New Milton County To Include Dunwoody

On the QT, off the record, and very hush-hush.

Those in the know say key players are close to a decision to include the new City of Dunwoody in the group of runaway cities hoping to re-create Milton County. The primary goal is to remove Dunwoody schools from the faltering DeKalb system and of course keep northern money from flowing south. Said one enthusiastic supporter, "It's our money. It's our kids. It should be our schools, not theirs."

Proponents hope to build on the vision and leadership that led to the overwhelming support for incorporation in recent referenda. A local consultant and former banking executive has been tapped to manage the bidding process and act as interim superintendent while transitioning the current public school services to Edison Schools, Inc. This is expected to result in 25%-30% improvement in education outcomes without a tax increase.

While all parties are maintaining a unified front in public, some have privately expressed concern about a decline in athletic programs. While this is a potential show-stopper it is not expected to dominate public discussions.

Remember, dear readers, you heard it here first.

TOD

Kick 'em when they're up, kick 'em when they're down

Kick 'em when they're stiff, kick 'em all around

Dirty little secrets, dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pie
Love to cut you down to size, we love dirty laundry

We can do the innuendo, we can dance and sing
When it's said and done, we haven't told you a thing
We all know that crap is king, give us dirty laundry

Let it be known from the outset that The Other Dunwoody is no fan of Shrill Jill, but this is beginning to look like a vendetta. With all that is going on in Dunwoody, starting the city, selecting service providers, a mugging at Redfield, murder on Cotillion, assault rifle theft at Perimeter, the Dunwoody Fan Magazine (aka The Crier) wastes a front page headline and significant ink to beat up on Jill Chambers.

It isn't that Representative Chambers doesn't deserve to have these events presented to the public, but it has little relevance to issues confronting Dunwoody today. While Ms. Chambers does indeed live in Dunwoody, she represents only a small area of our fledgling city with most of her constituents residing in Doraville and unincorporated DeKalb. In fact, the ethics complaint does not come from a Dunwoody resident.

All the while there are significant issues with our own city council members that warrant more than a few questions and a better public vetting than they have yet to receive. Perhaps if we had a competent fourth estate on the job we mere citizens would have greater confidence that this city is moving forward without undo influence from self interested individuals and organizations.

Come on Crier, the cause is won. The trophy is on the shelf. The promotions succeeded and you have been selected as an official organ. Now it is time to direct your attention to a new set of politicians that deserve no less scrutiny than any others.

TOD

Poor To Set Up Shop

Rumor has it that Goodwill may open a retail facility in Dunwoody to serve the needs of Dunwoody's homeless and underprivileged and possibly draw upon the similarly disadvantaged in other communities.

Needless to say, the Dunwoody community is excited about the prospect.

During a chance encounter with a high ranking official of the Catholic Church at Oscar's Villa Capri that official reiterated "The Church's love for the poor...is a part of her constant tradition." While there was some obvious concern that this new facility represented real competition to their efforts to address the needs of the local poor, the official expressed confidence saying "we will kick their butts even if we have to pass the basket twice every mass from now until hell freezes over." When asked about donating his Jaguar, the conversation abruptly ended.

Baptist representatives on the other hand disclosed their belief that it was the mission of all God's children to amass as much wealth as possible and donate at least ten percent to their church. Where this money might go remains undisclosed but they do appear to be clearing ground for a new facility of some sort and expressed no concerned about local competition on the charity front.

A representative of a local Jewish congregation politely but firmly refused comment saying "we would prefer not to talk about money, particularly not having any" but seemed enthusiastic about the prospects of a new discount retail operation in Dunwoody.

Local Methodists were too busy addressing recently discovered moral black holes and the loss of parishioners to concern themselves with people looking for deals on blue jeans, but showed some interest when it was suggested this might be a good place to search for their lost ones.

Unitarians by and large remain committed to "addressing the issues of poverty of the mind" and viewed this development with somewhat detached curiosity.

All in all, it is so heartwarming to see this community, with all the distractions of creating a new city, pull together in the spirit of charity to help those less fortunate. This is the Dunwoody we all knew it would be.

TOD

CH2M: Not to Run Dunwoody!

The AJC reported that CH2M has withdrawn it's offer to run Dunwoody!

At the first sign of a competitive, alternative option for city operation, CH2M folds. Surprising? Not really. CH2M has a history of using contractors and consultants to garner business while maintaining distance from activities that are increasingly scrutinized. This is not the hallmark of a competitive bidder.

Here's what their local broker has to say:

“They withdrew because they don’t feel they can get the kind of support they need to partner with the city,” Porter said.

