DeKalb County School System provides documents on the scope of some open work orders on Dunwoody Schools.

Large Document 12 MB - 112 Pages

On Monday I submitted an Open Records Request on a small handful of open work orders within the Dunwoody cluster where the work was identified as Electrical, Fire Safety or deemed by their own staff as Hazardous.  This evening I was provided an overview of the records and requested to pay $310.50 for the remainder of the documents which I will happily do.  The preliminary documentation returned by DeKalb including the documents I provided in my request totals 112 page which I am providing to you today.  Seeing that it will take the school system another 6 days to pull the rest of the documents, I am guessing their final return will be quite extensive and I will post those as well when I receive them.

Looking quickly at the information I'm not sure it is all there as it looks like the Bad Odors work item may be missing?  There may be others?  I had also requested that this information be forwarded to the school principals but it was sent to only me.  I also copied the DeKalb Fire Marshal in my initial request and I am interested in knowing their inspections of these repairs especially.

Comparing my abbreviated list to the full gamut of open work orders, I now wish I requested more documentation on the HVAC issues to see how long they have been going on and when they are scheduled to be repaired.

It's late and I haven't reviewed every detail of the documents I am attaching but I wanted to share these documents ASAP as school starts soon and hopefully these work orders are knocked out before the first day of school.   I will be paying DeKalb for the rest of the documents and maybe expanding my request for the HVAC repairs as no child nor teacher should be forced to work in the August heat.  Thanks,  John

Items of interest that have crossed my Dunwoody City Council desk.

"Not my real desk, as I work behind makeshift folding tables in my basement."

The City of Dunwoody is holding a two-day retreat planning meeting on Thursday & Friday in an old farmhouse in Sandy Springs as it might inspire us to see what the Donaldson-Bannister house could be someday.  The agenda is sparse and documentation is light but if I get more on Wednesday I will post.

Proposed zoning changes to go in front of Dunwoody Planning Commission on the 14th

1. DRAC responsibility in the Dunwoody Village Overlay.
2. The applicability of the residential infill (contextual regulations).
3. Prohibited variances.
4. Home Occupations.

Dunwoody Project-Program Activity Update  -  City staff and departments are actively managing ongoing projects, programs, and initiatives throughout Dunwoody. From infrastructure improvements to construction projects and departmental efficiency measures, staff is focused on strategic coordination and management. Following is a high-level, bulleted summary of key activities from the past several weeks and being coordinated over the weeks ahead.

Dunwoody High School Student City Council conducts park survey and possible plans for Austin Site.

RFP 17-02 Dunwoody Green Commercial Site Development  -   The Dunwoody Urban Redevelopment Agency (URA) hereby solicits invitations from qualified developers to submit proposals to partner with the URA and the City of Dunwoody for development of approximately 2.5 acres pf property at 4600 North Shallowford Road at the intersection of North Shallowford Road and Dunwoody Park. The property is located within the City's designated Urban Redevelopment District.

ITP 17-01 2017 Street Resurfacing

RFQ 17-01  Design And Plan Development for Chamblee Dunwoody Road Multimodal Improvements from Womack Road to Roberts Drive

Dunwoody, Georgia has been selected to participate in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a major study of the health of persons living in the United States. The National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is conducting the door to door study to do household interviews and standardized medical examinations in a mobile examination center.  Dunwoody Police is aware and they do not need City permits.

James Dwyer is a Dunwoody stud, a cross country legend and my neighbor who now works at the Southern Company to bring green energy products to Atlanta.

Wrap your head around this... in 2016, the City of Dunwoody had close to 2,300 open records requests.  We also have a position available to be our Records Clerk so if you are interested, please apply. 

Dunwoody Police Daily Bulletin shows traffic stop locations and who is being ticketed / arrested for what. Possible Murder investigation is on going.

The City of Dunwoody has worked very hard from day one to be transparent in everything we do and that includes telling the community what our police department is doing on a daily basis.   Yesterday Dunwoody residents told social media that they wanted more visibility on the roads, more enforcement and this public page could be a gauge as to what the department is doing to be responsive to the communities desires.  I believe the department has heard the residents concerns about traffic safety but lets understand that there are more important responsibilities that the department has. The data provided by Dunwoody in this tool probably gives just a snapshot of what our department is doing at any one time but it doesn't include the numerous hours of a possible murder investigation, a child molestation case or a prostitution ring being broken up - all of which happened in the last few days.  

