Skip to main content

One of Many Unanswered Emails

During the fight to save Tucker and learn about whether a city was the right way to go about protecting our borders from hostile Lavista Hills / Lakeside City advocates, we emailed and spoke to many state and county officials.  There were time when they were forthcoming and seemingly understanding.  Other times we were completely ignored. 

We were so busy that we did not always have time to post our emails for our followers to read, or we were waiting to post them once we received a response.  But, some of our questions didn't receive responses and they remain as doubts in the minds of many. 

To let you know about the work we tried to accomplish, as we run across emails that we think you would like to know about, we will post them on the blog. 

We have XXX'd out the names of private individuals to protect the privacy of ordinary citizens.  Politicians, however, are public figures and so we have left their names and emails in tact.
 
Here's one of many:



From: XXXXX  (Save Tucker!)
To: Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver <mmo@mmolaw.com>; Howard Mosby <mosb7101@hotmail.com>; Rep. Billy Mitchell <billy.mitchell@house.ga.gov>; Rep. Karla Drenner <dren16999@aol.com>; Rep. Earnst Williams <earnest.williams@house.ga.gov>; Ann Abramowitz <ann@repscottholcomb.com>; Rep. Scott Holcomb <scott@repscottholcomb.com>
Cc: Sen. Steve Henson SD 41 <henson718@bellsouth.net>; Sen. Gail Davenport <gail.davenport@senate.ga.gov>; Sen. Ron Ramsey <ronald.ramsey@senate.ga.gov>; emanj@mindspring.com
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2015 7:45 AM
Subject: Fw: Results of the Boundary Committee

We did not get a reply to this email.   (please see below)  Can anyone in the Delegation try to answer these important questions for us?  We will post the answers on our Save Tucker! blog site and FB page.
 
Thank you,
 
XXXXXXXXX
Save Tucker!
 
savetuckerfromlakesidecity.blogspot.com
 
 
 
 
 
From:XXXXXXX
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2015 6:29 PM
Subject: Results of the Boundary Committee
 
Reps. Brockway and Carter,
 
Thank you both for your careful consideration of the factors involved with the proposed cities of Tucker and LaVista Hills.  We have heard a few questions in our “Save Tucker!” group that we would like to pose to you:
 
1.)  Can you ask the committee or staff members to double check the accuracy of the population figures that were presented along with the final map?  It does not seem to be correct when compared to the population figures given in the Census or presented by the city groups with their original maps.  We are concerned that any viability analysis for the city of Tucker will be grossly misrepresented if they mistakenly use a small population estimate when determining how much revenue it will take to support the services they plan to offer initially.
 
2.)  Is there anything that your committee can do to ask the city advocates to make their draft charter documents public?  As Rep. Tom Taylor mentioned at the boundary hearing, it is very important that the public knows exactly what it is that they may be eventually ask to vote for or against.
 
3.)  Is there any rule or law that speaks to the transfer of assets between an unincorporated area when it joins a city?   Do all assets necessarily become the cost of the new city to upkeep, including schools?  What will happen to school buildings if they are incorporated along with the rest of the land to a neighboring city or another county and a separate school system?
 
4.)  What is the  position of the committee regarding the very large refugee resettlement population that lives in DeKalb County as part of a federal / state cooperative agreement?  Would the formation of cities require this agreement to come to a halt since the unincorporated areas are becoming smaller and smaller and could be burdened significantly if they are expected to take on the highest cost areas by themselves in order to provide police and other social services?  The cost of the refugee resettlement is not something that has been clearly calculated or presented to the public and is beyond our own knowledge or control and not something that follows natural trends for growth/decline.
 
Thank you again for your time.  We would very much appreciate a reply and  would like to post the answers on our blog site for the members of our group.  Hopefully, this will cut back the number of individual emails you may receive on this same topic. 
 
Kind regards,
 
Save Tucker!

Comments

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 ind...

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...

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...