Decatur Annexation “Community Listening Session” This Sunday
Decatur Metro | December 2, 2014 | 2:25 pmDecatur residents have organized a brick-and-mortar “community listening session” with three City Commissioners and four Decatur School Board members for this coming Sunday, December 7th at 4pm regarding all things that fall under the umbrella of “Decatur annexation”.
And though the focus will be on listening to our elected officials, there may be time at the end for a few questions. So organizers have requested your questions. **Feel free to post your annexation-related questions to our elected officials in the comments section below.**
Here are the details for the event:
Featuring:
Decatur City Commission & City Schools of Decatur Board Members
- When: Sunday, Dec. 7, 4:00 P.M.
- Where: The Church at Decatur Heights – 735 Sycamore Dr., Decatur, Georgia 30030
Confirmed Attendees:
Decatur City Commission
- Fred Boykin
- Scott Drake
- Patti Garrett
City Schools of Decatur Board
- Annie Caiola
- Garrett Goebel
- Lewis Jones
- Julie Rhame
**Come hear their views on the potential annexation of new areas into the City of Decatur.**
This community listening session is organized by City of Decatur residents, for City of Decatur residents. Please join us!
Winning the election is the easy part…
Oh my god, that was amazing.
I want one of those circular desks.
+1,000. For work AND home.
I know there are strong feelings around town about annexation. I’m sure our elected officials know this more than anyone. Those that agreed to attend this event are doing so only because a couple of us asked them to. It’s really great, I think, that we have such approachable leaders.
The plan for this event is to spend some time listening to our leaders and if time permits, engage in a little Q & A. Because we only have a limited amount of time for the meeting, we want to collect questions ahead of time. If you have questions for our officials, this would be a great place to share them and we’ll try to make sure they are addressed on Sunday.
After the event, we’ll have light snacks and open conversation, so there will be another chance to discuss the issues with the community and with the elected officials.
I hope you have Sunday at 4 marked on your weekend calendar. See you there.
Well… it’s really hard to tell if there’s interest amongst city residents for Sunday’s event. Not quite sure what to make of it. I sincerely hope y’all will start piping up on here.
Here’s the deal: Pretty much the reason Geoff and I are doing this is to get all concerns out on the table. It’s no secret that many city residents are frustrated and have been questioning the City’s decision making processes over the past year. Whatever faults folks may perceive within how the two govt structures operate won’t be fixed by pouting that they won’t listen, so what’s the point. The proposed annexation, if it goes through, will forever change City of Decatur beyond merely adding land. Raising questions now lets our elected officials know what’s specifically on our minds. For some things, they’ll have good answers that we as residents may not have factored into our own mulling. For others, could be they’ll agree more study is needed before any action is taken. Our elected officials are all good folks. As residents, they’re affected by their decisions too and value having as much information as they can gather. We residents have to step up and do our part. On this, city residents must be active participants in deciding if annexation is the right fit for City of Decatur. If we passively allow it to unfold without ensuring our elected officials are carefully weighing everything, we’ll have zero right to complain about unintended unhappy consequences afterward.
(That said, if there aren’t any questions, I’ll happily make the most of the session to advocate for bringing the Medlock neighborhood into our fold. The northside neighborhoods would benefit greatly by having them join us.)
Agree that, if you don’t speak up officially, you can’t pout. In fact, I think that DM could influence attendance, and maybe even history, by demanding proof of attendance at this or another annexation public forum before allowing a comment about annexation. I’m only sort of kidding.
I most definitely second the motion to make it a rule!! DM, how about it??
Can we move the meeting to Trackside?
Naw, but we can all head over to Melton’s after the after part! :0)
Anything that important should probably have more than 1 meeting. Most people with Mon-Fri 9-6’s&7’s have fully packed out weekends, or actually NEED that very little bit of rare family/spouse together time to be a human.
+1
Point taken. This was organized by Decatur citizens, for Decatur citizens, on our own time. Finding a venue, a time, agreement from our elected officials to participate, media willing to show up, etc., etc. was not easy, particularly during the holiday season. If you’d be interested in trying to plan another session, we would be willing to help. DM can help you get in touch with us. Until then, I hope you’ll come on Sunday to join us for an hour and see how much we can get out of this event.
If the people with time to organize, promote and run the event ever occupy the same space with the people who lack the time to attend, the universe will explode.
It will all be much easier when we build that damn moat.
AND if we do away with this notion of “having a right to complain”. People will complain either way whether or not some say they have no right to. We haven’t heard much about the tree ordinance, but how much did our elected officials listen to their fellow citizens on that? The point being if they can do it, and want to, they will.
Folks who can’t attend Sunday’s session can still participate by posting questions here. Given enough compelling reasons, the City would surely realize there’s a need to step back and add public input sessions. This city altering decision far exceeds what was envisioned with the Strategic Plan goal of wanting to add commercial. City residents need to be included in weighing the pros and cons ahead of anything being carried to the Legislature as we won’t be allowed a vote.
Have there been any proposals to reduce the tax hit that many senior citizens will be taking? DeKalb gives exemptions starting at age 62. Any discussion on a freeze on property taxes for newly annexed areas such as Atlanta has proposed?
Decatur has several exemptions for senior citizens starting at age 62, detailed here http://www.decaturga.com/index.aspx?page=681
If Area B is annexed, which schools would residents be attending? Will Decatur be watching to enforce the street/sidewalk improvements that were promised with the new WalMart? Any plans to put more traffic lights on Scott Blvd. to slow down traffic?
The Cross-Neighborhoods Committee negotiated all but the Medlock Rd sidewalk fund contribution, and we’ll continue to see the Selig and Fuqua redevelopments through. (On the GGD negotiated contribution for a section of Medlock Rd. sidewalk, I’ve offered to relay updates to GGD’s Mary Shellman as GGD can only contact Selig through their lawyers.) There are no additional traffic signals in the works for Scott Blvd. There’s a proposed Scott Blvd traffic light should Fuqua’s Phase II happen.
I know there will be a knee-jerk reaction from some to this, but I really want to know how involved the commissioners really are in issues like this. Call me whatever, but there’s a perception that much of what they do is rubber stamping of the city manager’s decision. So not a specific question, but I’m just as curious to hear HOW the commissioners communicate their thoughts and answer the questions.
I don’t think it’s ever been explicitly explained to CoD residents WHY annexation is potentially necessary. Yes, Mayor Baskett spoke about it, but we haven’t seen fact-based reasoning and/or fiscal proof that annexation is beneficial to all involved. Or if we have, I missed it and would ask that someone point it out.
Via DM, Decaturish and other sources, stories have been written and opinions put forth, but have our city leaders laid out a basic cost/benefit analysis? Not just dollars and cents, but for the growth package as a whole.
I am not currently for or against annexation, because I haven’t been presented with something from our elected representatives that shows what the impact is to both CoD and potential annexees (is that a word?).
I can’t make the meeting, but those are my questions.
This. I keep wondering this myself. And considering Peggy Merriss calls citizens asking for a voice the peanut gallery, I have a hard time having faith. Deanne, I got your email and I won’t be able to make it because of a prior issue, but I do have a question:
What benefit does any annexation offer the citizens of the city. Not the city. But the people. Concrete examples. I have lived on Decatur since 1989. I chose to stay here with my children because it is a small town. The city growth is massive within the borders already. What benefit do we gain by more growth? You can use my real name.