Dunwoody Homeowners Association sponsoring Thursdays forum on City of Dunwoody

Informational Forum
City of Dunwoody
Dunwoody United Methodist Church, Fellowship Hall
Thursday, May 15, 2008
7:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Sponsor: The Dunwoody Homeowners Association

Panel Participants:
Citizens for Dunwoody, Inc.
Perimeter Community Improvement District (PCID)
DeKalb Chamber of Commerce

Also Invited:
DeKalb County Administration
DeKalb County Commission

Moderator: Superior Court Judge Cynthia J. Becker

Neighbor Newspaper, By Tom Spigolon 5/14/08

Gordon Jackson does not believe Thursday's forum designed to air facts about potential incorporation of Dunwoody is a water-shed event in his organization's 40-year history. But the Dunwoody Homeowners Association president believes it could rank highly for his community and the direction its 40,000 residents want to take. The association is scheduled to host the meeting from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Dunwoody United Methodist Church on Mt. Vernon Road near Ashford Dunwoody Road. Jackson said it is designed to inform residents about each side of the issue of incorporation, which Dunwoody voters will decide in a July 15 election." As laid out in our bylaws - we have to be nonpartisan. DHA has not taken any side on the city issue," he said."We do, however, feel that as an overall entity in Dunwoody representing the homeowners of the entire area that it's incumbent on us to try to host a meeting for the purpose of simply allowing people to ask questions and getting a response to those questions," Jackson said.

Jackson's group will not be represented on the panel, but has invited representatives from the DeKalb County government, Board of Commissioners, DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, the Perimeter Community Improvement District and Citizens for Dunwoody, a fact-finding group which commissioned a University of Georgia study on the effects of incorporation.

DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Cynthia J. Becker will serve as moderator. Each representative will be allowed to briefly speak, followed by them responding to questions from the audience - which Jackson said could total at least 300 people. The association's members wanted to invite groups who had factual information about incorporation, he said."We wanted to go to groups who had real information to put out, in other words, if you're an advocacy group strictly for the purpose of being an advocacy group, we did not feel that they would have any kind of independent information," he said." I don't know that (all groups will) have specific information about taxes and that sort of thing - they may or may not," he said. "They may have a different perspective."

District 40 state Sen. Dan Weber, R-Dunwoody, said he was glad the event had been organized. Weber led the three-year effort to approve the state legislation needed to allow the incorporation vote. "The people have a right to be well-informed before they vote. We have some good citizen groups who are working hard to make sure that happens," he said. Weber, an ex-officio member of the association's board, said he has had no involvement in organization of the event. He said he anticipated possibly being asked to provide some factual information at the meeting.

"I like the fact that the incorporation effort is sort of a citizen-led effort rather than an elected representative or a politician," he said.