§ 1. Cartersville Development Authority.

Article VII, section V, paragraph I of the Constitution is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following:

A.

There is hereby created a body corporate and politic in the City of Cartersville in Bartow County to be known as the Cartersville Development Authority, which shall be an instrumentality of the City of Cartersville and a public corporation and which in this amendment is hereafter referred to as the "Authority."

B.

The authority shall consist of five (5) members who shall serve for a term of five (5) years and who shall be eligible for reappointment. The members shall be appointed by the Mayor and Council of the City of Cartersville. The first members shall be appointed for terms of one (1), two (2), three (3), four (4) and five (5) years, and thereafter their successors shall be appointed for terms of five (5) years. Vacancies shall be filled for the unexpired term by the mayor and council. A majority of the members shall constitute a quorum and a majority may act for the authority in any matter. The members shall elect one (1) from among themselves to serve as chairman from year to year. No vacancy shall impair the power of the authority to act.

C.

The property, obligations and the interest on the obligations of the authority shall have the same immunity from taxation as the property, obligations and interest on the obligations of the City of Cartersville, Georgia.

D.

The powers of the authority shall include, but not be limited to, the power:

(1)

To receive and administer gifts, grants and donations and to administer trusts;

(2)

To borrow money, to issue notes, bonds and revenue certificates, to execute trust agreements or indentures, and to sell, convey, mortgage, pledge and assign any and all of its funds, property and income as security therefor;

(3)

To contract with political subdivisions of the State of Georgia and with private persons and corporations and to sue and be sued in its corporate name;

(4)

To have and exercise usual powers of private corporation except such as are inconsistent with this amendment, including the power to appoint and hire officers, agents and employees and to provide their compensation and duties, which officers and agents may or may not be members of the authority, and the power to adopt and amend a corporate seal and bylaws and regulations for the conduct and management of the authority;

(5)

To encourage and promote the expansion and development of industrial and commercial facilities in the City of Cartersville and within a radius of five (5) miles as measured from the center of said city so as to relieve insofar as possible unemployment within its boundaries, and to that end to acquire by purchase or gift any building or structure within aforesaid territorial limits suitable for and intended for use as a factory, mill, shop, processing plant, assembly plant, or fabricating plant, including all necessary and appurtenant lands and appurtenances thereto, and all necessary or useful furnishings, machinery and equipment. Such acquisition may be through the acquisition of land and the construction thereon of a building, including the demolition of existing structures, or through the acquisition of an existing building the remodeling, renovating, reconstructing, furnishing and equipping of such building;

(6)

No building acquired hereunder shall be operated by the authority but shall be leased or sold to one (1) or more persons, firms or corporations. If sold, the purchase price may be paid at one (1) time or in installments falling due in not more than thirty (30) years from the date of transfer of possession. The lessee or purchaser shall be required to pay all costs of operating and maintaining the building or buildings and to pay rentals or installments sufficient, together with other revenues which may be pledged for the purpose, to retire all bonds, both principal and interest, and to pay all other expenses which the authority may have incurred in connection with the undertaking;

(7)

To accumulate its funds from year to year and to invest accumulated funds in any manner that public funds of the State of Georgia or any of its political subdivisions may be invested;

(8)

To designate officers to sign and act for the authority generally or in any specific matter;

(9)

To do any and all acts and things necessary or convenient to accomplish the purpose and powers of the authority as herein stated.

E.

The authority shall not be authorized to create in any manner any debt, liability or obligation against the State of Georgia, Bartow County, or City of Cartersville.

F.

The members of the authority shall receive no compensation for their services to the authority.

G.

In order to finance any undertaking with the scope of its power or to refund any bonds then outstanding, the authority is hereby authorized to issue bonds bearing rate or rates of interest and maturing at the years and amounts determined by the authority and the procedure of validation, issuance and delivery shall be in all respects in accordance with the Revenue Bond Law (Ga. L. 1937, p. 761) as amended, Ga. Code Ann. Supp. Chapter 87-8 [now O.C.G.A. § 36-82-60 et seq.], as if said obligations had been originally authorized to be issued thereunder; provided, however, that any property, real or personal of the authority may be pledged, mortgaged, conveyed, assigned, hypothecated or otherwise encumbered as security for any lawful debt of the authority. The authority may execute any trust agreement or indenture not in conflict with the provisions of this amendment to provide security for any bonds issued as provided herein, and such trust agreement or indenture may provide for foreclosure or forced sale of any property of the authority upon default on such bonds either in payment of principal or interest or under any term or condition under which such bonds are issued. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to create a right to compel any exercise of the taxing power of either Bartow County or the City of Cartersville to pay any of the said obligations of said authority.

H.

The authority may authorize additional bonds, for extensions and permanent improvements to any industrial building acquired hereunder, to be placed in escrow and to be negotiated from time to time as proceeds for that purpose may become necessary. Bonds so placed in escrow shall, when sold and delivered, have such standing with the bonds of the same issue as may be provided in the authorizing proceedings.

I.

No bonds except refunding bonds shall be issued hereunder unless the authority shall have found and declared that:

(1)

The undertaking for which the bonds are to be issued will increase employment within the territorial limits herein designated.

(2)

The lessee or purchaser of the building or buildings involved will not by virtue of establishing operations in said territorial limits, reduce the number of employees employed by said lessee or purchaser elsewhere in the State of Georgia.

J.

No moneys derived by the authority from any source other than gifts and contributions from private individuals, firms or corporations shall at any time be used for entertainment, or other promotional expenses.

K.

Should said authority for any reason be dissolved, title to all property of every kind and nature, real and personal, held by the authority at the time of such dissolution shall revert to the City of Cartersville subject to any mortgages, liens, leases or other encumbrances outstanding against or in respect to said property at that time.

L.

This amendment is adopted for the purpose of promoting and expanding for the public good and welfare industry and trade in the City of Cartersville and its vicinity and reducing unemployment to the greatest extent possible, and this amendment and any law enacted with reference to the authority shall be liberally construed for the accomplishment of these purposes.

M.

This amendment shall be effective immediately upon proclamation of its ratification by the governor and the first members of the authority shall be appointed within thirty (30) days after such proclamation.

N.

The general assembly may by law further define and prescribe the powers and duties of the authority and the exercise thereof, and may enlarge and restrict the same, and may likewise further regulate the management and conduct of the authority. The authority shall be an instrumentality of the City of Cartersville and the scope of its operations shall be limited to the territory embraced within said city and within a radius of five (5) miles as measured from the center of said city. The general assembly shall not extend the jurisdiction of the authority nor the scope of its operations beyond such limits.

(Ga. Laws 1962, p. 1021)

Editor's note

The above amendment to the 1945 Georgia Constitution was carried forward in existence by Ga. L. 1986, p. 4943.