The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
City sues to stop Eagle’s Landing referendum
Attorneys for Stockbridge filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking an injunction to stop November’s referendum on Eagle’s Landing cityhood and calling efforts to de-annex Stockbridge unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, which names the Henry County Commission and the county’s elections board as defendants, was not unexpected. Leaders of the Henry County city had said they would turn to the courts if legislation allowing voters to cast ballots on making Eagle’s Landing a city made it out of the Georgia General Assembly.
Two bills — one calling for the Eagle’s Landing cityhood referendum and another to de-annex Stockbridge — were approved by legislators and signed by Gov. Nathan Deal last week.
“We will be asking the court to hold everything in place until the constitutionality of those two acts in question is in fact determined,” said Bob Wilson, a founding partner of Wilson Morton & Downs, at a Thursday press conference about the lawsuit at Stockbridge City Hall. “No case is perfect, and no case is a certainty. However, we believe ... that this is a solid case.”
Leaders of Stockbridge and residents of Eagle’s Landing — a well-heeled community in the southern part of Stockbridge — have been at odds since Eagle’s Landing cityhood was introduced in the General Assembly two years ago.
Eagle’s Landing supporters say they are seceding because Stockbridge has failed to provide basic needs, such as parks, senior facilities
and road and infrastructure improvements. Stockbridge counters that some of the requested needs are
provided by the county, not the city, and that the way to resolve the differences is through dialogue, not by breaking up the community.
Lawyers for Stockbridge, which includes former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers, said they hope to expedite court proceedings in the lawsuit given the short window before the November referendum, but could not guarantee a date. They said they also may file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court.
The attorneys argued that the bills — which they call Act 548 and Act 559 — are unconstitutional because they ask for two different things under the same legislation, which is a violation of Georgia law. They also are in violation because matters in the acts are different from their titles suggests.
“No bill shall pass which refers to more than one subject or which contains matter different from what is said in the title,” said Bowers, adding that the law has been on the books sine 1798. “Both of these bills violate both of those provisions.”
Vikki Consiglio, a leader in the Eagle’s Landing cityhood, said the language in the bills was vetted by lawyers, legislators and the governor’s office, so she is suprised that’s the basis of the lawsuit.
“I’m just questioning why all of a sudded this is unconstitutional,” she said.
Stockbridge Mayor Anthony Ford said the outcome of the battle will be felt far beyond the borders of Henry County. “What happens to Stockbridge will dictate what happens to the rest of the cities in the Atlanta metro area and the state of Georgia,” he said.
“What happens here will help the stage for what happens to other cities around the nation.”