And the Winners Are

Lest they forget, The Other Dunwoody has compiled a list of interesting campaign statements and quotes collected from the candidate web sites and from their published responses at the Dunwoody Home Owners Association.

Mayor

Ken Wright

• Citizens for Dunwoody - president

City Council

Dennis Shortal

• Dunwoody Yes! - co-chair and treasurer [TOD: Note, the required disclosure report was not filed on time].
• "A small, responsive and efficient city government."
• "Keep taxes low and have a balanced budget with a contingency fund"

Bosner

• Dunwoody Yes! - Board member.
• Citizens for Dunwoody - fund-raising and database.
  
• "I pledge to never support the creation of a new apartment complex during my tenure on the city council. [TOD: Note Dr. Bosner is running for a 1 year term]"
• "I pledge to use each and every taxpayer dollar wisely..."

Pankey

• Citizens for Dunwoody - courts task force.
• "I am a fiscal conservative, and will work to deliver enhanced and expanded services without a tax increase or major hike in service fees."

Tom Taylor

• Citizens for Dunwoody - vice president, police task force.
• Dunwoody Action Committee - president.

Robert Wittenstein

• Citizens for Dunwoody - executive board, charter task force.
• "I am a strong advocate of small and transparent government."
• "We need to hold the line on taxes and prove to the voters that we can deliver superior quality government..."
• "We need open and transparent government ..."

Danny Ross

• Citizens for Dunwoody - ethics task force.
• "...promise to serve all the stakeholders of Dunwoody in a fiscally conservative, transparent, efficient and professional manner."
• "...a tax and spending plan which allows our community to live within its means..."

John Heneghan

• Citizens for Dunwoody - Transportation, boundaries and mapping.
• Fights for open government and electronically available records.
• Fiscally conservative, the city needs to start slow until revenues are proven.
• "I promise that I will do everything in my power to have every important government document published to the web to keep the citizens informed."
• "I promise to be especially fiscally conservative the first year and always work to obtain a balanced budget to keep tax increases at bay."
• "Transparency in Government breeds self-corrective behavior..."

Observations

• Regardless of the outcome of the Bosner-Pankey run off there will be no member of the new city government that has not been involved in the shadow government that preceded the referendum.
• Only three of the six member city council have listed transparency as a significant issue and only one has a proven track record of supporting transparency.
• Some candidates, including the two top dogs from CfD, ran on a platform of "How Great I Art" without any meaningful policy or mission statement.
• All claim some measure of business experience to bolster their fiscal acumen, yet none of the CfD entourage noticed that some budgeted revenue won't come in until the end of the fiscal year.
  
• Five of six council members pledge to hold down taxes in spite of the fact that the Carl Vinson Study clearly states that each and every household, and each and every business, will pay out more money after the city than before.
  

If you believe your neighbor can never be a run of the mill politician simply because they live nearby, if you believe outcome is more important than the integrity of process, if you like the transparency of CfD and the timeliness of their Task Force Reports, then you're going to love the new City of Dunwoody.

TOD