Recap, audience was filled with Red and Green shirts looking to make a point on either dog parks or walking trails and our public comment segment was filled for pleas for both the four legged and two legged users of the park. We approved everything on the agenda with Councilwoman Bonser being the only dissenting votes on several items related to the Project Renaissance.
One interesting item was the fact that Councilman Nall asked the City Manager to rerun the numbers that the city had done previously to see if it now made sense for the City of Dunwoody to completely break away from DeKalb Fire and Rescue and either set up our own fire service or to partner with a neighbor.
DeKalb recently raised the fire rates by 30 % therefore we might be able to provide the same or better service at the same or lower rate, whereby DeKalb is also reducing the services provided to the city by removing Fire Rescue 12 and where they have been looking to contract out all EMS.
The Dunwoody City Council will be reviewing this item closely and will not make any hasty decisions as it would be a complex issue requiring long term planning.
4 comments:
I'm curious why the issue of DeKalb cutting the millage rate for police service by 37% which most residents of cities in DeKalb avoid by providing there own police service while raising the Fire millage rate by 30% and the general ops millage both of which city residents pay hasn't gotten more attention.
Has DeKalb offered any backup or documentation justifying the shift?
Is Dekalb merely making up these numbers.
Bottom line its while DeKalb merely shifted its millage allocations and thus did not raise taxes on those in unincorporated DeKalb it did raise taxes on those in DeKalb who live in a city.
And the answer is revealed by today's revelation of DeKalb's work with the No City Brookhaven folks - http://brookhavenfacts.wordpress.com/
This arbitrary shifting of the millage rate to increase taxes on every resident of DeKalb that lives in a city is not based on proper allocation of costs but on a desire to allow the No City Brookhaven folks to send out flyers say that Brookhaven taxes would be higher than unincorporated DeKalb taxes.
One can only wonder if in future years the HOST credit will be as high (it was raised significantly this year) or how protected we will be from future 26% tax increases or Bond issuances.
I really don't understand why so many supposedly experienced dog owners would take their dogs, especially puppies, to a dog park.
In my experience with owning generations of Brittanies, Poodles, and mutts, running free in a highly utilized dog park probably the unhealthiest activity you can allow your dog to participant in. These dog-owners are just asking for a spread of disease, some of which could be fatal to their pets.
My advice is to get out and walk your dog in the neighborhood. This way you'll get exercise as well.
Where is "staff" getting their info and the parameters of their info? Google gave me the following about response time for fire.
http://www.iafc.org/files/awardsA4E09_DeKalbCounty.pdf
http://firechief.com/ems/merged_fire_ems_0808
DeKalb Fire in this article posted in the International Assoc Fire Chiefs reports their response time has dropped from over 10 minutes before 2000 to 5 minutes in 2008, fire loss in terms of dollars by over $30 million, overtime cost have dropped from the millions to the thousands, from a time when zero ambulances avail to that never happening now, revenue collections doubled, increase in numbers of ALS ambulances from 12 to 19 and the addition of 5 BLS ambulances and the number of ALS apparatus (trucks with life saving gear/EMS training) increased from 12 to 37. Cardiac save rates from 7% to 21%.
also found
http://chieffoster.com/references/ELAINE_BOYER_ref.pdf
http://9-1-1.com/wordpress/2011/04/13/911-decision-criticized-after-response-to-recent-fire/
In an article in AJC Jobs 04/08/08 the DeKalb Fire Dept spokesman said, "Roughly 70 percent of our calls are for emergencies other than fire," said Capt. Eric Jackson, public information officer for the DeKalb County Fire and Rescue Department. "The majority of our calls are medical." The article also said, " 2007, Firehouse Magazine named DeKalb's fire department the nation's 10th-busiest. The DeKalb department saved the patients in 24 percent of its cardiac calls in 2007, which is higher than the national average of 14 percent. And a new computer-assisted dispatching system has helped cut overall average response time from nine minutes in 2003 to five minutes in 2007."
A recent city memo was still trying to blame the 911 mess on DeKalb; a suggestion for a new city slogan, "it's always someone else's fault".
Relying on city staff alone to research is questionable and it makes me wonder if prior research wasn't tailored to fit the wants of council; like 911, a police department, city signage, city slogan and et al.
I thought council 2.0 was about FIXING and NOT BUYING. Dunwoody so far is not better government just unnecessary government.
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