Fresh Loaf

The Spanish-born philosopher Santayana is best known for coining the aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It’s a maxim unlikely to go out of style because there’s always an example to give it currency. Which brings us to DeKalb.

At tomorrow morning’s county board meeting, Commissioner Lee May will introduce a resolution calling for DeKalb to initiate legal action to block the formation of a city of Dunwoody.

Now, to anyone who’s been paying attention over the last three years, this action will spur a sense of deja vu. The Fulton County Commission did the exact same thing in May 2005, a little more than a month before a scheduled referendum for the city of Sandy Springs. It took less than 10 days for the U.S Department of Justice to summarily reject the county’s argument as so much sour-grapes whining.

In DeKalb’s case, there’s only a week left before the July 15 referendum. Not only does May seem ignorant of recent legal precedent regarding local incorporation votes, but he also appears to lack a calendar. Here’s the official description of his measure:

The Governing Authority supports a legal challenge to the Incorporation of the City of Dunwoody by the County Attorney given Senate Bill 82 inclusion of the Perimeter Community Improvement District (CID). Senate Bill 82 (Incorporating the City of Dunwoody) would not be in the best interest of the citizens of the County, including those of the area of Dunwoody. Furthermore, the legislation would exclude from the referendum many citizens of unincorporated DeKalb County.

To refresh readers’ memories: A divided Fulton Commission spent much of early 2005 bickering about the impending Sandy Springs referendum. Northern commissioners argued that there was little the county could do to prevent the vote, but southern commissioners tried anyway. On a slim 5-4 majority, the board first passed a resolution opposing cityhood, then voted to petition Justice to outlaw the referendum on the basis that it would be “racially punitive” to Fulton’s minority residents.

The argument went something like this: Because the incorporation of mostly-white Sandy Springs would take tens of millions in tax revenue away from mostly-black unincorporated Fulton, therefore the entire county should be able to vote in the referendum.

One attorney who saw the filings told CL that Fulton’s law department had been warned how weak its case was, but the county forged ahead anyway.

Now, it looks as if DeKalb could follow the same path. May’s resolution suggests that unless the Perimeter Center area is removed from the proposed city of Dunwoody, then the rest of unincorporated DeKalb should be able to take part in the referendum.

The resolution doesn’t say what form the “legal challenge” should take – or how, with only a week to go, it could possibly derail a county-wide referendum that’s already on the ballot. Hopefully, someone will learn from this mistake.

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Tags: DeKalb-County, DeKalb-County-Board-of-Commissioners, Dunwoody, Fulton-County-Board-of-Commissioners.