City annexation makes some folks do some mighty strange things.

This morning’s AJC reports that State Representative Ernest Williams (D-Avondale Estates) (D-Stone Mountain) asked the House to vote down extending DeKalb’s tax freeze for another five years, because he’s unhappy that that same body created the city of Dunwoody last year.

Williams said later he wanted to make the point that he does not believe the citizens of DeKalb were treated right last year when the issue of creating the city of Dunwoody was turned from a local matter into one voted on by the full House.

“That [the call for defeat of the property tax freeze] was my way of retaliation. It’s politics,” Williams said, adding that last year DeKalb not only lost Dunwoody as an unincorporated area, but with it $18 million or more in revenue.

While I’m glad that there’s a word in the English language for such an odd form of retaliation (“politics”), I wonder how that explanation will fly with voters come the next election cycle, if for some reason the DeKalb tax freeze is allowed to expire.

If you can’t be a Senator, might as well be a Representative!

The AJC’s Jim Galloway breaks the news that former DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones will soon be back on the campaign trail, announcing this afternoon at 2pm his intent to run against incumbent Hank Johnson (and other former Jonesians Connie Stokes and Lee May) for Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District House Seat.

Let the games begin!

The AJC gives DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis high marks for his first year on the job, noting a long list of housekeeping-ish accomplishments, such as consolidating public safety, naming permanent heads of departments, cutting costs, and firing the county’s telecommuting police chief.

And while Ellis certainly seems more the pragmatist and less the politician than his maddening predecessor, there must be some more valid critiques than the ones dug up by the AJC driving around DeKalb and polling people on the street. (Seriously, that’s what the article says.  I can’t help but imagine the exchange going something like this… “Hey!  Excuse me!  What do you think of your CEO Burrell Ellis?!  Forget it, the light is changing!  Thanks anyway!”)

Now that Ellis has proven himself a capable and less divisive leader than Vernon Jones, what County issues would you like to see addressed by his administration in 2010?

As part of this week’s extended series on tax assessments around Atlanta, this morning’s AJC highlights DeKalb County.

In summary, the AJC’s analysis shows DeKalb went further than many other Atlanta counties in cutting property tax assessments, though I suspect much of the more realistic evaluations can be attributed to an AJC expose’ in April, which revealed the County was illegally not considering foreclosures during reevaluation of property values.

The article uses the CSX rail line, which runs through the heart of Decatur, as the border that separates fortunes.  To the north, home prices held their own.

A CSX rail line bisects DeKalb County from east to west, splitting Decatur, the county seat.

Appraisals south of that line sank like an anchor. Homes north of the CSX line, however, held their taxable value better than much of metro Atlanta. Brookhaven (ZIP code 30319) actually gained more than $125 million in residential value from construction, additions and renovations. Unlike other areas in DeKalb, sales prices actually improved in Brookhaven, by 1.4 percent. Appraisers tacked on $63 million to the residential worth of Decatur (30030), where sales prices jumped 10 percent. Dunwoody (30338) picked up $44 million, where home prices were unchanged.

But to the south, in areas like my old Kentucky 30032, it was a home value bloodbath.

ZIP code 30032 near Columbia Drive and Glenwood Road, for example, was reappraised downward by a total of $287 million. The median decline in tax appraisals was 21 percent, but sales data show that the median price fell by nearly half. This suggests that tax valuations could have been cut even more, and that some homeowners are paying tax on values their property no longer holds.

DeKalb raised taxes 3.73% for the unincorporated portions of the county this past year, and 1.33% for Decatur residents.  Who knows what next year may hold.

After voting Tuesday to adopt last year’s voter referendum for a considerably weaker CEO, the DeKalb Commission is already looking to scrap it.  According to an article in today’s AJC, a majority of DeKalb Commissioners are in favor of doing away with the CEO entirely and hiring a city manager to run day-to-day operations.

CEO Burrell Ellis, who favored the weakened CEO referendum last fall – even though he was running for job – doesn’t sound all that enthused on this latest development.  Ellis suggests that the commission may just be using this idea in order to gain leverage in a recent budget dispute.

I’m not sure I can come down definitively on either side of this particular issue.  I do believe that Ellis has made significant inroads to repair many of the charred bridges left by his predecessor.  On the other hand, with a city manager-style government, I might actually stand a chance of understanding the way decisions are made at the County level.

Right now I’m pretty sure the way it works is they all flip a coin, the North and South DeKalb contingents argue over whether it’s heads or tails, and then the CEO vetoes it. 

Kidding…love ya politics.  Love ya.

From Fox 5 Atlanta…

The firing of former DeKalb County Police Chief Terrell Bolton was upheld Monday. Bolton was fired following a FOX 5 I-Team investigation that found Bolton took 70 comp days during his first two years on the job.

DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis fired Bolton for insubordination, misuse of county property and acts unbecoming an officer.

What will DeKalb’s ex-telecommuting police chief do now?  Well according to the article, he still has an Equal Opportunity Commission complaint pending, so that should keep him busy for a bit longer.

Hats still off to CEO Burrell Ellis for working quickly to clean up this mess.

AJC Photo

Think these 200 folks turned out to cheer on Sembler’s request for a 20 year tax abatement on the Brookhaven project?

Think again.

Lots of in-depth articles in this Sunday’s AJC, including a look at the influence of Georgia’s largest road builder on State transportation legislation and a closer look at Georgia’s generous movie tax credit.

But none left me as unsettled as Ty Tagami’s report about Sembler’s request that DeKalb County fork over $52 million to help them “finish” the 54 acre mixed-use project near the Brookhaven MARTA station.

Why unsettled?

Because on the one hand, I have serious issues with Sember’s prior perversions of “mixed-use”, not to mention watching a cash-strapped county hand over a briefcase or six full of 100s to said developer (that’s how it works right?) Also, as Burrell Ellis has stated, it sets a bad precedent in the dark world of money-starved developers.

But at the same time, it’s mixed-use near a MARTA station.  Can the project survive if Sembler walks away from the project and leaves a big hole in the ground?  Will someone else pick it up? Also, how is it different from the federal government borrowing up to its ears to provide a cushion of employment during an economic squeeze?

I wasn’t born yesterday.  I recognize that there has always been a special back-scratching relationship between government and developers.  In this specific case though, I think there are enough concrete reasons to justify my unstated desire to watch Sembler squirm.

So, for right now…I’m coming down in favor of the hole.  Once the recession ends, let another developer, who doesn’t want $54 million, have a go.

As for the county, we’ll see what they decide next month.

When did you feel more uncomfortable?

When you thought there was some political maneuvering involving DeKalb County tax assessment process, or when you learned the apparent truth was that our assessors office just went rogue?

I’m still mulling it over.

Oh man…what delicious blog fodder!

If you thought a massive budget deficit and a drawn out fight over capital improvement funds that bleeds legal fees aren’t insulting enough, take a gander at DeKalb’s latest budget tourniquet!

You see, while you may have heard rumors about some sort of “slowdown” in the national housing market, DeKalb insists that things aren’t all that bad on the east side of Atlanta.  How did they come to this obscene conclusion?  Its the result of a “very detailed analysis” done by the assessor’s office.  So detailed, you or I wouldn’t even hope to understand it.  So please, stop embarrassing yourself by trying.

So, while zip codes like 30032 continue to watch their real estate values fall through the floor, DeKalb County politicians can rest easy that they won’t have to raise taxes on an already struggling population.

No difficult explanations or interventions on poor spending practices.  All that can’t be skipped, thanks to a “very detailed analysis.”