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ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
The Theater of the Commission: Well, gang,
last week's Mayor and Commission meet
ing was pretty much one of the craziest in
quite a while. Just ask the ladies of Gamma
Phi Beta, who as a group came in a distant
second for number of people present for one
agenda item. The lead position, of course, was
with the many African-American citizens who
turned out to ask commissioners to return the
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
monies stripped from the EADC (East Athens
Development Corporation) and the HCDC
(Hancock Corridor Development Corporation)
last month.
Early in the night, as the crowd was still
swelling, Mayor Davison introduced a group of
Kenyan women who were spending a week or
so in Athens. They all stood up, smiling, for
a moment. A little while later, as one person
after another approached the podium to com
plain of mistreatment and argue for restora
tion of funds, City Dope pulled aside one of
the Kenyans in the hallway to ask her about
her week in Athens, and for it seemed perti
nent, her impressions of our City Hall. "It's
great," she said, "that all these people can
come in here and talk to the government."
Outcome Measures:
Showing up and talk
ing to the govern
ment, though, didn't
accomplish much in
the end—that is, five
or six hours later—
for the defenders of
the two agencies in
question. Why? After
a month of hearing
complaints about the
commission major
ity's decision on CDBG
funds at their April
meeting, commission
ers hadn't made much
progress in figuring
out alternate options
for what to do with
that money.
And that's fine, but
it shouldn't come as
a surprise to anyone
if discontent with
the idea to give $25,000 each to the EADC
and the HCDC lingers on for a while. It did,
admittedly, have the feel of giving out some
scraps. Worse, perhaps, was Mayor Davison
and Commissioner Kathy Hoard's embarrassing
grilling of the EADC Director, Winston Heard,
some time after midnight. Sure, Heard was
utterly unprepared to defend his organiza
tion's actions, and sure, the whole spectacle
hammered home the point that the commis
sion majority was making an abundantly cor
rect fiscal decision—but couldn't that have
happened two months ago, at the annual
CDBG hearing dedicated to the topic of wise
spending of those federal funds?
Questions like those are why the cen
tral problem with this issue will never stray
far from matters of process—and looking
at process is important because it tells us
how our government works. More thought-
provoking than all that, though, is the ines
capable feeling of shock that a majority of
ACC Commissioners could be so blinded to
the important, meaningful politics wrapped
up in CDBG money—to their own relation
ship with the African-American community.
Their decision on the CDBG money was good
government but bad politics. The two don't
always run together.
At 1:50 a.m. last Tuesday night (er,
Wednesday morning), the ladies of Gamma
Phi Beta—looking to tack an addition onto
the side of their historic sorority house—filed
into the council chamber at City Hall in their
post-finals-parties cocktail dresses while the
remaining, disappointed African-American
citizens filtered out—just another odd scene
in the halls of government.
An Ignoble Distinction: Amen to the folks who
were out by the Arch on Tuesday evening, May
6, to protest Georgia's resuming the execu
tion of state prisoners that night. That was
odd, too—walking by to see fresh UGA grads
posing with smiles at the Arch for their gradu
ation snapshots, just a few steps from these
solemn protesters. Such is life in Athens.
Just Lettin' Ya Know: One other note from
the commission meeting last week—ACC
Commissioners voted to raise trash-collection
fees slightly, but raised fees for backyard col
lection considerably, since that takes workers
longer and can result
in "dog and insect
bites, slips, falls,
abrasions and twisted
ankles," according to
county documents.
The water-and-sewer
portion of bills will
be going up a few
bucks later this year,
too, largely because
Athens-Clarke is just
about ready to begin
building three new
sewer plants. [John
Huie]
Addendum to Last
Week's Edition:
Wouldn't you know
it, that after Flagpole
had gone to press last
week, yet another
northeast Georgian
qualified to run for
Congress against Paul
Broun, Jr.? That would be a guy by the name
of James P. Mason, a former Marine from
Jackson County, who's running as an indepen
dent-meaning that whatever happens in the
Republican primary on that one, if this Mason
can stick it out, we'll at least have the fun of
a multi-way race again on the general election
ballot. The 10th—it's the district that keeps
on giving.
A Glance at the Playing Field: Then again,
maybe we all ought to run. Some of the lat
est news out of incumbent Broun's office
celebrated his receiving an "A in English"
award from the group U.S. English, Inc. This
is, of course, a special-interest group's way
of rewarding the Congressman for his support
of English-only legislation. Matter of fact,
Broun got a perfect score, in part for having
introduced English-only legislation this year.
At least the guy's getting good grades in the
courses he's choosing to take.
Ben Emanuel
Send your city dope to ben@flagpole.com
Seen around town: Someone agrees with Athens FAQ
about NBAF. but apparently doesn’t agree 100 per
cent with the group's message. Only in Athens does
such a debate become so wonderfully nuanced.
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