Note: The agenda and transcript indicate the meeting actually occurred on November 21, 2024, not February 12, 2026 as provided in the instruction. This summary uses the instructed date but notes the discrepancy.
The Board of Commissioners held a special business meeting to conduct a public hearing on the proposed removal of two members of the Development Authority of Clayton County (DACC) and the Urban Redevelopment Agency (URA): Donald Craddock and Mark Christmas. After presentations from county legal counsel and defense attorneys, the board voted unanimously to remove both members for misfeasance.
And be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. If you would please stand with me. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Amen. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our November 21st, 2024 special call meeting for our public hearing for the development authority of Clayton County. The first order of business is the adoption of the agenda. I saw a motion to adopt the agenda. So move. Second. Any questions? Those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed. It's unanimous. The board will now hear public comments. Sorry. Citizens will be given three minutes to speak before the board with a total time of 30 minutes. Comments must be limited to matters on the agenda or over matters which the governing body has jurisdiction. Speakers must maintain the course demeanor and refrain from personal attacks upon board members shouting and using obscene language. Please state your name and county of residency for the record. Speak clearly into the microphone, and speakers should be courteous, respectful, and not make any disparaging remarks or use abuse of language when addressing the board. With that being said, I will now accept any questions from the board about what I've seen at the development authority. Please proceed. So help me God. Thank you, sir. Timothy Vondale Jefferson. Good evening, Chairman, Board of Commissioners, Timothy Vondell Jefferson, unincorporated Clayton County. I um as most of you know, I've been engaged with the development authority for about 15 years. And within that 15 years, there's been nothing but dysfunction. People have appointed their friends, their cronies, their supporters, but at the end of the day, what I have seen through the years, and it's been an embarrassment to the county and to the citizens, that we keep appointing people do not have the skill set to move this county forward as far as economic development. Now, in my mind, the Development Authority, the Economic Development Office of Clayton County seemed to be duplicating services. So I hate to use this term best practices, but the city of Atlanta has Invest Atlanta, which they hire the best in the business to move their community forward. So we have Invest Clayton, we have the Development Authority of Clayton County, and we have the economic development office of Clayton County. To the average individual season or not, there seemed to be a bit of confusion. So if you look at this issue, years ago there was an IGA done with the development authority that we were fighting at that particular point, to my understanding, y'all have signed a new IGA. But I think that we have to consolidate, we really need to revisit this. I think that if we model Invest Atlanta and keep the economic development office of Clayton County, I think that we can make some room to move forward in the spirit of excellence. I personally have been co-calling on five-star restaurants, hotels, especially in the Continental Hotel. I've requested assistance to go to the NAPPUR conference, that's the National Association of Black Hotel Owners and Developers, and I've gone to the Development Authority to try to go out and cold call to get the desired type of facilities that we so desire in this county. But unfortunately, because of the dysfunction and the appointment of people who do not have the skill set, I think that we need to revisit it, look at invest Clayton as a business model to move forward in the spirit of excellence. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Then periodically from 2022 to present. Since August, I've observed two board members create a lot of tension and discord before and during the meetings. Two men behaving like certain former and current BLC women using similar strat the distraction tactics of unprofessionalism, bullying, intimidation, disrupted, and disrespectful. They alternate leaving the discussion several times, returning with food and eating, placing hoodie on and off head, sitting with arms folded, interruption, mean mugging, fidgeting, sidebar conversation, and texting their votes, no or abstain. What's next? Knitting and shouting for an order, equally disturbing, is an elected official with the board of education and a minister.