Two big meetings tonight - PDK / FAA in Chamblee and DeKalb County School System at Peachtree Charter Middle School.

There are two big meetings happening tonight and unfortunately I am going to miss both of them because of a scheduled work conflict.

PDK Airspace meeting and FAA Presentation in Chamblee

The first is the FAA Presentation on the possible reduction of class B airspace around PDK so that the FAA can implement a "Constant Descent Approach" over Atlanta into ATL.  I have discussed this several times on the blog so please read up on the subject here if you are not aware of the issue.

FAA is making presentations on Monday, March 1st at 3:00, 5:00, and 7:00 at the Chamblee Civic Center.

Chamblee Civic Center
3540 Broad Street
Chamblee, GA 30341

DeKalb County School System - work session @ PCMS 6 pm

The second big meeting of the evening is a scheduled work session of the DeKalb County School System where there is going to be citizen comments, latest financial report, latest human resources report, discuss spending 7 million on textbooks, spending another million on IT (fiber & cabling) and finally discussing a proposed Ethics policy.

All documents (except the proposed Ethics Policy?) are available here.

Peachtree Charter Middle School at 6 p.m.
4664 N. Peachtree Road
Dunwoody, GA 30338

A friend asked why I have been so quiet recently on all of the big events of the school system?  The first I guess is disbelief  that the man at the top would be doing something so illegal as to be criminal in nature. Not that I and others don't see waste and mismanagement but if Dr. Crawford Lewis is found lining his pockets with anything more than a few tanks of gas; the system as a whole will be in question and my guess is that accreditation my soon be under review if not pulled like Clayton County.  Second, this series of events may finally light a fire under the School Board to make drastic cuts and the results of Monday's meeting will tell a lot.  I highly encourage your attendance.

Remember 70 % of your property taxes go to the DeKalb County Board of Education. Are you paying attention or just paying the bill?

City of Dunwoody Update by Councilman Robert Wittenstein

Dear Dunwoody Friends and Neighbors, I've been spending time lately thinking about how much government regulation is the right amount and how much is too much.  There have been several proposals or discussions in the last few weeks about enacting new laws or tightening up existing regulations.   Not all of these have broad support on the city council, so many of these won't go anywhere, but some might. Most of us worked to form the city of Dunwoody to improve the level of services and to gain control over zoning.  Now that we are a city we need to establish the right level of regulation.  Nearly all of us, me included, were in favor of new restrictions on bar closing times (from  4:00 AM to 2:00 AM).  But what about other restrictions?  Below is a list of several new regulations or increased restrictions that have been recently discussed: Require all homeowners and businesses to display their street address so that it is easily viewable from the street. Require all newly constructed single family homes to have sprinkler systems installed. (This is already a requirement for multi-family homes.) Restrict people who live in subdivisions from parking their cars in front of their homes except for short periods of time. Restrict the number of cars a homeowner can have in their driveway or visible from the street. Make participation in the DeKalb recycling program mandatory. Register, regulate and tax taxicabs and limousines that come into Dunwoody to pick up passengers. Further restrict the times that a homeowner can have a landscape company working at their home or a construction company or roofing company can work anywhere in Dunwoody. Which of these would you favor and which seem like government interference?  I've gotten enough e-mails on all sides of these issues to know that what seems like government tyranny to some is an important quality of life or safety issue to others.  What do you think? On a somewhat related issue, next month the City Council will decide whether or not to allow Dunwoody homeowners to raise six to eight chickens in their backyard.  There are already half a dozen families with children doing this in Dunwoody and their chicken coops are attractive and odor-free.  The chickens are a kid-magnet in each neighborhood and the locally produced organic eggs are a prize in certain circles.  Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Roswell, Atlanta and Decatur all allow small numbers of backyard chickens.  The Dunwoody Planning Commission recommended approval unanimously.  If you would like to learn more about backyard chicken raising check out this link. Finally, I'm very pleased to report that we have been awarded a grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) as part of their Livable Cities Initiative of $80,000 to help underwrite the cost of creating a new master plan for Dunwoody Village.  The master plan will "develop strategies for transforming the area into a vibrant town center, including development of new parks, green space, improved commercial space, and traffic flow."  It is very exciting and I look forward to lots of community involvement later this year when we hold public meetings to help establish the vision. Regards, Robert

DeKalb County Police Officers are worried about the future of their department.

I have friends on the DeKalb County Police Department and they are worried about the future viability of the Department.  At this weeks DeKalb Board of Commissioners meeting the BOC made the tough decision to cut the police officers annual salary by not paying for holidays.  The morale of the Department has been low for a few years though I'm told it has been on the upswing recently with the recent political and managerial changes.

CEO Burrell Ellis and the BOC have a tough job of paring down a bloated County budget in very lean economic times and the actions already taken will be reassessed when the revenue projections on real estate taxes are firmed up in April or May.  It will be at that time that the financial condition of the county will be completely reassessed and tax increases will again be considered.

Below is the public comment from the DeKalb Fraternal Order of Police at the BOC meeting where he describes the long term affects of lowering police officer salary, offering early retirements when the department is already under staffed and it would take another year to recruit & train the new police officers to work on their own.  Though the City of Dunwoody now has their own department, we are still residents of DeKalb County and therefore want a strong DeKalb police force as our neighbor.  I don't have the budget answers but I believe that the County by not properly staffing and compensating their police officers are being penny wise and pound foolish in the long term.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkUiAi9TgQ4

With 1 sec left in the fourth OT, Dunwoody player hits a shot from opposite foul line to tie.