You will note that I blacked out the names in the photo above but the Dunwoody site does not do this.  Juveniles age 16 and below are protected by not having their names in the database and the same goes for being the victim of specific crimes, but after your seventeenth birthday it is a different story for all offenders.  So if little Johnny is 17 and he gets arrested for shoplifting or gets a ticket for speeding, it will show up here for all to see.

In case you are not aware, below is the link to our daily bulletin.

 http://p2c.dunwoodyga.gov/p2c/dailybulletin.aspx

Video - Possible Murder investigation is on going.

Dunwoody agenda for Monday - Cad2cad, Dr. Mack Hannah, @DunwoodyXC, 1300 open record requests, Eminent Domain, Building Code, Paving Plan, Naming Parks and new City Manager

Monday, December 8, 2014
Dunwoody City Hall
41 Perimeter Center East
Dunwoody, GA 30346

Watch Live at 6:00 p.m. - Work Session
Watch Live at 7:00 p.m. - Voting Meeting

6 pm Agenda

Update on the CAD-to-CAD Interface Project (L.R. Kimball) Disappointing

Update from Facility Usage Partner - Dunwoody Nature Center.

7 pm Agenda

Proclamation Recognizing Dr. Mack Hannah, Senior Pastor, Dunwoody Baptist Church.

Proclamation Recognizing the Dunwoody High School Girls Cross Country State Champions.

Recognition of Officer Tim Brown for Earning his BA in Business Administration from DeVry University.

Resolution Appointing Member to Convention & Visitors Bureau of Dunwoody.

Resolution Appointing Members to Design Review Advisory Committee.

Resolution Appointing Members to Development Authority.

Resolution Appointing Members to Planning Commission.

Resolution Appointing Members to Sustainability Committee.

Approval of Contract Amendment with JAT Consulting Services - 1,300 open record requests?

Approval of a Contract Amendment with Lowe Engineers.

Approval of a Contract Amendment with InterDev.

Approval of Contract Amendment with Gresham Smith Partners for Tilly Mill at North Peachtree Intersection Project.

SECOND READ: Ordinance Granting an Underground Easement Agreement for Atlanta Office Investment (KDC).

SECOND READ: Ordinance Granting an Aerial Easement Agreement for Atlanta Office Investment (KDC).

 Resolution Authorizing the Use of Eminent Domain on Property at 4962 Tilly Mill Road.

Award of Construction Contract for Mount Vernon Road Water and Road Improvements.

SECOND READ: Ordinance Amendment to Chapter 8, Buildings and Building Regulations.

Resolution to Appoint a City Manager. Supporting docs missing from packet; requested resolution, contract and background documents supporting nomination.

Discussion of 2015 Paving Plan / updated 5 year / 2013 laser truck analysis of streets.

Discussion of Contract for PCIDs Crosswalk Repairs.

Presentation of Comprehensive Plan Update Kick-Off by Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.

Resolution of Support for the North Extension of MARTA - Westside 400.

Approval of Disposition of Excess Property - old police cars.

Discussion of Appointment of Sounding Board Members for Comprehensive Plan Five Year Update

Discussion of Methodology for Naming City Parks. (nothing after people - dead a few years - or only rare hero's honor?)

Dunwoody Council's Independent Auditor, Mr. William J. Mulcahy gives glowing praise for city's due diligence and transparency.

Video

As one of the the original council members who started the City of Dunwoody six years ago, I take great pleasure in hearing from an auditor that we are not only doing a wonderful job financially, but we are continuing to improve various procedures in reporting the oversight of the city funds.   Transparency of government operations was one of my goals in originally running for City Council and this type of report just makes me giddy - (yes I am a dork).

Mr. Mulcahy discussed the 3rd quarter City financial report which now includes council expenses on page 5 (but was missing a little back up from what was reported earlier here), he reviewed the Public Works Department and our road paving processes as well as the quality control measures that are in place in ensure the road contractor is giving us a quality project.   He was very pleased with everything he saw and finally he stated that in the 4th quarter he will be reviewing the City's purchasing card transactions.   The video is 14 minutes long and it is worth a watch.

