Johns Creek Schedules Special Election For November

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Johns Creek residents who reside in Posts 2 and 5, respectively, will have to wait several more months before they can have direct representation on the City Council.

The Johns Creek City Council on Monday approved a resolution calling for a special election to fill the two vacant seats to be held Tuesday, Nov. 3.

The special election will be held in conjunction with the general election Johns Creek will have for the Posts 2, 4 (held by Bob Gray) and 6 (held by Steve Broadbent) seats. The qualifying fee for each council seat is $450. Qualifying will be held 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 31 through Wednesday, Sept. 2.

A runoff will be tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 1.

Former council members Kelly Stewart of Post 5 and Brad Raffensperger of Post 2 resigned their seats to run in the Georgia House District 50 special election, which was held Jan. 6 to replace Lynne Riley.

Raffensperger’s term was set to expire Dec. 31 while Stewart’s tenure would have ended Dec. 31, 2017.

Stewart and Raffensperger were the top two finishers in the five-way race, but neither of the candidates garnered enough votes to avoid a runoff. The runoff is set for Tuesday, Feb. 3.

The cost for the Nov. 3 date is estimated to be around $207,634, according to city documents. Fulton County elections officials advised the city that the Nov. 3 date is “too far off” to produce an accurate estimate, so it suggested the city add 10 percent to the cost of the 2011 municipal election to use as a probable estimate.

The city also considered whether to hold the special election on March 17 (at a cost of $191,122) or June 15 (which would have cost $205,974).

The selection of the November date coincides with the results of a survey the city asked residents to take in an effort to get public feedback.

Johns Creek received 774 responses to the question and the results were as follows:

• Yes, fill the vacant seats in March 2015: 110 votes (14% of total)
• No, wait until November, 2015: 633 votes (82% of total)
• Unsure: 31 votes (4% of total)

The council also approved an amendment to its fiscal year 2015 budget to account for the Bell Road at Boles Road roundabout project, which cost $499,481. The amendment would recognize the use of funds from the Georgia Department of Transportation to reimburse the city for the project.