Ethics complaint against Stone Mountain councilman to be heard later this month

The City of Stone Mountain's Board of Ethics voted Thursday to hold a hearing on two complaints against City Councilman Gil Freeman later this month, but members voted unanimously to dismiss an allegation of misconduct by Mayor Beverly Jones.

Two letters sent to the city's Board of Ethics criticized Freeman for making broad Open Records Act requests last year as an individual, but later claiming they were made on behalf of the entire City Council. One letter alleges violations of the city's ethics code, the other alleges a violation of Georgia law. 

Ethics board members voted 4 to 2 to proceed with the complaints against Freeman and hold hearings on Feb. 22 at Stone Mountain City Hall.

However, the ethics board voted 6 to 0 to dismiss the complaint that accused Mayor Jones of "nepotism" and "solicitation of a bribe" for creating a new Parks & Recreation Committee and appointing all of its members during a Dec. 19 city council meeting.

The ethics board was reminded by city attorney Jeff Strickland that the mayor has authority to appoint all committees and committee chairpersons. The city code says committee members "shall serve at the pleasure of the mayor" and that "the mayor shall have the power to appoint new members to any committee at any time."

DeKalb Georgia House delegation hosts town hall Thursday

Members of the DeKalb County House Legislative Delegation will hold a pre-session town hall meeting on Thursday, January 4, 2024, at 7 p.m. at the Chamblee City Hall, 3518 Broad St., Chamblee.

The state representatives will recap the 2023 legislative and special session and preview the legislative goals for the 2024 session. Inquiries can be sent to long.tran@house.ga.gov.

DeKalb House Delegation Chair Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates) is the Chair of the DeKalb House Delegation. Viola Davis (D-Stone Mountain) is the Vice Chair.

Housing price increases outpace wages in Georgia, report finds

Georgia has the eighth-worst disparity between wage growth and housing price growth, according to a state-by-state analysis by commercial real-estate marketplace MyEListing.

Wages have grown 22.7 percent in Georgia during the past five years, while housing prices increased 47.53 percent, the report says. The resulting 24.8 percent gap is lower than in Tennessee and Florida, but considerably higher than Alabama and South Carolina. The national average is 15 percent.

Wages rose $12,150 in actual dollars in Georgia between 2018 and 2022, while housing prices rose $107,500, the report states. In Georgia, housing prices outpaced wages by $95,350, the analysis says.

"The pursuit of affordable housing remains a critical issue for many Americans," MyEListing says. "Addressing the housing-wage growth gap is crucial for ensuring that residents can build wealth through homeownership, while maintaining a reasonable standard of living."

An report earlier this from MyEListing said Atlanta has had some of the nation's largest wealth gains from homeownership, increasing by 109 percent during the past five years.

Taxpayers fund expensive, unoriginal logo for Memorial Drive East

Did DeKalb County taxpayers get their money's worth with the new Memorial Drive East logo unveiled last month by Commissioner Steve Bradshaw?

The logo unveiled at the final meeting of a Memorial Drive Community Rebranding Initiative was created by an Atlanta architectural firm that was awarded a $102,400 contract more than one year ago.

However, the logo is hardly original. Almost identical logos are in use by many other organizations. For example:

In fact, one stock agency (VectorStock) offers a standard license for the right to use this logo for $15:

Or, if you're feeling extravagant, another site offers an extended license to use this logo for $80:

Anyone tempted to conclude that the county paid too much for the Memorial Drive logo should remember that the architectural firm's contract also included coming up with a branding phrase (or "word mark" as they called it). Their idea? "Memorial Drive East." Surely, the logo and word mark together were worth $100,000 in tax dollars!

Nor will the architectural firm determine where two "monument" signs will be placed on Memorial Dr. According to a bid document, those locations are "pre-determined" by DeKalb County, a fact not mentioned in last month's online meeting.

DeKalb Historic Preservation Commission lacks quorum

DeKalb County property owners seeking Certificates of Appropriateness will have to wait longer because members of the county's Historic Preservation Commission failed to attend an on-line meeting.