In other related news on transparency, the City released the 11 page, 3rd Qtr Key Performance Indicators report which shows some blistering statistics from the various departments.

For example did you know that the City received 263 open records requests in the just the 3rd quarter alone and will most likely have over 1,000 requests prior to the end of the year.  (I think I need to do an open records request to find who is asking for what and to see if there are duplicate requests that we can just post to the web?)  The 11 pages are filled with numerous tidbits of information for example, our Public Works team made a concerted effort to improve our existing sidewalk network by making 276 sidewalk repairs including replacing cracked or broken sections and grinding down uneven sections to reduce trip hazards.

• 2014 Q1 KPI Report
• 2014 Q2 KPI Report
• 2014 Q3 KPI Report

Transparency in Dunwoody Government continues to be a cornerstone of my public service.

As an elected official and public servant who ran for this City Council Seat over six years ago on a platform of transparency, I can honestly say that I have worked very hard to fulfill that promise.  With all the news of corruption, waste and purposeful abuse of power by hiding public records that may have identified waste, fraud and abuse if they were available; I have the distinction of trying to be the polar opposite as I have a six year history of publishing every public document that I get my hand on to my private servers and to my blog so that you the citizens of Dunwoody are informed. 

Below is an excerpt of a well written AJC article by Bill Torpy that highlights what could be considered the norm by some, but I doubt he is talking of the City of Dunwoody.  

Think pols’ business is your business? They don’t - Bill Torpy AJC

Across metro Atlanta, government officials guard public records like we’re asking for intimate pages of their teen-aged daughters’ diaries.

The list goes on and on of public officials hiding, thwarting or even obfuscating when it comes to shining light on what they do.

It’s a dance we do almost every day with those who spend your money: They do something. We ask them about it. They say, “File an Open Records request.” We do. They sometimes release some or all of the records. Sometimes within the accorded three days required. Often not. Or they make up excuses to delay. There’s lots of excuses.

Often they hope we’ll just get frustrated and go away. Or rather, that you will. You, the pain-in-the-butt public. You, the pesky newspaper scribe.

Officials have always been touchy when it comes to releasing records that explain what they did and how they did it. They usually go into office with good intentions of public service and think transparency is a good thing. (I know, there’s ego and some narcissism involved in seeking election.) But those grandiose goals of openness are often worn down by questions and second-guessing. Then, the walls go up and the moat gets flooded. The reason officials sometimes get touchy about public documents is because there’s a difference between what they say and what actually happened.

I noticed the following letter to the editor from former Dunwoody Councilman, Robert Wittenstein asking for more transparency in Dunwoody Government expense accounts, and though it wasn't an "official" request to which I was mandated to take action I agreed that with the circumstances being what they are now is a good time to publish them for the world to see.   Based on Robert's request, I made my own to the Dunwoody City Clerk that all Mayor & City Council expense account be published to the city website.

To the Editor of the Dunwoody Crier:

Elaine Boyer’s criminal fraud is sad and horribly disappointing.

What is also disappointing is the report on Elaine and her chief of staff’s use of county funds to treat themselves and their guests to meals at taxpayer expense. It isn’t just the extravagant meals costing hundreds of dollars at places like McKendrick’s and Bone’s, but the sheer volume of meals they decided to submit for reimbursement week in and week out.

It is hard to tell if this was a perk they felt entitled to in exchange for their public service or if they were attempting to increase their personal standing with guests by appearing generous (with our money).

My question is this…Do we have the same culture in Dunwoody? How are our mayor and city council spending their expense allowances?

Transparency is the greatest guard against abuse. I’d like to see the city, or perhaps The Crier, publish the spending habits of our elected officials. My hope is that we will discover that we are a model for DeKalb to follow.

Robert Wittenstein

The City gets so many open records requests and I know we work hard to strive to fulfill all of our legal requirements but that being said, I wonder if we could do even better?  What if, every public request was documented in a public table on our website showing the city assigned request number, the date, who and what they asked for (hyperlinked to the actual paper request) and then have a hyperlink to the requested documents or data published to the web for all to see?   It's budget time in the City and there is already a request for a records clerk therefore an online tracking and repository shouldn't be that difficult.

