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.
Last Tuesday, DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones presided over his final commission meeting. Love him or hate him, he’s steered the county through difficult times. He’s said some memorable things, too.
Vernon Jones
“I’ve been able to raise a lot of money without the endorsements from the losers in the Democratic party.”
— Jones describing his U.S. Senate campaign fundraising efforts to the AJC in April.
“There’s nothing illegal about a menage a trois.”
— Jones quoted in an April 2, 2008, CL column in reference to a 2005 rape allegation. He was not charged in the incident.
“[State lawmakers] don’t have any idea about local control. And they’re about as clueless as a pigeon with an iPod.”
— Jones speaking to CL on Nov. 4 about the Legislature’s unwillingness to recognize local government’s jurisdiction.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
— The state’s in financial distress, the city’s in financial distress and just about everyone I know has either been laid off or else walks around in fear of being laid off. So what’s to be done? How’s about we wipe out all the black colleges and merge them with integrated colleges? Erick at Peach Pundit thinks it’s an idea whose time has come.
— DriftGrift weighs in on that prospect and discovers what he thinks is a rare branch on the political motivational tree: Insanity. Or else a really clever Trojan horse ploy to put the Democrats back in charge.
— The election season’s finally over and the Big Sax Machine was peacocking on Fox News about how he’s single-handedly put the Republican Party back on course and how Obama’s reign of terror is really over before it hardly begun. Whew, talk about insanity. Decaturguy at Atlanta Public Affairs points out that Big Saxy is giving a self high-five. After all, he was the incumbent, he was up in the polls and he had more money; why is anyone surprised that he won? Doesn’t the fact that he was pushed into a run-off despite those advantages say more?
— Did Caribou Barbie carry the day for our shameless one? Hardly, but she did look hot in those campaign outfits that she was supposed to have returned weeks ago to the RNC. Over at Live Apartment Fire, Doug takes a deeper look into the infamous dead turkey video. It turns out the cameraman alerted her to the, er, work going on behind her. “That’s OK,” she replied. “Let people see where their food comes from.” Uh, no.
— Thankfully, as Andre notes at Georgia Politics Unfiltered, Mr. CEO is ready to rescue the Georgia version of the Democratic Party. Wow, I feel better already.
— And, finally, Gray at Left On Lanier has another lurid edition of the “world’s most inappropriate candy” Disney-style. Have a great weekend, bloggerheads.
Just as I press “publish” on the previous post, this lands in my inbox:
Vernon Jones Speaks Out About Georgia’s U.S. Senate Run-Off Election Results
DECATUR, December 3, 2008 – Vernon Jones, former Democratic candidate for the United States Senate from Georgia, will hold a press conference today, Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. E.S.T. The press conference will be held in his office at the Maloof Center, located at 1300 Commerce Drive, 6th floor, Decatur, GA 30030.
Jones will discuss last night’s run-off election results and the future of the state Democratic Party, as well as his political plans for the future.
Hindsight’s 20/20 and all that, but here’s a thought.
Even with all his faults, could DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones — who lost to Martin in the Democratic primary — have beaten Saxby Chambliss in a runoff?
Vernon Jones and admirers earlier this year at Manuel's Tavern
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Outgoing Dekalb County CEO Vernon Jones and his incoming replacement, county Commissioner Burrell Ellis, have each publicly accused the other of mishandling the transition process.
“I have nothing but love for Commissioner Ellis, but due to the complaints from employees and appointed citizens, I made it clear to him and Kevin Ross they could not harass or threaten people who they suspect didn’t vote for Commissioner Ellis; and the meeting ended.”
-Jones, in a November 14 AJC story, explaining why he kicked Ellis’s transition team out of his office. Ellis denies the accusation and says Jones has not produced a single example of alleged harassment or threats.
“It appears to me that he’s just throwing a tantrum because he’s a lame duck with nowhere to go.”
-Ellis, in the same story. He accuses Jones of trying to keep Ellis’s team from reviewing county budget and management records.
When DeKalb County Commissioner Burrell Ellis drops his title next year and assumes his newly elected role of County CEO, he’ll take office without some of the powers enjoyed by his predecessors.
On Nov. 4, more than 64 percent of DeKalb County voters approved an amendment that reins in some powers of CEO — the only office of its kind in metro Atlanta in which a single person oversees the day-to-day functions of government and sets the agenda for county commission meetings.
