Hiram mayor ‘blindsided’ by Georgia bill to dissolve city’s government

HIRAM, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Residents spoke out Tuesday night against a Georgia bill that would repeal the City of Hiram’s incorporation and transfer the city’s duties and obligations to Paulding County.

Senate Bill 630, sponsored by Republican Sen. Jason Anavitarte, would transfer the city’s duties and obligations to Paulding County and eliminate Hiram’s current local government.

It would not require a vote from residents to approve these changes.

The bill says “concerns have arisen around the financial condition and long-term viability of the City of Hiram.”

‘Stop messing with our town’

At the Hiram City Council meeting, residents criticized the proposal and questioned the motive behind it.

“It’s either money or power behind this,” one resident said.

“Fight for what is yours and tell the senator to stop messing with our town,” another resident said.

Hiram Mayor Frank Moran said he was “blindsided” by the bill, and that he, the city council, and the city manager met with Sen. Anavitarte.

“He was invited here tonight as well as the three representatives. They were all invited. They all declined,” Moran said.

“We had a meeting with the senator. Then we find out a couple weeks later, he puts an ad in the paper that he’s going to dissolve the city -- which was not mentioned in the last meeting we had,” Moran said.

Moran said no discrepancies have been found in city’s audits sent to the state for nearly the past two decades, but that the city has recently been short on operating funds.

Atlanta News First has requested access to those audit reports.

“We already understood our finances were getting low because we haven’t had a property tax since 1976,” Moran said. “We’ve cut over $700,000 out of our operating budget so far.”

Moran called a property tax “inevitable” to address budgeting needs.

“We haven’t had one in 50 years and we’ve had astronomical growth, so we’ll have to do something to offset the budget,” he said.

‘Why Hiram? Why now?’

Atlanta News First also spoke with Hiram City Councilwoman Melissa Bayardelle.

“If you had year over year, access to audits, why now? So, many people speculate that it’s politically driven. There’s a motive behind there,” she said. “Year over year we passed our audits, clean audits. Nothing questionable. No indications or fraud or mismanagement.”

Bayardelle said, “You have state representatives coming and attacking smaller cities — one of the safest cities in the state. That doesn’t make sense to residents. So that is why the question continues to come up: ‘Why Hiram? Why now?’”

City officials also raised concerns about the impact on employees and public safety. During Tuesday’s special meeting, one council member said the city has roughly 60 employees.

Hiram’s police chief Michael Turner said public safety would be handled by the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office under the bill. Turner commended the work of county law enforcement but raised concerns of the workload for county officers and increased response times without a city-run police department in Hiram.

Another resident warned other communities could face similar legislation.

“Eventually it’s going to land on your door. It may be Hiram today. It’ll be your town tomorrow.” the speaker said.

Sen. Anavitarte had not responded to a request for comment as of Tuesday evening.