Incredible circumstances and shot

In last Saturday's region tournament game, it's the 4th(!) overtime between Dunwoody (in white) and Riverwood (in blue). Dunwoody is down by three with only a few seconds left and R'wood has one foul shot left.  Foul shot misses left, Dunwoody rebounds and fires a shot across 3/4 of the court tying the game into a 5th overtime.  (Sadly for Dunwoody, Riverwood won in the 5th OT and the Wildcats did not make the state tournament.)

DeKalb County Judge Candidates have started their campaigns.

By Ben Smith, Special to the Daily Report

Eight lawyers have formally announced their candidacies for open judgeships in DeKalb County

Superior Court:

• Courtney L. Johnson

• Michael L. Rothenberg

• Denise M. Warner

State Court:

• Akintunde A. Akinyele

• Sherry Boston

• Nicole D. Marchand

• Anton L. Rowe

• Phyllis R. Williams

Elections in 2010 to replace two retiring judges could mark a historic shift in the makeup of DeKalb County's judiciary.  Superior Court Judge Robert J. Castellani and State Court Judge Edward E. Carriere Jr., both white men, say they will not seek re-election this year. Eight candidates, seven of whom are black, are vying to replace them.  The election will take place Nov. 2.

If African Americans win both judicial elections, ethnic minorities would outnumber whites on the DeKalb bench in Superior and State Court.  If a woman takes Castellani's seat, there would be as many female judges as males presiding in Superior Court. Currently, four of the 10 judges in Superior Court are female and half are black.  Of DeKalb's seven State Court judges, two are women and three are ethnic minorities.

Three lawyers have formally announced their candidacies for Castellani's Superior Court seat. Among them is DeKalb Bar Association President Denise M. Warner, a specialist in family law and a law clerk for Superior Court Judge Mark A. Scott.  Also running are DeKalb Assistant District Attorney Courtney L. Johnson and attorney Michael L. Rothenberg.  Rothenberg is the only white candidate running in either judicial contest.

Meanwhile, five candidates are competing for the State Court judgeship. They include Chief Assistant Solicitor General Nicole D. Marchand and attorneys Phyllis R. Williams and Sherry Boston.  Senior Assistant District Attorney Akintunde A. “Tunde” Akinyele and Anton L. Rowe, a Stone Mountain lawyer, are also running for the post.  With four months until qualifying, there is still plenty of time for candidates to drop in and out of these races.  “We'll probably see a few more names jump in,” said Keith E. Adams, a former DeKalb County assistant district attorney currently in private practice.

Adams hasn't picked a candidate to support for Superior Court judge. He said he is backing Williams in the State Court race.  Nevertheless, Adams called the current field of candidates, “all good folks with good strong backgrounds and well regarded by the bar.”

Besides the three prosecutors running, two candidates—Rothenberg and Boston—are part-time DeKalb recorders court judges. Boston also serves as a part-time municipal court judge for the city of Dunwoody.

Two others, Williams and Rowe, are hearing officers for the DeKalb County merit system and human resources department.  Williams last summer presided over merit system hearings on the firing of DeKalb Police Chief Terrell Bolton. Williams upheld DeKalb Chief Executive Officer W. Burrell Ellis Jr.'s decision to fire Bolton for insubordination.

The personal experiences of some of the other candidates seem as varied as their résumés. Rowe is pastor of his own church. Marchand is an Atlanta Falcons cheerleader, though she plans on giving it up when her contract expires in April.  Marchand, 31, is the youngest candidate. She started her career in the DeKalb solicitor's office shortly after her graduation in 2003 from Emory University Law School. She's also served as a DeKalb assistant district attorney.

Akinyele is the son of a retired Nigerian civil servant important enough to have a street named after him. If elected, Akinyele says he'd be the state's first Nigerian-born judge. Akinyele, who at 16 immigrated to the U.S. in 1983, holds degrees in a variety of fields, including a master's degree in health care administration. He joined the DeKalb district attorney's office in 2003.

The Superior Court contest started only recently with Castellani's Jan. 11 announcement that he won't be running for re-election in 2010. The State Court race has been going on much longer. Boston, the most recent candidate to enter the race, filed the necessary paperwork to start raising money in July.  Akinyele, the first to enter the race, signed up to run in September 2008.

The Superior Court candidates haven't been running long enough to file campaign disclosures.
Meanwhile campaign finance records show that none of the State Court candidates has jumped to a commanding lead in the race for contributions.

Records show that Williams leads in fundraising. According to the latest disclosures, which were filed in December, Williams has raised $44,159. Her contributors include Adams, attorney Griffin B. Bell III and The Barnes Law Group.  Marchand reported having raised $40,000. Among her contributors were two local bonding companies. Attorney L. Lin Wood Jr. and former DeKalb District Attorney Jeffrey H. Brickman were listed as contributors to Boston's campaign. Boston reported raising $34,640 as of Dec. 31.  Akinyele, who reported having raised $30,000, listed attorneys Michael D. Mann and Rodney A. Williams as contributors.  Rowe, meanwhile lagged far behind with $3,251 in cash donations.

“In this economy,” said Johnson, “it's difficult to raise money, especially for a political race.”

Atlanta Regional Commission shows that Dunwoody had a huge net gain of multi-family units since 2000

The City of Dunwoody records show that there are 308 apartment / condominium buildings in Dunwoody, housing a total of 9,301 units.  The Atlanta Regional Commission just released the February 2010, Population and Housing Report which indicates that in the last nine years, Dunwoody has exploded in the number of multi-family housing units ranking in the top 10 ten growth areas in the State of Georgia.

 

I guess I'm not telling you anything you don't already know?

ARC Regional Snapshot 2009 Population and Housing Report