Once Ellis takes office, that agenda-setting power will belong to the commission according to rules it adopts. (Commissioner Jeff Rader says staff is currently at work on the rules.) If the CEO wants to introduce legislation, he would have to do so through a commissioner who would then send it to the appropriate committee. Rader says legislation could be expedited if it’s an urgent matter.
The CEO would still submit the budget, make staff decisions, and appoint department heads, among other powers. If a tiebreaker vote is needed, the CEO would cast it if each member of the commission requested he or she do so.
Introduced by state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Ellenwood, the amendment has an understandable critic: Vernon Jones, the soon-to-be former CEO.
Matt Towery of InsiderAdvantage is convinced that operatives with the Obama presidential campaign helped scuttle Vernon Jones’ Senate bid by sending out mailers that focused on Jones’ boasts that he voted twice for George W. Bush. The rumor has been picked up by Political Insider, Peach Pundit and other local blogs.
A certain Kenneth Walker, a Jones strategist, claims that he knows “for a fact…that there was a meeting in Sen. Harry Reid’s office with David Axelrod from Obama’s campaign, and there was an agreement Obama’s campaign would help Jim Martin with the direct mail linking Vernon and George Bush.”
That’s strange. We thought Vernon and Barrack were supposed to be tight.
We haven’t seen turnout figures yet for yesterday’s runoffs, but the results in most cases seemed to confirm predictions.
The Democratic Senate nominee, of course, is former Atlanta lawmaker Jim Martin, having trounced DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones 60% to 40%.
Some folks might look at this result as the triumph of funding, since Martin entered the race late, spent little time stumping across the state and instead focused his efforts on collecting enough money from PACs and other sources to wage a TV campaign. That’s all true, but Martin did have high name recognition and none of the negatives that Jones brought to the table.
Martin’s victory opens the door for an aggressive, high-dollar assault on GOP incumbent Saxby Chambliss this fall. It all but ensures that top Senate Democrats will attempt to turn Georgia into one of their key battleground states.
“Forget it, Jake. It’s South DeKalb.”
With apologies to Chinatown, that’s what DeKalb voting patterns make me think of. Who imagined, back in 2004, that Cynthia McKinney would win back her Congressional seat without a runoff against such heavy hitters as Lianne Levitan and Cathy Woolard? Ditto for embattled CEO Vernon Jones, who easily won re-election that same year against six challengers, including a sitting commissioner, also without a runoff.
South DeKalb politics is like a sealed box; you can speculate all you like about what’s inside, but you never really know until you take the lid off on election day. (more…)
Politicos know that a bulging campaign war chest doesn’t guarantee victory. (Paging Roy Barnes…) Next to incumbency, however, it’s usually the best indicator of which candidate has the edge. 
And by all known rules of thumb, Commissioner Burrell Ellis looks to be running away with the runoff race to become the county’s next CEO. For starters, before the end of June, Ellis raised $421,000 – more than all four of his opponents put together.
We didn’t have a chance to compare his contributions with those of the runner-up, state Rep. Stan Watson – mainly because Watson was several days late in filing his report. But now that we have both sets, we see that Ellis has all the earmarks of a sure thing.
(more…)
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss is holding a sizable lead over the pit bulls scratching at his office door. According to Rasmussen polls, the incumbent Republican senator has a 59-29 margin over soon-to-be-former DeKalb County CEO Jones. When matched against former state representative Jim Martin, it’s 51-40 — a bit closer, but still in Saxby Warbucks‘ favor. What’s interesting to note is that Jone’s pull in the Rasmussen polls has dropped from its high of 33 percent of the vote in early June. The gents are smitten with Chambliss over Martin, 62-32, but the ladies love them some Jim. He Who Speaketh Quietly leads 45-43 among the fairer sex.
When it comes to favorable ratings, Chambliss holds out at 61 percent. Martin is viewed favorably by 47 percent of those surveyed by the polling organization. Jones is way down the line at 30 percent.
But those are just numbers.
Senate hopeful Vernon Jones isn’t the only local candidate trying to give voters the impression that he’s got a connection with Presidential nominee-to-be Barrack Obama.
