Snellville City Clerk and Chief Financial Officer takes Clerk job with Dunwoody

I don't know Snellville internal politics but it appears that Dunwoody just landed a very competent employee to serve as our City Clerk.

By Shane Blatt for the AJC

Snellville’s city clerk has resigned her post to take the same position in the fledgling city of Dunwoody. Government veteran Sharon Lowery will become the first city clerk for Georgia’s newest municipality, which officially started up Dec. 1. Lowery began her Snellville career in the police department and has been city clerk for “a good chunk” of her 25 years with the city, said Snellville city manager Russell Treadway.

“I think it’s great news for her. It’s sad news for us,” Treadway said of Lowery, who is also the city’s chief financial officer.

“She also has a lot of institional memory and community memory,” he said. “We’ll miss what she brings to the city on a daily basis … and her passion for making us better.”

Lowery, whose last day with Snellville is Jan. 15, isn’t the only city official from Gwinnett County attracted to the rookie city in DeKalb County. Warren Hutmacher resigned as Norcross city manager in November to become Dunwoody’s first city manager.

Dunwoody may feel like Mayberry to some, but Barney Fife need not apply to our Police Department.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGW_su6fLYc

The Thursday AJC has a nice little article discussing the fact that the Dunwoody Police Department will be hiring 38 experienced police officers and that the City will be offering a different kind of job opportunity. If you are an experienced officer looking for a change, all are encouraged to apply.

“You have to offer something that would encourage them to leave their agency, and come to your agency,” said Billy Grogan, the new chief of police in Dunwoody, which is preparing to hire 38 sworn officers by March.

Along with a competitive salary and benefits, Grogan said, “You do that by offering a different kind of a job opportunity.” The recession has tightened spending in the smaller suburban cities but hasn’t resulted in layoffs. And a few departments plan to add more positions.

Openings for firefighters remain rare. Police jobs are more plentiful. In Dunwoody, preparing for a relative hiring binge, police applications are arriving from several communities, including Atlanta. Grogan said the salary range hasn’t been set yet, but he is seeking a range of $38,000 to $57,000 for patrol officers, depending on experience. Initially, the new city plans to hire only seasoned officers. Among other things, he plans to recruit officers by allowing them to take their patrol cars home.

Apply Today

http://www.dunwoodyga.gov/Police-Department

Dunwoody Homeowners Association annual meeting - Sunday, January 11th

You are cordially invited to attend the
Dunwoody Homeowners Association
2009 Annual Meeting
Sunday, January 11th at 2:30 PM
Dunwoody United Methodist Church
Fellowship Hall
1548 Mount Vernon Road

www.dunwoodyga.org

Various Items of Dunwoody Interest, Meeting Recap, Doraville Vote, Crime, Geography and the Taste of Dunwoody

Tonight's Dunwoody City Council meeting started at 7 p.m. and ended after 11 p.m. with an extended executive session talking about personnel issues and real estate. Since I am not suppose to discuss the details, I'll just let you decipher for yourself what I am allowed to tell you, ersonnelpay issuesway & ealray estateway. I hope that cleared that up.

The audio from the meeting is up available beginning here and then half way though starting here. Take a look at the agenda, the first audio clip is from the start until our Tax Note and the second clip is from our zoning fee schedule until the start of the executive session. No audio was recorded in executive session.

As far as a recap, it was an uneventful meeting whereby we adopted DeKalb's Comprehensive Plan and Land Use Map until we completely redo them in the Dunwoody comprehensive plan later this year.

We deferred the Comcast franchise agreement since the Council still had a few questions that had to be hammered out prior to it being ready for our vote. We pretty much passed the other items on the agenda, many of which were put in front of us several times prior.

The change in the meeting procedures to allow public comment and the alcohol amendment to allow permitted drinking in the parks under a special use permit were both tabled until they could be discussed at a City Council Retreat coming up on the 20th of the month and then possibly reintroduced at the next voting session.

We have a new Finance Director by the name of John Grotheer who's resume looks impressive and he starts very soon. FYI: this was not part of the executive session so please don't go filing ethics charges on me just yet.

I received the Dunwoody Crime stats for the holiday season and it looks like shoplifting and entering autos were a mainstay of looking for that perfect gift. Ho, Ho, smash & grab.

It was finally decided that Doraville will be voting for annexation again on Jan 27th and I hope it passes this time in order to remove the pockets of unincorporated DeKalb that will still be serviced by the DeKalb PD if it doesn't. Nothing against DeKalb PD doing it, except that it will be inconvenient for them to continue to do so since they would have to go though Doraville to service the little pockets of the unincorporated areas.

My favorite night out event with the wife was just announced and I'll be looking for a large group of our friends to join us. Great food, good atmosphere and even a better cause, the Taste of Dunwoody at the W Hotel.

Congrats to the Vanderlyn 3rd and 4th grade team who finished 3rd in the County wide Geography Bowl. This was an awesome event hosted by the DeKalb School of Arts and if you think you know your Geography, test your skill here.

