---
type: "Bill"
title: "Covington, City of; provide new charter"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide a new charter for the City of Covington; to provide for incorporation; to provide for other matters relative to the foregoing; to provide for term limits; to provide a specific repealer; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2019_20"
identifier: "HB 698"
citation: "Georgia HB 698 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Andrew Welch", "Dave Belton", "Pam Dickerson", "Roger Rutledge"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 13
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2019-03-25"
last_action: "2019-05-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e1f4dafa-a273-4549-87af-0be95861499c"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "3623fa2b37b818fa1e259fe908cc4914dab39e9987cfe863f6ab1aa756093df6"
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 698 (2019_20) — Covington, City of; provide new charter

A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide a new charter for the City of Covington; to provide for incorporation; to provide for other matters relative to the foregoing; to provide for term limits; to provide a specific repealer; 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 698/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/187470.pdf)
2. **LC 45 0308ER/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/185936.pdf)
3. **Local Ad** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/185952.pdf)

## Votes

- Local Calendar — **152–5** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Andrew Welch — primary (person)
- Dave Belton — primary (person)
- Pam Dickerson — primary (person)
- Roger Rutledge — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-03-25** House Hopper
- **2019-03-25** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2019-03-26** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2019-03-28** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-28** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2019-03-28** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-03-29** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-29** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-04-02** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-04-11** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-05-06** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-05-06** Act 184 `executive-signature`
- **2019-05-06** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e1f4dafa-a273-4549-87af-0be95861499c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).