Fresh Loaf

Well, not quite yet, but Michael Wagoner, president of the Berkeley Park Neighborhood Association, tells me that their local station at 1545 Howell Mill Road is scheduled to reopen on Thursday, thanks to Monday’s approval of a $541 million city budget that included a 3-mill tax increase.

Station 23 was ordered closed by Mayor Franklin late last year as city revenues continued to dip. The administration said then that the closure was temporary, but that didn’t seem to satisfy the neighbors, who gathered hundreds of signatures to persuade the mayor to re-open the station.

Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran laid out the benefits of the tax hike in an e-mail to Wagoner:

For citizens, the measure restores services that were reduced or eliminated due to furloughs by restoring personnel to normal work hours and work schedules. Atlanta Fire Rescue will have the capacity to staff Engine 23 and Truck 12. For employees, the tax increase benefit will restore 10 percent of their salary, which is a tremendous blessing and morale booster during these tough economic times.

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Ivory Young

One says she’s had trouble sleeping because of anonymous threats. Another received a nasty phone message described as “the most disgusting, vulgar thing I’ve ever heard.” Others have gotten e-mails labeling them the “Hate Eight.”

Yes, the eight Atlanta City Council members who voted Monday to approve a 3-mill property tax increase have been reminded over the past few days that, no matter how sincere your intentions, you can’t please everybody.

For weeks now, most of the folks who voted for the tax hike — Carla Smith, Ivory Lee Young, Jr., Natalyn Archibong, Anne Fauver, Felicia Moore, C.T. Martin, Joyce Sheperd and Ceasar Mitchell — have said most constituents indicated a willingness to pay more in taxes in return for an end to police furloughs.

With the city bean-counters expecting only $490 million in annual revenues — down from nearly $650 million a couple years back — the alternatives to a tax increase, according to Mitchell, would’ve been cutting back on weekly trash pick-up, eliminating the recycling program, closing more rec centers and parks or, perhaps, additional employee furloughs.

But now the Eight are catching hell from people whose top concern was higher taxes.

Once the dust settles on the vote and the hate mail subsides, Council members agree, the newly un-furloughed city workers are going to need to step up their game in order to meet heightened taxpayer expectations.

“There can be no excuses now for poor service delivery,” says Young. “From here on, it’s zero tolerance for mediocrity.”

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The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has met a court-ordered deadline for making a $15,000 payment to its wildly delinquent water bill — kind of.

A Fulton County judge last Tuesday ordered the city to reinstate water service to the huge Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter, on the condition that the Task Force pay its April and May bills by June 30.

According to Department of Watershed Management spokeswoman Janet Ward, the group dropped by on Friday with a check for $1,000. Then, yesterday, they sent over another check for $13,809.82, which left them short. Finally, today, they brought a third check for the final $190.18.

So, could the city have shut off the water again last night, when the Task Force still owed a couple hundred bucks?

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OK, that may be a little over-dramatic, but it’s essentially true.

Two days ago, the City Council passed a $541 million city budget for fiscal year 2010 —  beginning, well, today, actually — which is $100 million less than the $640 million budget adopted in 2007. Now, that comparison is a little misleading because the FY2008 budget was based on some rather hinky accounting. Still, the city had to do a lot of heavy lifting to cut the budget down to $541 million, including staff layoffs, employee furloughs and a 3-mill tax hike.

Perhaps you’ve heard something about this. Well, what you likely hadn’t heard much about is a re-amortization of the city’s pension obligations, a provision buried within the budget.

I don’t mean to suggest anything sneaky about the action. It was certainly discussed at length in meetings that were open to the public, if poorly attended. But it was somewhat controversial among Council members because it carries a certain financial risk.

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That's Senator Smalley to you

You watched him on “Saturday Night Live.” You listened to him on Air America. You loved him in Stuart Saves His Family. OK, maybe not that last one.

But now comedian-turned-liberal-pundit-turned-politician Al Franken is finally going to join the U.S. Senate. Everyone knew he’d won the race months ago, but incumbent Norm “Douchebag” Coleman had been hanging on the seat by his fingernails.

Well, the NYT has just reported that the Minnesota Supreme Court today returned a unanimous verdict in Franken’s favor and that Coleman has conceded. It only took him seven months.

