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Dear (INSERT NAME), Thank You for Supporting ALEC!

Oh No!  In reviewing the city bills submitted last week to the House Government Affairs Committee, it looks like the Lavista Hills group is going to be off to a rocky start if someone doesn't warn them!  Not only will the taxpayers find out that their new government is not able to read directions or follow them very well, they might also learn that they will have to elect their new officials AND their replacements all within a few short months!  

Yes, that's right!  The FIRST city council will be elected, according to the LaVista Hills charter, in March 2016 and then their terms end in November 2016, just eight months after they get started!  


INSERT DATE 
Dear INSERT NAME
Thank You for Supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)!  Your shell documents for the creation of a city of INSERT CITY NAME are enclosed.
Please note that the use of these documents does not imply that ALEC will in any way admit to having prepared the legislation for the city of INSERT CITY NAME.
In fact, in order to avoid detection by the taxpayers in the district of INSERT COUNTY NAME in the state of INSERT STATE NAME, we recommend that you personally review the finished product, paying special attention to the portions where you are asked to insert your own specific date and city information.
Once you have completed this task, you will receive the financial support of our organization and free tickets to see the INSERT SPORTS TEAM NAME play against the INSERT SPORTS TEAM NAME from the luxury of our box suite.  Enjoy!
If you have any questions, feel free to call anyone at the help desk, Monday through Friday.  
Sincerely,
INSERT NAME 
Member, ALECa  non profit public charity

* The Help Desk is an ALEC service made possible by a public /  private partnership with some of our partners like AT&T, Comcast, K-12 Online Education and the Connections Academy, Inc.   For details, see http://www.alecexposed.org.

HERE ARE THE PROBLEMS SAVE TUCKER! HAS UNCOVERED:

Line 338  ... "An election shall be held on the date of the 2016 presidential preference primary to elect the first mayor and city council."

(according to the AJC: the Georgia primary will be held March 1, 2016.)

then:

Line 299 ... "In order to assure staggered election of the council members, in the first election of the city council, the terms for the candidates elected for Council Districts 1, 3, and 5 shall expire upon the administration of the oath of office to their successors elected in the regular election to be held in November, 2016, as provided in ... "

So, the first people elected in March 2016, for district 1, 3, 5 will be replaced a few months later?

Line 303 ... "The terms for the candidates elected for Council District 2, 4, 6 shall expire upon the administration of the oath of office to their successors elected in the regular election held in November, 2019.

So, the districts 2, 4, 6 will be in office for 3 years instead of 4?  

Line 317 ... "The term of the first elected mayor shall expire upon the administration of the oath of office to his or her successor elected in the regular election to be held in November, 2019..."

The first mayor will also serve for only 3 years?

And, by the way, there is no comma after the month unless there is a specific date provided.  For example, it is:  November 1, 2019 or just November 2019.  For a list of the top five comma mistakes, click here.  Just a little pesky thing to deal with when using Shell Documents.  

Don't worry, we found problems with the Tucker  bill, too.  We will write more about that soon!  But, the larger issue at hand is how any  of the proposed cities can be considered legitimate or authentic when they are nothing more than carbon copies of each other.
Is it fair to say that the two groups, Lavista Hills (Lakeside) and Tucker are
working together to abuse the trust of the voters in their area?  Well, it would
not be the first time, if this prior political filing is any indication. 

Think about it... if the residents in Tucker were just as upset as the residents at Lakeside about the delivery of their services and the cost of them, then why wouldn't they have simply banded together in their separation from the county's way to form a single city?  Why would Lakeside City Alliance have felt that the only way for them to introduce their placeholder bill without strong opposition was to introduce it on the last week of the  session in 2013, leaving Tucker little to no time to do anything about it?  If they share a school district politically and they even have shown support in terms of the Tucker-Northlake CID, then how in the world were they not able to be supportive when it comes to something like forming a "better" way for everyone?  

Why would Tucker residents be so mad and insist that they ALL be taken out of the Lakeside / Lavista  Hills map instead of just asking that the ALL  be placed into it instead?  

Now that a boundary committee, assembled when the official legislative session was not even in office, decided the borders between the two groups, shouldn't they be required to follow the rules of the committee - required feasibility studies?  

DID Tucker actually FILE ITS PLACEHOLDER IN TIME in 2013???   Or, did we miss the cutoff date, meaning that our bill was actually a placeholder for that year?  We were forced into a 2014 - 2015 timetable.   

The bills filed for Lakeside, Briarcliff, Stonecrest, Prosperity and DeKalb County were all just games being played by the same government we have all been turning to, asking for help in the face of corruption.  GAMES!  

Well, they can  have their fun now, but it won't last long.  Once voters are finally able to vote, they will let their true voice be heard.   We  have every confidence that our neighbors and fellow citizens throughout the county will vote NO and put our communities back in place the way they were before the city groups salivated over the commercial and forgot to include the people who make this such a great place to live!

Here's some text from an article on the Bill Moyer's website about ACCE, the new city and county version of this new form of American politics ... the one that puts corporations in the driver's seat and the voters chained up to the bumper!  READ ON... 


The American Legislative Exchange Council — ALEC — has had quite a bit of success writing “model” bills that advance the interests of its corporate backers and then wining and dining friendly state lawmakers to grease the wheels for their passage. Now, the organization is looking to replicate that success on the local level with a new sister organization, according to a report by Ed Pilkington in The Guardian. 
Pilkington writes:
The American Legislative Exchange Council, founded in 1973, has become one of the most pervasive advocacy operations in the nation. It brings elected officials together with representatives of major corporations, giving those companies a direct channel into legislation in the form of ALEC “model bills.”
Critics have decried the network as a “corporate bill mill” that has spread uniformly-drafted rightwing legislation from state to state. ALEC has been seminal, for instance, in the replication of Florida’s controversial “stand-your-ground” gun law in more than 20 states.
Now the council is looking to take its blueprint for influence over statewide lawmaking and drill it down to the local level. It has already quietly set up, and is making plans for the public launch of, an offshoot called the American City County Exchange (ACCE) that will target policymakers from “villages, towns, cities and counties.”
The new organization will offer corporate America a direct conduit into the policy making process of city councils and municipalities. Lobbyists acting on behalf of major businesses will be able to propose resolutions and argue for new profit-enhancing legislation in front of elected city officials, who will then return to their council chambers and seek to implement the proposals.

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