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The People’s Budget
PLUS, NEW DEVELOPMENTS, A GGSD AWARD AND MORE LOCAL NEWS
By Blake Aued and Chris Dowd news@flagpole.com
A new activist group, the People’s Budget
Athens, is demanding “drastic” changes to
the Athens-Clarke County budget to allow
some items to be decided through direct
democracy.
Imani Scott-Blackwell, founder of
People’s Budget Athens, made a case for
defunding the ACC police and reinvesting
the money in other community priorities
during a drive-in “People’s Assembly” on
Nov. 20. In support of this idea, she ref
erenced a survey collected by her group in
which 84% of people picked policing as a
top priority for divestment. This survey had
over 1,300 responses, although it was not a
scientific sample of residents.
At their assembly, People’s Budget
Athens members examined the ACC bud
get and discussed ways they’d like to see it
changed. For example, in addition to divest
ing from policing, they’d like to create “par
ticipatory budgeting” mechanisms within
the local government. Participatory budget
ing is a process integrated into the regular
county budget cycle that allows average
citizens to decide how a certain portion of
their tax dollars are spent.
Some cities in the Southeast have
already experimented with participatory
budgeting. For example, Durham, NC allo
cated $2.4 million to the program in 2018;
each of the city’s three wards was given
$800,000 to spend as constituents decided.
A representative from Durham gave a
presentation on participatory budgeting
to the ACC Mayor and Commission at
their retreat on Sept. 10. It was received
favorably by commissioners, according to
Commissioner Jesse Houle, who was in
attendance.
Houle campaigned on participatory
budgeting during the last election and has
advocated it for years. “I’m really excited
that there’s so much energy around looking
at the budget,” Houle said. Other commis
sioners, including Tim Denson and Mariah
Parker, have also spoken in favor of the idea
in the past.
While the commission is exploring
various options for how to implement par
ticipatory budgeting, it appears unlikely
that such a program will be ready in time
to make an impact for next year. That is,
in part, because of the tight timeline for
budget discussions, which have already
begun within the local government, but
also because of the complexities inherent in
democracy itself. “The logistics of making
participatory budgeting work are actually
pretty complicated,” Houle said. “You don’t
want to have it be just whoever shows up
one time. The participatory element takes
a lot of time and energy. Right now, what
I’m pushing for is to help get more public
understanding of our existing budgeting
process.”
This issue of Flagpole went to press
before the Tuesday, Dec. 1 runoff for
district attorney. Check flagpole.com
for results.
Under the current process, the commis
sion develops strategic goals while depart
ments formulate their budget requests in
late fall. In the spring, the county manager
meets with department heads and outside
agencies that receive government funding,
then works with the mayor on a recom
mended budget released in April. The com
mission then takes public input and tweaks
the budget before approving it in June.
A participatory budgeting program could
be part of the next SPLOST or TSPLOST,
part of the county’s yearly budgeting pro
cess or both. Houle said there could be legal
issues with having a participatory element
in SPLOST, but all options are currently on
the table and being explored.
Houle was careful to clarify that a par
ticipatory budgeting process like Durham’s,
by itself, would not mean that the money
would be taken from policing, for example,
or from anything else the people might
decide. Citizens wouldn’t have the option
to reduce funding in any area; they would
only get to choose how to spend a certain
amount of money.
While the commission slowly develops a
plan to allow a bit more democracy within
the ACC government, Scott-Blackwell said
she will continue building power from the
bottom up through people’s assemblies,
with her sights set on a more fundamental
transformation. If you’re interested in help
ing, follow them at facebook.com/peoples-
budgetathens. [Chris Dowd]
Developments Proposed in North Athens
Redevelopment plans for an abandoned
watch factory off Newton Bridge Road now
include a hotel.
An Atlanta development group known
as Westclox Rocks recently submitted
revised plans for the General Time project
on 35 acres across the street from Terrapin
Brewery. A Terrapin warehouse is one of the
development’s anchor tenants, along with a
call center for the online furniture retailer
Wayfair. The development will also include
a music venue, some office and retail space,
100 one-bedroom apartments and 100
two-bedroom apartments.
Athens-Clarke County planning staff
noted that the development “would attract
visitors to a destination site in an area with
predominantly industrial and pass-through
traffic, so it has the potential to change the
dynamic of the area.” They raised concerns
about introducing residential units into an
industrial part of town. The developer is
seeking a rezoning from industrial to office,
as well as several waivers to the county zon
ing code.
Another proposed development nearby,
on seven vacant acres at the intersection
of Barber and Tracy streets near Buvez and
Active Climbing, would include 87 one- and
two-bedroom apartments, a small amount
of industrial space and kiosks for startup
businesses. Nine of the apartments would
be set aside as affordable workforce housing
for renters who earn 80-120% of the area
median income.
In reviewing the plans last month, plan
ning commissioners said Athens has a need
for smaller apartments for single profes
sionals, young couples and empty-nesters,
rather than four- or five-bedroom units
intended for college students. They praised
the plans but had some concerns about
residents walking across the railroad tracks.
As they did with the General Time project,
planners raised concerns about the pro
posed change to office zoning with people
living near industrial uses. They also said
the development may not have enough
parking.
Votes have not yet been scheduled on
either development. [Blake Aued]
BOE Lawyer Says NotoTADs
The Clarke County School District’s
lawyer is recommending that the Board of
Education not go along with Athens-Clarke
County’s plans to encourage redevelopment
in six parts of town.