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Blondie sez: Check out the updated CL article

Got a few million to spare — in cash? Then you could be Blondie’s new landlord!

Next Tuesday, the Clermont Hotel and four other chunks of real estate owned by the troubled Inman Park Properties are scheduled to be auctioned off on the courthouse steps. John Mansour, a local lawyer representing Fairway Capital, the New York-based lender that’s foreclosing on the Clermont, told the AJC early last week that his client was negotiating with IPP founder Jeff Notrica. On Friday, however, Mansour told CL he didn’t have an update.

Based on recent experience, the outlook isn’t good. In fact, it’s pretty dismal.

Last week, I called Danny Glusman, sales manager for Inman Park Properties, in an effort to confirm which of the company’s many parcels in foreclosure had wound up back in the lenders’ hands. I picked random addresses from a long list I’d compiled by searching through public foreclosure notices, but Glusman was able to identify only one — the old Hilan Theatre in Virginia-Highland —that had been spared from foreclosure by a last-minute deal with the lender.

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Jim Maddox, caught between naps

The Atlanta City Council voted today to raise property taxes by 3 mills, an outcome we’d been predicting for weeks. But the actual vote count — 8 to 7 — was closer than anyone expected it to be. Not because Council members believed the tax hike was a bad idea. Hell, with only one or two possible exceptions, even those who voted against it were privately praying it would pass.

No, the vote was so close because several of our Council members possess, as Teddy Roosevelt once said, “the backbone of a chocolate eclair.”

Exhibit A is Jim “40 Winks” Maddox, the self-proclaimed “Dean of the Council” because he’s warmed a chair in City Hall for more than three long decades. Today, Maddox shocked his colleagues by voting against the tax hike and the $541 million budget. This is a guy who, two months ago, said publicaly that he didn’t think Mayor Franklin’s proposed 3-mill increase was big enough!

“I’m prepared to approve a tax increase to end the furloughs for all employees,” he announced at a budget hearing at the end of April.

But that was before he picked up three challengers for his beloved Council seat. So, today, without giving anyone a heads up, the lily-livered Maddox cravenly hung his colleagues out to dry.

Here’s guessing the next Council retreat is going to be awwwkward.

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The U.S. House narrowly passed the cap-and-trade bill late Friday, and it didn’t take long for Georgia’s own Congressman Paul Broun, R-Flat Earth, to be singled out as the nuttiest of the naysayers.

Why, you ask? Because of statements like this, made from the well:

“The idea of human-induced global climate change is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated out of the scientific community.”

So, Nobel Prize-winning economist and NYT columnist Paul Krugman, what was your take on Broun’s remarks?

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UPDATE: This article has been expanded with additional reporting.

Little has changed about the Clermont Hotel — or its time-capsule strip club — since Atlanta real estate mogul Jeff Notrica took over the Ponce de Leon Avenue landmark six years ago.

Just as he promised when he bought the 85-year-old building, Notrica resisted the typical developer’s temptation to chop it up into condos or turn it into modern apartments. Downstairs, the storied Clermont Lounge was left untouched and remains its gloriously seedy self.

But it may be that the hands-off approach Notrica, 44, has taken with the Clermont and many of his other properties — a land baron’s acquisitiveness tempered by a collector’s appreciation for each new bauble — has simultaneously helped bring his intown real estate empire crashing down.

Unless a deal is struck between Notrica’s Inman Park Properties and New York-based lender Fairway Capital — or unless a deep-pocketed buyer steps forward — the Clermont Hotel and its lounge will be auctioned off on the courthouse steps July 2.

If that happens, it will be only the latest, if largest, in a long series of foreclosures suffered by Inman Park Properties over the past three months. The company’s apparent meltdown has involved some of the most recognizable and beloved buildings in East Atlanta, Little Five Points, Poncey-Highland and Midtown — causing many residents of those same neighborhoods to cheer the company’s downfall.

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The King is dead.

Holy merde! The onetime King of Pop, who had recently sold out 50 upcoming arena concerts in London for what was supposed to be his comeback, apparently suffered a cardiac arrest in a rented Bel-Air mansion shortly after noon today. Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, where he reportedly arrived in a deep coma from which he never revived. The L.A. Times reported Jackson’s death this afternoon.