Dunwoody is still part of the County and today was a good day for All the Citizens of DeKalb County

DeKalb County CEO
Burrell Ellis

Today was Inauguration Day in DeKalb County with 41 DeKalb County elected officials being sworn in to their respective posts. Some were being sworn in for the first time and for others, this day as happened previously many times. As far as I am concerned, no matter how many times it has occurred each time is significant and a very special privilege that should not be taken lightly.

Burrell Ellis took over the reins of DeKalb County CEO and is looking to unify the County which has been divided by the divisive politics of the past. Mr. Ellis held a Unity Inauguration so that all the elected officials of DeKalb could be sworn in as a group, not as politicians but as public servants who serve for the greater good of others. Burrell reached out to every elected official within DeKalb County, including the Dunwoody City Council to join him in an Inaugural Breakfast for Elected Officials. Mayor Ken Wright and all six of the Dunwoody City Council members arrived en mass to congratulate Burrell and enjoy the company of our fellow elected officials.

Later in the evening, I returned to the Official Decatur Inaugural Reception in order to meet up with a few people who I knew who were going to be in attendance and missed out on the morning event. It was a great day in DeKalb County and I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I proudly wore this shiny new name badge that told the world that I was a Member of the Dunwoody City Council.

I talked to…

Keith Barker, Burrell’s Executive Assistant about our future negotiations of the parks and property transfers and we both expressed a mutual desire to come to an amenable decision on the transfer of properties between the County and the City.

Fran Millar on the upcoming legislative session and that he will be hosting a Legislative Forum at Dunwoody United Methodist Church on Sunday.

Doraville Council Members, Donna Pittman & Bob Roach on the Doraville Annexation and a possible revote.

DeKalb School Board Member Jim Redovian on the need for the county and the board to align on future development within the county. Jim in our discussion was unaware of the DeKalb County School Watch blog and I informed him that it was must read for himself and the other members of the school board (not to mention all parents and taxpayers).

School Board Member Pam Speaks about the expectations of being a first time elected official.

Yvonne Williams of the Perimeter Community Improvement District about transportation funding which lead to an invitation for me to meet GA DOT Commissioner Gena Evans later this month.

Representative Mike Jacobs on the fact that he should blog more now that his political season was about to get under way.

DeKalb Commissioner Jeff Rader regarding future negotiations over the parks in Dunwoody and the need for all citizens of DeKalb to be able to use the facilities in Dunwoody.

Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd on the benefits and pitfalls of political blogging as a politician.

Decatur City Commissioner Fred Boykin on their cities volunteer coordinator which coordinates 1000’s of hours of volunteer assistance to various non-profit and city related projects.

Dunwoody Nature Center Executive Director, Claire Hayes; Decatur Parks Director Dan Magee and Deputy Director of DeKalb County Parks, Marvin Billups about the opportunities and challenges of Dunwoody someday running its own park system.

Sheriff Tom Brown on future interactions between the Dunwoody PD and the Jail.

Monsignor Donald Kiernan from All Saints Catholic Church where I attend on a regular basis.

Besides those little tidbits of conversation, you should know that Dunwoody was well represented at CEO Burrell Ellis’s Inauguration and in turn CEO Ellis represented the County with Class and Distinction. I look forward to working with him and his administration.

2nd vote on Doraville annexation in judge’s hands

By April Hunt for the AJC
If a judge agrees, voters in three neighborhoods just outside Doraville will get to vote again next month on whether to join the northern DeKalb County city.

A new election on Jan. 27 would be a win for Eleanor Crane, a voter and poll worker who filed a petition in DeKalb Superior Court claiming that ballot problems marred the Nov. 4 vote. The annexation, which appeared to have succeeded at first, failed by 34 votes out of 1,138 cast.

“She just wants there to be a fair process,” said Dan Weber, a state senator and attorney who represented Crane in her case. “The board of election itself acknowledged there were irregularities.”

County spokeswoman Kristie Swink confirmed Tuesday that DeKalb had agreed to a special election.

Superior Court Judge Linda Warren Hunter is expected to review the election consent order as early as this week. If she does not sign off on the deal, the election date can be canceled and negotiations on Crane’s petition will resume.

Election supervisor Linda Latimore and her assistant director, Maxine Daniels, were out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Election officials have acknowledged that they mistakenly left the annexation question off ballots in at least one precinct and that some mailed absentee ballots also did not include the question.

Under the proposal, Doraville would have absorbed Cherokee Hills, Oakcliff Estates and Sequoyah Woods, expanding its borders up to the new city of Dunwoody and boosting its population by about 65 percent, to 17,000 residents.

City officials expressed support for Crane’s petition but stopped short of issuing their own call for a new vote. The city council agreed to pay the $3,000 to $4,000 bill for a special election.

Elections officials published a call for a special election during Christmas week, in anticipation of an agreement.