Louis points to this short blurb from the AJC…

Brookhaven recently signed a deal with Decatur to handle fire marshal inspections and permitting.

Brookhaven will pay $40 an hour for the service. DeKalb County had handled the work previously, processing about 600 building permits every year. The county will continue to provide fire and rescue services to Brookhaven.

Annexation isn’t just a topic of conversation around Decatur.  Though our city has long been toying with the idea of expanding its limits in order to increase its commercial base, there hasn’t yet been the almost necessary outcry by surrounding residents looking to trade their DeKalb-run services for Decatur to make it happen.

However, it’s a different story further north. The initial benefits of the newly-minted city of Dunwoody – which captured millions of dollars of DeKalb County property tax revenue after its late-2008 creation – has other northern residents weighing the benefits of more local city government services and functions.

Georgia State Rep. Mike Jacobs recently wrote on his blog he’s been hearing “increasing discontent with DeKalb County Government: rising tax bills, fewer services, inefficient government, and a lack of confidence that things are going to get better at the county.”  As a result, he’s introduced House Bill 428, which allows for “adjacent municipalities to annex neighborhoods in an “unincorporated peninsula” (an unincorporated area that is 75% or more surrounded by cities) after the adoption of a city council resolution and the passage of a referendum by the citizens in the unincorporated area.”  The bill also takes away the County’s unilateral veto power in preventing such annexations, according to Jacobs.

Whether this currently unincorporated peninsula would become part of Dunwoody or its own “City of Brookhaven” is far from being addressed, let alone decided, however these renewed talks about yet another northern annexation leads to a very serious question:  How much more annexation can DeKalb County take before its only option is even more massive layoffs and reductions in services and/or large tax increases?

In response to this new Brookhaven annexation push, the DeKalb Officers blog flatly stated recently “We believe if either of theses happen, annexation or the formation of another city, Dekalb County will collapse. The Northlake/Oak Grove/Emory area cannot sustain today’s spending and looting.”

If not totally collapse, what would a DeKalb with little northern property to call its own look like?  Will taxes rise to a point where the current lower tax-rate advantage is eliminated and everyone begins calling for annexation by the nearest city?  Or will the county be forced to scale down to a point where services are much more meager than they even are today?

On the AJC’s last official day in its Marietta Street office in downtown Atlanta, the New York Times gives it a little ink-love.

When The Atlanta Journal-Constitution moves into its new home next week, its employees will have access to free parking, more natural light and a wide variety of “retail, service and dining options” at Perimeter Mall, according to a memorandum from the newspaper’s publisher, Michael Joseph.

What The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will not have is a home in Atlanta.

A move out of Atlanta by the city’s only major newspaper raises an interesting larger question about the present media landscape: In a 21st century world of virtually free and easy communication, how important is office location?

Photo courtesy of Fresh Loaf

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dunwoody in one of the two outstanding HOST lawsuits pending between DeKalb County and its cities.

That very same day I wondered “What’s that mean for the other big HOST lawsuit, Decatur vs. DeKalb?

Welp, the AJC’s April Hunt was good enough to go out and look into it.

Officials in those cities were greatly encouraged by Monday’s ruling. As part of the decision, if the cities lose their challenge against the county they are entitled to the same deal as Dunwoody: a direct disbursement from the state Department of Revenue before it sends money to the county.

“It’s definitely an insurance policy for the cities,” Decatur City Manager Peggy Merriss said. “It’s very helpful to the position the cities have taken all along, that we are owed this.”

The problem is new bills could cripple the county, which never put any of the disputed HOST funds in escrow. It does not have the funds ready if it loses the ongoing suit with the other four cities.

The article even references the HOST hearing that the City Manager was attending when she replied in a quick note to me Monday.  That hearing – before DeKalb County Judge Mark Anthony Scott to determine HOST’s constitutionality at the Supreme Court’s direction – will result in a ruling some time later this year, according to the article.

And then what?  Why another appeal of course!

UPDATE: It’s fate!  City Manager Peggy Merriss responds to a DM inquiry on the Dunwoody HOST ruling…

I’m actually in HOST hearing right now. [City Attorney] Bryan Downs has mentioned it so hopefully it helps.

From a GA Supreme Court Press Release…

Note: This isn’t the HOST lawsuit that Decatur and three other DeKalb cities brought against DeKalb.  However, I’m currently trying to determine how this ruling might affect HOST distribution to DeKalb’s other cities, who have been fighting for 10 years for their fair share of Homestead Option Sales and Use Tax.

DEKALB COUNTY V. PERDUE ET AL. (S09A2016)

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld as constitutional a 2007 amendment to the Homestead Option and Sales Use Tax Act (HOST). The amendment opened the door for the newly created City of Dunwoody to start receiving HOST money, sparking a lawsuit by DeKalb County against Gov. Sonny Perdue and the state Revenue Commissioner, challenging the amendment as unconstitutional.

But in today’s unanimous opinion, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein writes that the amendment “is not unconstitutional or illegal for any of the reasons set forth by appellant.”

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