From where I sat, TMZ seemed to be the first out of the gate with the news, with most mainstream media outlets taking longer to confirm the story.

No word yet on why Jackson, 50, collapsed, but I’m guessing CNN may devote a few minutes of coverage to the story at some point tonight.

This news flash illustrates one big difference between new and old media. Namely, if 50 million people watch the ABC Nightly News at the same time, it scores massive ratings; if 50 million people try to put something on Twitter at the same time — as is happening at this very moment — it crashes.

(Photo courtesy White House Photo Office)

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Robby phone home — to bitch about my tax bill

Yesterday, a fresh round of robo-calls went out across Atlanta, urging homeowners to call their Council member to protest a likely tax increase. Here’s the basic script:

Your Atlanta City Council member is just days away from voting for a massive tax increase. But we can’t afford an increase in property taxes. This is your last chance to voice your concern to Council member _______ before (Thursday’s) scheduled public hearing on this multi-million-dollar tax increase. Urge (him/her) to represent the people of this district by voting “no” on the 29th. Call (him/her) at 404-______ to urge (him/her) to represent the district by and vote “no” on the 29th. Call your Council person today. This call is paid for by the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation.

Last time, back in May, the calls were creepily anonymous, but they too came from the FCTF. Executive Director Barbara Payne later told me the organization didn’t want people to think it was trying to use the situation to boost its profile or solicit support. But apparently they realized the message carried more authority if they identified themselves.

I’m still not sure how the group decided which Council members to target, since few have gone on record to support the mayor’s proposed 3-mill tax hike. But the Taxpayers Foundation is certainly correct in guessing that, unless you live in Buckhead, your Councilman or -woman will likely vote for the increase come June 29.

Just last week, Councilman Ceasar Mitchell, who’s running for Council president, told me he’s planning to vote for the increase.

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Atlanta’s venerable chain of “adult fantasy stores” has been sold to a Midwestern company that operates 30 similar boutiques — under the name Intimate Ideas — in Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina and Rhode Island. Actually, the sale happened a couple months back, but the parties kept quiet about it.

The new owner, James Olsafsky, has been in the business 25 years and his daughter, Jamie, serves as general manager of the chain. So, you see, it’s a family business.

Anyway, Ms. Olsafsky says the company is busy cleaning and renovating the well-used Inserection video booths — not a job I’d want; building up the inventory of “tobacco” products; lowering prices on DVDs; and adding selections of lingerie.

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Hiding out in the woods?

UPDATE: File under “duh.” Sanford initially said he flew to Buenos Aires because he wanted “to do something exotic.” Now we know he wanted to do someone exotic. Yes — surprise! — he’s admitted he went to meet up with his mistress.

As former CL intern Casey McIntyre observes on his Facebook page: “In defense of Sanford’s staffers, ‘Hiking the Appalachian Trail’ does sound a lot like ‘Hunting for Argentinian Tail.’ Perhaps they just misheard him.”

Up until now, Sanford was best known for trying unsuccessfully to deny his state $700 million in Obama-bucks. Now we know the guy has nothing against a little stimulus.

Yesterday, this blog reported that South Carolina officials said the state’s missing governor had decided to go “hiking along the Appalachian Trail” for five days without telling anyone.

Well, it turns out that was a bit of a fib.

Not only does it now appear that Gov. Mark Sanford had left his state, but he’d left the Northern Hemisphere entirely — and, as the old joke goes, he had to change planes in Atlanta. The AWOL Republican was spotted this morning at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport by reporters for The State, S.C.’s largest newspaper, getting off of a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

According to their story:

Sanford said he decided at the last minute to go to the South American country to recharge after a difficult legislative session in which he battled with lawmakers over how to spend federal stimulus money.

And, just to reassure the wife, who also had no clue as to his whereabouts:

Sanford said he was alone on the trip. He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline.

Yeah, I’m sure that’s exactly what he did. It’s incredible how relaxing a few days of, um, coastline-driving can be.

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Yes, the Clermont Hotel, which was put up for sale in April for $6.5 million, is now in foreclosure. And, yes, that puts the future of the fabled Clermont Lounge in doubt. It’s doubly a shame when one considers that the five-story (but definitely not five star) hotel had finally achieved enough of a landmark status that it has attracted interest from local restaurateurs and retailers.

