Save Tucker!

Water Bill Town Hall - TONIGHT at 7 p.m. Cheryl Miller from Brockett Heights · Just now Water main breaks are all too common in our county. Oct. 6, 2016:   If you have had issues recently with your water bill, or suspect that your water meter has been tampered with, changed or otherwise left to report inaccurate or unreliable data back to the county, PLEASE try to attend tonight's meeting at 7 p.m. The location is 1300 Commerce Drive in Decatur. Commissioner Nancy Jester is hosting the town hall, but residents from all districts are invited to attend. If you have been victimized by over the top/inaccurate billing, please plan to speak up in order to document for the public record the extent...

Barnes-Sutton faces Steve Bradsaw on Tuesday, July 26.  IMPORTANT RUNOFF ELECTION TUESDAY, JULY 26!   DEKALB COUNTY'S DISTRICT 4 CHOOSES BETWEEN INCUMBENT BARNES-SUTTON OR CHALLENGER BRADSHAW!  If you DID NOT vote in the last election, do not despair, you can STILL VOTE in the July 26 Runoff so long as  you were registered to vote at the time of the first election.  To have a say in this runoff, you will need to ask for a "Democratic ballot" for you to cast your vote on. From the desk of the group "Unhappy Taxpayers and Voters," we received the following: To DeKalb Teachers and Georgia Teachers: Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton (of the 4th District in DeKalb County) has a long history of arriving to work late (Commission meetings and/or committee meetings) and/or not showing up at all. We ask that you review the following records (prior performance and work history/records of arriving to work on time and/or showing up) and ask if teachers that...

In an email sent to its supporters this week, Lavista Hills Alliance announced that it is closing down some of its operations and suspending some of its campaign activities.  They also alluded to a long-forgotten challenge they once made to the accuracy of the vote that sent Tucker toward incorporation and sent them home empty handed.   According to the email, which was forwarded to us by an anonymous source, Lavista Hills' leaders are still holding out hope that the state department will issue some kind of a final report, telling them whether or not they found any fraud in connection to their allegations against the DeKalb Board of Elections and its Superintendent, Maxine Daniels.    Save Tucker! followers may also recall that we, too, had questions regarding the fairness of some of the voting procedures taking place in DeKalb, mainly the allowing of candidates onto ballots without properly verifying their stated place of residence.  We  ha...

Georgia may be a conservative state, but that does not mean it does everything the "old fashioned" way.   Let's just take today, for example.  Today is the primary election for many important offices throughout the county of DeKalb. And, even though you might normally think of a primary election as the time when each political party gathers their registered voters together to vote for the best potential candidates to square off against one another in a general election, that isn't how we do things here in Georgia.  Nope. Don't ask us why because that would require someone to do some more research on that topic and currently our research department is a bit understaffed and over-committed.  So, let's just skip the "why" part and jump right into the good stuff.... WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ME?   So, you are probably wondering what all this non-traditional rule bending might mean for you, the DeKalb County voter who lives somewhere near what is cu...

Here are minutes from the DeKalb County Elections Board Meeting held Feb. 11, 2016.  Save Tucker! comments are numbered below the minutes, corresponding to the highlighted areas by color.  Challenge of Tucker City Council Candidate Katherine Atteberry – The Board was provided with a copy of an e-mail from Ms. Cheryl Miller stating that she wished to challenge the candidacy of Tucker District 2 City Council candidate Katherine Atteberry, and alleged that Ms. Atteberry did not live at her registered address.  Upon checking Code Section 21-2-6, it was determined that another elector can only challenge a candidate within the two weeks immediately following the qualifying period and that time has expired.  However, the Board has the authority to challenge a candidate up and until an election.   Ms. Daniels and Mary Frances went to the candidate’s address and saw no indication that the home was abandoned or vacant, as alleged .  Further, Ms. Daniels check...

There was good cause for celebration late in the evening yesterday, March 29, as the unofficial election results were announced and locals in District 2, Matt Robbins and Noelle Monferdini took the last two seats on Tucker's new city council.  Save Tucker!'s leadership was advocating for the election of these candidates, who had been narrowed down to a smaller group from the large  number originally in the March 1 race.  Quite a bit of controversy was started when the other council members and the mayor chose to go ahead and begin the business of the new city without waiting for District 2 council elections to be completed.  They were sworn in during a historic ceremony and that left more than 10,000 people, a full third of the new city, feeling  very angry and slighted.  Monferdini and Robbins both passed the Save Tucker! residency check, which we ran on all candidates after becoming concerned when we had difficulty reaching one after months o...