A scheduled June 20 meeting of the HPC did not occur due to a lack of a quorum, according to the DeKalb County Department of Planning & Sustainability.

The commission was set to consider requests involving these properties:

 - 1538 Emory Road

 - 483 Princeton Way

 - 1669 N. Decatur Road

 - 1352 Emory Road

 - 870 Clifton Road

 - 1895 Edinburgh Terrace

 - 1853 North Decatur Road (to demolish and replace a house)

The online (Zoom) meeting has now been rescheduled for July 6 at 6 p.m.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the HPC is on July 17.

DeKalb County Ethics Board cancels June meeting

The DeKalb County Ethics board has, with no explanation, cancelled its monthly meeting for June.

The meeting had been scheduled for June 15. Five members resigned from the board earlier this year. New panel members are being sought.

In February, the Board of Ethics issued a public reprimand of Vaughn Irons, whose for-profit "community development firm" received money from a contract with DeKalb County after it paid former Commissioner Stan Watson as a consultant from 2012 to 2014.

Irons served as the Chairman of the DeKalb County Development Authority while serving as the founder and CEO of the for-profit, private corporation, APD Solutions, LLC. The board's action called for an indefinite suspension of Irons or any business he owns from contracting with DeKalb County.

The board's next scheduled meeting is on July 20.

Property taxes set to increase countywide

School system and municipalities are proposing to increase property taxe rates this year. Clarkston, Pine Lake and Lithonia are all proposing increases of more than 20 percent.

The DeKalb County School District has tentatively adopted a millage rate that will require a 13.44 percent increase in property taxes. The millage rate would rise from last year's 20.345 mills to 23.08 mills. Taxes would increase $341.75 for a home appraised at $350,000 and $546.80 for a non-homestead property valued at $550,000.

That increase would be in addition to other millage rate increases proposed in DeKalb County, listed here in descending order of the increase: 

Tucker: 191.33 percent

Clarkston: 41.21 percent

Pine Lake: 26.70 percent

Lithonia: 23.02 percent

Doraville: 11.98 percent

Avondale Estates: 10.42 percent

Decatur City Schools: 9.49 percent

Decatur: 9.11 percent

Brookhaven 8.21 percent

Chamblee: 6.84 percent

Dunwoody has announced its millage rate will remain the same as 2022.

Commissioner Larry Johnson to host town hall meeting June 13

A presentation on DeKalb County's plans for a new Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax will be part of a town hall meeting hosted by DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson at the Rainbow Park Amphitheater on Tuesday, June 13 at 6:30 p.m.

The theme of the meeting is "Bringing Hope In A Big Way." There will also be presentations from MARTA and the county's Department of Planning & Sustainability. A movie will follow.

The 1,000-seat, $1.7 million amphitheater, located at 3181 Rainbow Park in Decatur, opened last year. It was funded from 2001 and 2006 park bond issues.

$15 million property tax break for developer of Brookhaven apartment-office-hotel complex

DeKalb County's development authority voted Thursday to give a $15 million tax break to the developers of a mixed-use project on Briarcliff Road near North Druid Hills Rd. 

The property tax abatement was part of Decide DeKalb's actions in favor of a $180 million bond issue to fund the Manor Druid Hills Project near Children's Hospital of Atlanta. The development is set to include 381 apartments, 55,000 square feet of office space and a 140-room hotel.

The 5-1 vote for approval came over the objections of the Chair of DeKalb County's Board of Education and several DeKalb County commissioners, who said there was no need to subsidize the private developer of the Brookhaven project, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Decide DeKalb claims the project, being developed by the Miami-based Related Group, will create 270 new full-time jobs, including eight related to the multi-family residential housing.

Expensive logo and name for "Memorial Drive East"

An Atlanta architectural firm paid by DeKalb County to develop a "brand" for Memorial Drive has proposed a stylized letter "M" and "Memorial Drive East" as the logo and slogan for a five-mile section of the roadway outside of Interstate 285. 

