Read the Bill and note the type of government and its
powers. The Bill language will end up in
your city charter. Beware of the “strong
city manager” model, outsourcing work to consultants, it will result in
overcharging. Ensure that you rewrite
this Bill to your liking.
Read the Feasibility Study and look at the proposed
budget on page 20 of the pdf (page 18 of the study). The budget looks exactly like the Dunwoody
budgets. We found the $2 million for Community Development only benefitted the
consultants who suggested it. Make sure
the city accounts for how this will be spent.
I would take $1 million from Community Development and $1 million from
Parks and $1 million from Police and spend this extra 3 million on roads and
storm sewers.
If you use the documents available on other city websites
as your starting point and remove the abuse, you will have a better starting
point and will not need to pay consultants for the same documents. The only thing these consultants are expert
in is implementing Agenda 21 at the city level and that’s where all the
overreach and abuse come from. Everything consultants do will need to be
undone.
If you don’t get ahead of the road rot, the roads will
cost twice what they should. If you
attack all the road bed failure you can find, you will save millions of
dollars. The road bed is laid in a
separate process and costs twice what milling and resurfacing cost. Parks can
wait. They should be maintained but not “improved” or added to with land
purchases. For Police, $6 million should be enough.
Watch out for Land Use Plans and Zoning. Freeze it to match DeKalb rules until you do
a thorough analysis for yourselves.
Resist additional fees and inspections. Don’t allow minimum lot size to be less than
the average lot size in your existing residential neighborhoods and
subdivisions.
Watch out for Stream Buffer requirements. Although Georgia law sets them at 25 feet
from an active stream, you have decades before you are required to comply.
Watch out for on street bike lanes. You are not required to have them. Watch out for “green space” you don’t need it
and it undermines property rights. Check
your easements on your property plat and challenge any that seem excessive.
Don’t allow federal grants from MARTA or GDOT or any
government agency. They offer to give
you generally 10% to 25% of the cost of a project, but the rest will come from
your tax money.
Georgia law allows for a lot of abuse by local
government. Under Georgia law, local government can borrow up to 10% of the
recorded value of all property in your city, including your property. It should be limited to city owned assets.
Georgia law allows redevelopment powers you should not approve. This allows the City Council to create
separate entities governed by appointed, unelected officials with borrowing
powers.
Bonds are a bad deal for taxpayers and there is no reason
for cities, counties, school boards and states to borrow any money unless they
want to buy police cars instead of leasing them. Government entities should set
up accrual accounts and pile up reserves for capital expenses and never pay
fees or interest for anything but life and death issues.
Economic Development is a nice way of saying tax
subsidies to crony companies. Keep City
tax money separate from private enterprise activities. Don’t let the City retain the rights to
condemn or buy property without a vote by the voters. Don’t let the City take on any debt or sell
any Bonds without voter approval. Don’t let the City
Municipal consultants and developers and law firms make
campaign contributions to city and state politicians. Two of these municipal consultants can be
found on Tom Taylor’s contribution list.
They are JAT Consulting and Calvin Giordano & Associates. Read their websites and you will see they
both claim credit for the City of Dunwoody start-up. Taylor serves as GA House
District 79 Rep and served previously on the Dunwoody City Council. Look up Mike Jacobs campaign contributors
and you will find the pro-T-SPLOST groups.
Neither have much in the way of campaign contributions from regular
voters.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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