As John Huston’s character says in Chinatown: “Of course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.”

According to listing agent Gene Kansas, several well-known restaurant owners have inquired about the space and the owners of Octane coffee bar were eyeing the building for a second location. He says he’s got a signed letter of intent from uber-hip Ace Hotel, a Portland-based company that operates — under someone else’s ownership — hotels in the Northeast, California and Manhattan.

That’s quite a turnaround from the days, not that long ago, when the Clermont Hotel was regarded as a low-rent flophouse for transients and hookers.

My friend Paul Donsky with the AJC reports that the building is scheduled to be sold on the courthouse steps July 2, but that the lender, New York-based Fairway Capital, says it’s working with the owner, Jeff Notrica of Inman Park Properties, to resolve the matter before that happens.

Sadly, I have my doubts.

A cursory investigation of public records shows that Inman Park Properties has defaulted on loans for well over a dozen intown parcels, many of which contain familiar and historic buildings in the East Atlanta Village, Virginia-Highland and Midtown. Most of these have already been taken over by various banks.

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UPDATE: The AJC reports that a judge has ordered the city to restore the shelter’s water service on the condition that the Task Force make a $15,000 payment by June 30.

Just after noon today, Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless was involved in a drive-by: Her pro-bono attorney pulled up to the curb outside the giant Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter; Beaty came out of the building and signed some legal documents, which were then stamped by a notary on the hood of the car; and the attorney then raced off to Fulton Superior Court to try to get a judge to restore water service to the shelter.

“Hopefully, we’ll get relief from the court,” Beaty said after the car pulled away. She said she expected to have a court hearing later in the day.

Beaty is in a race against time. The shelter stayed open last night, after the city had shut off its water because of unpaid bills, but had been ordered by Fulton County health officials to vacate the building by noon today if water service hadn’t been restored.

Although the Task Force had missed the noon deadline, Beaty said she was talking with county officials about getting an extension. In the meantime, well-wishers continue to drop off cases of bottled water.

“While the county strictly enforcing the law, they’re working with us to solve this problem,” Beaty said. “They’ve been very helpful.”

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Anita Beaty

UPDATE: Shelter stays open for now.

The water has been turned off again at the city’s largest homeless shelter and this time health officials have given the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless 24 hours to clear out of the building.

Back in December, the city shut off water service to the 100,000-square-foot shelter at the corner of Peachtree and Pine streets because the Task Force had more than $160,000 in unpaid water bills. A judge quickly granted a temporary restraining order to have the water switched back on, but gave the city the power to cut service again if the Task Force failed to keep up with a fairly strict payment schedule.

That’s where we are now. Anita Beaty, executive director of the Task Force, admits the group hadn’t paid its bill.

“We didn’t make the payments the last two months because we didn’t have the money,” she says.

Shortly after the water went off, investigators with the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness showed up at the shelter and served legal notice that unless water service is restored within 24 hours, the building must be vacated.

“If they don’t vacate, the case will be turned over to law enforcement,” says April Majors, a public information officer with the county health department, who says she doesn’t believe it will come to that. “The management (of the shelter) is being very cooperative.”

Also, she says, if the Task Force doesn’t comply with the county order, it would be required to appear before the county’s environmental court.

The Task Force has until noon Tuesday to clear out of the Peachtree-Pine shelter, Majors says, unless it can restore water service — meaning drinkable water and working toilets.

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The demolition of Atlanta's Bowen Homes earlier this month

Atlanta is often, and rightly, seen as being well behind the curve when it comes to anything resembling progress. Trends — be they related to culture, social issues, business or, god knows, politics — typically take a couple of years to filter through here after they’ve already become old news in New York, L.A., London, Seattle or wherever.

In other words, it’s rare to see Atlanta taking a leading role on the national stage. But that’s exactly what’s been going on the past few years as Dr. Renee Glover, director of the Atlanta Housing Authority, has pursued an ambitious plan to make us the first large American to completely do away with public housing projects in favor of rent subsidies for privately owned, mixed-income properties.

