This is a blog about the small town of Tucker, Georgia, which is located just outside the major metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. On March 13, 2013, the residents of Tucker learned that a small group of politically motivated individuals who lived nearby wanted to incorporate using Tucker's commercial areas and leaving many of the long-time residents on the outskirts of the new city. This is the story of how the residents have fought back to preserve history and their own community.
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Ethics Issues with the Ethics Board in DeKalb?
Former County Commissioner Elaine Boyer's Chief of Staff Bob Lundsten claims that the Ethics Board in DeKalb is led by a man with questionable ethics.
From the AJC: (the referenced Channel 2 video is posted above.)
As an ethics case is pending against Bob Lundsten, the chief of staff for former DeKalb County Commissioner Elaine Boyer, he has brought his own complaint against the chairman of the Board of Ethics.
Lundsten’s complaint, filed Thursday, accused Board of Ethics Chairman John Ernst of failing to be impartial. During an interview with Channel 2 Action News, Ernst compared unethical government employees to termites.
“Sometimes when there’s termites in the building, the homeowner doesn't care how they get out,” Ernst said in the interview. “If they leave, they leave.”
Ernst said Friday he has no opinion on Lundsten’s case and hasn't yet received an investigator’s report.
“I want to make it clear, however, that I in no way mentioned Mr. Lundsten in my comments about DeKalb employees who have already left,” Ernst said.
Boyer resigned and then pleaded guilty Sept. 3 to charges that she accumulated more than $15,000 in personal expenses on her county-issued Visa card and engineered a $78,000 kickback scheme.
Lundsten has continued to work since her departure, and voters will decide on a new commissioner in Tuesday’s election.
The pending ethics complaint against Lundsten alleged he too misused his county purchasing card for personal expenses.
This could be the change that residents will see if Tucker 2015 is successful in getting its referendum nto a ballot and voters approve it. The driving force behind the city of Tucker has been the leadership within the community known as "Smoke Rise, GA." Smoke Rise residents currently have addresses that say "Stone Mountain, GA" and many of them worked hard in order to create a separate identity for themselves, petitioning the U.S. Post Office to change their official name to "Smoke Rise." While the Post Office did not agree to change the official name, they did agree to allow "Smoke Rise" as a recognized alternative to "Stone Mountain" that could be used interchangeably as long as it accompanied their 30087 zip code. It is important to note that these residents did not ask the Post Office to recognize their use of "Tucker" as an acceptable alternative. They asked to be called "Smoke Rise." It appears t...
From the time of the first announcement ever made about a "Lakeside City" (now called "Lavista Hills), we heard the name "Kevin Levitas" associated with it. It wasn't clear if he was the leader or if it was Mary Kay Woodworth, or possibly both of them together in a typical PTA type of shared credit, deflected blame. But, what we did NOT know until much later was the very long standing love/hate relationship that Mr. Levitas has with our community. We don't know or understand all the factors that have gone into his crusade to destroy Tucker any more than we can understand a politician who switches parties but maintains that his own philosophy on life has remained the same (which was also something Levitas did, along with others including our own Governor of Georgia). But, what is downright outrageous and possibly even deceptive to our Central Dekalb citizens is the fact that Levitas, who has publicly stated his confusion over what exactly is a...
Sen. Millar Sen. Millar should know better. When he claimed that 80% of the Livsey precinct wants to be in the City of Lavista Hills (aka Lakeside City), he already knew that there are people claiming the petition takers lied and even harassed them in order to get them to sign. Some said they were made promises having to do with attendance zones and Lakeside High School. Some even said they were told the only referendum would be the Lakeside one so it would be the only way to have a vote at all. In short, they were sold a bill of goods by some people whom they can never actually hold accountable and might not ever even see again. Some of the petition signers spoke limited English and later said they signed just to stop the person from returning to their home every day to ask if they had changed their minds and were ready to sign. High pressure, low morals. Great combination for disaster. And, this "Neighbors for Lakeside" group that was tak...
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