Georgia CommonsSB 16: Public Officials; bail bond business; modify provisions
Last action February 25, 2025 · Effective Date 2025-02-25
A Georgia Senate bill would narrow the ban on public officials running bail bond businesses, letting county, city, and consolidated government officeholders engage in the business outside their own jurisdiction while still banning it within it.
The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Enrolled version, the latest LegiScan holds.
In plain language
Georgia law already makes it a crime for elected officials, court officers, law enforcement officers, and attorneys to operate a bail bond business, either directly or through someone else. This bill rewrites that law (O.C.G.A. § 45-11-8) to change how it applies to local elected officials. Under current law, the term 'elected official' excludes school board members, meaning they are not barred from the bail bond business. The bill adds members of county, municipal, and consolidated government governing authorities (such as county commissioners and city council members) to that same exclusion from the general ban. But it then adds a new, narrower rule just for those local officials: they cannot engage in the bail bond business within the jurisdiction of the county, city, or consolidated government where they hold office. Violating the law remains a misdemeanor. The law would take effect as soon as the Governor signs it.
What the bill does
- Exempts county, municipal, and consolidated government governing authority members, along with school board members, from the general ban on public officials in the bail bond business.
- Adds a new, separate rule making it illegal for those same local officials to run a bail bond business specifically within the jurisdiction where they serve.
- Keeps the existing ban in place for elected officials generally, officers of the court, law enforcement officers, and attorneys.
- Keeps the punishment for violating the law a misdemeanor, unchanged from current law.
Who it affects
County commissioners, city council members, and consolidated government officials in Georgia who might work in or own a bail bond business, as well as law enforcement officers, officers of the court, attorneys, and school board members already addressed in the existing law.
Why it matters
Local elected officials would gain the ability to work in the bail bond business as long as they do so outside the county or city they represent, narrowing a previously broader conflict-of-interest restriction while still barring them from profiting off bail bonds in their own jurisdiction.
Key provisions
- Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 45-11-8 to redefine 'elected official' for the general ban, excluding both school board members and members of county, municipal, or consolidated government governing authorities.
- Section 1 adds new paragraph (2), making it a separate violation for a county, municipal, or consolidated government official to engage in the bail bond business within their own jurisdiction.
- Subsection (b) keeps the violation classified as a misdemeanor.
- Section 2 sets the effective date as the date the Governor signs the bill or it otherwise becomes law without signature.
- Section 3 repeals any conflicting laws.
From the bill
“It shall be unlawful for any elected official, officer of the court, law enforcement officer, or attorney in this state to engage either directly or indirectly in the bail bond business.”
“It shall be unlawful for any person who is a member of the governing authority of a county, municipal corporation, or consolidated government to engage either directly or indirectly in the bail bond business within the jurisdiction of the county, municipal corporation, or consolidated government where such person holds office.”
Status timeline
- Effective Date 2025-02-25
- Act 1
- Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senate)
- Senate Sent to Governor (Senate)
- House Passed/Adopted (House)
- House Third Readers (House)
- House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
- House Second Readers (House)
Show full history (16 actions)
- House First Readers (House)
- Senate Transmitted House (Senate)
- Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
- Senate Third Read (Senate)
- Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
- Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
- Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
- Senate Hopper (Senate)
Sponsors
- Matt Brass (R, SD-006)
- David Huddleston (R, HD-072)
Votes
- Senate voteFebruary 3, 2025
51 yea, 2 nay (2 not voting, 1 absent)
- House voteFebruary 21, 2025
159 yea, 6 nay (4 not voting, 11 absent)
Topics
- bail bonds
- public officials ethics
- local government
- conflicts of interest