Caveat Emptor

One of the city's foundering fathers is at it again, pondering if we've brought DeKalb into Dunwoody and if so, how? Well, the answer to the first part is "unequivocally no!" because what we have here and now is actually much worse than DeKalb. This pondering founderer would likely disagree and offers up some original intention:

"We wanted accountability, efficiency, ethics and local control." [emphasis added]

That's where the "how" comes in.

Did he read the legislation behind the referendum before he (most assuredly) voted yes? If so, can he please explain how he justified his approval of this deeply flawed city charter? The founding fathers of this country, having recently broken away from a king they despised, were keenly aware of human shortcomings and took steps to ensure that should someone missing the character and moral compass of the founders ascend to the presidency that it would not go badly. What they did not foresee was a self-serving administrative state that would grow without bound. This city's founders ignored the wisdom of  our forefathers regarding unchecked power and they have no excuse regarding a self-serving administrative state since that is exactly what they were railing against when proposing the city in the first place. 

Can someone please explain the surprise?

The city charter is modeled more after DCSD operations than DeKalb County where the CEO has real responsibilities and accountabilities, and as recently proven by Michael Thurmond, we can indeed elect someone who can make a difference. A positive difference. That is not the case with Dunwoody. And anyone who has read the charter before or after the referendum knows that. So what is it? Did all those cheerleaders for citihood, even our foundering fathers NOT read the charter before they promoted and voted? How can there now be surprise at what has happened? Did they not anticipate an ever growing bureaucratic, self-serving government? After all, it is all there in the city charter.

This was self-inflicted.

Horton Heads To Whoville

Is it too soon? Maybe.

As everyone now knows the allegations against Dr. Horton have resulted in Federal indictments, and as a result he has submitted his resignation which has been accepted. Nice try, but some in the public are calling for board members to resign, suggesting those who voted for Dr. Horton are culpable for this outcome. It is as if they feel the root problem lies with the individuals, that they themselves elected, holding board positions. 

The problem is far greater and a new batch of clowns on the school board will fix nothing.

Let's start with the Acting Superintendent, Dr. Norman C. Sauce III. 

Is he a potential Superintendent, the secret sauce, or is he just a Great White Nope? If you guessed the latter, you see a problem, one that will not be fixed by the board, no matter who holds the seats. This problem is institutionalized. Educational doctrine states that Black students perform best when they see positions of leadership filled by Blacks. There is no claim this performance level is adequate, just better, but this has been institutionalized, and urban school superintendents are overwhelmingly if not exclusively Black. Is a full meritocracy a solution? Perhaps, but politically it is an unacceptable solution, suggesting the top priority is other than highest educational performance.

Not buying it? Consider Carstarphen. She had to go. Despite performance exceeding any who came before or after she was shown the door. Do you have a credible explanation other than the obvious?

Glad we got that out of the way. 

Now to the pipeline. Where do we get superintendent candidates? Not just the executive search firms, but what system produces these candidates? Certainly some of it is a component of each and every school system in America, as they set the parameters of what they want and what they will accept. It is also the educratic institutions that control the agenda, the narrative. Certainly unions (and teacher organizations) are a part of this, but so are those who teach, train, certify and accredit systems and individuals. What isn't happening is a clearly articulated set of skills and capabilities of school leadership, at the top, and at the lower levels as well. So why should we expect the next candidate to be substantially better than previous candidates? Bear in mind, Michael Thurmond is one of the very few highly capable leaders DCSD has ever had and it is noteworthy that he is not a product of this system. He was not squizzed out of that pipeline. It simply is not clear how we find the next Michael Thurmond. We are more likely to find the next Dr. Horton.

As for the board, the fact is the board not only will not fix our longstanding issues with superintendents who cannot long endure, but they cannot. They are structurally prohibited from exercising any control over operations other than hiring, firing and accepting resignations of superintendents. In fact, should they step out of line, the accrediting agency will step up and step in to defend the administration against the board. And it has been proven that should this occur, board members will be removed. Mom with a calculator, dad with an attitude...it doesn't matter. The board has one employee, the superintendent and bypassing that one employee is verboten. This is the same structural defect crippling Dunwoody and the other Porter-dales.

So, if the board members don't matter then what about your vote? Well, by extension, it doesn't matter either. Not only is the board serving a largely ceremonial role, even when they have a vote for approval of an administration initiative the superintendent knows he only has to please, to convince, a simple majority. Not only do you elect the relatively powerless, once elected, their power, their influence, is greatly diminished. 

Is this situation hopeless? Yes. Yes it is. Expect more of the same.

Dunwoody Fruit Stand

You may not have noticed. It's where bureaucrats and elected officials get together to compare apples and oranges. The fruits of the moment are the fruits of your labors: taxes. See some folks, including Mother Mayor, have gone to social media to whine about Dunwoody's low tax rates. You know, the one they brag about not raising? Each and every year as they greedily grab a backdoor tax increase. Yeah, that's the one.

Now they like to compare Dunwoody to neighboring cities including the original Porter-Dale: Sandy Springs. What these propagandists do not disclose, and it is propaganda, is that Sandy Springs runs its own fire department, whilst Dunwoody? Well, not so much. And if they did, and they did trial-balloon that, they'd run it about as well as they run the city. Abysmally. 

Yet, they're starting the campaign to get their hands on more of your money. 

