Wilkinson County, a county of 10,000 people 30 miles east of Macon, is receiving more stimulus money for transportation projects than Fulton County, home to more than 1,000,000 people.
Wilkinson’s getting $56,366,518 in federal stimulus money for transportation projects.
Fulton is receiving $50,068,562.
Matching House and Senate bills to revivify the long-gone Milton County at the expense of Fulton never made it to the floor in the just-completed General Assembly despite having some heavyweight sponsors. But that doesn’t mean the issue is dead. In fact, if a recent lunch gathering of North Fulton mayors is any indication, the movement may only be gaining steam.
For its annual luncheon Tuesday, the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation invited elected officials to opine on the unwieldy topic: ”How Fulton County Could Improve Its Governance To Prevent Any Secession.” But no one really took up that challenge — instead, the consensus seemed to be that it’s too late to preserve Fulton County in its present form.
Although Roswell Mayor Jere Wood has been in office long enough to have worked with a succession of county commission chairmen from North Fulton, he said the best that be hoped for is a clean break, with Milton pulling out of Fulton.
“The residents of North Fulton believe it’s time for the relationship to be ended in divorce,” Wood said.
MARTA officials recently asked the Georgia General Assembly to ease a state-mandated spending restriction on the transit agency’s main source of funding — a one-cent sales tax in Atlanta, Fulton County and DeKalb County. If not, the cash-strapped agency could face drastic service cuts. Some lawmakers responded that the agency instead needs to change its governance structure and raise fares. In the op-ed below, Mayor Shirley Franklin, Fulton County Chairman John Eaves and DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis echo MARTA’s plea.
For more than 30 years, visitors and residents of Atlanta and Fulton and DeKalb counties have paid an extra penny in sales taxes so our region might have mass transit. Needless to say, the benefits of mass transit have extended far beyond the borders of Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb. Can you imagine the Centennial Olympic Games choosing Atlanta without a means of moving millions of people? Or that major conventions, the lifeblood of our local economy, would locate here if their attendees were unable to move around? MARTA has been a major economic generator not just for Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb, but for our region and the entire state.
Which is why we are asking, in a time of severe economic crisis, for the Georgia General Assembly to help MARTA. This year, we are not asking that the General Assembly commit one extra dime to help MARTA — though other state governments across the nation promote the economic benefits of public transit and routinely appropriate millions for both operations and expansion. We are only asking the Legislature to give MARTA the ability to use the funds it already has at its disposal during this time of great economic need.
Amount of money seized from illegal drug operations in Gwinnett and other metro counties in 2008, in dollars: 70 million
Metro Atlanta’s ranking among 195 major cities in the U.S. as a drug-cartel activity center: 1
Georgia’s 6th District’s ranking among 435 congressional districts for having the happiest residents: 2
Peachtree City’s ranking among Georgia’s best affordable suburbs: 1
Median household income in Peachtree City, in dollars: 93,046
Number of homes for every one foreclosure in Cobb County in February: 406
Number of homes for every one foreclosure in Fulton County in February: 316
Number of homes for every one foreclosure in Gwinnett County in February: 264
Number of homes for every one foreclosure in Clayton County in February: 163
Sources: USA Today, AJC.com, Business Week, RealtyTrac.com
Last Monday, state Rep. Jan Jones, R-Alpharetta, fired the first shot in the battle between North Fulton residents and the Fulton County Commission. The aim of these highly educated, high-income, and mostly Republican residents: Split from the terrible fiend named Fulton and revive Milton County, which fell on hard times after a boll weevil infestation and the Great Depression. In 1932, it merged with Fulton County.
Jones filed a bill that would allow former counties to “re-create” themselves. There’s no dancing around the fact that it’s meant for Roswell, Alpharetta, Mountain Park and the newly created cities of Johns Creek and Milton to revive Milton County. The House Communications office even announced it as such.
It would also mean Fulton County loses one of its wealthiest areas.
Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts — who’s got dreams of building new libraries and putting casinos downtown — says he wants to give county police officers “free” homes. He says it’s an appropriate step at a time when the county is swimming in abandoned and foreclosed homes and police are having a hard time paying and retaining officers.
There’s a catch, of course — the officers just have to promise they’ll stick around for 15 years.
From Pitts release:
Pitts said, “Since most jurisdictions cannot pay police officers what they deserve, providing free homes to them would be a substantial supplement to their salaries and a good tool for recruitment and retention.”
Under the program, police officers would have to pay a down payment of $2,500 and commit to 15 years of service with the department in order to receive a free home, and it would have to be their primary residence. At the end of 15 years they would be given the deed to the home. During the interim, they would be responsible for all taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance.
If you work at a Fulton County nonprofit, here’s an opportunity for you.
December 29, 2008 — Atlanta, GA — The Fulton County Human Services Department, Office of Grants and Community Partnerships has announced the release of the 2009-2010 F.R.E.S.H. and Human Services Grant Applications for Fulton non-profits this month. Each year, non-profit service providers from across the County are selected for grant funding in six key funding areas: Aging, Children and Youth, Disability Affairs, Employment, Homelessness and HIV/AIDS.
Past grant recipients have included: AIDS Survival Project, Atlanta Union Mission, Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, CHRIS Kids, Hands on Atlanta, Latin American Association, Project Open Hand, Senior Citizen Services of Metropolitan Atlanta, Partnership Against Domestic Violence and more. Each year over 200 Fulton County non-profits are selected for grant funding totaling nearly $6.5 million.
NEW THIS YEAR: Grant applications are available for online submission. However, all new grant applicants must contact Fulton County to obtain access to the online application. Past grant recipients have already received access to the online application. To obtain your official Grant Application Instruction Manual and access to the online application please contact (404) 730-7944 or email [here]. The application deadline is February 13, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.
Absolutely no applications will be accepted after the deadline; no exceptions.
Annual salary that an adult with one school-age child needs to earn in Fulton County to be considered self-sufficient: $33,200
Amount that a parent in Fulton County earning $33,200 should spend on transportation, monthly: $53
Cost of a 30-day MARTA pass: $52.50
Percentage of Fulton County’s working population that uses public transportation: 9.3
Maximum hourly wage that an adult with one child could earn and still fall below the federal poverty line: $6.75
Federal minimum wage: $6.55
Hourly wage that an Atlantan raising two children would have to earn to be self-sufficient: $19
Hourly wage a Bostonian would have to earn: $30
Rank of Atlanta among 11 cities surveyed for highest cost of self-sufficiency: 9
Rank of Boston: 1
Percentage increase in the number of Fulton County residents who filed first-time unemployment claims in October 2008 versus October 2007: 66
Percentage increase in both Cobb and Gwinnett counties: 83
Sources: 2008 Self-Sufficiency Standard for Georgia, Georgia Department of Labor
Has Fulton County become the GOP’s election scapegoat or is some ulterior motive at work in Secretary of State Karen Handel’s call for a state investigations and threats of possible criminal prosecution?
As the AJC has doggedly been reporting, Handel has expressed outrage that Fulton took three days to count its absentee ballots, long after all other counties had turned in their results. Under state Elections Board rules, counties are supposed to keep ballot-counters on the job until they’re finished – or unless the Secretary of State’s office give them permission to break for the night.
Fulton officials called Handel’s office early Wednesday morning to see if the counters go home to get some sleep. She said no. They went home anyway.
Somewhat lost amid the shuffle of the presidential race and a handful of legislators losing seats were the various referenda (or referendums, for non-English majors) that appeared on local ballots. Here’s a wrap-up:
Just got a message from the mayor’s office:
We have received some calls that voters have been turned away from a polling place because their names were not found in the system. Anyone who is registered and has problems should ask to speak with a legal counsel or county official before accepting a provisional ballot. I strongly encourage everyone to participate in the democratic process today by exercising their sacred right to vote.