What kind of support do they need? Would that be unfettered access to our money? Their self-proclaimed consultant installed as City Manager? Total lack of transparency? The ability to increase costs at will, as in Bonita Springs?

Was it possible that our city council actually wants to run our city for us? Were they a bit too inquisitive? Did they want a City Manager who isn't connected? Did they want too much oversight? No matter, if this decision sticks Dunwoody dodged a bullet.

TOD

Why Do They Call It Smart Growth...

...when it never involves building a school?

As reported in the AJC and the Atlanta Business Chronical, Yvonne Williams of the Perimeter CID envisions a walkable, livable Perimeter Center. That is unless you happen to be a student in our public schools--then you're bused far from the center of the PCID.

She describes part of her vision for the Perimeter Center community:

"...you have people using the retail, the restaurants and the housing so there is a live-work-play atmosphere."

This is being funded by a $6.5 million grant from the ARC Livable Centers Initiative. The Perimeter Transportation Coalition tells us:

"these LCI grants will be used to create an activity center within the Fulton and DeKalb Perimeter areas that support the "smart growth" concept of live, work, walk and play in the community."

Ever notice how smart growth's live-work-play paradigm conveniently leaves out learn? And how can you call a place livable when you must impose on neighboring communities to educate your own children?

Then we're told by Christopher B. Leinberger, a land use strategist and developer:

"The new plan will require increased density."

Unfortunately it will not require a school or any form of impact fees to compensate Dunwoody and Sandy Springs for this glaring oversight in their plan.

Until parents are walking their children across Ashford Dunwoody to their elementary school, or kids are biking to Perimeter Center High, smart growth is just a palliative buzz word used to mask the excessive greed of developers and their hypocritical shills.

TOD

The Best Tax

Is a sneaky tax.

In Dan Weber's Memorandum to the City, he offers some interesting revelations.

First, he mentions the 9/23 budget. There was a budget put together on or before 9/23? Why has this not been made available to the public? How did Weber get access to it? Don't we have a Mayor and Council committed to transparency? Isn't transparency a major whereas in Resolution No. 2008-10-01? Doesn't the phrase "serve all stakeholders in a transparent manner" appear in the two-sentence mission statement? Isn't item (4) of the Values statement "As representative of the City of Dunwoody, we will be fiscally responsible and transparent"? Does item (6) not include "we will be communicative"?

It's not clear if or when the Mayor and Council had their transparency epiphany.

In discussing the harsh economic reality of starting and running a city, Weber lets it be known that the city, in the unpublished 9/23 budget, plans to follow the county's lead by continuing a 0.7 mil tax increase. Many citizens would be more than a little surprised at this, since before the referendum, all we heard was 2.04 mils, with a 1.0 mil cap. Oh, and we were going to get 25-30% better services if you believe our not-for-pay consultant.

Now we find out that our Mayor and Council have intended for some time to slide in 34.3% increase in city property taxes because they believe we won't notice.

It is disheartening to learn that our neighbors in Dunwoody are no better than our other neighbors throughout DeKalb when it comes to governance.

TOD

City Struggles with Transparency

In its first official meeting the Dunwoody City Council faced two issues related to transparency.

First was the selection of a legal organ. There is a universal desire to reward Dick Williams for his unwavering support of cityhood, but the Crier is a weekly and that doesn't suit the council's desires for advance public notice. (You decide why.) It was proposed that there be two : the AJC, allowing for as short a notice as legally allowed, and the Crier for the aforementioned reasons. Everyone happy? Not so fast. A strong suggestion was made to get a city website in place ASAP. It was a well-reasoned, informative suggestion and did not meet with the resistance one might have expected. Let's all hope it happens.

Surprisingly (or maybe not so), this meeting saw the first open records request. What is certainly surprising is the respondent: John Heneghan! Perhaps it was an ethical contact high, but Councilman Heneghan had to discuss the matter before determining the document under question was indeed a public record. The document? It starts like this:

MEMORANDUM

TO: Mayor and Council, City of Dunwoody
FR: Dan Weber
DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 2008

RE: Hybrid Budget

To assist in your decision making process, ...

How could anyone think that a memorandum addressed to the Mayor and Council regarding the most significant issue facing this city, with the stated intent of influencing their decision, could be seen as "a private conversation between two individuals"??!

Folks, it isn't that hard, at least not if you really believe in transparency. There are only two rules:

1. If the council is discussing employee pay, promotion, discipline, or dismissal, it is private as is other employee personal information.
2. Everything else belongs to the public and should be provided for public review, preferably on the internet---it is the 21st century after all.
   

