Fire the School Board

February 20, 2013

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 21, is the day of reckoning for the DeKalb County Board of Education.

The State Board of Education will meet at 8:00 a.m. on the 20th floor of the East Tower of the Sloppy Floyd Building in Downtown Atlanta to decide whether to recommend to the Governor that the DeKalb BOE be removed for running our school system into a ditch and jeopardizing its accreditation.

I am hopeful that the State BOE will recommend removal, and that Governor Deal will accept their recommendation and end the DeKalb BOE’s reign of terror.

The Sloppy Floyd Building is located across Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from the State Capitol. The State BOE is meeting is open to the public. Alternatively, you can click the following link to watch the meeting over the Internet via the State BOE’s website:

http://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/State-Board-of-Education/Pages/Live-Webcasts.aspx

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) placed the DeKalb BOE on probation for myriad reasons: school board members meddling in administrative matters such as hiring decisions and financial resource allocation, school board members meddling in the day-to-day administration of local schools, children without textbooks, approximately $12 million in textbook expenditures without any books to show for it, an excessive amount spent “lawyering up” for various lawsuits, and on and on and on.

Now should be a time when the school board takes swift corrective action to save the accreditation that our school system is poised to lose in less than a year.

But instead they have hired former State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, someone with no background whatsoever in public education, as our new superintendent of schools. Mr. Thurmond promptly pledged to make himself the only person to speak for the school board at tomorrow’s State BOE hearing. The board members should answer for themselves.

The school board also hired the top-flight law firm McKenna, Long & Aldridge to provide “governance training” (no kidding) at a minimum price of $150,000.

And yesterday the school board used your tax dollars to hire former DeKalb County District Attorney Bob Wilson to sue the Governor in Fulton County Superior Court for an injunction to prevent him from removing them from office. This is just plain offensive.

All of this from a school board that SACS found to be spending too much on legal fees.

As a parent of a child in the DeKalb County schools, I feel no need to sugarcoat this:

Stop the insanity! Remove the school board.

Please attend or tune-in tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. Our children and our community depend on the State BOE getting this right.


Brookhaven Meetings & Happenings

December 10, 2012

The mayor and city council for the City of Brookhaven will be sworn in tonight, Monday, December 10, at 7:00 p.m. in Lupton Auditorium in the main building at Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road.

The swearing in ceremony will be followed by the first business meeting of the Brookhaven City Council. The meeting will start at 8:00 p.m.

Both events are open to the public.

The city officially begins operations on December 17, but the city council is authorized to take binding action as soon as a quorum is sworn in.

Mayor-elect J. Max Davis has made arrangements for citizens to recycle their plastic yard signs now that the election season is over. There is a recycling trailer parked at Village Place Brookhaven, 2524 Caldwell Road, off of Dresden Drive. You may drop off your old yard signs at Village Place until Wednesday, December 12.

The members of the Georgia House of Representatives who represent portions of DeKalb County, including me, will hold a public hearing this Thursday, December 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at Cross Keys High School, 1626 North Druid Hills Road. This is your chance to make your voice heard on state legislative issues for the 2013 General Assembly.


Vote Today, Brookhaven!

December 4, 2012

It’s a beautiful day to cast your ballot.

TODAY is the runoff election for Mayor and City Council of the City of Brookhaven. Your regular polling place will be open until 7:00 p.m.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get our new city started on the right foot.

Click here to see the sample ballot for the election.

Please click here to see a map of the four Brookhaven City Council districts. There are runoffs for Mayor and Districts 1, 3 and 4. District 2 was the only district to elect a councilmember by more than 50% of the vote in the November election, avoiding a runoff.

Click these links for the Brookhaven Reporter’s Q&A with the candidates:

Mayor and Council District 1

Council Districts 3 and 4

See you at the polls!


Shame on Sandy Murray

December 2, 2012

Shame on Sandy Murray.

I’ve been in public service eight years and have seen some pretty crazy things in that time, but nothing that sank quite this low.