In 2012, the State Legislature changed the rules on open meetings and open records and here is a memo from Attorney General Sam Olens outlining the changes.  Below are other items of interest on the topic.

27 page Presentation

Though I have written on this subject quite a bit and have previously filed many open records requests, I consider the Georgia First Amendment Foundation the go to authority on the subject other than the State Attorney General's Staff.

Check out the informative documents below for the general open records rules as well as those that govern law enforcement and public schools.

1. Red Book: open records and meetings
2. Blue Book: open records and law enforcement
3. Green Book: open records and public schools
4. Sample Open Records Request
5. Georgia Open Records Act
6. Georgia Open Meetings Act

Click for 25 page presentation

by Shawn McIntosh and Tom Clyde
 

H.B.397 Law & Legislative Background, open meetings and records; revise provisions

AJC - Law prods public officials toward transparency

Tools of the Press in the Digital Age - Arrests, Mug Shots, Grand Jury Presentments, Public Records, Open Records Requests and Social Media.

News Tidbits for Reporters looking for stories.

One of my favorite websites has been shut down for about three weeks now and it is probably gone forever, therefore some reporter out there looking for a story might want to check out why http://www.dekalbmugs.com and its sister www.gwinnettmugs.com is now shutdown.  Much like my grandmother who use to read the obits to see if she had passed, I looked forward to the daily e-mail from the Community Watch service of DeKalbMugs telling me who was arrested in the zip codes around Dunwoody.  (It also highlight by address which apartment complex had the residents who were arrested and on what offense.)  Sad to see it go and I will have to remember to pull up the Dunwoody Daily Bulletin and the DeKalb OJS for similar info.

Question - Why does the DeKalb DA fail to populate Grand Jury Presentments on its website and a better question to ask might be why was the only item posted in over a year, posted at all?   Was it because it was a negative reflection on DeKalb County Government and the running of the jail by the Sheriff?  Was it posted for political reasons or was the lack of everything else not posted for the same or different political reasons?  When only select public documents are posted, it raises concerns as to the reason behind the posting.   FYI, I did an open records request back in 2011 after DA Robert James was in office for awhile where I was looking for the Grand Jury Presentments as they are public records and to remind him and his office that they should all be posted online.  It looks like I will need to do another open records request once again?

About a week ago, I received an anonymous email to review a website pointing to documentation on DeKalb County Commissioners "supposed" use of purchase cards for possible unauthorized reasons.   Someone went to quite a bit of trouble to review years of documents to find and post at least one questionable purchase on five of our current commissioners.   When I received the email, I figured it was sent to a large bcc list of folks and that I would see it in the news.  Since I hadn't, I sent out this tweet and because of it I am still getting requests from various reporters asking for the details.  For what it is worth, the email asked me to look at http://www.dekalbopenrecords.com unfortunately like the situation with the DA's office above, highlighting limited documents, limits the credibility of the source.  I wish the DeKalbOpenRecords site scanned and posted all of the purchase card records for everyone, to see everything.   Maybe that is the FBI's job?

Back on July 9th, I posted a report from WSB-TV that showed that our DeKalb Water System wasn't properly warning us of issues and that they were fined for the infraction.  I mentioned this at a Dunwoody City Council meeting and then decided to personally reach out to DeKalb to verify for myself the level of testing that was being done on the water we drink.  On July 14th, I requested water testing data from Mr. James Chansler the Director of DeKalb Water and I received a nice reply on the 16th stating... "I have asked our operations folks to gather the sampling information and will reply to your inquiries soon."    In light of the EPD violation and the recent issues in Toledo and West Virginia; three weeks is enough time for me to wait as the official time limit for open records is much less.   I will post all documents upon receipt.  

Since I am a long time member of the Atlanta Press Club (though not considered a journalist) - I figured I would share a conference that I will be attending entitled "Journalism Next - Thriving in a Digital Age" that is being put on by the APC and the Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer University.   I am really looking forward to a number of the sessions, in fact it looks like I will miss my friend David Clinch's presentation on "We’re in the Curation Business" for the personally relevant "Hyperlocal - Locally Sourced News" conversation.   It should be interesting, if you are into this type of thing.

