Skip to main content

House Governmental Affairs Meeting on Tucker and Lavista Hills TODAY, March 3, 2 p.m.

HB 515 (City of Tucker) and 520 (City of LaVista Hills) are on TODAY's Governmental Affairs Committee agenda, March 3.  

Governmental Affairs Committee meeting is TODAY at 2:00 pm in room 606 of the COLB. HB 520 (LaVista hills) and HB 515 (tucker) are on the agenda.  Anyone who has an interest in these bills who can make it, is invited to attend.  

Otherwise, email your brief opinion to the Representatives below ASAP!  

Save Tucker! has the position that:  

1.) Regardless of whether or not you agree with the map of Tucker, one thing for sure is that we do not want to see the Tucker bill move ahead first and definitely not on a ballot before LaVista Hills makes its attempt at having a referendum pass.  If Lavista Hills fails, then we can go back to the way things were before this nightmare started. Or, we could study the "real" Tucker area  or even the originally proposed city of "Northlake." There is no reason for Tucker to move ahead of the others or, worse, by itself completely.

2.) The map is too big in some ways and too small in others.  It does not protect our zip code which is a very clearly designated area where everyone identifies themselves as being in "Tucker."   We are especially concerned about the Sam Moss Center which has always been in Tucker and will be vital if used in a future school system or for a repair station for a future passenger rail.   It should not go to any area that is considering breaking away from the county system as it is vital to the transportation system within the DeKalb School System.  The same is true for the Bryant Center on Lawrenceville Highway. It contains sensitive digital records that are the property of the state and should not be turned over to a  potential city that wants to see our school system fail so they can help get an amendment for a new one.

3.)  The map excludes a large portion of our residents who live in Gwinnett County.

4.)  The city as drawn is more about creating "Smoke Rise," than it is about Tucker.  The leader of Tucker 2015 (Auman) lists his own address as "Stone Mountain" (Smoke Rise) as did our former commissioner Elaine Boyer who was involved in the initial dispute between Tucker and Lakeside.   Rep. Mitchell also lives in Stone Mountain.  Since the records are not available for anyone to see who donated, we are unaware who contributed.

5.)   The charter document is being kept secret from the public for some reason.

6.)  The other leader of Tucker 2014/15  (Penkava) lives near the Gwinnett border and Royal Atlanta, an area that was going to be taken in by the Stone Mountain CID.  She has been directly connected to the other city groups and has kept the Tucker community in the dark.  She is also linked to the "Neighbors for Lakeside City."

 7.)  The rules of the House were originally stated very clearly and no one asked that they be changed just for DeKalb.  According to the rules, this is the year for a placeholder bill only.  It should remain as it has always existed since Sandy Springs - a two year process intended for only one city bill at a time. 

Governmental Affairs Committee Members email and phone numbers:
Chair Ed Rynders (erynders@bellsouth.net ) 404.656.6801,
Vice Chair Buzz Brockway (buzz.brockway@house.ga.gov) 404.656.0188,
Secretary Darlene Taylor (darlene.taylor@house.ga.gov) 404.656.0178
Tyrone Brooks (tyrone.brooks@house.ga.gov) 404.656.6372,
Amy Carter (amy.carter@house.ga.gov) 404.463.2248
Barry Fleming (barry.fleming@house.ga.gov) 404.656.0152,
Hugh Floyd (hughfloyd@mindspring.com) 404.656.0314,
Mark Hamilton (mark.hamilton@house.ga.gov) 404.656.5132,
Dustin Hightower (dustin.hightower@house.ga.gov) 404.657.1803,
Kidd Culver (“Rusty”) (rusty.kidd@house.ga.gov) 404.656.0202,
Eddie Lumsden (eddie.lumsden@house.ga.gov) 404.656.0325,
Ronnie Mabra (ronnie.mabra@house.ga.gov) 404.656.7859,
John Meadows (john.meadows@house.ga.gov) 404.656.5141,
Howard Mosby (howard.mosby@house.ga.gov) DeKalb Delegation 404.656.0287,
Larry O’Neal (larry.oneal@house.ga.gov) 404.656.5052,
Mary Margaret Oliver (mmo@mmolaw.com) DeKalb Delegation 404.656.0265,
Alan Powell (alanpowell23@hotmail.com) 404.463.3793,
Jay Powell (jay.powell@house.ga.gov) 404.656.5103,
Tom Taylor (tom.taylor@house.ga.gov) DeKalb Delegation 404.656.3947,
Bruce Williamson (bruce.williamson@house.ga.gov) 404.656.0152

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tweak us out of LaVista Hills

This is a letter shared with the "Dekalb Strong" group.  You can join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/groups/DeKalbStrong . We didn't realize how easy tweaking was. “Tweak” and just like that, 2000 people are moved from one city proposal to another. (“LaVista Hills, Tucker border tweaked in Senate,” News, March 20). Our home is in Toco Hills on the southern edge of the proposed LaVista Hills and we’d like to be tweaked out of it.   North and north central DeKalb County residents have become pawns in the misguided ambitions of a few. With all the changes made by the Senate and House, it’s vital the feasibility of these proposals be revisited. The LaVista Hills boundaries have bled commercial property to the Tucker proposal and Brookhaven’s annexation of Executive Park. As reconfigured, LaVista Hills is almost entirely residential. Even including Toco Hills shopping center and Northlake mall, there appears to be insufficient commercial or industrial pr
Post a Comment
Read more

DeKalb County School Board Member's Emails Show Support for Annexation

Here are just a few highlights of this investigative piece that was reported by Jeff Chirico, CBS Atlanta. Marshall Orson, a seated board member in DeKalb County, has to answer to some angry parents about his emails with supporters for "Together in Atlanta," a group pushing for annexation into the city of Atlanta. The annexation would take a DeKalb icon, the Druid Hills High School, and at least two elementary schools into the city limits of Atlanta, while still the residents would still technically reside in DeKalb County.  The Fernbank Science Center and Museum, Callenwalde Fine Arts Center and other parts of DeKalb County would also become new residents of "Atlanta in DeKalb."   State Rep. Karla Drenner (D - Avondale Estates) says she is shocked to learn that a school board member would seemingly favor something that could 'decimate' the school system. Annexation opponent Dawn Forman said Orson, as an elected board member, should be opposed t
Post a Comment
Read more

Do These Families Feel "Welcomed" at DeKalb County's Schools?

Georgia counties where 50 or more unaccompanied minors were released from Jan. 1 through July, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services Administration for Children & Families. Cherokee County 65 Cobb County 138 DeKalb County 347 Fulton County 64 Gwinnett County 266 Hall County 85 WHO knows the truth about what is happening in our schools and how quickly are they acting to protect their own neighborhoods, drawing their own borders and leaving everyone else holding the education tab for the immigrant population THEY helped bring here?    Do the new city proponents claim to know anything about a city - school connection?  Or do they do the typical  political  double speak and merely deny, deny, deny?  WHAT do they know that they are not telling the rest of us?  WHO do they know and HOW will they benefit?  If you do not know the answers then you are probably on the losing end of someone else's big stick! By  Mi
Read more