The latter should include all communications, written, email, telephone and oral. Yes, oral. If lobbyists knew that officials were publishing a meeting report to those they serve (remember us? the citizens? the voters?) politics might be a better thing. All memos, all source material under review, all RFPs and responding proposals, and all email correspondence should be promptly and in some cases automatically, posted. It should also include all phone records, calls received and placed, parties on the call, duration, purpose of the call, and topics of conversation.

The technology is there to make this happen. Do it.

TOD

Consultant Ethics 101

Professional, ethical consultants have two qualities:

1. Area expertise--they are exceptionally accomplished in an area important to their clients where the client is not sufficiently capable.
2. Objectivity--the consultant receives no benefit due to the client's decision and this is most commonly expressed as vendor-independence.

Area expertise is table stakes, you cannot even sit in on the game without it. No statement of ethics from any professional organization tolerates consulting outside one's area of expertise. Not the Institute of Management Consultants, not the Project Management Institute, nor any state licensing agency for whom it may actually be a criminal offense. And consultants are expected to be expert, not just above average or merely capable. These extraordinary, exceptional individuals acquire their skills from academic research and/or outstanding performance in their area of expertise. They are few and far between.

Objectivity is absolutely critical--a consultant must not be influenced by a client's preconceptions and more importantly must not even appear to be influenced by or biased towards a particular vendor. A quick google search for "consultant ethics vendor-independence" reveals that many professional consulting organizations agree. Without this independence, objectivity is compromised and no matter how knowledgeable the expert, the relationship becomes deal brokering, not an objective advice in the client's best interest.

Why do we, The Other Dunwoody, care? Well, it turns out we have our own self-professed consultant who lives in neighboring Sandy Springs. None other than Oliver Porter, the citymaker. But who is Oliver Porter and what is his field, what makes him an expert, acceptable as a consultant? We know this from the City of Sandy Springs:

Oliver W. Porter, Sandy Springs, GA - Porter is a former vice president of sales at AT&T. He is the founder of the Combined Health Appeal of America and served as the group's chief executive officer and past national chairman. He served as a board member with the Committee for Sandy Springs and as the past chairman of the National Kidney Foundation. Porter earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of South Carolina, a master's degree in business administration from Georgia State University, and completed graduate level executive programs at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Williams College, and the University of Illinois.

He is a businessman, more specifically, a salesman. Prior to his position with Sandy Springs he held no elected municipal position, had no municipal job with fiduciary responsibility or oversight of services. Not even dog catcher. He has no degree in urban planning nor in municipal management. No law degree, no studies of state or local law.

This is not the background of someone exceptionally knowledgeable in municipal operations and the legal, political and financial contexts in which a city exists.

So much for expertise, now how about objectivity?

Mr. Porter has been involved in the creation of new cities in our region, including his participation as an unpaid consultant and lobbyist for the City of Dunwoody. In all cases except Dunwoody where the decision is yet to be made, these cities have all chosen to outsource services to one company: CH2M Hill. In the case of Dunwoody an RFP was issued which surely Mr. Porter had a hand in and here's the real surprise: there was no other acceptable respondent but CH2M!

This could be no more than coincidence. Or perhaps there really is no other capable vendor but CH2M.

But this strange set of coincidences isn't all there is. It turns out that Mr. Porter is also an author who is "boutique publishing" a book espousing the benefits of city service outsourcing. So how does someone market a book without the services of traditional publishers? Glad you asked.

You could set up a web site, perhaps even a blog. You could work with academic institutions presenting seminars and workshops or even offering full semester, for-credit classes.

Or, you could co-market your book with a favorite vendor.

• Starting in 2006, CH2M Hill began promoting Mr. Porter's book.
• In 2007, CH2M/OMI gave away copies Mr. Porter's book at the International City/County Management Association Annual Conference.
• This collaboration continued into 2008 as Mr. Porter and CH2M made combined presentations to Toyo University.

Mr. Porter is probably not actually on the CH2M payroll, and CH2M is perfectly entitled to buy any book they want and give them to anyone they want, but this smells more like quid pro quo than a string of coincidences.

This tag team has been working very closely with the Citizens for Dunwoody with CH2M donating money to CfD and our consultant sitting side by side Rob Augustine and Tom Taylor at the League of Women Voters' debate where they:

"defended the studies as prudent, the estimated $18 million budget as fiscally conservative, and the proposed service levels as a 25 to 30% improvement over what DeKalb currently provides."

We now know these statements have no connection with reality, are not supported by sound judgment and would never have been supported by a professional consultant who is truly an expert in these matters.