Yesterday, the New York Times had a prominent news story that details how Atlanta has set the pace for the rest of the country when it comes to this important aspect of public policy. Quoth the Gray Lady:

Mixed-income developments oriented toward families, with trendy shops, golf courses and Y.M.C.A.’s, are emerging where bleak, uniform towers once stood. Displaced residents are receiving vouchers to move to private housing. And a landmark experiment in housing the urban poor in large government-run facilities that began under the New Deal is being undone.

And, a little later:

“Atlanta’s plan signifies in a very clear way that the social contract that cities and citizens have with the poor has fundamentally changed,” said Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist at Columbia University who studies urban neighborhoods. “We’ve decided that the market can function to create housing and the role of government should be to move people into the market.”

Now, as with any type of progress, the demolition of public housing has its critics. Certainly, the jury is out on whether the voucher program will eventually be regarded as an overwhelming success, as CL’s Mara Shalhoup has previously reported. In fact, the NYT cites Mara’s reporting in noting that “a large majority of displaced residents settle in 10 of Atlanta’s poorest ZIP codes.”

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Panda for ransom

Zoo Atlanta CEO Dennis Kelly announced this past week that unless individual donors come up with a half-million dollars to help pay off the Chinese government, the zoo will be forced to give back all four pandas — parents Yang Yang and Lun Lun, as well as their two offspring — when their lease runs out at the end of the year. Corporate donors have already pledged $2 million. The zoo has launched a website, www.givesotheystay.org, to solicit contributions.

“The Chinese people have asked for our help in giving them science and management techniques to protect the remaining 1,500 pandas in the wild.”

—    Kelly, from a video on the www.givesotheystay.org website

“It would break my heart, because it doesn’t get any cuter than this.”

— Nell Mayer of Atlanta, as quoted by Fox 5, on the prospect of losing the pandas

“If we had named that panda P-dizzle, would they want him back?”

—    James, from Metroblogging.com

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Das Boot — coming soon to a street near you

Are you sitting on a bunch of unpaid parking tickets? Do you hate being a meter-feeder? Have you gotten used to being able to park illegally with virtual impunity?

Well, soon it’s gonna suck to be you.

For more than a year now, there’s been almost no parking enforcement in Atlanta. There were only three meter maids patrolling the entire city.

How did that happen? As has become typical with Atlanta, it seems to have been a case of bad timing, poor planning and bureaucratic fumbling.

Last spring, when city officials realized thay were looking at a serious budget shortfall, they decided to privatize parking enforcement as a way to trim payroll. So, in May, during the first round of city layoffs, Mayor Franklin sacked the staff of meter-readers.

Soon after, however, new Public Works Commissioner Joe Basista broke it to the administration that the city couldn’t afford to replace its existing coin-operated meters with new-fangled multi-space meters that accept credit cards, as had been planned. Next, someone realized that the request for proposals that had been drawn up to solicit bids from contractors was flawed and needed to be rewritten. Apparently, each of these setbacks took months to iron out.

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The AJC reported yesterday that the city of Columbus just won a big lawsuit against Expedia over the question of whether the online travel agency was cheating the city out of a portion of the hotel occupancy tax. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that, yes, the company was doing just that.

This is very good news for Atlanta, which is currently suing 17 travel websites — Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline.com, etc. — over just the same issue. Says Atlanta City Attorney Jerry Deloach:

“Atlanta is pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision and looks forward to recovering past due occupancy taxes in its pending case, as well as securing compliance with state and local tax laws going forward.”

The way online travel agencies make money is they buy up blocks of hotel rooms at a discount, then market those rooms to consumers at a higher rate.

The cities, however, are claiming that while the websites pay the local hotel tax — 7 percent in Atlanta — based on their discounted price, they charge the customers the tax based on the full retail price, and pocket the difference. The argument is that cities should be collecting taxes that correspond to the final rate that a customer pays to stay in a hotel room.

Look for Atlanta to announce a legal settlement in coming months.

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Who is Jesse Spikes, you ask? Well, here’s your chance to find out.

Spikes is a former Rhodes Scholar and a senior partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge, one of the city’s largest law firms. He’s also running for mayor, having announced his candidacy a little more than a year ago, just before City Council President Lisa Borders — temporarily — dropped out.

