Rep. Calvin Hill, R-Canton, said he is “gaining strength every day” after fighting health-related issues during February. Hill said he was in the hospital for three weeks.
“I’ve been in for tests, but they’ve let me out,” Hill, 62, said Feb. 25. “I have no long-term problems they can ascertain.”
According to the official House Journal, Hill has missed roll call for the last 15 days the House has been in session. House Clerk’s Office spokesman Scotty Long said House members usually call ahead to have their machines locked if they know they are not going to be in attendance in Chamber.
The last day Hill answered roll call was Jan. 25, the fifth day the Legislature met in 2010. He also attended the previous four days.
According to Hill’s administrative assistant, Jan Brown, Hill was feeling sick, and had been admitted to the hospital Jan. 28.
Brown said Feb. 25 that Hill expected he would be at his Capitol office when the Legislature reconvenes March 8.
Hill said he is slowly resuming a full-schedule, and he attended a Feb 25 town hall meeting in Hickory Flat. He planned to attend committee meetings of the General Assembly beginning this week.
He said he should be back to a full schedule by the time the Legislature reconvenes March 8.
A four-term state representative and former mayor of Ball Ground, Hill was appointed Jan. 15 by state Speaker of the House David Ralston as chairman of the new Zero-Based Budgeting Coordination Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.
Hill said he was able to keep up with most of what was going on during his 15-day absence from the House using his laptop.
“The nice part is, we have everything live on the Internet; committee meetings and subcommittee sessions,” he said. Hill said he missed 20 votes during his absence, which isn’t as much business as the House usually covers in that amount of time.
“Much of my work for the Zero-Based Budgeting Committee was done before I went into the hospital, because it had to do with the current budget, not next year’s,” he said. “A lot of my work for Appropriations is investigatory, rather than hearing bills,” he said.
The subcommittee has only considered one bill, HB 246, from Rep. Charlice Byrd, R-Woodstock, said Rep. Ed Rynders, R-Leeburg, who has been heading the meetings of the subcommittee in Hill’s absence. That bill, the Georgia Government Accountability act, would require periodic sunset review for the 133 state agencies in Georgia, not including governor’s commissions.
Both Byrd, and state Rep. Sean Jerguson, R-Holly Springs, said Hill’s absence was being handled at the Capitol during February.
“He has an incredible assistant,” Byrd said of Brown, and noted Brown has been taking notes for Hill. “We all need to keep Calvin in our prayers and wish him a speedy recovery.”
Jerguson said the Cherokee County legislative delegation has made sure all of its constituents’ needs were being met during Hill’s absence, and noted that Hill “remained involved in the process” even during his hospitalization.
State Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, asked that the message be spread that Hill needs local citizens’ prayers as he works to regain his health.
Rogers noted that the General Assembly is set up so that most votes on legislation take place at the end of the year’s session – the Legislature meets for 40 days each year.
