Former Bishop Town Council member Hudson Holder urged council members during public comment at the Nov. 10 meeting to stand up for the town’s jurisdiction.
“The county continues to tell Council where your lines are and who your citizens are, and that’s not their decision to make,” Holder said.
Holder is part of a larger probe into Bishop’s town limits, as there is confusion about the borders. Earlier this fall, the Oconee Board of Elections disqualified Holder, a sitting council member at the time, from running for reelection due to claims that his home does not fall within town lines.
If the town of Bishop is a town, we should be able to decide who’s in the town, what our town boundary is,” Mayor Drew Kurtz said. “That’s our job to do that.”
The town’s attorney, Joe Reitman, reviewed deeds, plats, and state law and issued in February 2025 a detailed written opinion concluding “with a high degree of confidence” that Holder meets Georgia’s residency requirements and is legally qualified to hold office.
Reitman’s opinion cites a certified land survey and historic documentation showing that his driveway, mailbox and most of his residence are located within Bishop’s limits, Kurtz previously told The Enterprise. It also references records from the U.S. Department of the Interior identifying his home as one of the oldest structures within the town limits.
Holder’s name appeared on the ballot in the city election earlier this month because the ballots had already been printed by the time he was disqualified. His opponent, Greg Montgomery, got 40.3% of the vote but won because of Holder’s disqualification.
The council also passed a motion last week to use Southern Grounds Landscaping to hang holiday lights around its Town Hall. The company pledged to sponsor $1,000 of the $2,600 cost, leaving the city with a $1,600 expenditure.
The town has received three bids, including Southern Grounds Landscaping, for Town Hall landscaping. Council member Deborah Lucas raised concerns over potential monopolies and asked the council to make sure other members of the community get equal consideration.
We always want to make sure that … everyone in the community has the same opportunity,” Lucas said.
Kurtz added: “We also have a responsibility to choose the lowest bid.”
Maia Capuano is a Fink Fellow in the Cox Institute’s Journalism Writing Lab at the University of Georgia. The story originally appeared in The Oconee Enterprise; additional reporting by editor Michael Prochaska.
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