Conceptual sketch plat for new 52 home subdivison off Vermack in Dunwoody

Proposed Subdivision Plans

This afternoon a resident forwarded me and other bloggers the results of an open records request where he asked City Staff about development plans for a new single family (R-100) subdivision off Vermack Road.  The Dunwoody Crier announced the possible development on the front page of Tuesday's paper and I am deciding to post all of the documents that were forwarded to me so to make sure everything is now put into the public domain.

Staff reply to request:

Attached is all the documentation we have for a conceptual review of the Vermack property. Attachments (in order) include: the initial application, the initial drawing for a conceptual sketch plat, the initial findings report submitted by the applicant, completed by a third party contractor, an updated conceptual sketch, and staff comments that were sent to the applicant. Because this is conceptual only, it has not been officially submitted for permitting; all reviews are preliminary.

Question: What can and cannot be disclosed by the City to Dunwoody citizens? Georgia Open Records Law

Blog Comment Question by Ken Thompson:  Is there a document or training materials available that cover what can and cannot be disclosed by the City to citizens and under what conditions previously withheld information could be made available?

Yes Ken, the City of Dunwoody recently hosted Senior Assistant Attorney General, Stefan Ritter who gave a training session on the new Open Meetings and Open Records law to a large room of elected officials and City Clerk's.   Below is the full presentation.

27 page Presentation

Though I have written on this subject quite a bit and have previously filed many open records requests, I consider the Georgia First Amendment Foundation the go to authority on the subject other than the State Attorney General's Staff.

Check out the informative documents below for the general open records rules as well as those that govern law enforcement and public schools.

1. Red Book: open records and meetings
2. Blue Book: open records and law enforcement
3. Green Book: open records and public schools
4. Sample Open Records Request
5. Georgia Open Records Act
6. Georgia Open Meetings Act

Regarding your question as to under what conditions previously withheld information could be made available?  Ken, I guess the answer depends on the subject be it real estate, executive session or a legal item.  For example you asked me in a blog comment if I could provide a link to the "Hirsch v Dunwoody" settlement agreement?  I guess officially that could be considered an open records request though it should have gone to our City Clerk, Ms. Sharon Lowery but I replied that under the advise of council it could not yet be released.  The reason may be that it is not yet settled and/or is a topic of a future executive session or some other reason of which our legal staff did not inform me.

I am guessing that once that exclusion is no longer valid the information would have to be released (if officially requested) therefore if you are interested, please contact Ms. Lowery.  If you were to ask Ms. Lowery for the document and it was still unavailable, she would tell you the exact exclusion the city is using to hold it back and an anticipated date that it may be available.  In this case, though it is an agenda item that I would normally publish, I am only following advice of council and can't officially quote the reason but guessing that it has to do with the still open lawsuit.  All that being said, my legal council can't force me to vote on something that I don't believe had a proper public airing.

I hope this information helps.

Georgia First Amendment Foundation and the AJC to offer an update on Georgia's New Open Government Laws - Oct 30th at the AJC in Dunwoody

The Georgia First Amendment Foundation has designed a program to discuss the 2012 updates to the Georgia sunshine laws scheduled for October 30, 2012.  Please note that the program is free, and open to all, but you must register so they can allocate proper space. Please RSVP to staff@gfaf.org to let them know you are coming. Thank you.

PS: the above agenda has a slight typo, the above presentation is only scheduled for two and a half hours though it was suggested to me that I and the other the members of the Dunwoody City Council should be forced to attend the entire fourteen hour affair. Though I have already attended training on the same topic at a conference initiated by Dunwoody City Hall for governments in the North Metro area, I informed my friend that I would attend if my work schedule allowed it.

Detailed invoices document the Dunwoody Ethics investigation as well as $50,000.00 in expenses.

27 pages documenting $50,000.00

After numerous news stories regarding the investigation into the breach of executive session, a resident asked me if the details of the billing would ever become public therefore I took the liberty of filing an open records request on the residents behalf.  This afternoon the City Clerk fulfilled the request within the allotted time and sent three documents both to me and the resident via email.  I have taken the liberty of combining all three documents into the one linked above.

The invoices provide names and dates which gives insight into the investigation and the preparation of what is now the final ethics report written by Wilson, Morton & Downs. 

