(a) The Board of Community Affairs, as it existed immediately prior to July 1, 1996, shall be abolished effective July 1, 1996, and the Board of Community Affairs, from and after July 1, 1996, is established in accordance with this Code section. The board shall establish policy and direction for the department and shall perform such other functions as may be provided or authorized by law.

(b) Membership on the board shall be determined as follows:

(1) The terms of all members of the Board of Community Affairs serving immediately prior to July 1, 1996, shall expire effective July 1, 1996. The Governor shall appoint the initial members of the board for terms beginning on July 1, 1996, or the date on which the Governor makes the appointment, whichever is later. The terms of initial members of the board shall expire on a staggered basis, as follows: the terms of four of the members shall expire on July 1, 1997, and the terms of three other members shall expire on each July 1 thereafter through July 1, 2001, when the terms of all initial members of the board shall have expired. The Governor shall specify, when he appoints each initial member of the board, the expiration date of that member's term. Upon expiration of the term of each initial member of the board, the Governor shall appoint all successor members of the board for terms of five years. The terms of initial members and subsequent members of the board shall extend beyond the date of expiration and until their successors are appointed and qualified;

(2) The board shall be composed of one member from each United States congressional district in the state and five additional members from the state at large. Members of the board shall include elected officials of either counties or municipalities, individuals who have an interest or expertise in community or economic development, environmental issues, housing development, or finance, or other citizens who in the judgment and discretion of the Governor would enhance the board by their membership;

(3) The term of a member shall expire when it ends or shall terminate earlier immediately upon:

(A) Resignation by a member;

(B) Death of a member or inability to serve as a member due to medical infirmity or other incapacity; or

(C) Any change in local elective office or residence of a member which would cause the composition of the board not to comply with the requirements of paragraph (2) of this subsection;

(4) The Governor shall appoint a new member within 60 days after the expiration or termination of a member's term. The Governor may reappoint members of the board to consecutive terms unless such reappointment would cause the composition of the board not to comply with the requirements of paragraph (2) of this subsection; and

(5) Membership on the board does not constitute public office to the extent that a member of the board is precluded from holding other public office.

(c) Officers of the board shall be elected and shall serve as follows:

(1) The officers of the board serving immediately prior to July 1, 1996, shall cease to serve the respective terms for which they were elected, effective July 1, 1996;

(2) Thereafter the members of the board shall elect a chairman, a vice chairman, and a secretary from among the members of the board;

(3) The board shall elect officers at each July meeting or, if there is no July meeting, at the next monthly meeting;

(4) Officers shall serve for a term of one year, beginning with their election and qualification and ending with the election and qualification of their respective successors; and

(5) No person shall hold the same office on the board for more than one term consecutively.

(d) The board shall hold meetings as often as it determines to do so. The board may establish a regular meeting schedule and a procedure for calling special meetings. Unless the board establishes another procedure, the chairman or any five members of the board may call special meetings upon adequate written, personal, telephone, or facsimile notice to members of the board. A majority of the members in office shall constitute a quorum for conducting business, and a majority of those present at any meeting shall be required to approve any action taken by the board. A member must be present at a meeting to count for purposes of determining whether a quorum exists and to vote or otherwise act on matters which come before that meeting. No member may vote or otherwise act through a proxy, designee, or delegate. The board may establish such additional rules and procedures as it deems appropriate for conducting its business from time to time. These rules and procedures may be established in bylaws or in such other form as the board deems appropriate.

(e) Each member of the board shall receive the same per diem expense allowance as that received by members of the General Assembly for each day a board member is in attendance at a meeting of the board or a committee meeting of the board, plus reimbursement for actual transportation expenses incurred while traveling by public carrier or the mileage allowance authorized for state officials and employees for the use of a personal automobile in connection with such attendance. This per diem and reimbursement for transportation expenses shall be paid in lieu of any other per diem, allowance, remuneration, or compensation.

(f)

(1) The initial territorial boundaries for the operation of the regional commissions shall be as follows: Region 1 shall be made up of Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Fannin, Floyd, Gilmer, Gordon, Haralson, Murray, Paulding, Pickens, Polk, Walker, and Whitfield; Region 2 shall be made up of Banks, Dawson, Forsyth, Franklin, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Lumpkin, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union, and White; Region 3 shall be made up of Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, and Rockdale; Region 4 shall be made up of Butts, Carroll, Coweta, Heard, Lamar, Meriwether, Pike, Spalding, Troup, and Upson; Region 5 shall be made up of Barrow, Clarke, Elbert, Greene, Jackson, Jasper, Madison, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, and Walton; Region 6 shall be made up of Baldwin, Bibb, Crawford, Houston, Jones, Monroe, Peach, Pulaski, Putnam, Twiggs, and Wilkinson; Region 7 shall be made up of Burke, Columbia, Glascock, Hancock, Jefferson, Jenkins, Lincoln, McDuffie, Richmond, Taliaferro, Warren, Washington, and Wilkes; Region 8 shall be made up of Chattahoochee, Clay, Crisp, Dooly, Harris, Macon, Marion, Muscogee, Quitman, Randolph, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taylor, and Webster; Region 9 shall be made up of Appling, Bleckley, Candler, Dodge, Emanuel, Evans, Jeff Davis, Johnson, Laurens, Montgomery, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Wayne, Wheeler, and Wilcox; Region 10 shall be made up of Baker, Calhoun, Colquitt, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Grady, Lee, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas, and Worth; Region 11 shall be made up of Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Pierce, Tift, Turner, and Ware; and Region 12 shall be made up of Bryan, Bulloch, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Long, McIntosh, and Screven. The board for each regional commission shall ratify the boundaries provided for in this paragraph. If a regional commission fails to ratify such boundaries, such commission shall continue to operate under the existing boundaries for such commission prior to June 30, 2009. The provisions of Article 2 of this chapter shall apply to a regional commission failing to ratify the boundaries provided for in this Code section; provided, however, that such commission shall not be eligible to receive funding pursuant to Code Section 50-8-33.

(2) Notwithstanding the territorial boundaries established pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection, the board shall determine and establish, from time to time, the territorial boundaries for the region of operation by each regional commission as well as the total number of the regions; provided, however, that any action of the board altering the boundaries of a regional commission or changing the total number of the regions shall not be effective until approved by the General Assembly at the next regular session following such action by the board by means of the adoption of a joint resolution ratifying such action. Each county shall be wholly within the region of one regional commission, and no county shall be divided among more than one region. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the board shall establish the boundaries of any region for which a metropolitan area planning and development commission, created pursuant to Article 4 of this chapter, also serves as the regional commission.

(g) In addition to ratification by resolution, the General Assembly may ratify regional commission boundary changes by Act.