Teenager takes a new city to task over its name

SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Some neighbors are furious over the name of their new city.

Voters approved the name "City of South Fulton" but in the past few weeks leaders announced the name would be 'Renaissance.'

Voters agreed to incorporate it last year. Then in March of  this year, residents went to the polls to elect the city's first leaders.

The city is Fulton County's third largest. About 100,000 people live there.

Now, a 16-year-old is taking the city to task over the name.

"If we don't do anything, the name's gonna be Renaissance," Kendall Henry said.

Henry started an online petition to demand another vote. Because while she isn’t even of voting age, she says, she, her family and several other residents are fuming saying the name doesn’t represent the ideals of the area.

“There are people who want change,” she said.

Those people she's referring to are the residents who say while their input was included, they would have preferred if the name had been chosen in a citywide vote.

Shortly after Renaissance was chosen, Channel 2's Nefertiti Jaquez got an email from Councilman Khalid saying,

“South Fulton’s Renaissance began tonight with our new city name.”

"That was not right and it breaks the protocol of the city," said Mayor Bill Edwards.

Edwards said that email and the fact that the councilman sent a press release the following day was premature and caused massive confusion among residents.

We reached out to Councilman Khalid and he sent Jaquez this statement reading in part:

Last month, 5 of 7 Council members voted to rename our city 'Renaissance.' I look forward to our final vote December 12 where we will ratify that name change so we can focus on pressing issues like finding a Permanent City Manager and setting up our Police Department.

Henry told us she’s not settling for that answer.

"I hope that the people are given the right to vote on what they would like the name to be," she said.

To learn more about Henry's petition, click here.

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