The Ethics Board has been given the complaint which references the Wilson report and soon Councilwoman Adrian Bonser will be able to officially give her rebuttal to the Wilson accusations.

Georgia Open Meetings and Open Records Act of 2012 presentation by Stefan Ritter, Georgia's Senior Assistant Attorney General

27 page Presentation

The City of Dunwoody hosted Senior Assistant Attorney General, Stefan Ritter who gave a training session on the new Open Meetings and Open Records law to a large room of elected officials and City Clerk's.

Above is the full presentation.

Common Cause Georgia panel discussion on ethics, hosted by Jim Walls, brings both Tea Party and Occupy leaders to the table.

Georgia Corruption Report

It is an undisputed fact that Jim Walls is the most trusted name in Atlanta news and I have deepest respect for him and the job he does on his Atlanta Unfiltered website. Investigative & watchdog journalism is his specialty and he may be the ultimate expert on legislative ethics in Georgia.

It is my distinct pleasure to invite you to a panel discussion being organized by Common Cause Georgia where Mr. Walls will be discussing the findings of the Corruption Risk Report Card (shown above) along with his detailed analysis with other panel members who are usually on polar opposites of the political spectrum, leaders of the Tea Party and Occupy movements. 

Please join me on Tuesday, May 22nd at 7 P.M.

Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church
Fellowship Hall

471 Mt. Vernon Hwy.

Sandy Springs, GA 30328

Reception starts at 6:30 pm and discussion starts at 7:15pm.

Here’s the list of sponsors and speakers:

Panelists:

Jim Walls of Atlanta Unfiltered

Robert Feria of Occupy Atlanta

Either Debbie Dooley of the Tea Party Patriots or Julianne Thompson from the Atlanta Tea Party

Event Sponsors – Atlanta Tea Party Patriots, Common Cause Georgia, and Georgia Tea Party Patriots

Supporting Sponsors – Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, Heneghan’s Dunwoody Blog, Jack Abramoff*, North Georgia 9-12 and Progressive Democrats of America (Georgia Chapter)

*Jack Abramoff, notorious lobbyist turned ethics crusader can not be in attendance but supports the event.

Updated Dunwoody Agenda and other City Meetings

On Friday at 5 pm, Mayor Mike Davis added a matter of new business to the Monday Night 7 pm Dunwoody City Council Meeting agenda.   The City Clerk notified Council of the change and posted it to the city web site.  Because I would have posted any update to the agenda, I am posting this item as well, but it brings me no joy in order to do so.  Do me a favor, please don't jump to conclusions on this.

ACTION ITEM: Resolution - City Attorney Termination. (Mayor Davis)

There will be an executive session of the Council meeting at 6 pm which only allows us to discuss legal, real estate, and personnel discussions behind closed doors. All votes have to take place in the open, meaning the 7 pm meeting.

Also updated on the city website, it shows that the Council will be visiting a John Wieland development on Monday afternoon followed by an Audit Committee  Meeting and then Council will be attending a training session on Wednesday on the new Open Records / Open Meetings law that was just passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor. 

Georgia Open Meeting and Records Law of 2012 - Presentation by the Georgia First Amendment Foundation

Click for 25 page presentation

by Shawn McIntosh and Tom Clyde
 

Transparency in Government breeds self-corrective behavior.

H.B.397 Law & Legislative Background open meetings and records; revise provisions

AJC - Law prods public officials toward transparency

Tuesday am. Georgia Attorney General, Sam Olens, Discusses the Revamped Sunshine Laws

Video Cameras are always welcome at Public Meetings with Government Officials

I have been recording public meetings with public officials for as long as I can remember and with the internet those videos can go straight to the web documenting exactly what happened and what was said.  I have had minor push back from time to time, Vernon Jones & the DeKalb School System meetings are the two that immediately come to mind, but push come to shove everyone knew that I was well versed in the law and that they had to allow me to tape what ever I wanted in the public session.

This Ohio congressman and the policeman that followed his orders are complete fools, whereby if this is not a lawsuit waiting to happen, at the very least it is a public relations nightmare.  The video shows the officer confiscating cameras from members of the audience who are not "Press" and the citizens fighting back with reasonable arguments of transparency.  Very embarrassing.