In a letter to school board members
obtained by Flagpole, Michael Pruett incor
rectly stated that property taxes are for
given in tax allocation districts. TADs are
a redevelopment tool that uses additional
taxes from new development to make infra
structure improvements within the district.
For example, ACC could issue bonds to pay
for sidewalks or sewer lines that would
allow a development to go forward, then
pay off the bonds with the revenue the
development generates.
The ACC Commission voted last month
to create six TADS—around Georgia Square
Mall, on Atlanta Highway near Hawthorne
Avenue, along Newton Bridge Road, cover
ing the eastern edge of downtown and part
of East Athens, on North Avenue and on
Lexington Road near Gaines School Road.
Those areas were identified as “blighted,”
and the possibility of a TAD could entice
developers to build there.
But the taxes ACC collects are only
about 40% of the overall property taxes.
About 60% go to the Clarke County School
District, so unless the school board also
adopts the TADs, less than half of the
new taxes generated by development will
be available to spend on infrastructure in
those districts, making them less attractive
to developers.
ACC has asked CCSD to approve the
TADs before Jan. 1, when property values
are set for the coming year. At press time,
the school board had not scheduled a vote,
and Pruett said in his letter that it would
be difficult, if not impossible, to meet that
deadline. [BA]
Cedar Shoals Paper Wins Award
Cedar Shoals High School’s student
newspaper, BluePrints, won a national
award for its reporting on the controversy
surrounding an appointed school board
member earlier this year.
The Student Press Law Center gave the
Courage in Student Journalism Award to
BluePrints staffers Stephany Gaona-Perez,
Brittany Lopez and Jacqueline Wright. The
student journalists, advised by English
teacher Marc Ginsberg, discovered that
school board member Antoine Stephens
had not graduated from Cedar Shoals in
2014, as he implied when seeking a vacant
seat on the board. They subsequently
found that Stephens was legally too young
to serve in Congress when he ran for a
Northeast Georgia congressional seat prior
to being appointed to the school board,
and that he had lied about money he raised
during a run for mayor in 2018.
After BluePrints and other news outlets
revealed these facts, Stephens announced
that he would seek treatment for mental
health issues and would not run for a full
term. Kirrena Gallagher won the June elec
tion and will take over the seat in January.
“These young journalists braved public
ridicule and stonewalling as they methodi
cally pursued public documents and asked
probing questions of a major institution in
their community,” Hadar Harris, executive
director of the Student Press Law Center,
said in a news release. “Accountability
reporting is the bedrock of local journalism,
and these students provided an essential
public service by making their local school
board more transparent.”
The award, which carries a $1,000 prize,
was presented during a virtual ceremony on
Nov. 21. [BA] ©
THIS MIIH W«ILB
WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION
OFFICIALLY UNDERWAY, EXPERTS SAY
WORRIES ABOUT A COUP WERE
DEFINITELY MISGUIDED, 1 probably,
THAT'S RIGHT, BIFF!
CONTRARY TO THE FEARS Mg KNOCK
OF HYSTERICAL ALARMISTS,[111ON
THE SYSTEM WORKED !\ kfOOD.
SO FAR.
IS TRUE THAT THE PRESIDENT
OPENLY DISCUSSED HIS STRATEGIES
TO STEAL THE ELECTION FOR AN
ENTIRE YEAR!
HE SABOTAGED THE
POST OFFICE! HE TRIED
TO DISCREDIT MAIL-IN
VOTES AS INHERENTLY
FRAUDULENT!
by TOM TOMORROW
HOWEVER, HIS COMICALLY INEPT
LEGAL TEAM HAS LOST DOZENS
of COURT CASES AT THIS POINT!
A MONTH
AFTER THE
ELECTION,
HE STILL
REFUSES TO
CONCEDE!
HIS CHANCES OF SUCCESS
ARE NOW VANISHINGLY
SMALL! CLEARLY THERE
WAS NEVER ANYTHING
TO WORRY ABOUT! AS
ANY HISTORIAN WILL
TELL YOU—
—IF A THING DOES NOT SUCCEED—
THERE WAS NEVER A CHANCE THAT
IT MIGHT HAVE SUCCEEDED!
WE HAVEN'T ACTUALLY CON
SULTED ANY HISTORIANS ON
THIS, BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE
A THING THEY WOULD SAY!
ON A RELATED NOTE—HOW SHOULD
WE IN THE MEDIA REPORT ON,
AND INTERACT WITH, REPUBLICAN
ENABLERS Of THE PRESIDENT'S
ATTEMPT TO SUBVERT DEMOCRACY?
THE MANAGEMENT OF
THIS NETWORK FIRMLY
I BELIEVES THAT WE HAVE
A SPECIAL RESPON
SIBILITY-
sy
—TO POLITELY PRETEND THEY ARE
NOT FASCIST LUNATICS—AND KEEP
FEATURING THEM ON OUR SHOWS!
MX
EVERYTHING BOOMING UP NEXT—
IS FINE IlFASCINATING PERSPEC-
AND NOR-MTIVE FROM OUR NEWEST
MAL! No HIGHLY-PAID CONTRIBUTOR,
WORRIES I I STEPHEN MILLER!
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1 FIRST THESE MESSAGES'
vT—
DECEMBER 2, 2020 | FLAGPOLE.COM
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20 20 * ♦•www.thismodernworld.com, ..twitter: @tomtomorrow