Yes, polls close in 60 minutes, but the number to the Fulton County election command center is 404-612-8300. Prepare to wait a few minutes, but live people are standing by to answer questions. A Fulton spokeswoman tells me that only a few problems have been reported today, and most of those came from people showing up at the wrong polling place.
Better late than never, we endorse state Sen. Michael Meyer von Bremen in the only contested Georgia Court of Appeals contest. See the rest of our Voter’s Guide and our Fulton and DeKalb Cheat Sheet.
In the Court of Appeals contest: While there are other strong candidates, Meyer von Bremen has proven himself as a fair and judicious public servant, and stands the best chance at turning over a religious right-winger’s attempt to win the seat.
If you’ve been put off by articles about the long lines at early-voting locations, but you don’t want to wait until Election Day to cast your ballot, you may get a break next week. That’s when Georgia counties begin advanced voting.
What’s the difference, you ask? Oh, there’s a world of difference; early voting began Sept. 22, while advance voting runs next Monday through Friday.
Still not clear? (more…)
SPY VS. PIE: The AP reports that Julia Child left a career as a WWII-era spy to become a chef; Child is one of several well-known Americans whose previously secret spy career was revealed this morning, as the personnel files of the pre-CIA Office of Strategic Services were declassified.
SHOOTING: The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party is dead after a recently fired Target employee mysteriously drove more than 30 miles to Little Rock and shot him.
LANIER: Georgia officials asked SCOTUS this morning to overturn a February appeals-court ruling requiring congressional approval for the state to take more water from Lake Lanier to quench Atlanta’s growing thirst.
STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE: The NYT reports on the resurgent popularity of streetcars in at least 40 U.S. downtowns such as Cincinnati, New Orleans, Houston and Charlotte. Not mentioned: Atlanta’s distant visions for the Beltline and Peachtree Street streetcar.
SACS: The accrediting agency is in Clayton County today, part of its review to determine whether the school system will be the first since 1969 to have its accreditation revoked.
SCRATCH PAPER: Cox Newspapers is selling all but three of its newspapers.
RESCUE 911: The recent death of a Johns Creek woman highlights problems in the Fulton County emergency services, as the 911 operator who sent emergency crews 30 miles in the wrong direction had a long history of such routing mistakes. She also repeatedly was disciplined for sleeping on the job, chronic tardiness and fighting with co-workers, and records show her behavior wasn’t uncommon in the department.
U.S. Rep. David Scott’s Republican opponent is getting embarrassing attention for her campaign’s involvement in what smells like a fund-raising scam.
Deborah Honeycutt, a Clayton County physician, was clobbered in 2006 by Scott, 69 to 31 percent. But she’s cruising for another bruising anyway this year in the state’s most Democratic district. And Talking Points Memo reports that she’s raised an astounding $1.7 million. (more…)
The AJC reports today that the death of a Fulton County jail inmate is being investigated by the FBI.
According to the story, jail officials, including Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman, have been tight-lipped. It goes on to say:
But a jail expert who is monitoring the jail under a court order confirmed that the federal investigators are looking into the March death of inmate Richard Glasco. “They want more information. They want to know everything about it,” Calvin Lightfoot said.
In the early 2000s, the jail was rife with allegations of abuse of inmates. At that time, the facility was under the “control” of then-Sheriff Jacquelyn Barrett. Current Sheriff Myron Freeman hasn’t exactly improved the jail’s image. Expect the plentiful spread of candidates challenging media-shy Freeman for the sheriff’s seat to jump all over this.
Big surprise, but it looks like the areas in Georgia that received the most funding in budget earmarks are those whose representatives and senators carry clout. Like Columbia County, whose Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, brought home 88.9 cents per person on average.
Fulton? We yanked 32.8 cents. Gooooo Fulton!
(photo and additional text by Joeff Davis)
On Thursday, Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman invited us to a party at the Fulton County Courthouse to welcome the county’s new Chief Jailer, Edward McNeil. It was the strangest and saddest party we’ve ever been to.