Samson Was Here

Who Did This?

Unit Balance

This is from the Gray Lady, the pinnacle of journalism. Is it disinformation, obfuscation, or manipulation?

They have intentionally written this to be deceptively unclear. After all, it is THE Gray Lady, who knows all, and tells some. Look at how many folks worship at her feet. 

See, 1 in 31 presents the increase in small numbers, misleading in and of itself, and making a direct comparison with 2 to 4 per 10,000 as difficult as possible, in the hopes no one will do the conversion. That is by intent. This is where unit balance comes in, and as anyone who's used a slide rule can tell you, unit balances are indispensable. Yes. Those people still walk the earth. 

So what are the real numbers, the ones you can easily compare? 

Normalizing to cases per 10,000, we find that 1 in 31 is equivalent to 322.6 per 10,000. Wow! That is an increase, using 3 as the 1980 average, of over two orders of magnitude. Those slide rulers can tell you just how significant this really is. It is staggering. If you were part of an SRO crowd at Sanford Stadium, there were around 2900 "cases" there with you. 

This is an enormous, consistent growth rate over four and a half decades. Is that the lede the Lady wants buried? Consider this: the 1980 cases have doubled every 6-7 years. Your 401K should do so well, for that long, because if you had made a one-time investment of $10,000 in 1980 you would be a millionaire now. Why would someone not want you to know something that significant?

Why does the Gray Lady want to bury this in obfuscation? Do they have an agenda, perhaps a political agenda? Are they so steeped in antithisadministrationalism that they will ignore the traditional obligation of the Fourth Estate to the truth? Have they completely sold out to partisanship? 

If current political forces can do this to the Gray Lady, what hope is there for integrity in any corner of the Fourth Estate?

Maybe It's Cold Outside

Nice Sweater

Blinded By The Night

What is it with Dunwoody [City Hall] and lights? First it was advocacy against light pollution. A noble effort, so we knew that wouldn't last long. Then came the LEDs. At the city's behest Ga Power replaced traditional sodium vapor lights, which are long lived and reliable, with LED lights that go into a flashing mode, screaming "replace me now" after a few years. The LEDs are not cheaper since replacement of perfectly good equipment allows Ga Power to recover the value of working street lights. What's better is that all this was known beforehand. Then came the village parkway. Those lights have always been flaky, randomly going on and off. The only time these lights operate correctly is during the day. Oh, and they were selected by the city. 

Now we have odd pairings of a pole light and an overhead light at intersections. Some work, some don't. 

Hardly Ever Works

This is looking south on CD at the Knoll and the city-mandated overhead street light is further up CD on the same side. The illumination on CD itself is from pre-existing street lights on the west side of CD. This has always been a well lit area, not like, say, the east side of Roberts between Wintercreek and Austin where there are no lights on either side of Roberts, and arguably there should not be.

Some have conjectured that this light doesn't operate because the pre-existing lights, combined with the paired sister light, is so bright that the pole light is overwhelmed, confused, unable to distinguish night from day. Seems like someone well versed in this technology would have known this could happen. So, what out of touch bureaucrat issued the dictate to install this waste of money at this already well lit intersection? What was their motivation? Have they ever actually seen this intersection? Day or night? 

Git Mo'

One of the gunmen in Atlanta's former mayor's "autonomous zone" has been convicted of killing a young girl. During sentencing there were statements made by interested parities, including the  mother of the recently convicted.

Followed by:

Seriously? Do they allow conjugal visits at Gitmo?

Not to worry, he got quite the sentence, and thankfully that child will grow up without his guidance.

Victory Lap

One of the folks who circulated an online petition against the monstrous apartment complex proposed for the Life South property, a proposal endorsed by city bureaucrats, has done a victory lap. 

Just what was the victory?

To hear them tell it, that would be the rejection of the oft-modified proposal. That's it.

No strategic changes by folks who should care, and DHA should, but probably isn't amongst them. Nothing that takes note of the "ask for the stars to get the moon" approach often adopted by these developers. Nothing to address the fact that the city's Confederacy of Dunces who promoted and recommended approval of this fuster cluck had no elected official representing the electorate. 

Maybe these committees, or whatever the hell they are, should have at least one citizen representative from each district in the city. None of these citizens should serve in any other capacity in the city or the city adjacents: the large number of authorities, councils, committees... whatever they've thrown up as a "we didn't do it, they did" CYA. It should have at least one elected official from council or a first term mayor. In other words someone accountable at the ballot box. Otherwise we'll continue with what we have, a sham rubber-stamping whatever it is these unelected bureaucrats want, and they want what outsiders have told them to want. And maybe it is time for a Citizens Oversight Group to ride herd on this goat rodeo. 

Until meaningful, enforceable changes are made, there has been no victory.

It Really Is A Scam

It always starts like this:

But this time, it is a bit brazen. Turns out we have the workers, but we're not cheap enough. Look, everyone who's ever worked alongside H1B employees know that the only thing making them "special" is the price. Usually, no one will say that out loud. Now someone has.

What if they're not legit H1B's? Turns out, that just might be the case.

They weren't just filtering liability through "contracting companies," they were knowingly crossing the line, abusing our laws. At least we now have a media report on the Hyundai fuster cluck that actually points out that immigration law was violated. Maybe that is why there was a raid.