Fresh Loaf

Total amount lobbyists spent wining, dining and wooing state lawmakers in May, June and July: $193,000

Number of days General Assembly was in session during those months: 0

Amount lobbyists for Georgia Power, and the natural gas and beverage industries spent on House Republicans’ annual retreat: $26,000

Number of lawmakers who went on a lobbyist-paid trip in July to visit Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, Calif.: 4

Amount lobbyists spent to charter boats for lawmakers during a coastal conference in June: $528

Amount the Georgia Food Industry Association spent packing a state senator’s “hospitality suite”: $545

Amount lobbyists spent on one night of “entertainment” for the House Republican Women’s Caucus: $935

Amount Sierra Club lobbyists spent on lawmakers during the entire year: $0

Number of water-conservation bills that lawmakers approved this session: 0

Sources: Atlanta Unfiltered, State Ethics Commission, AJC

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Jim Walls, the former head of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigative team and one-man tour de force behind local site Atlanta Unfiltered, has been awarded a $1,000 fellowship from the Investigative Reporters and Editors. Other winners include Jonathan Jones and Anna Sussman, founders of backpackjournalist.org.

Walls, who took a buyout from the paper last year, has been producing outstanding work since joining the blogosphere in March. He’s beat his old paper on numerous stories, sifted through hundreds of public documents, and even been known to get snarky a bit here and there. Says Walls:

This truly is an unexpected honor for which I am very grateful. This also is an opportunity to note that Atlanta Unfiltered would be honored to accept your financial donation to help us keep shining a light on the public’s business. Atlantans clearly place a high value on solid, unbiased, local investigative reporting (Unfiltered received 65,000 page views in the last month alone).

You can help him out by visiting his site and kicking in some cash.  Congrats, Jim.

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Ben at Terminal Station tries out a new banner image that actually makes Atlanta look cool. Good posts on how Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington should examine the leadership skills of Los Angeles’ chief, who recently stepped down to become a consultant, and whether small grocery stores can survive.

Jim Walls at Atlanta Unfiltered reminds 19 state lawmakers that they need to stop playing coy and file their personal financial disclosure reports — which were due on July 1. See if your elected official is on the list.

Decatur Metro’s now bursting with headline-y goodness.

Doug Richards from Live Apartment Fire returns to the airwaves. Mrs. Live Apartment Fire notes the different ways this will change her life.

Watch this space for GriftDrift’s take on ConstableGate.

Jim Galloway has returned from his well-deserved two-week vacation. Politicians immediately wig out.

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Jim Walls at Atlanta Unfiltered dug into Atlanta’s crime statistics for this year and found that, yep, crime is  down citywide. But there are pockets where it’s risen sharply.

Aggravated assaults climbed by more than 50 percent in downtown Atlanta this year, and residential burglaries were up sharply in Buckhead and southwest Atlanta, police statistics show.

…

Aggravated assault, for instance, climbed 52 percent in Zone 5 (downtown Atlanta), even as it declined by 8 percent in the rest of the city. Auto theft was up 23 percent and bicycle theft up 120 percent in Zone 5 during the same period.

Residential burglaries climbed 54 percent in Zone 3 (Southwest Atlanta) over 2008, the statistics show. In Zone 2 (Buckhead), residential burglaries rose 33 percent. Elsewhere in the city, the number of burgaries was stable or down slightly; in Zone 1 (northwest Atlanta), they were down 28 percent.

More info at Atlanta Unfiltered.

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Atlanta Unfiltered reports former DeKalb County police chief Terrell Bolton testified at an administrative hearing yesterday that county rules forbidding comp time for police executives did not apply to him.

“I was unique in that I had a special arrangement with the person who hired me as part of my compensation package,” Bolton testified. “He supersedes any rule or regulation, basically.”

Read the rest at Atlanta Unfiltered.

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Pat Swindall, a former state representative from DeKalb County who served a year in prison for perjury and had since moved on to manage downtown Atlanta real estate, has been indicted in Fulton County for making illegal campaign contributions.

A Fulton County grand jury indicted Swindall and two other men for making illegal campaign contributions to Atlanta Ciy Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd. It also indicted them for making false statements through concealing the fact that Swindall was the actual source of the contributions made in the names of other people to Sheperd’s 2005 campaign committee.