Over the past year, I can’t say that Spikes has made many waves in the mayor’s race, but I’d comfortably rank him first among second-tier candidates. At the end of the last disclosure period, he had about $125,000 in his campaign war chest — far short of the amounts being raised and spent by the three first-tier candidates: Borders, Councilwoman Mary Norwood and state Sen. Kasim Reed. In fact, in the first quarter of 2009, Reed raised more in a week than Spikes raised in three months. The next round of disclosures should be out in early July.

Anyway, if you like underdogs or are simply not satisfied with the folks leading the field, you can check out Spikes this Saturday at his official campaign kick-off. The event begins at 11 a.m. in front of the large pavilion on the west side of Grant Park near the entrance on Boulevard. The speechifying is scheduled to begin around noon. You can study up on Spikes beforehand at his campaign website.

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State Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville, opposes a proposed Gwinnett County tax hike, arguing that an economic downturn is not the time to raise taxes. But, during the recent General Assembly, he successfully pushed legislation to start billing Georgians next year for two nuclear reactors that won’t be completed until 2017.

“A tax increase … amounts to more financial strain on the taxpayer. People do not have the ability to pay more for government services right now.”
—    Balfour, from a June 11 AJC op-ed

“If we pay for the interest now, we’re saving money.”
—    Balfour, as quoted in the AJC Jan. 16, defending his plan to bill Georgia Power ratepayers upfront for the nukes

“The pre-payments would force current customers to subsidize future customers. … It is real money that they must pay years before it would otherwise be due.”
—    From the Feb. 6 report on Balfour’s bill by the Public Service Commission staff

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Mayor candidate and Councilwoman Mary Norwood has responded to Kasim Reed’s call for a 1-mill tax increase to end police furloughs — as well as criticism directed at her for not suggesting an alternative funding source.

Here’s her statement:

I issued a 12-point public safety platform early in March in which I made my position very clear: end the furloughs now and pay for the public safety personnel our citizens need and deserve from existing revenues. That will mean that the Administration will have to prioritize its use of money, but that’s what we expect our city to do: prioritize resources in the public’s interest.

In her 12-point plan, Norwood also calls for the city to:

• Expand the police force by at least an additional 10 percent over the 2,000 officers that Mayor Franklin has said are necessary. The city now has about 1,700 cops.
• Raise police and firefighter salaries and benefits to be more competitive with other cities.
  
• Boost annual raises to induce police officers to stay with the department.
• Help public safety personnel buy homes inside the city limits.
• Put more police on the beat.
• Keep repeat offenders in jail until bond is set.
• Upgrade the city’s communication technology.
• Invest additional resources in city code enforcement.

Now, I’m no budget expert, but my guess is that each and every one of the those items would cost money — and all together, they’d add up to a medium-sized fortune.

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State senator and mayoral candidate Kasim Reed held a hastily called press conference today at the shuttered Fire Station No. 7 in the West End to make two proposals:

1. The city should reopen No. 7 and keep all existing fire stations open.
2. The city should raise taxes by 1 mill — and no more — in order to end police and fire department furloughs.

“There’s a crisis in Atlanta,” he said at the start of the press event. “Public safety is critical to Atlanta’s future and we need to do what it takes to end the furloughs.”

(Apparently, Andy, Reed doesn’t believe the crime problem is simply one of perception.)

Mayor Franklin has proposed, in a budget now on its way to the full Council, that the city raise property taxes by 3 mills — an increase that will allow one-day-a-week furloughs to be ended for all city workers. But Reed advocated for a 1-mill increase, saying that’s enough to put police and fireman back on the job.

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Last month, city jailers blasted the City Council about proposed cutbacks in their department.

Yesterday, it was the municipal court judges‘ turn. And they’re claiming the city doesn’t have the power to dismiss them.

At a meeting of the Council Finance Committee on Wednesday, Judge Barbara Harris led other court employees in stating their opposition to a proposed downsizing of the muni court. There are currently 11 judges, but Mayor Franklin’s proposed 2010 budget only includes funding for 8 judge positions.

If this issue sounds familiar, it’s because city officials began sometime last year discussing — with the judges themselves — a reduction in the number of municipal courtrooms. Supposedly,  a tentative agreement had been reached with three judges who volunteered to retire. But that was before the recent economic collapse wiped out many people’s savings. Now, it seems, the judges have decided they want to stay on — even Judge Andrew Mickle, who was busted last year for a DUI.

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