In DeKalb, County Commission candidate Sharon Barnes-Sutton of Stone Mountain features a photo of herself and Obama – taken, it appears, at one of his campaign stops – under the slogan, “Together we can!” Peach Pundit has the post here.
And intown Atlantans have received a subtle flier that juxtaposes photos of eight candidates, with the slogan, “A ticket for change.” From left to right, a picture of Obama sits atop GOP nominee John McCain; Vernon Jones is over Sen. Saxby Chambliss; and two local candidates, Andre Jerry and Chris Vaughn, are above the incumbents they hope to unseat, state Sen. Nan Orrock and Rep. Margaret Kaiser, respectively.
The message is certainly more subtle than Jones’ effort; instead of using clumsy Photoshopping to imply a direct connection to Obama, it seeks to create an association in the viewer’s mind between four youthful African American Democrats. (Never mind that any comparison between right-winger Chambliss and uber-lefty Orrock is ridiculous on its face.)
Does Vaughn’s name sound familiar? It should. Only 30, Vaughn is already something of a perennial candidate, having run for the state House – as a Republican – in 2000; Cynthia McKinney’s Congressional seat in 2004; Atlanta school board; and state House District 59, which includes Grant Park and the Old Fourth Ward. This is his second race against Kaiser, who ousted longtime incumbent Doug Dean in 2006.
Vaughn says his campaign isn’t responsible for the flier, but notes: “The last time I checked, there was nothing wrong with putting your opponents’ photo on your flier.”
He adds that he agrees with the flier’s message.
The other young man on the flier, Andre Jerry, 28, is running for Senate District 36, which overlaps with the House District Vaughn is seeking. The two appear to be BFFs, since they are both highly placed “friends” on each other’s MySpace pages. But then, Vaughn also lists Obama as a “friend,” so the designation may be dubious.
Ouch. It was painful yesterday watching Barrack Obama’s rather public straight-arming of a too clingy Vernon Jones, who had circulated a campaign flier with a photoshopped image making it appear – if you overlook lighting, shadows and the sheer absurdity of the premise – as if the presidential front-runner and the DeKalb CEO were standing side-by-side, speaking to a large audience.
But Obama conceded, at an appearance Tuesday at a Cherokee County high school, that the two might have met:
“The reason I think I may have met him is I know somebody told me as I was shaking his hand that he had taken pride in voting for George Bush twice.”
Oh, snap! But the most excruciating thing about the whole episode is that Vernon’s dissing went on the AP wire and was picked up by media outlets as far away as New York.
Here was BET.com’s merciless headline: “Obama Says, ‘No He Can’t!’ The Democratic presidential candidate slams a Black lawmaker for latching on.”
(For the record, the CEO’s job is administrative, not legislative, so he’s not a lawmaker.)
The DeKalb Commission is dealing this morning with a resolution to use legal action to block the proposed city of Dunwoody. I pointed out in a blog yesterday that, because of recent legal precedents, such an effort would be doomed to failure. But that depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
Reader John Heneghan has pointed out that the legislation, put forward by Commissioner Lee May, is likely not intended to affect the Dunwoody referendum, but rather the primary election for CEO, which takes place the same day, July 15.
As he explains on the Dunwoody North Civic Association blog:
This matter is politically charged and was probably placed on the agenda not because (Vernon) Jones wants to take expensive legal action against the State of Georgia for the City of Dunwoody’s creation, but because it could be used as a wedge issue dividing the County in half. If that is the case, it will probably be played as North DeKalb vs. South DeKalb, and sadly probably also along racial lines too.
Although Heneghan doesn’t say it explicitly, I’ll extrapolate that the measure was perhaps intended to force Commissioner Burrell Ellis, a CEO candidate who’s been no friend to Jones, to take a public stand on the controversial issue of Dunwoody cityhood. If he votes for the resolution, he loses Dunwoody votes. If he votes against it – the more likely scenario – he may lose South DeKalb votes. Or so the thinking goes.
Anyway, TotH to Heneghan for sharing his analysis. (That’s blogspeak for Tip of the Hat – I just learned that!)
It’s arguably the most powerful local elected position in metro Atlanta, perhaps all of Georgia. And yet, by most accounts, the race for DeKalb CEO really hasn’t caught fire yet. Frankly, with only two weeks to go before the July 15 primary, there’s a good chance it won’t.