Video

Speaking of public meetings, the next meeting of the Dunwoody Chamblee Parents Council will be taking place on Wednesday, September 7th, 9:15 am at the new Dunwoody High School Auditorium with Ms. Ramona Tyson giving an "Update on DeKalb County School System".  Anyone have a video camera?

Open Records / Public Meetings, Council Decorum, Growlers, Redistricting, DeKalb Supt, Hot Playgrounds and Plane Crash Thoughts.

Things that keep me up at night...

I read on Peach Pundit that the City of Atlanta was accused by the Atlanta Progressive News of violating open records & open meetings and that the case may be headed to the Georgia Supreme Court.  I have pushed from day one to assure that the City of Dunwoody works within the letter of the law, therefore I found the four memos written by the Atlanta Law Department enlightening, especially the items on Committees, therefore I will need to raise the issue with Dunwoody legal staff to double check that we are in good shape.
Memo 1, Memo 2, Memo 3, Memo 4

I read an interesting editorial in the Saturday AJC on the dealings of the Peachtree City Council and I see it as a good reminder for myself and the six other individuals serving on the Dunwoody Council that we are charged with finding common ground (4 votes or better) and once an item is decided those with opposing minority views should not see it as a challenge to push harder until the civil debate becomes a debacle.

I read on Decatur Metro that Growlers - tap beer to go was becoming a big item in that part of the County.  Wonder if Taco Mac, Mellow Mushroom, Dunwoody Tavern or the Total Wine would be willing to expand into this market?  I'll help cut the ribbon.

I read a bunch of articles on redistricting but from what I can tell the rules (quite a few) were followed, what was proposed will probably be approved in the Special Session and then lawsuits may be attempted.  Based on the changes it looks like Tom Taylor and Fran Millar will now be representing every square inch of Dunwoody and then some.

I read that DeKalb has put forward Dr. Cheryl Atkinson as the prospective school superintendent for DeKalb County and that several members (Jester & McChesney) are not happy with the choice.  I wonder what the residents of Lorain Ohio are thinking?  Read here, and here and the comment on here to find out?  What are your thoughts?  I was hoping for more, someone to clean house at the top in order to propel long term change to the educational system.  Countywide DeKalb group let by a Dunwoody father is forming to push for systematic change, please complete the short poll with your email address to learn more.  Our Kids and our Tax Dollars, deserve better than this.

I read something that I already knew, hot play grounds are not fun play grounds therefore I am looking forward to shade being installed in Brook Run soon.

Besides reading, I like to expand my horizons in other ways.  In my spare time, I enjoy watching informational, intellectual and inspirational videos on TED and I just submitted an application to attend the TedxPeachtree conference in person on November 4th.  If you don't know about TED, please check it out as I highly recommend it.  Here is one of my favorite videos, 3 things I learned while my plane crashed.

Good Night.

John Heneghan making the public’s business, plain for all to see - AJC Rick Badie

AJC Article on Heneghan

John Heneghan remembers the roadblocks he encountered when he’d request information from DeKalb County government. Too often, the longtime Dunwoody resident got stonewalled, ignored and met unnecessary resistance about public dealings that should have been completely in the sunshine.

Today, Heneghan is the District 3 at-large councilman in what two years ago became the city of Dunwoody. He routinely updates a blog, dunwoodynorth.
blogspot.com, about municipal meetings, issues, local happenings and so on.

When Dunwoody incorporated into a city, this tech-savvy Chicago native would capture the meetings in audio and convert them to his blog for all to hear.

Within a year, he used his own expense account to buy a webcam and laptop so he could stream meetings live and archive them, too.

When it comes to government, Heneghan believes the public should be able to access every fact he has regarding whatever issue. That includes city e-mails and documents. With him, an open records query isn’t necessary to learn what’s going on with proposal A or issue B. He’s the conduit.

It’s fair to say the behavior of this 43-year-old regional director for the federal Department of Transportation is atypical of political behavior we witness across the metropolis. (Think the Atlanta Public Schools’ testing scandal). Some locales have come to expect stonewalls, grandstands and arrows shot at the pesky media for attempts to simply divulge the facts.

Then in walks Heneghan.

“Dunwoody grew up under the auspices of DeKalb County, where I have had to file so many open records requests,” he told me. “We need to be the opposite of what we have broken away from. Now, everybody is used to me doing what I do in Dunwoody. It’s natural.”