Shepard, who says she plans on returning the funds, released a statement today saying she was “pleased” with the grand jury’s decision. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard and frat-tastic Swindall could not be reached for comment, the paper says.

Atlanta Unfiltered’s Jim Walls recently recalled Swindall’s past legal foibles. Click the link and scroll down to view Swindall’s entry on the blogger’s “Crooked Politicians Registry.”

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State Rep. Randal Mangham, D-DeKalb, an attorney, was found liable by a DeKalb jury yesterday for a stunning $625,000 in damages for legal malpractice, according to Jim Walls at Atlanta Unfiltered.

According to some attorneys I spoke to, legal malpractice cases are somewhat rare because the burden of proof for the plaintiff is fairly high. It’s not like medical malpractice, where folks have been known to sue their doctors because they didn’t like the outcome of a surgical procedure.

With legal malpractice, not only must you show that your attorney screwed up your case through some egregious, avoidable mistake — such as failing to file essential documents — but you’ve also got to convince a jury that if your case had been handled properly, you would’ve won. That’s where the damages come in, as compensation for the money the  attorney prevented his client from collecting.

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There must be something in the ventilation system over at the Public Service Commission that’s making those folks more than usually loopy. Yesterday, the PSC voted 3-2 to elect Commissioner Stan Wise as board chairman for a two-year term. There’s just one problem with this maneuver: It’s illegal as hell.

Bobby Baker

And it’s not as if PSC members can claim to be unaware of the law that mandates how chairmen are selected, because they tried to get the law changed during the recent General Assembly. That attempt failed; it appears this is their back-up plan.

Since 1992, Georgia law has called for the PSC chairmanship to rotate on an annual basis. Legislation sponsored by Rep. Don Parsons, R-Marietta, (but reportedly written by newly elected Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald) would have allowed the board to elect its own chairman for a three-year term. The bill passed the House, but stalled in the Senate.

As reported by the increasingly invaluable Atlanta Unfiltered, current PSC Chairman Doug Everett announced Monday that he was resigning from that post as of July 1. He then made a motion nominating Wise as chairman for the next two years, with McDonald to serve as vice-chairman. The motion passed 3-2, with members Chuck Eaton and Bobby Baker voting against it. Eaton has written a letter asking Attorney General Thurbert Baker to weigh in on the matter.

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You’d have to be a hopeless local politics wonk — or a reporter — to even have been aware that Borders was the subject of an ethics complaint. Now that it’s been dismissed, you can return to your state of blissful and well-earned ignorance. You’re welcome, however, to read on if you’re one of the aforementioned hopeless wonks.

Right off the bat, I should mention that Borders wasn’t accused of any of the typical charges against elected officials — missed document-filing deadlines, misappropriation of campaign funds, nepotism, coprophilia, etc. Instead, the allegation was that the Atlanta City Council President engaged in improper lobbying during the 2007 General Assembly on behalf of her then-employer, Cousins Properties.

If the complaint had been found valid, Borders could have been fined. But even worse would’ve been the embarrassment and distraction from her mayoral campaign. As it was, the accusation was dismissed because the only evidence of wrong-doing was circumstantial — although eyebrow-raising to many at the Gold Dome.

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Nothing kicks off a Monday morning like a 170-page audit of Atlanta’s $4 billion sewer system overhaul. We’re still combing through the beast, but Atlanta Unfiltered’s Jim Walls has already found some tidbits.

Walls:

Atlanta’s water department has illegally kept $4 million that should have been refunded to 29,000 customers who closed their accounts, a city audit shows.

Apparently, part of the problem is that no one ever told customer-service reps in the water department about changes last year in the city code. Auditors said employees who handle refunds were unaware of consumer-friendly changes in refund procedures.

On Friday, the AJC’s D.L Bennett wrote a good overview on some, uhm, financial hurdles facing the city and the project:

Atlanta officials fear the city’s $4 billion water and sewer system overhaul could collapse because the city’s crushing debt and already low credit rating threaten the city’s ability to borrow money in ever-tightening credit markets.

The city hopes Monday to issue $500 million to $700 million in new bonds for the program, with much of the money to refund old debt that must be repaid before interest rates or other factors send payments skyrocketing.