Even state Rep. Stan Watson, one of five hopefuls in the all-Democratic contest, concedes that he’s seen more excitement in the community over the November presidential election (You say, “Obamania!” I say, “Obamamania!”) than the CEO’s race.
In the northern end of the county, all attention seems to be focused on the Dunwoody cityhood referendum. And DeKalb Republicans, historically an important swing vote in Democratic primaries, will mostly cast GOP ballots instead because District 1 Commissioner Elaine Boyer has drawn opposition. (Her challenger, by the way, is Terri Burdine Fischer, owner of Clarkston strip club Strokers. Make that a schwing! vote.)
Another reason for the apparent disinterest in the race is the possibility that, apart from recreational candidate “Joe from Decatur” Bembry, most voters are fairly confident that any of the four serious contestants would be, well, perfectly adequate.
Along with Watson, who serves as chairman of the DeKalb state House delegation, the candidates include two-term Commissioner Burrell Ellis; former state Sen. Steen “Newslady” Miles; and Ann Kimbrough, chief of staff to outgoing CEO Vernon Jones.
With no formal polls done, the consensus among local political mavens seems to be that the primary will result in a runoff election between Ellis and either Watson or Kimbrough.
Ellis, a real estate attorney, is running a well-organized campaign and recently nabbed the endorsement of the AJC. Watson was the earliest to get into the race and is well-known in South DeKalb, but has – at last count – trailed far behind Ellis in terms of fund-raising.
Three of DeKalb’s seven commissioners have requested a criminal investigation into squirrelly purchasing practices that allowed two high-tech companies to be paid nearly a half-million dollars for county work without the required commission approval.
Late last year, it was discovered that the county’s Information Services Department had overspent its budget by a cool $1.4 million – partly a result of skirting purchasing rules. A grand jury subsequently found that employees had been pressured to do things they knew to be wrong, such as splitting contracts so as to avoid triggering competitive bidding requirements.
So far, though, no one has been able to explain who orchestrated the impropriety. Is the purchasing scandal another instance of questionable micro-management by CEO Vernon Jones? The letter to DeKalb Chief Superior Court Judge Anne Workman and DA Gwen Keyes-Fleming asking for a formal investigation doesn’t mention Mr. CEO by name. Says the letter:
We submit that a criminal investigation is necessary to clear the air and to reestablish public confidence in the county government’s capacity to faithfully administer public resources.
But the three co-signers are white, Northside Commissioners Elaine Boyer, Kathie Gannon and Jeff Rader – none of whom are political allies of Jones. Coincidence?
Watch your back, Saxby.
According to a new poll by a D.C.-based polling firm, Jim Martin, a late entry into the race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, has taken a decent lead among likely primary voters.
Martin is formerly a longtime state legislator and chairman of the Department of Human Resources, but he’s probably best known outside Atlanta for running for lieutenant governor, a job he lost to Republican Casey Cagle.
The poll, by the Mellman Group, shows Martin leading DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones by 21 percent to 16 percent. The three other Democrats – ex-TV reporter Dale Cardwell, former Congressional staffer Josh Lanier and businessman Rand Knight – were all in the single digits.
Martin can’t get too comfy, though – 51 percent of those polled were undecided, meaning the July 15 primary is up in the air.
Still, the poll shows upward movement for Martin’s young campaign, which only began March 19. By the end of that month, he’d reported having raised nearly $350,000, so it’s a safe guess that he’ll soon be over the $1 million mark. Only Jones reported raising more – $488,000 – but much of that money had already been spent.
Martin is Chambliss’ worst nightmare because he’s everything Jones is not: a viable general-election candidate whose nomination would open the floodgates on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s coffers. The Senate Dems hate the incumbent’s guts – not least for smearing Max Cleland and for impersonating Bush’s suppository – and, by most insider accounts, would spend freely to run “Saxby’s a scumbag” TV ads around the clock all fall.
Dekalb CEO and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Vernon “there’s nothing illegal about a ménage à trois” Jones has campaign placards displayed in at least one comically appropriate location.
One of the most interesting smaller bits of local legislation in the flurry of the General Assembly were several competing bills aimed at reducing the power of the DeKalb CEO. The irony here is that the impetus for the bills has been the sometimes authoritarian tenure of Vernon Jones, and yet he’ll be gone by the time the bills would take effect.
