The Polk County Commission will be sitting together for a special session where candidates for the job to fill a vacant seat will get to field questions from the board.
The session is scheduled for 6 p.m. on the second Monday of the month at the Board Meeting room at the Polk County Police headquarters at 73 Cline Ingram Jackson Drive, Cedartown. The session will be open to the public but questions will only be asked by the County Commissioners.
The board has seven candidates to hear from during the upcoming forum that will give those seeking the appointment to ask a variety of questions in an attempt to determine who will end up representing District 1 for at least the rest of 2024.
Commissioners are tentatively scheduled to make a decision on the appointment on February 15, but that date has not yet been finalized.
The board will have to decide on one of the candidates no later than March 1, 2024, when the 60-day deadline expires by county code to fill the vacancy.
The seat will be on the ballot for the November General Election, on schedule for the election year when the seat would have potentially turned over to a new term for former Commissioner Scotty Tillery before his passing at the start of 2024.
The Commission will be deciding between seven candidates for the appointed time that will end on December 31, 2024 should their choice not run or win a general election. The group include Deborah Connelly, Janet Jolly Edwards, Derinda Stephens, Andrew Carter, Jordan Hubbard, Jose Iglesias and James Vines.
Among the group, two of the three are former Cedartown City Commissioners (Hubbard and Carter) and a County Commissioner (Iglesias.) Connelly, Edwards and Stephens would be seeking the seat as political newcomers in a potential election later this year for the seat. Vines has previously sought a District 1 seat and fell to incumbents.
Check back for additional coverage on Polk Today about the upcoming decisions.
