He Got His Camera Cop Revenue Stream

Looks like the new DCSD superintendent doesn't really grok money except how to spend it. And he has really hit the ground running. Millions in non-recurring funds on some never-ending positions. Now the great giveaway: caving on the camera cops handing six times the collected revenue that the schools get for school zone enforcement to a PD that never has and never will patrol those mean streets. 

That makes it a windfall for the city. It isn't like they ever patrolled school zones enforcing traffic laws. Or anywhere else, outside of maybe perimeter center, for that matter. Yet all along the top cop has protested (a bit too much) that this isn't about the money. You know, when someone says that it is always about the money. How do we know? Direct from the top cop. In justifying these cameras he burped this blooper: "automatic speed cameras in the city’s school safety zones is a measure they hope will address the 'constant' speeding problems faced in certain areas and increase student safety." WTF? Constant speeding? Yet, it has never been enough speeding to justify organic cop policing-only camera cops. This is an insult to intelligence. Of any creature above a garden slug (it isn't clear how many folks at city hall accept this excuse). 

Then there is the bigger farce regarding student safety. These camera cops are not going to ticket any speeders when students are flocking, to or from school. We all know why. Because when students are in the goes-in, goes-out mode there are no speeders. Instead there is horrible, stop and go, mostly stop, traffic. Ain't no speeding goin' on. So the tickets, and the associated revenue will only occur when students have asses in classes or when they are safely at home. 

And if this city, either the city manager or his underling police chief, really cared one little bit about our students' safety they would have officers directing traffic during the times when students are walking to school and being dropped off or picked up. THAT would be serving with distinction. THAT is never going to happen. Not in Dunwoody. Not with the bureaucrats we have in charge.

Cheerleaders

Back in the day, waaaay back in the day, when cheerleaders were athletes, they were selected on capabilities and not just looks or appeal. Those days are gone. 

Read the city charter.

You will understand why the current mayor is so popular. She's a cheerleader. And her fans like the cheers. What they do not understand is that she doesn't and cannot really do anything. Except be a cheerleader. 

Does that make you happy?

Play Nicely Children

Schools are back in and you may have noticed a change in traffic patterns. If you haven't, everyone hopes your Tuscan vacation is going well. This traffic is more than a reminder of the approach of summer's end, sweltering, some say "unwalkable" heat notwithstanding, it is also a reminder that the safety of our children, particularly those who do walk, is of no concern to the city.  Consider also that a majority of those walking will be among the youngest as there are more elementary schools placing more within walking distance. You would think this would put our local PD on a safety alert but you would be wrong. This is not the distinction with which they serve, unsurprising given the community is not who they serve. 

Dunwoody, along with a few other DeKalb cities, is in a pissing contest with the school system regarding Camera Cops in school zones. Dunwoody wants them because they get the revenue without doing a thing to protect the community or even show a police presence. Problem is the schools have to authorize/request these cameras. Some are boiling this down to just the money and while following the money is reliable there may be more there there. Some of that there may be opportunity. For the city to act like adults.

According to rumor there have been efforts withing DCSD to scare up some money for traffic officers during high traffic hours (usually morning drop off) to keep traffic flowing and children, parents and teachers safe. They need money because they (think they) must hire off-duty officers. You may think that odd. Any taxpaying member of the Dunwoody electorate should. And they should think that at the polls and vote accordingly. What they should not be is surprised. Dunwoody PD has made it painfully clear that traffic enforcement and community service is beneath them. One [former] resident has the emails to prove it. So does the city.

So. Is this an intractable standoff? Is this the best that is humanly possible? With the humans currently available, probably so. The easiest way to break this logjam lies with the city, not the schools. First, the city should enforce traffic laws and if anything, most aggressively in school zones during school hours and events. Presence, not platitudes. Then, they should provide traffic control during drop off and pick up. Do your job and quit asking everyone else to do it. And consider this: perhaps the reason the legislature lets the cops get the money from these cameras is to offset the revenue they lose by displaced police enforcement. But if you're not there, never have been there, and have no intention of going there then you should not get any of this money.You need to earn it.

So why don't you just try playing nice? Protect our children, our community and our schools. Make our streets safe. Maybe you'll make a friend. And then maybe they will play nice with you.

Damn Those Drive-thrus

Or so say city bureaucrats though they seem to have difficulty with definitions. This is a side effect of agenda driven actions. There goal is to ban all new drive-thrus and the agenda is some intellectual squishy "pedestrian friendly" nirvana. This is really their first step towards filling the village with five-over-two firetraps to inject very high density housing. And crime. 