“We’ve got some considerable issues facing us,” city CFO Jim Glass said Friday.

No joke. And we’ve got some considerable reading to do. The audit is available here. (Warning: large PDF)

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1. AJC redesign infomercial — OMG (Daily paper’s feel-good promo sounds suspiciously like a pharmaceutical ad.)

2. Three people killed in Athens, Ga., shooting (As of now, a UGA-professor-turned-suspected-triple-murderer is still on the loose.)

3. NORML now has semi-legal status in Georgia (But the party was short-lived.)

4. AJC scooped by local blogger! (Atlanta Unfiltered scores a once-in-a-lifetime nod from the notoriously attribution-stingy daily.)

5. BREAKING: Atlanta Steam relocates, exurban perverts weep (Lingerie-wearing football team runs from Atlanta. Oh my.)

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Not exactly a blog, but it deserves a shout out. Staffers at UGA’s student-run newspaper the Red and Black worked overtime to provide coverage of Saturday’s shootings. Read their follow-ups here, here and here.

Ben at Terminal Station rips into state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine’s idea to consider privatizing MARTA.

Jim Walls of Atlanta Unfiltered uses the words “Tyler Perry,” “Tupac Shakur,” and “comp time” all in the same blog post as he delves deeper into the firing of former DeKalb Police Chief Terrell Bolton.

Christa at Pecanne Log spots the hottest trend in spring fashions during historic economic collapses! Recycled ethernet cables! Yay!

Garrett Vonk fires back at Twitta-hatas.

Jason Pye, who says he’s never taken a puff, says decriminalizing marijuana should be on the table. Also: Legalizing marijuana is now more popular than the Republican Party.

Veteran TV journalist and Live Apartment Fire blogger Doug Richards today will pull the tarp off the magical news van to pull a one-day shift in the 11 Alive newsroom. Here’s exclusive video of him training for the adventure.

Travis Fain at Lucid Idiocy wonders if lawmakers have already been forgiven for failing to make progress on transportation funding this year.

Decatur Metro. Leon’s Full Service. And late-night drunken bocce. Discuss.

FlackAttack bids adieu at Tondee’s Tavern.

Other exciting links feel free to post them in the comments.

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The new bill clamps down on what local government officials can consider a “blighted” area.

From Dave Williams at the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Only neighborhoods truly in need of taxpayer-funded redevelopment would qualify as tax allocation districts under legislation signed this week by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

The legislation, designed to accompany a constitutional amendment ratified by Georgia voters last fall, tightens the definitions of “blighted” and “deteriorated” areas under the state’s TAD law.

…

Under the new law, only neighborhoods marked by substandard buildings, high vacancy rates and high poverty and unemployment could qualify as TADs. That way, only properties too unattractive to lure private investment could be redeveloped with TAD money.

School boards — which chip in the largest chunk of funding if they participate in a TAD — still have a choice as to whether they want to participate in the projects.

The tough economy has forced some cash-strapped school systems to renegotiate — or even rethink — their roles in TADs. Atlanta Public Schools and Atlanta Development Authority officials are in talks to split nearly $18 million that had already been generated from the Beltline TAD prior to a 2008 state Supreme Court ruling that said TADs were unconstitutional. (The school board says it still supports the Beltline, just that it wants to begin kicking in money this year.) Gainesville City Schools recently voted to opt out of a TAD in which it initially planned to participate.

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If you’ve spent much time on the Interwebs, you’ve likely come across the never-ending debate over the virtues of old-fashioned print journalism vs. blogging. (And if you haven’t, you can do some catching up here, here and most especially, here.)

Yesterday, the local blog Atlanta Unfiltered scored a big coup, posting a story — including the PDF documents — about a new county report indicating that fired DeKalb Police Chief Terrell Bolton “told a subordinate to falsify records to hide two luxury cars that the chief took home for his own use.”

The day before, AU had reported that Bolton “took more than $35,000 in comp days after his supervisor refused to sign off on them,” also according to the investigation, which was overseen by DeKalb Sheriff Tom Brown.

