the full House was spending on the small city, but the parties disagreed about who was to blame.
Legislative annexations in Gwinnett and many other counties typically are done with letters of support from the city and county and signatures from the majority of the county’s legislators, Clark said. Most of Gwinnett’s legislators are Democrats.
“Every other city represented by members of this chamber has managed to use their delegation’s normal legislative process to do their annexations this year,” Clark said. “This issue is actually bringing us across the aisle, in bipartisan agreement that this is starting to get old.”
The debate echoed the fight over redistricting the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners three years ago, which was pulled from local committees to the full Legislature, where Republicans approved a map with a new conservative district in north Gwinnett.
Gwinnett County spokesman Joe Sorenson contrasted the Mulberry annexation with another one underway in Lawrenceville that had the support of city and county leaders and legislators from both parties.
“Given Gwinnett’s size and its critical partnerships with the state, we believe a similar process would better address the Mulberry annexation, respecting the interests of all involved and ensuring stability for a region integral to Georgia’s economy,” Sorenson said in an email.
The land Mulberry seeks to annex is mostly commercial or undeveloped, with fewer than 500 residents, the threshold that would trigger a referendum, legislators said. It includes a Walmart, two Krogers and historic Fort Daniel, said Mulberry Mayor Michael Coker. Residents wanted Mulberry to take them over, Coker said.
“There was some concern that we have no ability to control what businesses go into those spaces,” he said.
Most of the land is in the district of Republican state House Rep. Sandy Donatucci, a freshman who defeated a Democrat last year. Other parcels are represented by Soo Hong and Rey Martinez, both Republicans. All three voiced their support for the annexations.
The Legislature passed another bill that would require Gwinnett County to pay a number of Mulberry’s expenses. It would require the county to calculate the cost of policing Mulberry, based on time spent patrolling and investigating crimes, and refund Mulberry any county police tax revenues from within its boundaries that exceed that cost.
It would also task Gwinnett with maintaining Mulberry’s roads during the transition period and maintaining dams and stormwater detention ponds until Mulberry agrees to take them over.
The bill would mandate that Gwinnett County reimburse Mulberry the fees for permit applications that the city has taken over processing. And it would excuse Mulberry from reimbursing the county for administering its city council elections, which city officials had previously said they’d do.
If the bill becomes law and a court rules that Gwinnett violated it, a provision would waive sovereign immunity for Gwinnett County and governmental immunity for county commissioners for a year.
Gwinnett Democrats said the bill imposes unfair financial burdens on the county. Some called the city “Freeberry.”
“They want everything free,” Rep. Dewey McClain said.
The immunity, police tax and stormwater provisions could be unconstitutional, and the immunity waivers could expose the county to “unlimited financial liability” at taxpayer expense, Sorenson said.
Gwinnett County weeks ago proposed a service agreement for Mulberry similar to the ones it has with its 16 other cities, but has received no response, he said.
State House Democrats questioned the need for the Legislature to get involved in a process that is typically negotiated between cities and counties. Efstration and state Sen. Clint Dixon accused Gwinnett County of being unwilling to negotiate until their legislation passed the Senate and gained traction in the House.
“We’ve got to move forward because once we get out of session, they may go back to taking the stance that Mulberry doesn’t exist,” Dixon said.
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