News

Grantville board and commission seats up for renewal; new terms run 2027–2028

By The Grantville Ledger · Nov 5, 2026 · Updated Nov 5, 2026

GRANTVILLE — City Clerk BettyAnn Rooks emailed board and commission chairs and members on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, saying all commission seats are up for renewal in January because current terms expire at the end of December. The next term, the notice says, runs January 2027 through December 2028.

Members were asked whether they want another term. Chairs were asked to share the notice with their members. No response deadline was stated in the notice the Ledger reviewed.

The city’s appointed boards and commissions include the Historic Preservation Commission, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, Planning and Zoning Commission, Beautification Board, and Culture and Events board, among the bodies listed under Boards and Committees on grantvillega.org.

Why this matters

These boards help shape historic preservation, parks and recreation, events and beautification decisions that residents see every week — from Certificates of Appropriateness downtown to park programs and seasonal events. The new Mayor and Council take office Jan. 1, 2027, so the January reappointments go to that Council, not the outgoing one. Residents who want to serve can apply; people already on boards can say whether they want to continue. Continuity matters for quorum, unfinished work and institutional memory, especially on commissions that already list vacancies.

Background on terms

Historic Preservation Commission. Ordinance 2023-07, which amended Chapter 20 of the city code, sets two-year HPC terms. It provided that terms of members then serving would expire Dec. 31, 2024, and that members “shall serve until their successor is appointed.” At the Jan. 27, 2025, regular meeting, Council had on the agenda appointments to the Historic Preservation Commission, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and Planning and Zoning Commission, including the appointment of Chasity Heckel-Herrin to the HPC “for a term to expire December 31, 2026,” per the city’s meeting page and agenda packet. That timeline matches a two-year cycle ending Dec. 31 of even years after the 2024 reset in Ord. 2023-07.

Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Ordinance 2023-01 (Chapter 2, § 2-162) sets three-year terms for that board, with staggered first appointments and a limit of two consecutive full terms. The Nov. 5 clerk notice still described all commission seats as renewing for a 2027–2028 term; the Ledger is reporting the notice as sent and noting that the Parks ordinance text, as last amended in the 2023-01 document posted by the city, uses a different term length than the two-year HPC cycle.

Do members hold over after Dec. 31?

Historic Preservation Commission — yes, under city ordinance. Ord. 2023-07’s replacement language for § 20-4(c) states, in part: “Members shall serve until their successor is appointed, and the Mayor and Council shall fill any midterm vacancy on the Commission for the remainder of the unexpired term.” (PDF; also listed on the city’s Ordinances page.)

Parks and Recreation Advisory Board — unclear from the posted 2023-01 amendment. The Ord. 2023-01 text the city posts sets number, qualifications and three-year terms; it does not include a “serve until successor is appointed” sentence in the paragraphs replaced there. The Ledger did not locate a separate holdover clause for that board in the materials reviewed for this story.

Other boards (Planning and Zoning, Beautification, Culture and Events) — not confirmed here. The Ledger did not independently pull each board’s full enabling ordinance from Municode for this update (Municode blocked the automated fetch used in this review). Treat holdover for those seats as not verified in this story beyond the clerk’s renewal notice and the HPC ordinance language above.

Georgia law. O.C.G.A. § 45-2-4 provides that “All officers of this state … shall discharge the duties of their offices until the successors are commissioned and qualified,” with an exception for certain gubernatorial appointees subject to Senate confirmation. Whether every municipal appointed board member is an “officer of this state” under that statute is not settled in the materials cited here. In Kanitra v. City of Greensboro, 296 Ga. 674 (2015), the Georgia Supreme Court discussed holdover for a city zoning-board member and expressly declined to decide whether the member was an “officer of this state” under § 45-2-4; the court assumed holdover for purposes of that case and held that a holdover member can be replaced when Council appoints a successor. For Grantville readers, the clearest local rule on holdover remains the HPC ordinance language quoted above; other boards should be checked against their own ordinances or confirmed with the City Clerk.

How residents can serve

If you want to apply for a board or commission seat, or if you are a sitting member deciding whether to seek another term, contact the City Clerk’s office through the city’s official channels — City Hall, 123 LaGrange Street (P.O. Box 160, Grantville, GA 30220), phone 770-583-2289 — or use the city’s Administration contact page. The city lists BettyAnn Rooks on its City Clerk page. Ask for the current application process and any deadline the clerk sets for January appointments. The Ledger is not publishing personal email addresses beyond the city’s published official contacts.

The incoming Mayor and Council are scheduled to take office Jan. 1, 2027; January reappointments will be theirs to make.

Disclosure: Ledger publisher Evita A-Esteves chairs the Grantville Historic Preservation Commission and received this notice.

Tags: Grantville GACity CouncilBoardsHistoric PreservationCity government

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