My first reaction was, Damn, I’m glad my beat isn’t DeKalb police or I’d be getting a tongue-lashing from my editor about now for getting the shit scooped out of me by a blogger. In a follow-up story in today’s AJC, the reporter acknowledges that he gained access to the report via Atlanta Unfiltered. Ouch.

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Georgia’s newest Public Service Commissioner, Lauren McDonald — better known to his longtime fans and followers as “Bubba” — is already facing up to $25,000 in fines by the State Ethics Commission related to shoddy record-keeping during his losing 2002 campaign to keep his seat on the PSC.

Now, former AJC investigative editor Jim Walls reports on his Atlanta Unfiltered blog that McDonald may also have some problems with his filings during last year’s PSC race to regain his old seat, specifically a $15,000 campaign loan of uncertain origin.

What makes all of this more than usually ironic is that McDonald had been working behind the scenes to change the rules for how the PSC chairmanship is determined, presumably so Bubba could ascend to that position. Currently, the five commissioners take turns serving as chairman, based on a regular annual rotation.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Jim Walls at Atlanta Unfiltered reports:

Atlanta Public Schools are fighting changes to a bill that would let local boards earmark school tax money for Tax Allocation Districts to pay for non-school improvements.

A Senate committee last week amended the bill to say a board’s approval in years past would be sufficient. No new vote would be needed.

But school board chair LaChandra Butler Burks, in a letter to Sen. Horacena Tate, says the change would cost APS $18 million. The letter did not explain how that estimate was calculated.

The APS letter asked Tate to fight to remove the retroactive language, and to vote against the bill if the language could not be deleted.

Walls has Burks’ letter to Tate posted. No telling if the controversial bill, House Bill 63, has hit the Senate floor yet.

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If you thought the debate over whether school boards should participate in redevelopment projects ended with a Constitutional referendum on the November ballot, you were sorely mistaken.

Last Thursday, a state Senate finance committee quietly amended House Bill 63, a piece of legislation meant to iron out details about tax allocation districts, or TADs. TADs use bonds, which are later paid off by increased property tax values in the redeveloped area, to pay for roads, bridges, sewers and schools. They were the go-to option for redevelopment projects in Georgia — think Atlantic Station — until last year’s state Supreme Court ruling that said their use of school taxes was unconstitutional. In November, voters approved an amendment that would allow school systems to participate in TADs.

The Senate committee added an amendment to the bill, which has already unanimously passed the House, which would allow Atlanta Public Schools to circumvent a vote and automatically opt back into the Beltline, the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit proposed to circle Atlanta’s urban core. If so, the school system would contribute an estimated $850 million in school tax dollars to the project over the next 20 years, as it agreed to do in 2005. (Atlanta Unfiltered’s Jim Walls, the first blogger to jump on the story, has the language posted.)

The Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, which fought the Beltline TAD, lashed out at the amendment, calling it an “outrageous abuse of the Atlanta taxpayers.” and casting Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle as the author of the language.

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Jim Galloway, proving yet again that he knows the true secrets of Georgia politics, reveals the identities of the mysterious “8 to 10 industry and government officials” who handpicked a Gold Dome transportation bill’s laundry list of people-moving projects. Damn road elves.

Decatur Metro reports on community gardens in his hamlet and annexation concerns. Also, is Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd thinking about a run for governor?

If you’re a card-carrying Young Republican, Shep at Peach Pundit recommends you not vote for Rachel Hoff to lead your organization. Also, Erick the Editor is jousting via email with one of his fellow Macon City Councilmembers.

Griftdrift gives us the rundown on the most recent episode of GPB’s “Lawmakers.” He reports that Sen. John Wiles, R-Marietta, wants to crack down on novelty ID suppliers who alter the completely innocent and never-used-for-illicit-purposes cards. (Those guys can alter the ID? I had to use nail polish remover.)

Veteran journalist Jim Walls, a 28-year veteran of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — and the editor behind some of the paper’s finest investigative work — rolls out his new investigative journalism website. Today he’s got more details about a sealed court case involving unfortunately named Gwinnett County businessman Richard Tucker. There’s also some questions about campaign contributions to state Rep. Pam Stephenson, D-Decatur.

There’s much more on the Internetz, buckos. If you came across something local that’s worth scoping out, post it below in the comments.

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