Muscogee school board member plans to resign. Special election would determine successor
A special election will be conducted this year to fill one of the nine seats on the Muscogee County School District Board after one member said she is leaving.
Cathy Williams confirmed to the Ledger-Enquirer on Wednesday she will resign as the board’s District 7 representative to accept a five-year term on the 14-member Georgia Department of Transportation Board.
Williams will replace Johnny Floyd of Cordele as the 2nd Congressional District representative on the GDOT board. She received the most votes Tuesday among the 24 state legislators whose districts are in or contiguous to the 2nd Congressional District. The target date for her resignation from the school board and swearing-in ceremony to join the transportation board is April 1.
That means the next available date for a special election is June 20, but that won’t be set until the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registration receives official notice that the vacancy occurred, elections board director Nancy Boren said.
Who is Cathy Williams?
Williams is president and CEO of NeighborWorks Columbus, a nonprofit organization that promotes and provides access to fit and affordable housing. She was the MCSD board’s lone countywide representative for eight years before deciding to not seek re-election to a third, four-year term in 2014 amid a divisive atmosphere on the board. Real estate broker and former teacher Kia Chambers won the seat then and continues in that position.
Williams, who also chaired the school board for two years, chose to run again in 2016, this time for the District 7 seat, when she told the L-E she wasn’t satisfied with the candidates.
Last year, “several people I have a great deal of respect for” asked her to consider being a candidate for the GDOT board, Williams said.
“The more I thought about it and talked to people about it, the more sense it made to me,” she said. “I came back on the school board with a pretty focused purposed, and that was to ensure that our superintendent had the opportunity to succeed in his 10-year plan (proposed in January 2014). … This allows me to continue to serve my community, but it broadens it.”
Education, housing and transportation are the areas of community service that most interest her, Williams said. She said they are key factors in the equation to produce economic development.
“I think we need to look at economic development in a more holistic way,” she said. “… So it’s just very exciting for me to be a part of that and to serve the congressional district.”
Asked what her first priority would be on the GDOT board, Williams said she doesn’t have any specifics yet.
“But as I told the caucus yesterday, I promise I will come when called, and I will do everything I can to get them the information and the action they need to serve their constituents,” she said.
Reflecting on her 14½ years on the school board, Williams was effusive about the progress made.
“I am over the Moon with how well our district weathered COVID,” she offered. “We are coming out of it now with a singular focus on getting our kids back to levels they were at before. I’m so impressed by this district, and the board of education is working so cohesively and so well. It just felt like, if there was ever an opportunity to step away to take my service elsewhere, this was it.”
MCSD board members receive a $12,000 annual salary for their service. GDOT board members don’t earn a salary, but they receive a per diem for each board meeting they attend and associated travel costs.
“Additionally, board members are eligible to receive similar sum for time spent in studying the transportation needs of the state or attending other functions as a representative of the board, not to exceed 60 days in any calendar year,” GDOT spokeswoman Natalie Dale told the L-E in an email.
Key dates for special election
The other dates available this year for this special election are Sept. 19 and Nov. 7. But if the special election to fill the District 7 seat on the MCSD board indeed is June 20, here are key dates that would lead up to that election day, according to Boren:
- May 1-5: Qualifying period for candidates.
- May 30: Soonest starting date for early in-person voting and mail-in voting. This period would be a maximum of three weeks.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 1:04 PM.