As you might know, DeKalb government has a rather unique structure among metro counties, in which a full-time CEO runs the day-to-day affairs of the county, sets the commission agenda, presides at commission meetings and holds veto power over commission actions.
In the waning hours of the session, Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, succeeded in passing his bill to take away the CEO’s power to set the commission agenda and preside at meetings. It was similar to a House bill by DeKalb Rep. Kevin Levitas, a Democrat. A third bill by Rep. Mike Jacobs, a newly-minted Republican, would also have stripped the CEO of his veto power. Both House bills failed.
Jones says his effort was supported, perhaps surprisingly, by DeKalb Commissioner Burrell Ellis and DeKalb House delegation Chairman Stan Watson, both of whom are running for the CEO’s seat. Although Vernon won’t be affected by the change, Sen. Jones (no relation) says Mr. CEO had “set the mold” for future county heads to continue expanding the influence of the position, so it needed to be reined in.
Sen. Jones said he’d even checked with the two surviving former senators who had originally passed the 1982 bill creating the CEO’s job for Manuel Maloof.
“They said they realized they had erred in giving the position so much power,” Jones says. “It just took 26 years to correct the mistake.”
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Photo by Brian Z. Danin
Dale Cardwell, Rand Knight and Josh Lanier showed up last night for a debate at Emory Law School among Democrats fighting for the chance to take on Republican Saxby Chambliss.
The two guys who’ve actually won elected office before and who have got to be considered the favorites for the Democratic nomination, Vernon Jones and Jim Martin, weren’t there. The primary is slated for July 15.
Like a lot of underdogs this year, Cardwell and Knight evoked the experience-ain’t-such-a-big-deal insurgency of Barack Obama, while Lanier — a former congressional aide and lobbyist — talked a lot about restoring the Senate to its traditions of civility.
Although each was pretty good at articulating a populist message, I can’t help but wonder whether shooting for the Senate the first time you run for public office is a bit delusional. It’s like thinking you ought to do brain surgery while you’re still taking your first First Aid class.
I was on the panel, and I asked essentially that question (albeit more politely): Might it be better for people who want to see Chambliss defeated if you dropped out of the race, threw your support to a more experienced candidate, and proved yourself by running for lower office?
Lanier, who now lives in Statesboro, said my question in itself was an example of “what’s wrong with American politics.” I shouldn’t assume fund raising is the be-all-end-all, he said. He got a lot of applause for that — but unfortunately fund raising, experience and connections do matter. Nobody’s going to crank up a bandwagon for the nomination or against Chambliss without a couple of million dollars.
Cardwell, who quit his job as a WSB-TV reporter to run for the Senate, said he was irked that Martin came to his office in September and told him he wasn’t going to run for the Senate. (I’ve alerted Martin’s folks that I’m posting what Dale said and inviting Martin to comment below if he remembers the meeting differently.)
The most impressive one of the three on the issues was Knight. He’s an earnest 30-something with no political experience. But he’s well-versed in environmental issues and has made the environment central to his campaign. He’s spent a lot of time networking among Democratic organizations across the state, and he’s gotten some union backing.
Cardwell’s name recognition and publicity stunts (he’s the guy who spent part of January on a 320-foot chimney tower to draw attention to his campaign) may give him an edge among the second-tier candidates. The ex-TV guy also seems to have taken a page from Lou Dobbs, mixing economic populism talk with advocating harsh treatment of illegal immigrants. That last part could hold contrarian appeal among some, but anti-immigrant platforms usually don’t produce winners in Democratic primaries.
It’s important to remember that not all these guys are necessarily running. None will officially qualify for the contest until later this month. Qualifying ends May 2.
All three had announced their intention to jump into the race when it looked as if Jones — the controversial DeKalb County CEO might be the lone Democratic bigwig. But Martin’s March 19 announcement that he’s running foils the alternative-to-Jones strategy.
The former state rep from Atlanta and one-time state Human Resources commissioner ran a strong campaign for lieutenant governor in 2006 against Republican Casey Cagle, losing by a much smaller margin than did the Democrat for governor. Though Martin’s late entry into the Senate race will force him to convince people that he’s really committed to running hard against Chambliss, he was recruited by national Democrats, which should give him a nice jump in fund raising.
