City Leaders Shared Input and Made New Connections During Spring Listening Sessions

BY SHERRI BAILEY

The Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) recently held its Spring listening sessions throughout all twelve districts in the state.

Gma Holds Two District Meetings Each

year, one in the Spring and one in the Fall, to facilitate communication, decision-making, and coordination among its members. The district meetings allow local officials the opportunity to come together to discuss issues and concerns affecting their communities, share best practices and ideas, and receive training and education on important topics pertinent at the time of these meetings.

The sessions also provide opportunities for networking and building relationships with other municipal leaders across the state. Holding regular meetings with its member cities is an important aspect of GMA’s mission to support and strengthen local government in Georgia. These lunch and dinner meetings include a meal, and provide an opportunity for city officials and key staff to network and share their thoughts on issues that cities deal with daily. The meetings also allowed attendees to learn about recent legislative changes and what’s happening on the state and local levels.

Government Relations

One of the highlights of the meetings was a new “fast feedback” session led by the Government Relations (GR) team. The session allowed participants to choose the top legislative issues of 2023 that are important to them and their city. The GR team spoke on the top three concerns based on the feedback they received from the attendees, making it a “create your own journey” experience.

The team provided a complete 2023 legislative overview, highlighting bills that passed, failed, or are expected to come back up in the 2024 legislative session. City officials were able to provide feedback to GMA staff on their top legislative priorities for the 2024 session. Members also heard about GMA’s “Hometown Connections,” a localized opportunity for cities to engage with state and federal legislators on city challenges and opportunities. GMA staff stressed the importance of showing legislators what cities are doing to better understand their achievements and threats to their communities. The event allows the General Assembly to better understand the real-life impact of their decisions. GMA encouraged making Hometown Connections an annual event to keep the dialogue going year-round.

GMA Initiatives

Attendees also heard from GMA CEO & Executive Director Larry Hanson, who gave an update on the organization’s activities. Larry highlighted GMA’s 2023 Annual Convention and announced that GMA secured the guest speaker, General (Ret.) Mark A. Welsh III, a retired four-star general, the former Air Force Chief of Staff, and the current Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public

Service at Texas A&M University. Larry went on to highlight several GMA initiatives, including: “Embrace Civility,” “Excellence in Policing,” the “Mayor’s Reading Club,” “Security Awareness,” and the “Certified City of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging” programs.

Training

Attendees were able to hear about upcoming GMA training events and new classes developed for the 2023 training schedule. A representative from the GMA Training Board was present at each meeting to provide an update including a recent GMA training policy change. This new change will allow city officials to retake a class and earn additional credit towards a training certificate for up to two classes per year if the official completed the class five or more years ago. This new policy change will allow city officials to stay up to date on the latest developments in city operations while still earning credit toward training certificates.

Member Services

Member Service Consultants gave an update on all the activities in their respective districts, focusing on the services they provide to cities.

Federal Relations

The Federal Relations team provided an update on the reporting requirements for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and shared the significance of cities designating their funds to specific projects. Examples were highlighted from several projects happening throughout the state thanks to ARPA funding and cities responding to the needs of their community when faced with the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

GMA is helping Georgia cities access grant funding by partnering with state and federal agencies to centralize and develop targeted resources. Staff explained new resources created to help cities confidently apply for grants, including a Four Seasons of Grants Calendar, Grant Tip of the Week, “Getting Your House in Order” resources, technical assistance, debriefs, and articles.

The meetings concluded with an opportunity for city officials to give an update on important community activities within their cities and communities.

The Spring District Meetings were made possible by the generous support of sponsors such as Charles Abbott Associates, Inc., Comcast Business, Consolidated Pipe & Supply Company, Davenport Public Finance, ESG Operations, Inc., Falcon Design Consultants, Gas Authority, Georgia Power, Goodwyn Mills Cawood, Inc., IPG Architects & Planners, New South Construction, PATH Company, Payco, Rushton, LLC., Schneider Electric, Still Waters Engineering, Turnipseed Engineers, and Turnkey Solutions, LLC.

District 11