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AN INSIDE TAKE ON LOCAL ISSUES
A friend mentioned the other day that he
has extended his juggling skills to include
items on fire, and as I search for a meta
phor for life on the Athens-Clarke County
Commission, it seems that not just juggling
fire, but running an entire carnival is an apt
description of the job. In just the last week, I
attended a Criminal Justice Task Force meet
ing at which the group wrangled with how to
develop a set of recommendations following
interviews with myriad representatives of the
area criminal justice system; I chaired a meet
ing of the Government Operations Committee
at which we met with five area cab company
operators in an effort to understand how we
could make their operations better for public
safety, especially on busy weekend nights; and
I gathered with the entire commission and the
mayor for our monthly agenda setting meet
ing. Every member of the commission could
tell a similar tale. To a person, they are a
hard-working, far-reaching bunch.
The agenda setting meeting addressed
some long-simmering issues, including a citi
zen group recommendation to form a public
arts council. Advocates of a lean-and-mean
government might consider public art extrava
gant, but like the colored lights suspended
above the carnival path, it is part of what
ties the community together, and even more,
produces important sparks of interest in our
town.
While we are on the topic of great inter
est in Athens, there was a very interesting
item that came just before the agenda setting
session at the "special called meeting" last
week (this nomenclature means that we vote
to take action after only one opportunity for
discussion—usually because an item is time-
sensitive). A private, anonymous citizen has
offered to contribute up to S160,000 toward
a bridge at Sandy Creek Park that would com
plete a seven-mile trail loop at that facility
and allow for greater access for monitoring
the park's natural environment. The donation
is contingent upon our receipt of $100,000 of
available grant funds from another source, as
well as use of up to another $160,000 of pub
lic money (perhaps SPLOST funds). So many
moving pieces are part of this proposal that
the whole thing seemed like a hall of mirrors
to some at the meeting. A big tip of the hat
to the anonymous donor, though! Fine people
like this don't come along every day, but
Athens has attracted more than our fair share
of these beneficent souls.
Finally, there were three "text amend
ments" on the agenda, to be voted upon on
Dec. 7, which would change development code
for multifamily zones in Athens. These were
developed following some public angst from
me and my colleagues over the awkward devel
opment occurring in neighborhoods like Carr's
Hill, the historic neighborhood that served
as the cradle of modern Athens. It is an area
that has now been overwhelmed by student-
oriented development, given its proximity to
UGA. (And, oh, what an exciting display, pub
lic angst... it generates some of the biggest
and rowdiest crowds at the fair.) In essence,
what the ACC Planning Commission recom
mended for improving development in these
neighborhoods is broader application of some
existing codes. For example, one of the core
features of multifamily zoning is a limit on'
the number of bedrooms per acre. The plethora
of detached-unit housing in multifamily dis
tricts has routinely ignored this requirement
through a loophole in the code, which would
now close. The result of this loophole has
been an explosion of four- and five-bedroom
homes and a more than 50 percent per-acre
increase in bedroom density over what would
be allowed if attached-unit apartments or
condos were built. That has meant an explo
sion of cars in parking lots and driveways, on
congested narrow streets and parked in front
yards.
Speaking of yards, the proposed code
changes would also bring heightened require
ments for greenspace in these districts when
single-family homes are built, comparable
with what exists in traditional neighbor
hood requirements. It also proposes language
discouraging oddly shaped lots that look
from above like bits floating in your bowl of
alphabet soup, and on the street feel like a
jumbled mess. Finally, the design of homes in
these districts would have to be varied from
home to home and feature traditional details
like relief trim around .windows, rather than
the "Monopoly board" appearance currently
allowed. There are some minor related recom
mendations that are forthcoming, but the
changes just mentioned would allow an end to
the construction moratorium in Carr's Hill and
permit forward momentum for more appealing
development there and in other multifamily
zones.
With that piece of encouraging news, I
must bid readers farewell, as I believe there is
a cannon from which I'm about to be shot...
Kelly Girtz
• .
Kelly Girtz is the Athens-Clarke County commissioner
for District 9, a “super-district" comprised of Districts
1-4.
The people we elect to Congress and the
General Assembly will make important deci
sions each year that affect the spending of
billions or even trillions of dollars. You would
presume that voters would want to elect
people who know how to handle money and
can be counted upon to make wise decisions
about allocating our tax dollars. If someone
could not balance their own checkbook or stay
current on their taxes, voters surely would
consider them unqualified to handle our state
and federal budgets.
In Georgia, that often is not the case. You
would be surprised at the number of peo
ple who aren't very good at handling
their own money but get elected to
office anyway so they can make
decisions about handling every
body else's tax money.
This became an issue in the
recent governor's race when it
was reported that Nathan Deal
had invested and lost a large sum
of money in a business venture
involving his daughter, was on the
hook to pay off some sizable bank loans
and might be pushed into filing for bankruptcy
at some point next year.
Deal's track record at managing his money
didn't bother votei* a b’t—they elected him
governor by a margin of more than 250,000
votes and put him in charge of.balancing an
$18 billion state budget.
Then there's Tom Graves, the state legisla
tor who ran for Deal's old congressional seat
in North Georgia. In the middle of Graves'
campaign, he and another legislator, state
Seri. Chip Rogers of Woodstock, were sued by
the Bartow County Bank over allegations that
they had defaulted on a $2.2 million bank
loan to buy a Calhoun hotel known to locals
as the "Methamphetamine 6."
The Bartow bank alleged in its court filings
that Graves was "insolvent in that his liabili
ties exceeded his assets and he was unable
to pay his obligations as they matured." The
bank also accused Graves of a "fraudulent
transfer" of property to frustrate the bank's
efforts to pursue the debt.
Did this financial history prove troubling
to voters in the 9th Congressional District?
Evidently not. They elected Graves to the U.S.
House twice—once in a special election and
again in the general election.
Some of our elected leaders also seem to
have problems paying their income and prop
erty taxes on time.
In 2006, it was reported that state Rep.
David Ralston of Blue Ridge had been slapped
with a $347,318 tax lien from the IRS, with
the feds alleging that he owed individual
income taxes, penalties and interest
from as far back as 1996.
Ralston says he has since
cleared up his tax situation.
Those financial issues did not
cause Ralston any problems with
the folks back home—they kept
reelecting him to the Georgia
House. He also was elected
Speaker of the House by his legisla
tive colleagues.
There are numerous other legislators
who've drawn media scrutiny in recent years
because of their tax issues, including Rep.
Roberta Abdul-Salaam, Rep. Al Williams, Sen.
Vincent Fort, Sen. Lester Jackson, Sen. Robert
Brown, Rep. Willie Talton and Rep. Winfred
Dukes.
Each of those legislators has something in
common: they were all reelected to office and
will be sworn in for a new term in the General
Assembly session that starts in January.
That's always been one of the most inter
esting aspects of Georgia politics. Even if
you're not very good with money, that will
never prevent you from being elected to pub
lic office. Quite the contrary: it seems to make
voters more sympathetic to you.
In this season of thanksgiving, our politi
cians should all give thanks that our voters
are so forgiving.
Tom Crawford tcfawtord@gareport.com
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