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| Brian Anderson, new Interim City Attorney |
Tucker, meet your new city attorney, Brian Anderson.
It is unclear how he was selected and hired since the city has not even elected all of its council members, yet, and the Governor did not appoint a transition team like he did for the other new cities in Georgia. Tucker's first meeting was held March 15 and the announcement was made about the new hire. Where will Tucker find the money to pay for the salary of our first official staff member? That' a question we do not have the answer to.
We were informed that a call for resumes was sent out by Tucker Civic Association, a private organization of volunteers that has been involved in Tucker's community for decades. When we first approached Tucker Civic leaders for a response on the city issue, they were very firmly against incorporating. In fact, they told us that Tucker could not afford to become a city unless we were to "land grab" land outside of our known zip code to capture all the Northlake Mall commercial revenue, and that was not something the residents wanted to do.
My, how times change. Fast forward to today and we have Since Sonja Szubski listed as the new President of Tucker Civic. She's pro-city and pro-development and she is the former President of Tucker 2014, the first city effort. She said she already thought Tucker was a city. But, she just moved here in 2007 so that's not too surprising.
So who is Brian Anderson?
Without any formal training or study in governmental law, Brian Anderson has some notable experience in this area, but not all of it is good. Some eight years ago, Brian Anderson was an attorney working to help pass a new city in Georgia - Dunwoody. You may be thinking that means he was friendly with Fran Millar, but that's actually incorrect because other than voting in favor of it, Millar actually had very little to do with the startup of Dunwoody.
It was actually then-Sen. Dan Weber, not Millar, who took the lead on that incorporation. The city concept, it seems, is so divisive that legislators don't want to risk their own job security by enraging voters in their area. So, they create cities in other people's districts. Nice, huh? Or, in Millar's case and Rep. Tom Taylor's case with Lavista Hills, they attempt to create cities in other people's districts.
Working with Sen. Dan Weber, they got the Legislature to pass Dunwoody's charter, a document Anderson helped write. If something about that sounds odd to you, it may be the fact that Tucker will not reveal the true author of their charter, but Frank Auman claimed he selected Anderson in part because he "volunteered" for the city effort.
If Anderson did write Tucker's charter, we can only hope he will encourage the council members to read it, since they have been telling people that the charter required them to take office prior to the votes for District 2 being finalized. That district will hold a runoff on March 29.
Allegations Against Anderson
Four years after Anderson helped start Dunwoody, he was looking at the possibility of being fired by the very same city council he helped to create. Instead of facing his accusers, Anderson resigned instead and took his nearly $30,000 severance package with him.
Dunwoody city officials released a 28-page report that concludes Anderson and City Councilwoman Adrian Bonser leaked privileged information from city meetings about a contentious city land deal they didn't support.
The report alleges that Anderson broke attorney-client privilege, misled investigators about his role in the leaks, and rushed to declare private discussions of the land deal public in an effort to obscure the leaked information.
"Anderson cannot have it both ways," concludes the report, which was written by Bob Wilson, former DeKalb County District Attorney. "He cannot, on the one hand, agree that the discussion of the sale is appropriate for executive session … but then when he is talking to the media claim that the same information is not confidential."
Excerpts from Dunwoody Patch, By
It is unclear how he was selected and hired since the city has not even elected all of its council members, yet, and the Governor did not appoint a transition team like he did for the other new cities in Georgia. Tucker's first meeting was held March 15 and the announcement was made about the new hire. Where will Tucker find the money to pay for the salary of our first official staff member? That' a question we do not have the answer to.
We were informed that a call for resumes was sent out by Tucker Civic Association, a private organization of volunteers that has been involved in Tucker's community for decades. When we first approached Tucker Civic leaders for a response on the city issue, they were very firmly against incorporating. In fact, they told us that Tucker could not afford to become a city unless we were to "land grab" land outside of our known zip code to capture all the Northlake Mall commercial revenue, and that was not something the residents wanted to do.
My, how times change. Fast forward to today and we have Since Sonja Szubski listed as the new President of Tucker Civic. She's pro-city and pro-development and she is the former President of Tucker 2014, the first city effort. She said she already thought Tucker was a city. But, she just moved here in 2007 so that's not too surprising.
So who is Brian Anderson?
Without any formal training or study in governmental law, Brian Anderson has some notable experience in this area, but not all of it is good. Some eight years ago, Brian Anderson was an attorney working to help pass a new city in Georgia - Dunwoody. You may be thinking that means he was friendly with Fran Millar, but that's actually incorrect because other than voting in favor of it, Millar actually had very little to do with the startup of Dunwoody.
It was actually then-Sen. Dan Weber, not Millar, who took the lead on that incorporation. The city concept, it seems, is so divisive that legislators don't want to risk their own job security by enraging voters in their area. So, they create cities in other people's districts. Nice, huh? Or, in Millar's case and Rep. Tom Taylor's case with Lavista Hills, they attempt to create cities in other people's districts.
Working with Sen. Dan Weber, they got the Legislature to pass Dunwoody's charter, a document Anderson helped write. If something about that sounds odd to you, it may be the fact that Tucker will not reveal the true author of their charter, but Frank Auman claimed he selected Anderson in part because he "volunteered" for the city effort.
If Anderson did write Tucker's charter, we can only hope he will encourage the council members to read it, since they have been telling people that the charter required them to take office prior to the votes for District 2 being finalized. That district will hold a runoff on March 29.
Allegations Against Anderson
Four years after Anderson helped start Dunwoody, he was looking at the possibility of being fired by the very same city council he helped to create. Instead of facing his accusers, Anderson resigned instead and took his nearly $30,000 severance package with him.
Dunwoody city officials released a 28-page report that concludes Anderson and City Councilwoman Adrian Bonser leaked privileged information from city meetings about a contentious city land deal they didn't support.
The report alleges that Anderson broke attorney-client privilege, misled investigators about his role in the leaks, and rushed to declare private discussions of the land deal public in an effort to obscure the leaked information.
"Anderson cannot have it both ways," concludes the report, which was written by Bob Wilson, former DeKalb County District Attorney. "He cannot, on the one hand, agree that the discussion of the sale is appropriate for executive session … but then when he is talking to the media claim that the same information is not confidential."
Excerpts from Dunwoody Patch, By
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