Today a canvasser for Sandy Murray approached me and my wife in our driveway. He handed us an orange flyer that said the following: “J. Max Davis is a serial tax delinquent. He paid his taxes late in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012.”

I looked up this claim in the real estate deed and lien indexes of the Georgia Superior Court Clerks Cooperative Authority (GSCCCA). Here is what I found:

The tax liens DO NOT belong to J. Max Davis, the candidate for Mayor of Brookhaven. The tax liens belong to his deceased father’s estate. J. Max and his father happen to share a name.

I then called J. Max Davis, the mayoral candidate, and asked him about it.

J. Max Davis, the mayoral candidate, is not the administrator of his father’s estate. J. Max Davis, the mayoral candidate, is not responsible for the estate in any way whatsoever.

All of the tax liens happened because DeKalb County was sending tax notices to the wrong address for the estate. DeKalb has continued to send the notices to the wrong address year after year, despite having been notified of the problem.

Finally, all of the liens were marked “cancelled” when the mistake was pointed out and the estate’s property taxes were paid.

False smears are what desperate candidates do at the end of a losing campaign.

Sandy Murray did something similar at the end of her 2010 campaign for State Representative (click for more information), flyering and e-mailing a “Hail Mary” false attack, although it didn’t stoop nearly this low.

Attacking an opponent for the non-transgressions of his deceased father’s estate is beyond the pale.

Please consider forwarding this e-mail to your neighbors. They need to be aware before they vote on Tuesday, December 4.


Voting in the Brookhaven Runoff Election

November 27, 2012

For Brookhaven residents, there is a very important election that will occur on Tuesday, December 4. This is the date of the runoff for the first Mayor and City Council of the new City of Brookhaven. Don’t miss this opportunity to get our new city started on the right foot.

Click here to see the sample ballot for the election.

There are three ways you can vote:

1. On Tuesday, December 4, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at your regular polling location.

2. Today through Friday, November 30, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day, at the DeKalb County Voter Registration & Elections Office, 4380 Memorial Drive, near I-285 across from the DeKalb County Jail.

3. Request an absentee ballot. Click here for the absentee ballot request form that you will need to complete. This form must be mailed so that it is received in the DeKalb County Voter Registration & Elections Office no later than Friday, November 30. They will mail you an absentee ballot. Then, your ballot must be returned via mail or in person so that it is received in the DeKalb County Voter Registration & Elections Office no later than Tuesday, December 4, at 7:00 p.m. Here is the address for mailing your absentee ballot application and subsequently your ballot:

DeKalb County Voter Registration & Elections
4380 Memorial Drive, Suite 300
Decatur, GA 30032

Please click here to see a map of the four Brookhaven City Council districts. There are runoffs for Mayor and Districts 1, 3 and 4. District 2 was the only district to elect a councilmember by more than 50% of the vote in the November election, avoiding a runoff. Congratulations to Councilman-elect Jim Eyre on his victory.


Brookhaven Candidate Forum

November 26, 2012

The Brookhaven Reporter is hosting a free public forum for candidates in the December 4 runoff election for mayor and city council of the new City of Brookhaven. All candidates in the runoff have been invited to participate. The forum is TONIGHT, Monday, November 26, at 7:00 p.m. in Lupton Auditorium on the Oglethorpe University campus.


Vote Today!

November 6, 2012

This is a friendly reminder that TODAY is your last day to vote in the General Election.

Your regular polling location will be open until 7:00 p.m.

Click here to see the DeKalb County sample ballot and click here for the Fulton County ballot, or click here to retrieve a sample ballot from the Georgia Secretary of State’s website that is specific to your polling place.

For those voting in the City of Brookhaven’s first-ever city election, the Brookhaven Reporter has put together a voter’s guide in each city council race, complete with video introductions of the candidates: Mayor, City Council District 1, City Council District 2, City Council District 3 and City Council District 4 (click to view each race).

Each Brookhaven voter will be choosing their mayor and one city council member.

See you at the polls!


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