Doesn't Dunwoody deserve better than a profit motivated corporation with an increasingly spotty track record shilled by a connected consultant?

The Other Dunwoody does.

TOD

The Time Has Come

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach..."

John Heneghan posted a most disturbing Blog entry wherein he states:

"This evening seven fairly intelligent people sat around a table for six and a half hours going over the expected City of Dunwoody revenues and expenses. Come this evening at 7 p.m. when five of us are sworn in, we will then be subject to open meetings and everything from that point on will be discussed in the open."

And just who are these magnificent seven? A Mayor and 5 elected Councilmen, and who else? A consultant? Fran or Dan? A representative from CH2M? Were there any dim-bulbs there or just bright lights?

Furthermore it is clear that right up to the very legal limit the Citizens for Dunwoody have been operating outside the spirit of the open meetings law. Yes, we all know they were not compelled to operate under that law until sworn in, but this leads to an even more disturbing part of the entry:

"money is very tight no matter how the city decides to go forward, there are many unknowns in this initial process"

Many unknowns? In communication with Fran Millar, wherein he was asked about his statement that this was done "the right way" he responded with:

"by delaying this one year to try to get the best data for people to make a decision (unlike Milton, Johns Creek) I do think it was the right way."

So now there is this amazing transition from "financially viable" and "same or better services with no increase in taxes" to "money is very tight" and "there are many unknowns". What happened and what good, other than marketing, was the Carl Vinson study? Did they squander the whole year? Are these "fairly intelligent people" capable of doing anything right?

And what caused this transformation of reality? We all know the answer to that one: the referendum passed.

So now...

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

"Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

Anyone else feeling a bit like an oyster?

TOD

It's the Law

Georgia Law requires open meetings:

TITLE 50. STATE GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER 14. OPEN AND PUBLIC MEETINGS

O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1 (2007)

§ 50-14-1. Meetings to be open to public; limitation on action to contest agency action; recording; notice of time and place; access to minutes; telecommunications conferences

Any actions taken in defiance of these open meeting laws are not binding:

(b) Except as otherwise provided by law, all meetings as defined in subsection (a) of this Code section shall be open to the public. Any resolution, rule, regulation, ordinance, or other official action of an agency adopted, taken, or made at a meeting which is not open to the public as required by this chapter shall not be binding.

That includes zoning, the stick with which the city intends to beat back school overcrowding and traffic congestion.

Also the public must be given timely notice with adequate details:

(d) Every agency shall prescribe the time, place, and dates of regular meetings of the agency. Such information shall be available to the general public and a notice containing such information shall be posted and maintained in a conspicuous place available to the public at the regular meeting place of the agency. Meetings shall be held in accordance with a regular schedule, but nothing in this subsection shall preclude an agency from canceling or postponing any regularly scheduled meeting. Whenever any meeting required to be open to the public is to be held at a time or place other than at the time and place prescribed for regular meetings, the agency shall give due notice thereof. "Due notice" shall be the posting of a written notice for at least 24 hours at the place of regular meetings and giving of written or oral notice at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting to the legal organ in which notices of sheriff's sales are published in the county where regular meetings are held...

(e)(1) Prior to any meeting, the agency holding such meeting shall make available an agenda of all matters expected to come before the agency at such meeting. The agenda shall be available upon request and shall be posted at the meeting site, as far in advance of the meeting as reasonably possible, but shall not be required to be available more than two weeks prior to the meeting and shall be posted, at a minimum, at some time during the two-week period immediately prior to the meeting.

(e)(2) A summary of the subjects acted on and those members present at a meeting of any agency shall be written and made available to the public for inspection within two business days of the adjournment of a meeting of any agency. The minutes of a meeting of any agency shall be promptly recorded and such records shall be open to public inspection once approved as official by the agency, but in no case later than immediately following the next regular meeting of the agency...

One councilman understands the importance of adhering to the letter and spirit of Georgia's Open Meeting laws but also provides us with a telling observation:

"Come this evening at 7 p.m. when five of us are sworn in, we will then be subject to open meetings and everything from that point on will be discussed in the open."

This suggests that much has already been discussed behind closed doors---confirming what we already know from watching the Citizens for Dunwoody.

It is time for these Citizens for Dunwoody who are now officially in charge to realize they are no longer operating a private corporation where secrecy is allowed and that they are now beholding to all the Citizens of Dunwoody including those of us in The Other Dunwoody.

For all our sakes let us hope these leopards can change their spots. If they don't their decisions will not hold up in the court of public opinion and may not survive challenge in Georgia State Courts.

TOD