Special Election Must be Held for Franklin County Commission District 4 Seat

While Franklin County has a new County Commission Chairman, the Board of Commissioners is still a person short.

Commissioner-elect Cole Roper suddenly resigned at the end of November. In an email to County Manager Derrick Turner and County attorney Bubba Samuels, Roper cited family and work constraints as his reason for not going through with taking his seat on the Board of Commissioners.

In his resignation letter, Roper said, “I am writing this to inform you of my resignation as the incoming commissioner for district 4 of Franklin County. As much as I want to serve you, the citizens, I must keep my wife and baby Blakely first. As I have participated in meetings and work sessions the past few months, I see that I have a serious time constraint. I am simply not willing to give up the time watching my child grow up, as well as quality time with my wife.”

At their meeting Monday, the Commissioners heard from Samuels who said there will have to be a special election to fill the District 4 Commission seat according to the direction he’s received from the State.

Samuels said Cole Roper’s resignation letter must first be accepted by Governor Brian Kemp.

“At that point, the Election Superintendent will be able to call for a special election within 45 days of that acceptance by the Governor. So if everything goes expeditiously the earliest date of the special election would be the third Tuesday in March and that’s yet to be established. We have to first get that (resignation letter) accepted by the Governor,” he explained.”…There’s no action by the Board at this time. And the call for the Special Election will come from the Board of Elections.”

In May, Roper ran and won over challenger Josh Smith, both Republicans.

In August, it was learned that Roper was building a new house just inside District 3 and had secured a mortgage for the property and house in February before qualifying to run for the District 4 seat.

According to the Enabling Legislation, which outlines the county districts and functions of the Franklin County Board of Commission and was revised and approved by the Georgia Legislature in 2001, a person elected to the Board of Commissioners must live in the District to which they were elected.

At the time, Roper said in a press release that he was not aware the house was not in his district and said he planned to sell the house or have family members from out of state live there.

For the new special election, if Smith decides to run again, he and any others wishing to run for the District 4 seat will have to qualify.

Until then, the Board of Commissioners will continue to operate with three Commissioners representing Districts 1, 2, and 3 and District 4 without representation.

“We’ve been running with three commissioners for months now and we will have to continue to do so until the District 4 seat is filled,” Interim Commission Chair Kyle Foster told WLHR News Tuesday.