---
type: "Bill"
title: "Sparks, City of; provide new charter"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide a new charter for the City of Sparks, Georgia; to provide for other matters relative to the foregoing; to provide for related matters; to repeal a specific law; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2019_20"
identifier: "HB 597"
citation: "Georgia HB 597 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Penny Houston"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 13
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2019-03-11"
last_action: "2019-04-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ababa295-ffd0-436a-90ab-935ed1d37cb7"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "4888a51bd9780c4b3038434682bab5c1138b0a41bae73f2b9466a57453fd1a79"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 597 (2019_20) — Sparks, City of; provide new charter

A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide a new charter for the City of Sparks, Georgia; to provide for other matters relative to the foregoing; to provide for related matters; to repeal a specific law; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB 597/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/186307.pdf)
2. **LC 47 0098ER/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/184289.pdf)
3. **Local Ad** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/184332.pdf)

## Votes

- Local Calendar — **157–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Penny Houston — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-03-11** House Hopper
- **2019-03-13** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2019-03-14** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2019-03-18** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-18** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2019-03-18** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-03-21** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-26** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-26** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-03-29** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-04-02** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-04-02** Act 17 `executive-signature`
- **2019-04-02** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ababa295-ffd0-436a-90ab-935ed1d37cb7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).