--- title: HB 1570. Cochran/Bleckley Airport Authority; board; revise membership collection: bills id: 2025-2026/hb1570 cite_as: HB 1570, 2025-2026 Regular Session (Ga.) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1570 md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1570.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1570/text source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/74187 date: 2026-05-11 status: passed corpus_version: bills-2026-09-13 license: Public record of the Georgia General Assembly, via LegiScan; see about.md publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1569.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1571.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md omitted: votes and history omitted_chars: 886 omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1570.md?full=1 bill_number: HB 1570 session: 2025-2026 Regular Session session_slug: 2025-2026 chamber: House bill_type: bill status_date: 2026-05-11 last_action: Effective Date 2026-05-11 sponsors: - Danny Mathis text_version: Enrolled has_text: true legiscan_url: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/HB1570/2025 upstream_id: 2135858 summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5 topic_tags: - airport authority - local government appointments - Bleckley County - Cochran Georgia --- # HB 1570. Cochran/Bleckley Airport Authority; board; revise membership ## Text House Bill 1570 (AS PASSED HOUSE AND SENATE) By: Representative Mathis of the 133rd A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT To amend an Act creating the Cochran/Bleckley Airport Authority, approved May 12, 2015 (Ga. L. 2015, p. 4067), so as to revise the membership of the authority's board; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA: SECTION 1. An Act creating the Cochran/Bleckley Airport Authority, approved May 12, 2015 (Ga. L. 2015, p. 4067), is amended in Section 3 by revising paragraph (1) of subsection (b) and subsection (c) as follows: "(1)(A) The authority shall consist of seven members appointed as follows: (i) Three members shall be appointed by the governing authority of the City of Cochran; (ii) Three members shall be appointed by the governing authority of Bleckley County; and (iii) One member shall be appointed by a majority of the members provided for in divisions (i) and (ii) of this subparagraph. (B)(i) One of the members appointed pursuant to division (i) of subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, one of the members appointed pursuant to division (ii) of subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, and the member provided for by division (iii) of subparagraph (A) of this paragraph may be a resident of Bleckley County or a resident of any county adjacent to Bleckley County possessing specific expertise in aviation, business, or finance. (ii) Except as provided for in division (i) of this subparagraph, members of the authority shall be residents of Bleckley County." "(c) To be eligible for appointment as a member of the authority, a person shall be 21 years of age and shall not have been convicted of a felony." SECTION 2. All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed. ## Summaries written by Georgia Commons The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the text above and is not part of the bill. Quote the text, not the summary. A House bill would restructure the board of the Cochran/Bleckley Airport Authority, expanding it to seven members and allowing some members to live outside Bleckley County if they have aviation, business, or finance expertise. ### Plain-language summary The Cochran/Bleckley Airport Authority was created by a 2015 state law that set out how its governing board is appointed. This bill amends that 2015 Act to change the board's membership rules. Under the bill, the authority would have seven members: three appointed by the City of Cochran's governing authority, three appointed by Bleckley County's governing authority, and one more chosen by a majority vote of those six. Normally board members must live in Bleckley County, but the bill allows one appointee from each of the city's and county's three picks, plus the seventh jointly chosen member, to instead live in a county adjacent to Bleckley County if they have specific expertise in aviation, business, or finance. The bill also keeps existing eligibility rules requiring members to be at least 21 years old and to have no felony convictions. ### What it does - Sets the authority's board at seven members, with three appointed by the City of Cochran, three by Bleckley County, and one jointly by those six appointees. - Allows one appointee from each city and county group, plus the seventh jointly appointed member, to live in a county adjacent to Bleckley County instead of within it, if they have aviation, business, or finance expertise. - Keeps the existing rule that all other board members must be Bleckley County residents. - Retains the requirement that appointees be at least 21 years old and have no felony convictions. - Repeals any prior laws that conflict with these new membership rules. ### Who it affects The Cochran/Bleckley Airport Authority board, the governing authorities of the City of Cochran and Bleckley County who make appointments, and residents of Bleckley County or nearby counties who might serve on the board because of aviation, business, or finance expertise. ### Why it matters The change lets the city and county draw on board candidates from neighboring counties when they have relevant expertise, rather than requiring every appointee to live in Bleckley County, potentially widening the pool of people who can help oversee the local airport authority. ### Key provisions - Section 1 amends Section 3(b)(1) of the 2015 Act to set the board at seven members: three from the City of Cochran, three from Bleckley County, and one chosen jointly by those six. - Section 1 adds a new residency exception letting one appointee from each appointing group, plus the jointly appointed member, live in an adjacent county if they have aviation, business, or finance expertise. - Section 1 keeps subsection (c)'s eligibility rules requiring appointees to be at least 21 and free of felony convictions. - Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws. ## Status - Status: Passed (2026-05-11) - Last action: Effective Date 2026-05-11 (2026-05-11) - Sponsors: Danny Mathis - Official page: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/74187 > The history, votes, and amendments (886 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1570.md?full=1