College Ave Annexation Loses One of Its Ten DeKalb Delegation Votes
Decatur Metro | February 12, 2010Breaking news from The Champion…
After [Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield] gathered the 10 signatures from DeKalb County House delegation members required to send the issue to a vote in the General Assembly, one member – Rep. Simone Bell – pulled her name off the list, Benfield said.
Bell and fellow local House members “are getting heavy lobbying from the county not to sign. I can respect that,” Benfield said. “That’s understandable pressure.”
…Benfield said her nine other signatures included Reps. Stacey Abrams, Karla Drenner, Fran Millar, Mike Jacobs, Pat Gardner, Mary Margaret Oliver, Jim Chambers and herself. At the Feb. 1 meeting, only Millar and Benfield vocally supported the proposal. Rep. Kevin Levitas asked several probing questions indicating his concern for the rights of the business owners, but Benfield said he has agreed to sign the petition in the future if the businesses don’t clean up their sites in a reasonable amount of time.
Regardless, Benfield said she doesn’t know where that leaves her.
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Hopefully, it leave here where she has been every time she tries this. I might add this is not the first time. It seems like they tried a full court press. It should leave her feeling like the cities need to approach owners and negotiate reasonably, not act in a unilateral way, with threats. I really really hate a approaches like Avondale and Decatur keep trying. The attitude is, we know what is best and to hell with property owners and their rights.
um, Jill, not Jim Chambers. Don’t shave off any of our female members of the delegation (even ones I don’t tend to agree with)!
Congratulations to the anti annexation folks. Looks like you won’t be joining our tax rolls anytime soon.