After 10 minutes of God-themed speeches, we pulled McNeil aside to ask him hard-hitting questions about being a jailer. But before we could ask him if he thinks it’s just a coincidence that jail rhymes with bail, a guest at the party had a heart attack and died. Kidding around was obviously out of the question after that, so we just wished McNeil luck and departed.
He’ll be a busy man.
A recent Pew Center study put the U.S. prison population at more than 2.3 million people. We have more people in prison than China – a rampant human rights abuser with four-times as many people as the U.S.
Georgia spent nearly $1 billion imprisoning people in 2007 and the state employs the second highest percentage of employees in corrections in the country, behind Texas.
According to Pew, one-in-nine black men in the U.S. between the ages of 20 and 34 are behind bars.
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners will decide tomorrow morning at 10 to accept or decline developer Ben Carter’s $24 million offer to buy the library, demolish it, and incorporate the land into his fancy Streets of Buckhead development.
The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library system rejected Carter’s offer on February 27, but the county commission has the final say.
Or, in the words of the Save The Library blog:
This is where the commission can deny the library board’s recommendation to save the library and take the money and run!
Last week, Fulton County voters overwhelmingly rejected a referendum that would have incorporated more than 96 square miles of southern Fulton County into a city named South Fulton.
“When this election is in the books, I believe that we’ll be seeing Georgia’s next great city; the new City of South Fulton, and as a resident of South Fulton, I look forward to working with my neighbors towards getting our new city off the ground and running on the right foot.â€
— Andre Walker writing on his blog, Georgia Politics Unfiltered, on the morning of the referendum. Walker supported the referendum.
“The voters of south Fulton spoke today. They made it clear they want to have a city controlled by six commissioners who don’t live in south Fulton County.â€
— Benny Crane, an insurance broker who led the incorporation campaign, speaking to the AJC after the referendum’s defeat
“In the end, I don’t have any regrets whatsoever. The people decided and the people will have to live with their decision along with the consequences of their decision far into the future.â€
— Walker in a post on Peach Pundit titled “My thoughts on yesterday’s South Fulton referendumâ€
People who had been yearning deep down inside for a chance to play political organizer and rabble-rouser like back in the heady 60s and 70s that they’ve always heard about finally got their chance, and boy did they take it.
– Sara at Going Through The Motions on a University of Florida campus protest that followed the videotaped arrest and Tasering of a student asking questions at a speech by Sen. John Kerry. And I thought I was cynical.
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I’m just not down with envisioning any type of socialist utopia circle jerk that Hillary Clinton wants, a place where individual sovereignty and liberty seem to be non-existent.
– Jason Pye on Hillary Clinton. He evidently prefers the country’s current dystopian health-care circle jerk.
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In the end, I don’t have any regrets whatsoever. The people decided and the people will have to live with their decision along with the consequences of their decision far into the future.
– Andre Walker at Peach Pundit goes all Edith Piaf in response to yesterday’s overwhelming defeat of a referendum that would have turned unincorporated south Fulton County into a city called South Fulton. Walker supported the referendum.
By tomorrow morning, south Fulton voters may have referendumed themselves into their own new city — in which case this blog post will be obsolete.
But if the incorporation vote fails, Commissioner Bill Edwards may yet have to answer to an ethics complaint accusing him of illegally using county resources to campaign against the creation of the city of South Fulton.
City supporter and local blogger Andre Walker, who has the site Georgia Politics Unfiltered, filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission in June that claimed the commissioner was responsible for fliers bearing the county logo that quoted Edwards as dissing incorporation. Edwards has denied any connection to the fliers.
The state has taken its customary sweet time in considering the complaint, but Walker would have an uphill battle in linking Edwards to the fliers.
Then, just this week, Walker came across a county memo from South Fulton police precinct Cmdr. Major C. Turner in which he “encouraged” all employees under his command to “volunteer” this past Saturday to go door-to-door to pass out anti-incorporation fliers.
“T-shirt provided by Commissioner Edwards,” the memo read.
Hmm, if today’s vote fails, the eventual ethics hearing could be interesting.
