Dunwoody's Founding Principles

The Pro-Dun crowd's need to know approach to citizen engagement combined with a focus on success at all costs provided little opportunity for profound thinking or a clear exposition of founding principles. So, it is not surprising that their declaration of independence sounds more like "Free at Last" than "When in the course of human events". Though they never published
an explicit statement of founding principles, the principles can be distilled from their actions and the body of their marketing efforts.

They have offered us, the citizens, these core principles:

No Taxation Without Representation. This was the primal scream of the cityhood movement. It was, and still is, impossible to have a conversation about Dunwoody, without some discussion of sending all our tax money south and getting nothing in return. Though this situation will not substantially change after cityhood, the constant harping on this issue makes it not only a core principle but casts a long shadow of greed over the city.


Same or Better Services at Same or Lower Cost. This is almost a corollary to the Taxation/Representation principle. Almost but not quite. It has two distinguishing components:

1. that Dunwoody is inherently better at money management than DeKalb, including some unsavory suggestions that DeKalb might have been intentionally abusing Dunwoody;
2. and a commitment to no tax increases.

Questions about latter point were often directed to a reading of SB82 which requires a city-wide referendum to exceed a one mil property tax increase. This sleight of hand obfuscated the fact that other taxes and fees can be levied and raised at will.

Local Control is Better Control. A widely held belief in Dunwoody is that a city government will make zoning decisions that account for impact on school crowding and traffic congestion, while the county will be driven only to increase the county tax digest. It was also felt that local control of police would put officers on the streets of Dunwoody and that roads and parks might benefit from management by folks who use them. This is perhaps the only issue where Dunwoody proponents seemed less than obsessed with money.

So we have, perhaps unwittingly, been given a set principles that underpin the soon-to-be city of Dunwoody. Given that the council, and certainly the mayor will be selected from the Pro-Dun activists, it is only fitting that their word and deed sets the context against which their future actions will be measured.

TOD