Houser Walker Architecture LLC, which was awarded $104,000 last year to create identity graphics and branding for the corridor, presented its conclusions during a Thursday evening online meeting organized by the DeKalb County Department of Planning & Sustainability.

After the presentation, Commissioner Steve Bradshaw acknowledged that the proposed logo and signage would not change the perception of Memorial Drive, the primary goal of a county study a few years ago.

"In and of themselves they won't," he said. "If you want me to be candid about it, a sign by itself won't do that."

Bad use of face recognition leads to week in DeKalb County jail

A local man was put in the DeKalb County Jail for almost one week, based on failed facial recognition technology, the New York Times reported on Friday.

In an article headlined "Thousands of Dollars for Something I Didn't Do," the newspaper tells the story of Randal Quran Reid, who was arrested based on warrants issued by Louisiana law-enforcement officials that concealed they had sloppily used surveillance technology.

Two DeKalb County cities get federal roadway safety grants

Decatur and Doraville have received a total of $400,000 in grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve roadway safety and lower traffic-related fatalities, the agency said Wednesday. 

A total of 20 such grants were awarded in Georgia totalling $6.53 million. About $800 million was awarded nationally.

Decatur and Doraville each received $200,000 "Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Action Plan" grant awards in the first round of funding.

DeKalb County did not receive a grant, though nearby counties are set to receive first-round funds. Gwinnett County was awarded $200,000, Fayette County was given $312,000, and Rockdale County was awarded a $240,000 grant. 

Roswell and Sandy Springs, both in Fulton County, received a total of $560,000.

The City of Atlanta received almost $30 million in an "All Implementation Grant."

"Action Plan Grants assist communities that do not currently have a roadway safety plan in place to reduce roadway fatalities, laying the groundwork for a comprehensive set of actions," the department said. "The awards also provide funding to communities that want to build upon an existing roadway safety plan."

The funds come from President Biden's 2021 infrastructure plan, which "provides $5 billion over five years for regional, local, and Tribal initiatives -- from redesigned roads to better sidewalks and crosswalks -- to prevent deaths and serious injuries on the nation's roadways."

Another $1.1 billion in awards are expected to be released in April.

Stone Mountain book illustrator recognized by Sibert Medal committee

A book illustrated by a Stone Mountain author has been recognized by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.

"Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott," written by Mara Rockliff and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie of Stone Mountain, was one of four Honor Books selected by the 2023 Robert F. Sibert Medal committee, which recognizes informational books for children.

Christie is an award-winning children’s book illustrator and lecturer and was the artist for the United Postal Service's Kwanzaa stamp in 2013. 

The announcement came during the ALA's "LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience" held in New Orleans, La. The ALSC is the world's largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children.

DeKalb prosecutor, CDC specialist to be honored as Georgia State alumni under 40

A DeKalb County prosecutor and a Centers for Disease Control & Prevention employee will be honored in March as "remarkable" alumni of Georgia State University.

The GSU Alumni Association has included Tyshawn Jackson (B.B.A. '05), a senior assistant district attorney in the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney, as part of its 2023 class of remarkable alumni under the age of 40.

Also on the list is Arezoo Risman (MBA '15), a data modernization program coordinator who has worked at the CDC for more than a decade. Risman was previously recognized as one of the University of Georgia's 40 Under 40 Class of 2019.

Millions of gallons in DeKalb County sewage spills in January

"Major spill" notices by DeKalb County Watershed Management indicate that millions of gallons of sewage went into rivers and creeks during the first half of January.

The department blamed the spills on January 3 and 4 on "rainwater." About 2 1/2 inches of rain fell at the Atlanta airport on those two days. A total of 8.48 inches of rain fell at Peachtree-DeKalb airport in January, almost twice the normal amount of 4.57 inches. 

Here is a list of "major spills" reported by DeKalb County during the first half of January: