 Welcome to the first episode of the Athens Politics Nerd podcast. I don't have a good name for it yet, but if you have any suggestions for me, please leave them in the comments. So what we're going to do is discuss local news and politics in Athens, Georgia, with a focus on the mayor and commission. I also like to cover protest movements and other activism from time to time. I was actually at a protest the other day for reproductive justice. This is a movement springing up around the country to oppose unconstitutional laws like the one recently passed in Texas that limits abortions to only 6 weeks after conception, before most women even know they're pregnant. We'll talk with Venetia from the Athens Reproductive Justice Collective about the impact of a Texas law and what we could be doing here locally to fight back against these attacks on reproductive rights. At first, I want to break down the mayor and commission meeting from October 5th. I'll go over a bunch of stuff from that meeting, and then we'll bring on Venetia to close out the show. Here goes. So you may have heard about the possibility of a public restroom being built downtown. This idea came out of a 2016 downtown health and safety study, which said it's probably bad for public health if people are defecating in alleyways. The local government did a public survey that showed an overwhelmingly positive response to the idea, so they did some research and presented the commission with several options, including a design called the Portland Lou, which could be ours for the relatively low price of $314,000. That's where commissioners started to disagree. I think this is going to be a real boon for our community. I think it's been well researched by staff, and we've discussed it at length at a number of meetings, including a work session in depth. To which to write. Yes, I have a commission to find option with Commissioner Hanby and Davenport in respect to this topic, and it is to direct staff to identify other options for the public restrooms with more than one location, and I'm not over the sticker shot. I never supported this from the beginning. I do believe we do need to do something, but this amount of money when we're facing a lot of other issues just seems to be not a good idea right now. Staff provided a table of options, and I don't understand why the substitute motion is even on the table when staff has already done what the substitute motion is asking them to do. Out of the seven options presented by staff, when they came back with alternatives when they were requested to back in July, it is the cheapest option. Those in favor of the public restroom won out in a 7-3 vote with commissioners Wright, Thornton, and Hanby voting no. Commissioners approved another $500,000 for their vaccine incentive program, which attempts to entice people who haven't yet gotten their COVID shots with $100 gift cards. Now personally, I was pretty happy with it just being free because I don't want to die, but I guess the incentive might be important to convince some people, and money for the incentives was running out but the commission wanted to keep the program going. The difference this time is that they're doing a request for proposals to try and spread the money around to more groups, instead of giving it all to the Department of Public Health. Each group has a different network of relationships in the community, so that's a good thing. It might also help to reduce the inequality of who gets this government contract, which is the whole point of our next topic, the disparity study that they also funded at this meeting. You can read more about the disparity study on AthensPoliticsNerd.com, but the short of it is that the commission is trying to find out if the local government has even been passively contributing to racial or gender-based inequities because of the businesses and other organizations they've been contracting with over the years. Have we given all our government contracts to businesses owned by white men, for example? We're going to find out, and more importantly, once we know, we can start doing something about it legally. It would be illegal to try to correct a disparity that we're not even sure exists. So this study is very important, and I'm sure you'll be hearing more about it over the next year. Next up, we've got the Alternative Crisis Response Team, which I've also written about on my website. I think this is great. The commission has begun what could turn into a comprehensive reimagining of what we want our police force to look like. For now, they've funded just one team of three people, a clinician, a healthcare professional, and a peer specialist for a one-year pilot program. This team will be directly dispatched by 911 to some emergency calls, and no police will be involved unless the team runs into trouble. Keeping this team safe is going to be their number one priority for the first year while they work out the kinks, which is hard to argue with. The most important thing you need to know is that if you participated in the George Floyd protests of 2020, you made a difference. Even if it seems like a small thing, progressives on the commission are listening to the need to re-envision our police force. And if this works well, it could turn out to be pretty big. Now we turn to T-SPOST 2023, which for the second meeting in a row our commission has had arguments about. But before we get into that, here's some background. T-SPOST is a one-penny sales tax dedicated to transportation projects. So whenever you buy anything in Athens, you're making a contribution to sidewalks, bike lanes, transit, and everything else we need as a community to get around town. And we decide how this money is spent in a pretty democratic way. Here's the process for that. First, people will suggest projects that they'd like to see completed in their neighborhood. It could be sidewalks, it could be the Firefly Trail, or maybe they just want their street paved. T-SPOST can pay for that. The projects are examined and discussed by a citizen's advisory committee who lets the commission know which ones they think should be funded. So far, so good? But before they've made up their minds, a majority of commissioners voted to send the advisory committee a list of projects that they've already made commitments to and so will probably be on the final list. Commissioner Hanby and others objected to this pre-designated list, which includes things like bridges, pavement maintenance, improvements for College Square, and money for transit operations. Citizen comment is ongoing for these T-SPOST projects that we haven't even in the Citizen's Committee hasn't even heard yet, but so I think that ought to be a priority for us to listen to. So I'm going to make a motion that we hold this until we hear from that citizen, until they collect their citizen data that they need and the citizen input that they need. This was a little strange because Hanby himself has voted to designate projects for SPLOSTS in the past, as recently as SPLOST 2020. To make sense of this, I'd better talk to Lauren Blaise, Chair of the T-SPOST Advisory Committee. I hope she's available. So I'm here with Lauren Blaise, Chair of the T-SPOST Advisory Committee, which takes a look at all the T-SPOST projects and makes recommendations to the Mayor and Commission. And that's a lot of projects this year, Lauren. So how has the process gone so far? And how are you going to whittle all this down to only $145 million? Thank you, Kristen. Great to be on your podcast. Congratulations on getting this thing off the ground. So just this week, we just finished reviewing and listening to all 87 original submitted projects. And that is twice as many that were submitted from the last T-SPOST in 2018. So we've been meeting twice a week. We've been hearing from the presenters. We've been asking questions. And now we have a look at everyone's vision for transportation in Athens-Clarke County. And there were a lot of projects submitted by just regular people this time, right? Yes. Yes. In fact, I would say I think it's more than two-thirds. More than two-thirds of the projects submitted were from regular Athenians. And to give your listeners an idea of why that's so significant, usually most projects submitted to any special local option sales tax list come from like ACC staff, departments, and then from maybe like some nonprofits and whatnot. The last T-SPOST in 2018, which I was also on, had just two residents submitted projects. And this one has way more. And that is really something of a feat, because that form is not to be taken lightly. It's not just like this online form where you're like, I have a vision for a sidewalk in my community. Okay, done. It was 27 pages. So some of the things that we're hearing from residents are like, we heard very early on a resident from Westchester Drive who along Westchester Drive, there are three bus stops. And there's not a sidewalk. You can clearly see on Google Maps where folks are walking in the mud. We've also heard from communities like Stonehenge and several areas of North Athens that would like to see things like better crosswalks and lighting and same with East Athens. This committee, this T-SPOST advisory committee really wants to honor that with this T-SPOST. The commissioners though have been kind of arguing about this the past couple meetings. So I just wanted to clarify with you. So the advisory committee asked to hear what the commission was thinking on these projects, right? We had a very good discussion as a committee about whether or not we wanted to know what projects the Marin Commission would definitely like to see on the T-SPOST. And your listeners might be aware that ultimately the Marin Commission decide what our SPOSTs look like. The advisory committee is just that we have an advisory role. And they do take what we say very seriously because they're counting on us to promote the SPLOST for the referendum because Athens-Clarke County, the Marin Commission staff cannot tell people to vote yes for any SPLOST. So they need us to be all about this list. The idea for the Marin Commission to come forth with a set of pre-designated projects dates back to the last SPLOST 2020, but I was on SPLOST 2018 and I can also see where that would have been useful because sometimes there ends up being a little bit of friction between our SPLOST advisory committees and all the work that they've put into like whittling down this list of projects and then what ultimately ends up as the list of projects for the referendum. And so one idea came forth to maybe help with that where the Marin Commission could go ahead and say like, look, you know, we want you to do the work, but we know that we're going to use SPLOST money for these projects, these things that we have been using SPLOST for in the past and to not fund this like pavement maintenance would mean that we would have to raise property taxes substantially. So trying to figure out like how that could fit in or not, whether the committee wanted to hear that we had a discussion and the committee ultimately decided that they were interested and willing to receive the Marin Commission's thoughts on what projects they were considering funding with the SPLOST, but they wanted to hear all the projects and come up with a list on their own. But, you know, it's not just about us. We're regular people, we're regular residents looking at these projects, but even people who are not part of the committee who want to be involved, you can leave comments on the individual projects. It's really amazing what the SPLOST office has put together for this particular SPLOST. So the public can watch the presentations for every single project. They can leave a comment on any of the 87 projects and we have a story map this time and there will be public hearing opportunities in December and January. So there's a lot of opportunity for people who are not on the committee to give feedback. That's awesome. Yeah, there are a lot of good projects in there. Definitely. Go ahead and leave a comment and I hope we get some good feedback there. Lauren, and thanks so much for being here. Thank you, Chris. It's great to be on here. Last thing about the commission meeting. They changed the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day. So that's how it'll be known, at least locally. Cool. If you don't know, Columbus was a man in the 15th century who was bad at math so he thought the earth was much smaller than it actually is. He tried to sail to China even though everyone told him there was no way he'd make it. He got lost and almost died when he stumbled upon the New World. He then proceeded to pillage, rape, murder, and enslave everyone he met, who he called Indians because I guess he thought he was in India. He quickly earned a reputation for being a murderous pastored, even in the context of the time. So of course, we have a day set aside to honor him. Well, not anymore, Columbus. He didn't prove the earth was round. He wasn't even the first European to discover the New World, okay? The Vikings did. Go Vikings. I know they're also murderous bastards, but just to rub it in Columbus' face, here's some Viking music. My own mother had abortion at my age and didn't say it either. Yeah, we tried in conversation for secrets and instead of dispelling the stigma by telling our stories, by complicating the issue, to show folks that it's not black and white. That's a very difficult thing that we go through when we meet that crossroads in our life. When we stay silent, we allow people like those legislators in Texas to pretend like this is a niche problem that only affects a couple of people. What it affects all of us. I struggle and to know that on top of that, navigating the less system of getting that over to Lawrenceville, of scheduling that time off work to my appointment that morning and walk through those protesters who stood there as the sun rose as I went to define my own future, had an abortion. That's what we show people, you know, in private, that text message you send, that little emoji. Send it to me on Saturday night like, ha, ha, I'm thinking of you. People we love. All right, so we're back with Venisha, founder of the Athens Reproductive Justice Collective. So you pulled off a pretty great protest the other day. So I'm just wondering why you decided to organize it. I'm guessing it's because of the Texas law limiting abortion to six weeks. So is Roe v. Wade under threat in America today? Yeah, so I can kind of answer your first question and then your second question. So why we organized the march, the Senate Bill 8 in Texas did play a big role into our decision and also like all the other marches that were being organized in cities around the world, around the country, mostly on October 2nd, but we did it on October 3rd because of the football game and we didn't want to like complicate things in Athens like that. But yeah, so, you know, Senate Bill 8, like you said, was a really restrictive abortion bill that was enacted in Texas. Thankfully, you know, I think it was either yesterday or the day before a federal court judge blocked the bill from. So that is currently going through the courts as we're speaking, but that was one factor. But another factor is that we have been trying to push for a reproductive justice commission to be established at the county level through the Athens County Commission. So, you know, both raising awareness about what's happening in Texas and kind of what's already happened in Georgia in terms of like HB 481, which is a similar kind of abortion bill that Georgia passed back in like 2018-2019-ish and also, you know, to raise awareness locally about this policy initiative that we're trying to get through. And then in terms of if Roe v. Wade is under attack, I would say, yeah, I think, you know, there have been a lot of laws that have been sweeping through, especially the South and the Bible Belt in terms of restricting abortion in ways that is inconsistent with Roe v. Wade. So I would say that with, you know, all the legislation that's been going through the South and also the current composition of the Supreme Court, I would say it's been more under, it's currently more under threat than it's ever been. So hopefully, you know, it will stay intact and the Supreme Court will uphold precedent, but we'll have to see with the Dobbs case in December how the Supreme Court will decide on the Mississippi law to see whether Roe v. Wade is truly, truly under threat. Yeah, and I saw you at the Marine Commission meeting the other day, and I think I want to play a clip for that right now. So this past Sunday, me and a couple of other organizations, both on campus and off, hosted a March for Reproductive Justice, and we had a great turnout. And some of our demands included, you know, obviously protesting what's happening in Texas, but also to push for a Reproductive Justice Commission locally. Sister Song defines reproductive justice as the right to personal bodily autonomy, the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent those children in safe and sustainable communities. So under this framework, any issue is essentially a reproductive justice issue, racial justice, environmental justice, you know, any issue that US commissioners are personally passionate about could fall under this framework. But so I'm just wondering, can you explain a little bit more about this commission that you were asking for? Is there anything the Marine Commission can do locally if Georgia does decide to pass a law like Texas is? Or what else will this commission be responsible for and be doing? Yeah. So that's a great question. A Reproductive Justice Commission, just so your viewers have some background, is a body of local experts, whether that be like health care, policy, advocates in the community. So like, they're appointed from like a select pool of experts in order to kind of advise the commission on reproductive justice needs. So they can gather information about what the community needs and make sure that they're addressing those needs adequately. And in terms of your question in regards to what the county commission can do at the local level, if the state passes a similar bill, is that I think I want to highlight the definition and the framework of reproductive justice is, you know, abortion and reproductive rights is a key component of reproductive justice. But what's important to realize about the RJ framework is that it encompasses a lot of different issues. For example, you know, menstrual equity is a big thing in like the Athens community and that one that we're hopefully going to address as well with the commission. Other issues could be like environmental justice, racial justice. So there's like a lot of different issues that could fall into the purview of this commission and some policies that it could potentially consider would be like, you know, in terms of the menstrual equity, we could make sure that there's accessible free menstrual products in all like city bathrooms in city buildings and also in terms of providing for safe and sustainable parenting, you know, you could we could try and offer like parental leave for city employees. So that's like two policies that we've been in the talks with with the county commission in terms of what the commission can do. But there's also a whole toolkit that the National Institute for Reproductive Health has in terms of what local government can do to advance reproductive rights and freedom at the local level, like regardless of what the state does. Okay, awesome. And you did a survey I heard of just Athens community members. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, so we conducted a survey that was a phone bank and text bank throughout the Athens community. I think it reached about 5000, 6000 people with the help of New Georgia project. Not everyone filled out the survey granted because it's kind of hard to get people to fill out a survey on their own time. So we got around responses did you get? Yeah, we got like a little less than 300 responses, which was, you know, pretty sizable, I think. And everyone was, you know, mostly like supportive of the idea of a commission being passed. So that was one of the questions that we asked was like, would you be in support of a commission? And then also what needs would you want the commission to address? And that was the question that we were really concerned about is like what people's priorities were and what they were worried about in terms of like what they wanted the commission to address. And a lot of people talked about like stigma and lack of education. A lot of other people talked about cost and like the financial burdens of accessing care. So those are those are two main, you know, issues that we'll have to tackle with the commission, which we can do hopefully via like community programming and educational programming within the community and also some kind of way to offset, you know, costs if that means like providing more, you know, accessible care. I'm not exactly sure how what that would look like, but you know, I think it's important at least in the first step to try and figure out what the community needs in order to try and at least try and solve what the community, you know, provide solutions for what they need. Yeah. So are there any examples of other cities who have one of these reproductive justice commissions? And do you know what it's been able to accomplish there if so? Yeah, so Atlanta just passed one, the Atlanta City Council passed one, I think about a year ago. So it currently is they just finished appointing all the members. So now they're starting to do like their policy and programmatic recommendations. I don't know dear exactly what they've been working on, but from what I've heard from like my partners in Atlanta, they've been, you know, hard at work and they're getting things done. So it has it's there is actually another example like literally in the state of Georgia. So I think, you know, that can be like a helpful guide for, you know, when the Athens County Commission hopefully considers this and I know Commissioner Parker, who I've been talking to, it has been, you know, has looked at the resolution language for Atlanta and is adjusting it for Athens needs as well. So I think it's helpful to have like that example to look to. But also I recognize that Athens is a very different city from Atlanta and has very different needs. So we're definitely going to make sure that this commission is more personalized to the city of Athens, obviously. Well, well, is there anything else that you wanted to say on this topic? Yeah. So I, you know, I always like to end any kind of conversation or interview with like action items, because I know people are listening to this content. So it's, you know, we always need more people like more people in the community talking and caring about this subject. So here's like a couple action items that hopefully your listeners can engage in first and foremost, like the Athens reproductive justice collective, which, you know, I'm a part of and I'm policy chair for. We're always looking for new members. We always want more people in the community to join and, you know, to care about these issues. We have initiatives around access, education and policy. And, you know, we're always trying to grow within the community. So if you're interested, please reach out. Our email is AthensRJcollective at gmail.com. We can add you to our listserv and you can stay updated on our events and like how you can help out. We're also engaged starting a month long campaign to try and get this commission on the agenda for the next Athens County Commission work session. So hopefully, you know, stay tuned for events around that or maybe trying to plan a town hall at some point. So if your viewers want to, you know, pull up to that, talk about why they care about reproductive justice and what they want the county commission to address. Hopefully we're, you know, inviting a lot of the commissioners to this town hall so they can also like listen to what the community needs. And, you know, some other some other cool events along the way for this campaign for this next month. So stay tuned. I guess on our social media is AthensRJ Collective. So, you know, you can follow us on Instagram. We also have a Facebook page. But yeah, I mean, that look, we would love to have you please join the collective. We're always looking for more members. And if you can, we'd love your support in any way you can just coming to events, anything that you, you know, have capacity for. But, you know, this work is just super important. And I think Texas what like it was a terrible bill, obviously. But I think the silver lining of that bill, like I've been saying to a lot of different people is that finally, there's like people talking about this and conversations that are happening and like national tension on this issue when in reality, RJ has always been important and has always been kind of under attack in some ways for, you know, various groups of people, often whether that's like underrepresented or marginalized communities. So I think, you know, it's good that we're talking about this now at the national level because there's always people that need help in this area. So yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, thank you. And what was that email address one more time? Yeah, AthensRJ Collective at gmail.com. Okay, great. Yeah. Thanks so much for being here with me today. Of course. Thank you. And thanks to all my patrons who make this show possible. You can join their esteemed ranks at AthensPoliticsNerd.com slash join. Thanks so much. And I'll see you on the next one.