Now it appears that Heneghan’s council colleagues, and officials in Alpharetta, Dunwoody and Milton, are just as intrigued with live and streaming government; with bringing municipal meetings to residents, in their living rooms. They’ve invested in the technology. Some systems allow time-stamp recordings so residents can call meetings up online and navigate to a specific agenda item.

Many folks can’t attend meetings. Some, frankly, are disinterested unless directly affected. With such technology, though, it’s even harder to say you’ve been kept in the dark on purpose. You can tap the computer and watch anytime.

Heneghan posts in his blog any e-mails and documents he receives on city-related matters. That practice propels the idea of transparency to a whole other sphere. He wants residents to help run the city.

“I am not a politician,” he told me. “I am a public servant.”

Maybe that’s the stark difference between him and other officials. This servant has an explanatory statement stripped across the top of his blog:

“First is that when I have the ability to make a difference, I have a responsibility to do so. Transparency in government breeds self-corrective behavior.”

Amen.

Georgia Sunshine Laws, your guides to Open Records and Transparent Government

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting at table with a couple of bloggers, another politician and a bunch of fed up taxpayers whereby we discussed transparency in government for over an hour. We discussed our personal experiences, how it works, the benefits to the community as well as ways to improve the various governments that were at one time or another were actually put in place to best serve us the citizens.  It was awesome.

I explained that as a sitting Dunwoody City Councilman, almost every piece of paper I touch that is City related and every Dunwoody related e-mail I send and receive, is a public record and therefore subject to Georgia's open records law. I explained open meetings law, quorum requirements and the laws surrounding the recording (and publishing) of such meetings to the group.

I told them that I would post a copy of a booklet entitled "Georgia's Sunshine Laws, a Citizen's Guide to Open Government" which covers most non-law enforcement governmental agencies as well as the booklet entitled "Georgia Public Schools and the Open Records Act", a citizens Guide to Accessing School Records.  Finally for your reading pleasure, I have included the Blue document entitled "Georgia Law Enforcement And The Open Records Act; A Law Enforcement Officer’s Guide To Open Records in Georgia".

In having the privilege of setting up a government from scratch, I have pushed transparency first by example and then with the assistance of my fellow council members through policies and procedures in order to have long term impact on the City well after we are off the council. Audio recordings and then video recordings of every Dunwoody meeting have been personally archived by myself and published to the web. Recently a contract was let by the City to install a state of the art video recording and publishing system that will greatly improve what I started. Every document packet that has ever been produced by the City for me to review prior to City Council meetings has been pushed to the web electronically for review of the citizens and now through set policies, procedures and capital investments; the city will forever be doing the same.

I had a fun evening spending time with like minded, passionate individuals who are willing do what they can to affect positive change, some of us now working from inside the establishment while others operate through what are quickly becoming defacto mass media outlets (Atlanta Unfiltered, Peach Pundit, DeKalb School Watch Blog, DeKalb Officers and many, many others) to affect policy though the spread of information.

If you are not familiar with open records and open meetings law please do take a look because believe it or not the Government is actually in place to serve you.

Agenda & Documents for Monday Dunwoody City Council meeting.

Monday, March 8th
Dunwoody City Hall
41 Perimeter Center East

Dunwoody, GA 30346
7:00 p.m. - Watch Live

Work Session Agenda

1. Emergency Medical Service response discussion.
2. Resolution opposing proposed changes to Class B airspace at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
3. Online disclosure reports discussion.
4. City of Dunwoody and Perimeter Community Improvement District (PCID) Cooperation Agreement.
5. Ordinance to amend Chapter 27, Article 4, Section 4-10.1 to include regulations for “Raising Backyard Chickens in Single Family Residence Districts.”
6. Ordinance to amend Chapter 15 re Regulation of taxi cabs.
7. Discussion of Mt. Vernon – Dunwoody Baptist to Sandy Springs linear park/path.
8. Five-year resurfacing plan discussion.
9. Multi-family housing code compliance discussion.
10. Economic Development discussion.
11. Green Building Policy Discussion.
12. Motorized carts discussion.
13. Off-duty police traffic control.
14. Impact fees discussion.