I somehow forgot to mention the coolest agenda item from tonight’s City Commission meeting when I read through the materials.

Toward the end of tonight’s meeting, Chief Booker asked the commission to approve a Police Department application to receive $38,359 in federal stimulus money to purchase an Automated License Plate Reader for a police cruiser.

If accepted, the city would pay only around $2,000 of the $40,000 cost.

The technology “allows for the capture of images of license plates and instantaneously compares them to millions of records to identify vehicles of interest.”  But beyond that, Chief Booker proposed another interesting scenario during the meeting.  To summarize:  if a burglary was reported at someone’s home and the victim reported that they had seen a white van out front earlier that day, DPD could check to see whether the patrol car with the ALPR had been down that street and if so, they could review the video and see if the van in question was there when patrol passed.  Then they’d have a license plate.

Cool huh?

Incidentally, the Mayor thanked Chief Booker at the conclusion of the presentation for DPD’s response during the DHS/Renfroe shutdown.  The Chief was very gracious and promised to pass the word along to his staff.

After seeing the AJC article about Decatur being one of three cities with increased tax values, I was curious about specifics.  At tonight’s City Commission meeting, City Manager Peggy Merriss laid those details out on the table, literally and figuratively.

The city lost 4 million in property values in the past fiscal (?) year, but gained 30 million from new construction.

Even so, the city will use 1.3 million over the next two years to cover the gap between revenues and expenditures, without cutting programs or raising the millage.

I believe I heard someone say that the full budget will be available online this coming Wednesday.

My wife reports this morning that the space that once housed Voila Market Cafe now has an “Available” sign in the window and the interior looks in the midst of disassembly.

I wonder what will happen to Button Cakes Bakery, which just opened inside the Voila  a couple of months ago inside the Viola space.

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.