Habersham leaves behavioral-health advisory seat vacant after second unanimous delay

Habersham County’s at-large seat on the DBHDD Region 1 Advisory Council remained unfilled after the Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 on Nov. 17, 2025, to table the appointment for a second time. The action was the board’s latest recorded decision on replacing former member Jeremy Noles, whose unexpired term is set to end Nov. 30, 2027.

The vacancy matters because the appointee would represent Habersham County in an at-large role on the Region 1 advisory council for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. By postponing rather than filling the seat, commissioners left unresolved who will speak for the county in that role during a term that still had roughly two years remaining when they last acted.

The issue first reached the board Aug. 18, 2025, after Noles resigned. Commissioners then voted 5-0 to table the appointment because no applications had been received, according to the meeting minutes. When the appointment returned three months later, the board again chose postponement, this time unanimously 4-0, extending the vacancy without naming a replacement.

County commissioners were unanimous on both tabling motions, but the minutes do not explain individual commissioners’ reasons for the November decision or identify a competing nominee. In August, the stated obstacle was the absence of applications. The advisory seat is the county’s at-large position on the Region 1 council, while DBHDD is the state department connected to that council; neither meeting action selected a person to serve the county.

Both votes to table were completed board actions, not appointments. The Nov. 17 motion did not settle whether the county had found an interested applicant, would reopen or repeat its search, or intended to bring the matter back promptly. No later public appointment or final disposition is identified, so it remains unclear whether the seat is still vacant in practice or whether a later decision has yet to be publicly documented.

A public resolution would require commissioners to place the DBHDD Region 1 Advisory Council appointment on a future agenda and take a new recorded action. Until that occurs, the timing of reconsideration, whether the county will seek additional applicants and who might be chosen to complete the term ending Nov. 30, 2027 all remain undecided.