DeKalb County development authority ignores legal requirement to post agendas: report

Decide DeKalb, the county's development authority, has repeatedly violated Georgia law requiring agendas to be posted online at least 24 hours before its monthly meetings, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

The development authority's board hasn't posted a single agenda this year, the Business Chronicle said, preventing the public from reviewing items to be considered at Decide DeKalb's meetings, which generally take place on the second Thursday of each month. 

The most recent minutes on the Decide DeKalb web site are from its June 11 meeting. 

A spokesperson for Decide DeKalb said agendas should be posted on time in the future. She said the failure was because the development authority didn't have a marketing director.

Mention of Decide DeKalb's alleged failure to adhere to Georgia legal requirements was contained in a Business Chronicle story about unanimous approval of a $60 million bond issue to pay for land in Stonecrest and construction of a 615,000-square-foot Home Depot distribution center. 

However, the publication's interpretation of Georgia law appears to be incorrect, according to PRISM DeKalb research. 

Section 50-14-1(a)(2)(d) of the Official Code of Georgia requires public meetings to generally be announced 24 hours in advance. The subsequent section (e)(1), regarding agendas, simply says they shall be made available "prior to the meeting" and "some time during the two-week period immediately prior to the meeting." It does not impose the same 24-hour requirement.

According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Home Depot would get a $3.8 million property tax break over the next 15 years for the Stonecrest facility, which would be offset by $9.3 million in tax revenue after the facility is completed.

Another $5 million in bonds are to be issued for machinery and equipment, accompanied by a separate $320,687 tax break.

Decide DeKalb claims the Home Depot project will create 77 full-time jobs with an average annual salary of just over $32,000.