Election Day, Boyken, Attorneys, Alcohol & Murder

Today is election day for the middle third of the city, go out and vote for either Adrian Bonser or Larry Pankey. The current City Council members are looking forward to the assistance and the unique skills they each bring to to the position. AJC Article.

At this evenings City Council meeting we took a few steps forward on a number of issues. We are working towards signing a contract with Boyken International for them to provide us some short-term consulting services. AJC Article. These services will cover three areas:

1. Provide start-up project management and consulting services.
   
   
2. Assist the city in seeking qualified bidders, proposals (RFPs) and quotes to provide city services.
   
   
3. Assist the city in recruiting a small number of key personnel to manage vendor contracts and performance.

This evening we have selected Brian Anderson/Riley Lewis & McLendon as our city attorneys. They were one of the three firms recommended by the citizens task force selected by Mayor Wright to review the dozen or so proposals we received. They bring a great deal of experience to the city and I have been very impressed with the depth advice already provided by the team.

We had the first official reading of our alcohol ordinance which rolls back the serving hours from 4 am to 2 am and it will be discussed and possibly voted on at our next meeting. Currently there are two Dunwoody businesses, Gilly’s and Firebirds, who currently stay open until 4:00 am and they are opposing this change, as is the newly formed Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce. We need to pass this ordinance in the next week or two so that we can use the ordinance as the basis for sending out liquor licenses and invoices to the appropriate Dunwoody businesses in November. The audio from the meeting is here and a few of the other documents are here.

Another Murder in "soon to be" Dunwoody. In case you didn't hear of it on the news or in papers, there was another murder early Monday morning inside what will soon be the City of Dunwoody's borders (effective December 1st). The AJC headline highlighted the fact that the DeKalb resident lived in an apartment off Peachtree Industrial and it never mentioned Dunwoody. Come December, I'm thinking that the headline would have been a little different but it wouldn't change the the way I currently view my responsibility for serving the area. I was elected to serve the entire City of Dunwoody, including the residents who live in apartments, including those who may not speak English; therefore in the coming months I will be thinking of Mr. Alejandro Perez Morales, age 32 when I help hire police officers and set the budget.

Finally for all the anguish caused to the neighbors by this Dunwoody resident the only thing that needs to be said, is goodbye and good riddence.