One bureaucrat remarks that these evil drive-thrus "lead to a lot of conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists (scope creep) at points of ingress and egress." Most shops in the village would call this business. And how do these bureaucrats propose to allow for successful businesses? They will put a couple thousand apartments in the village. That's how you get the pedestrian density they covet.

Slow Roll

How long can temporary last? Well when this city doesn't want to do something temporary can be rather indefinite. Point in case? The moratorium on drug rehab centers that started in February and was supposed to be over in July. Commitment? Not even a word they like to use. Turns out staff has been too busy not doing something and hasn't gotten around to figuring out what they were supposed to figure out. So they have asked for and gotten an extension on the moratorium. They are asking to for seven more months, doubling the time which suggests they are about half way toward done. Smart money says they haven't even started. Even odds they'll "need" another extension. 

They have no intention of lifting this moratorium and even if they do it will be to reveal a complete ban on rehabs. How can you tell? Because when these bureaucrats want to get something done they spend tens or hundreds of thousands of our dollars on outside consultants. And it gets done.

You Know Its The Sporocarp, Right?

 

Best Of All...It's Dunwoody!

Is Third Time The Charm?

City hall just won't let it go. After being batted down twice they are lodging another, third, appeal in an unemployment case. Here's one of the funny parts (at this point how can you NOT see the humour in this expensive goat rodeo?): the police officer at the center of this case was fired for dishonesty! Cannot make this up. This guy was fired from a police department that has a proven record (facts not in dispute) of falsifying official police records--on purpose. And keep in mind that there have been no credible outside investigations of the smarmy goings-on withing the PD, instead the top cop has "investigated" concluding there is nothing to see here. Just move along. Credibility? Veracity? Is any objective observer going to associate either with the Dunwoody powers that be?

The lawyers hired by the city for this appeal, on your dime, probably a few million of them, may be ignorant (willfully?) of the city's fear of veracity and allergy to transparency but he has stones saying: "The GDOL needs to finally right its wrongs in this case, and the Board of Review now has a third opportunity to do so." [emphasis added] Very gracious of him to offer them yet-another-chance. Wonder if this work is pro bono. Seriously, would this money be better spent on rank and file police?

Letters To The Editor

At the request of a reader the Blue Bag Rag has restored letters to the editor to page three where they had been under previous management. As was pointed out this provides a platform for citizen discussion and adds to the value of the weekly. 

The very next edition sported letters in the new-old location including a letter from a resident pondering the lack of police directing traffic during signal outages cause by recent storms. Other jurisdictions do just that.  What this resident doesn't realize is that Dunwoody does not do much of anything to enforce quality of life ordinances or traffic laws. Nothing. Sign ordinances? Nope, with one interchange with a resident trying to get the city to "enforce on complaint" revealing that city bureaucrats think it is the resident's responsibility to document and prove the violation. Traffic laws are no better. Everyone, especially those using our neighborhoods as to-and-from speedways know there will NEVER be speed enforcement. Trucks barreling thru no-truck-zones? Well, if actions speak louder than words, then city bureaucrats are screaming at the top of their lungs that trucks blasting past our schools are A-OK. Our top cop has even sent out an email to a [now former] resident indicating the juice isn't worth the squeeze. And yet we spend money on cameras.

The best part about the re-emergence of letters to the editor in this particular issue is that the BBR also reported on Dunwoody's top cop being selected as Police Chief of the Year. That year must have REALLY sucked. Unless the number of lawsuits against the city naming the Police Chief is somehow meritorious. Or perhaps it is the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars he has cost the city in legal cock-ups. Or could it be his innovation in doctoring police reports to show city hall is a real house of ill repute? Perhaps it is the failed attempt at creating a PD porno ring.

DeKalb Schools' Epiphany

The heavenly purse strings opened and DeKalb County Schools' new superintendent had an epiphany pledging his career and our money to COB,O.

 

That's right, Horton has zealously pledged his full faith to the divine teachings of the Minstrel of Margaritaville because, as the faithful know, come Monday it'll be alright. A deficit of 400 teachers? Believe! It'll be alright! A 110 headcount, $12M bloat to administration? Have faith, after all COB,O works in mysterious ways. But lordy, lordy it works. And you can help by keeping sobriety at bay.

Now, as you may imagine, this is gonna be one hell of a weekend especially for the most secular amongst us. Try to stay hydrated. And...Fins UP!