Legislation that would provide a new charter for the City of Villa Rica, was approved in the state house on Wednesday. It now awaits approval by the senate. The new document drafted by District 68 State Rep Jay Collins provided for updates regarding many issues including: incorporation, boundaries, powers, construction, the exercise of powers, and repeals conflicting laws.

“They just updated the charter and changed a few things that the city had been working on for a few years. That document had not been updated in close to 40 years.”

One important update in the new charter deals with the mayor’s veto power. There was some debate on the mayor’s ability to veto resolutions approved by city council.

Collins continued, “In this charter revision the mayor was given the express written consent to veto, at their discretion, resolutions or ordinances, which is something that has not been expressly written in the charter previously. That was up to interpretation. This made that very clear. While on one side of the fence, you can argue that the mayor’s veto power was somewhat diluted, you could also argue on the other side that the mayor’s veto power was strengthened in the fact that resolutions and ordinances were specifically defined in this new charter.”
House Bill 1031 is expected to be approved by the senate.