The Decatur City Commission met a standing-room only crowd when they opened their bi-monthly meeting last night. The packed house sat quietly through all the housekeeping agenda items that preceded open discussion. When the mayor got to item #8 on the agenda,”Requests and Petitions”, he said that he suspected that many in the audience had come to hear the Annexation Report (the last item on the agenda) and that if anyone had any comments to make they would have to do it beforehand.

Three citizens of Decatur and 16 from the proposed annexation area stood up and expressed a variety of opinions on the potential annexation before hearing the city manager’s report. Among city residents, the main concern centered around how the city schools would deal with an influx of 500 new students (as projected by a recent school board report). Of those that lived in the proposed area for annexation, six residents spoke in favor citing problems with DeKalb County services (police, infrastructure) and a desire to join the Decatur school system, while 10 residents opposed, most often citing the city’s high taxes as a reason for not wanting to be a part of the city.

Upon conclusion of residents’ comments, City Manager, Peggy Merriss, gave a very thorough report on the issue of annexation to the commission.

Here’s the gist as I see it.

The main motivation for annexation has to do with easing the property tax burden for current residents. As Mayor Floyd said later in his comments during discussion, this can be done in one of two ways. 1. Win the HOST dispute with DeKalb County that would allow cities to collect sales tax (one reason why DeKalb’s property taxes are lower than Decatur’s) and 2. annex more commercial property in Decatur. The report cites that “In 1994, the City’s residential proptery made up about 76% of the total tax digest. In 2007, residential property was approximately 85% of the total digest.” The smaller percentage of commercial land, which usually results in “postive cash flow” in the form of paying more taxes for fewer services (schools), means that residential property owners have had to shoulder more of the tax burden in recent years.

The report stated that while police, fire, public works, planning & development, inspections, and active living all have some concerns about servicing the additional square mile of land, they all see it as potentially feasible if the money is there.

The one key uncertain lynch pin at this point is the school system.

Even though City of Decatur Schools has started reviewing the idea of annexation, there is not currently an action plan on how they would incorporate 500 additional kids into the school system. (Commissioner Baskett actually expressed surprise during discussion that there would be that many school kids added to the city and later suggested a map that gave a block-by-block look at where concentrations of children lived.)

During discussion, commission members addressed the “sold-out crowd” at various times, thanking them for their interest and for being involved in the process, but warned not to believe everything they read on the internet. (Commissioner Baskett referenced the term “done deal”, which had been floated by this site, and added he had no idea where that statement originated from. I’ll address this more in a future post.)

BOTTOM LINE: Though there were very mixed signals about this annexation process after GoDeKalb and the AJC articles last week, the commission made it clear that things were still in the planning stages and that the public should recognize they still have a long way to go, especially when it comes to collecting public input and working with the school board in trying to determine whether annexation was indeed a feasible option for the city. Citizens and non-citizens should not worry that the city will rush through this process, blindly ignoring key concerns. Though a city staff report may seem like the commission is farther along than a preliminary look, the toughest road is still ahead as the school system tries to figure out how to incorporate hundreds more kids into Renfroe and DHS and the city commission listens to the ideas and concerns of citizens from Decatur and the proposed annexation area.

Toward the end of the discussion, the mayor called for an action plan to be drawn up for the public to see future steps and promoted the idea of officially asking the Superintendent of Schools to take a closer look at the issue. Commissioner Baskett was a bit uncomfortable with taking actual steps forward when the originally stated purpose of the meeting was only to hear the report. I’m not sure what was ultimately decided on that point, but Commissioner Kecia Cunningham jokingly suggested using the term “Fixin’ To…” to best describe the commission’s point in the process.

So at this point here’s what you should know. The city commission is “fixin’ to” look at the idea of annexation to the north and east, but you shouldn’t worry that your concerns won’t be acknowledged or addressed by a very cautious city commission going forward.