Will This Really Fix It?

Over at decaturish.com suggestions have been put forth that might address the long running, systemic, perhaps even structural dysfunction of the DeKalb County School Board. Specifically this includes: term limits; pay rises; and super districts. The second of these suggestions sounds alarmingly familiar to anyone watching the circus that is public education. No matter the problem the solution is always [more] money. Always. Despite the fact this invariably ignores TOD's law: where there is no solution there is no problem, only a situation. Since [more] money has yet to show even partial success in addressing education's issues, it is difficult to say there is a problem. Unless we avoid the attempts to take money for a solution.

The similarity is also strikingly similar to the incessant calls for teacher pay rises. Every year. Every budget. The feigned logic is that better pay will attract better teachers, ignoring the elephant in the room: it is all but impossible to fire underperforming teacher to make way for these better, and better paid, candidates. 

So maybe decaturish is onto something. Though incumbency is a powerful force, it is possible to remove elected officials by the ballot box or, as we have seen, with action by the state. If these pay rises are combined with the first suggestion, to impose term limits, we might well see improvements at a less than glacial pace. Otherwise we can expect to witness ongoing degradation of the system.

History In The Taking

Looks like the historical eraser heads went a bridge too far. In their enthusiasm to erase any triggering reminder of the losers of the Civil War they put in place plans to rename Lake Lanier. Turns out that Sidney Lanier, for whom the lake is named, is far better known as a poet that for his impactful service as a private in the Confederate Army. They were also going after the dam that holds back the water thus creating the lake. Whilst the dam is named after the nearby town of Buford, that moniker is from a Lt. Colonel with the Virginia Militia. So names not only separated by over a century but by multiple degrees of namings are ripe for the reaping. 

The eraser heads did get pushback on their Buford and Lanier plans, powerful enough for them to hit "pause." It is worth noting they have not canceled their plans, just waiting for the opportune moment. 

Signs That Don't Work

You know the kind. Like a "drug-free zone" sign near an elementary school. Even worse, a no-guns sign. These don't seem to be working anywhere anymore. Well except in a few locations: those where the sign is backed up by enforcement. You know, like under the gold dome or the county courthouse. 

Dunwoody has its own flavor of sign that never works:

Cannot Stop A Truck With A Sign

There is only one way to make this work: enforcement. And that is not on anyone's calendar.

A Never-Ending Disaster

That pretty much describes the DeKalb County School District. 

First we have a sole finalist  for superintendent who will be the fourth in four years and who is liked by no one outside of the School Board. And, it isn't certain he is that well liked there, but when you have the track record of DCSD you may find yourself more a beggar than a chooser. It also turns out that a quick Google search would turn up some things about the candidate that may not be well aligned with DeKalb, especially given a demographic that includes Latin and Asian communities.

Then we have an elementary school teacher who answered nature's call but seemed to have forgotten that he left his loaded gun in the restroom. Oops. Surely there is a story there and we may hear it if this goes to trial as he has been arrested. When we discuss classroom discipline perhaps we should include teachers who know and follow the rules.

Heal Thyself

It seems a county contractor has been accused of improprieties around the use of pandemic economic emergency funds and now a county commissioner wants a code of ethics for businesses contracting with the county. And DeKalb County should know of these things. Remember the P-Card fiasco? Not that long ago. Then we have a [former] commissioner convicted of extortion regarding one of the county's...wait for it...wastewater contractors. 

Is the expectation that contractors will now be held to the same high standards that the commissioners hold themselves?

Yeah, But...

 

Protection From The Sun

Needs Protection From The Sun

Have They Ever Won?

It doesn't seem to matter whether suit is brought against the city or if the city initiates legal action it isn't clear if the city has ever won. Maybe the losses are just more prominent because of the enormous expense. Maybe they won't need a to float a bond if they quit with these wasteful endeavors. 

Their most recent loss (unless in the brief time since they've lost another court case) regards a legit business, doggy daycare, for the fact that, wait for it, dogs bark! Now this might upset local cats (but is too far from the city hosted cat house to bother the ladies) but they were in violation of no ordinance (when did the city start enforcing those?) yet still worked to placate complainers. Then the city took them to court. And lost. 

Maybe the Truth Butcher can post the city's win/loss record on the website or D-News. Interesting and entertaining.

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

Do actions still speak louder than words? Even after a decade of hordes chanting "words matter?" And does this hold true in Dunwoody? If so, this city is shouting:

1. Prostitution: good.
2. Alcohol: bad.
3. PD? Just plain ugly.

In the first case the Dunwoody PD is shielding hotels who turn a blind eye to pimps and prostitutes by refusing to release the names of these businesses. Then we have a sting looking for businesses selling alcohol to underaged buyers and these businesses are named and shamed. 

Are they trying to get sued? Can you really get away with treating one business with kid gloves and another with brass knuckles? Given our own PD has anthropomorphized our hotels is this not also true of other businesses? If so, should they not bet equal treatment? 

When is the next election?

How Is This Democratic?

As in small-d democratic? 

The Georgia General Assembly has passed a bill allowing DeKalb County to use SPLOST funds for purpose that were explicitly not part of the referendum when it was voted on and passed. How is that even legal/constitutional? 

So apparently we can be presented with a referendum, deem it worthy of support, vote, pass it and then have it changed without presenting these changes to the voters for their approval. It appears as if the original vote was either a trap, a charade or just a bait-and-switch. 

And they call this "democracy?" 

Grubb-ing For Bidness

An apartment developer (yep, that's his speciality) who had his bit to convert an office building to apartments is on the rampage. He now contends that unless he is allowed to build apartments in Dunwoody, Dunwoody is doomed. Outside of dubious cancer meds, do terroristic fear tactics really work to sell your product or service? Or is this just a last ditch effort to cash in on Dunwoody?

The argument is odd. Not that long ago an office building was so unused that he wanted to turn it into apartments but now, with all the office space around perimeter he contends there must be massive rental properties built for all the up and coming young professionals. And he is just the man to do it. But this doesn't seem to align with our new, post-pandemic reality. We learned that we can work very effectively when away from the office with some corporations (e.g., a major insurance company) finding that productivity (and hence profits) went up. Mentally ossified Boomers are already out the door and the millennials filling their places are managerial style that is less place-and-face centric. Getting work done away from the office is not going away. And this means two things: no commute; and no need for right-by-the-office living. Of course the latter never made sense for two-income households, something your average developer never addresses and it is why you haven't heard so much about live-work-play lately. 

What is also missing from this is a sense of history. Dunwoody (as in the City of) was sold to voters on a platform whose major plank was stopping the rampant development of apartments. Now one might look at High Street and conclude "promise made, made to be broken" but at least one of the current pols holding office was active in the sales pitch. Voters gave the thumbs-up because they had been convinced that as a city there would be significantly greater restriction on the imminent destruction of Dunwoody's character as a suburban edge-city. 

Let's see if our pols intend to keep the commitment.