Chambliss could be vulnerable. Six years after getting swept into office on the 2002 post-9/11 tide, Georgia’s senior senator is most famous for: running a campaign ad that compared war hero Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden, being the most obsequious of Bush lackeys and nakedly flip-flopping on immigration reform. Plus, huge African-American turnout in the March 5 presidential primary has many local Democrats salivating at the thought that so many blacks could turn out in the General Election (especially if Obama’s nominated). Chambliss’ favorability ratings seems to hover around 50 percent — higher than sitting-duck territory but not great for an incumbent.
Still it’s a long shot. Chambliss has at least $4 million in the bank, and a Democrat caught in a tight nomination fight before the July 15 primary and an August runoff will be forced to spend time and money defending himself instead of redefining the Republican. Just ask Barack and Hillary how much fun that is.
Thanks to the Emory Law School Democrats for sponsoring the debate and for inviting me.
DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones will step down from his county job at the end of the year, but his influence will still be felt if Ann Wead Kimbrough has anything to do with it.
Kimbrough, who has served as Jones’ chief of staff for several years and was his official spokesperson before that, has filed paperwork with the state to form an exploratory committee to run for her boss’ seat – the first step in any campaign for office.
Kimbrough was noticed making the rounds of Easter services at a couple of prominent South Dekalb churches, telling parishioners of her intent to run for CEO.
“I’ve been listening to neighborhood leaders and will be making my mind up pretty soon,” perhaps within the next week, she confirms to CL.
Critics are likely to see Kimbrough’s candidacy as a bid by Jones to maintain his grip on political power in DeKalb. He’s currently running a long-shot Senate race against Saxby Chambliss. Not surprisingly, Kimbrough – who describes herself as having “understudied” for the CEO job – says Jones is “very supportive” of her plan to succeed him.
Before becoming Jones’ Girl Friday, Kimbrough worked in the communications office of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, then was a business reporter for the AJC and the Atlanta Business Chronicle. She has also taught journalism classes at Clark-Atlanta University and Florida A&M University.
Kimbrough says she has asked the county attorney whether she would need to quit her job in order to run for CEO. We’re guessing that’s a given, but if not, it could make county commission meetings more interesting, seeing as Commissioner Burrell Ellis is a leading contender for the CEO post. The other major candidate is state Rep. Stan Watson, D-Decatur.
CEO COMMODE: DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones signs the retrofit ordinance as the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Sally Bethea, Georgia Conservancy’s Shana Udvardy, and Francis Kung’u of the DeKalb Department of Watershed Management look on. In the foreground is Jones’ prized brontosaurus tooth/low-flow shower head.
Nothing says progress like toilet legislation. After months of rewrites, negotiations and deferments, the DeKalb County Commission finally approved a controversial ordinance — one DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones calls the first in the state — that would require homeowners in the county to retrofit antiquated plumbing fixtures before they receive water service. The commission approved the ordinance Feb. 26, and Jones signed it this afternoon. If all pre-1993 plumbing fixtures in DeKalb are retrofit, Jones said, 6 million gallons of water per day could be conserved.
The Realtor industry attacked the measure, known as the Retro Plumbing Fixtures Act, when it was first introduced by Jones in November, because it placed the burden of retrofit compliance on their shoulders. With the rewritten and approved ordinance, it is now the homebuyer’s responsibility to replace fixtures. About 165,000 homes will be affected by the ordinance. If your home was built after 1993, you have nothing to worry about, as the law already requires that all homes built after this date be outfitted with low-flow fixtures. The ordinance takes effect June 1, 2008, for residential properties. Commercial properties have until Jan. 1, 2009, to comply with the measure.
Properties exempt from the ordinance include:
EXCLUSIVE: In response to Dale Cardwell’s grab for media attention atop the Corey Tower downtown, fellow Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Josh Lanier tells CL he plans to row a small boat to the middle of Lake Lanier tomorrow.”I will not leave until Georgians hear my message of change, or until Lake Lanier is empty, whichever happens first,” Lanier said.
We will keep you updated.
EXCLUSIVE: Impressed by the news media’s response to Democratic Senate candidate Dale Cardwell’s promise to camp atop Corey Tower until Georgians hear his political message, DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones announced a similar initiative.
Jones tells CL he will go to Twist Restaurant and Lounge at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead tonight and not leave until every Georgian, especially the attractive females, understands how dedicated he is to serving their needs.