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...

In addition to the Presidential Primary, today is the first election for the new city of Tucker. Here are your options: Credit:  Info. from Tucker 2015 website. MAYORAL CANDIDATES  FRANK AUMAN   (Smoke Rise) LORNE D. CHEEK  (Tucker) BRUCE K. JACKSON  (Smoke Rise) DISTRICT 1 CANDIDATES  (Smoke Rise) POST 1 HONEY VAN DE KREKE (Smoke Rise) POST 2 JON CARR  (Smoke Rise) WILLIAM (BILL) ROSENFELD  (Smoke Rise) DISTRICT 2 CANDIDATES  (Brockett/Northlake) POST 1 * KATHERINE A. ATTEBERRY   (unable to verify) FRANK E. NIX, JR. (Tucker / Brockett) MATT ROBBINS  ( Tucker / Idlewood) THOMAS WALKER   (Tucker / Brockett) * Save Tucker has been unable to verify this candidate's residency status in the district he/she is wishing to represent.  Contact the DeKalb Elections Office for details if you wish to view the qualification data used by the county .  Phone: 404-...

Ben Shakleford says he reached out to people he knew after the Lavista Hills referendum failed at the ballot box and asked, "... what do you think about maybe annexation?  And, we're next to Chamblee." If you haven't heard, a portion of the former Lavista Hills movement (which is also formerly the Lakeside City and City of Briarcliff initiatives) has not stopped pushing for a city, any city as long as it is not in any way related to Tucker, even after losing in the referendum vote this past November.   So, far, we have heard them say that they have: Trimmed up their map, calling it the "North Lavista Hills" area, basically cutting things off at Briarlake Road, but taking in all the commercial not already in Tucker, most notably the Northlake Mall which they have said they do not shop at themselves, Brought back Mary Kay Woodworth to lead the effort until she quits, again, Cut out some of the areas that they initially claimed were the ones to star...

We understand that the city vote is over, but we still think the Tucker community deserves to know the truth about how we got where we are today ...   a city voted for in a referendum and elections  taking place in under a month (March 1), runoffs March 29.  We got here based on a lot of involved people ... some of whom we are now finding out don't even live in Tucker at all . On the home page of Tucker 2015, you will find this photo (below) which appears to feature the smiling, happy faces of the T uc ker residents who fought to in corporate the small town community into a city, right?  Well, look a gain... most , if not all, of the m are not Tucker re sidents at all. The se are not the ONLY Tucker city supporters with residency issues!  Stay tu ned ...

From Atlanta Progressive News: Rep. Dudgeon, Sen. Ligon Introduce Township Model for Georgia January 28, 2016   GLORIA TATUM photo credit: APN (APN) ATLANTA — State Rep Mike Dudgeon (R-Johns Creek) introduced HR 1051, a constitutional amendment to create a township form of governance in Georgia. Rep. Mike Dudgeon of Johns Creek has introduced a township amendment . State Sen. William Ligon (R- Brunswick) introduced SR 724, an identical resolution in the State Senate. The proposed amendment would create a township with limited powers and services.  Towns would have the power of zoning and regulation of land use and development, with property tax rates capped at 0.5 mills. County governments would still provide police, fire, water, sewer, and other necessary services to the township. http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/154812.pdf “I believe our state needs a township model where local citizens can vo...

by Brent Barron Neighbor Newspapers December 31, 2015     You might not want to be involved, but if you live in Tucker... you already are.   Better start paying attention now rather than regret the choices other voters might make for you!    A senate committee released the findings from their study last month and found that “city-lite” models, such as with the newly formed city of Tucker, contain unconstitutional provisions. The Senate Annexation, Deannexation and Incorporation Study Committee was called for by Senator Elena Parent of District 42 last summer with appointments to the committee made by Lt. Governor Casey Cagle. “I thought it was time to take a look at the formal process or lack-thereof of the formation of these cities to see if there were ways to make the process more uniform, transparent and fair,” Parent said. “I served as ch...