How Non-Elected Figureheads Are Trying to Lead My Community to Disaster

This story was featured in the USA Today, March 20, 2014.

In DeKalb County, GA, formerly considered to be a suburb of Atlanta, more residential than commercial and more upscale than not, the recession has brought about some odd behavior in quite a few people, but not the ones whom you might expect. No, it isn't the normal politicians trying to save their jobs or the lower or middle class folks trying to find jobs that are making the headlines here lately. It's a seemingly random but strategically aligned group of ... well, let's just call them "citizens" for now because that is what they are... citizens who are making deals, conspiring with one another and attempting to gain control of local tax dollars.

On the surface, they appear polished and respectable, but if you ask them a question or want to know details about their various layers of non-profits or political connections, watch out! They will not hesitate to turn social media outlets into hotbeds of gossip and rumors about you and they will be unrelentless and unapologetic. They had their sites set on taking all or most of the commercial property near my "small town" (of roughly 32,000 people) into their newly conceived city boundaries in order to keep their taxes down. Nevermind that their community was borne from the overflow of where I live and the sprawl of the city of Atlanta. They don't believe that history should influence or affect the future. They want what they want for themselves and that's all that matters.

They found a state Senator who would listen and support them. They dropped a bill for a new city with only a day left in the legislative session of 2013. It included a map of their proposed area which was the first time most people realized that they were planning to create their city at the expense of our community. Part of the problem here is the lack of process. There are no laws for creating cities in Georgia and very few House or Senate rules either. Their bill included a few key neighborhoods, our community park, several schools, two of our public libraries, a couple of key county school administrative buildings, our largest shopping district, including a mall and its surrounding plazas. They left us with only a day to find an opposing Representative or Senator who could drop a bill for us, merely to hold a place at the bargaining table the following year.

Thankfully, we did accomplish that much and my small town community showed up in large numbers at the first meeting that this neighboring group of new city advocates hosted in our area. They were essentially shut down, or so we thought. In reality, they barely skipped a beat. For the next year, leading all the way up until this most recent 2014 state legislative session, they waged a negative campaign against our entire area. They essentially insulted our residents, tried to bully anyone who asked a question or disagreed with their statements, ran negative PR against our historical society, civic organization, business leaders and volunteer groups. They completely ridiculed any attempts made by anyone to defend our area based on its long standing history and century old traditions, completely discounting any sense of community we have while apparently trying to create something similar for themselves.

As the legislative session came to a close this year, their city proposal was down to its final days in the House Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. A last minute decision was made by the sponsoring Senator, who had already passed the bill in the Super-Majority Senate even with zero support of the local delegation. He decided to pull the legislation from the House agenda rather than force a split in the commercial assets. Sources were saying that he knew they would lose at the polls. But, he first reported that a "compromise" had been made between the two communities. He produced a map that he claimed was one that both sides had agreed to accept. Only problem here... who is representing "us" and "them" in this compromise?

We have two small, non-transparent groups led by people we don't know and never elected sitting down at a table somewhere and agreeing on a map that will divide communities and affect thousands of taxpayers. Who are these people? What gives them this authority to make these agreements behind closed doors? And, more importantly, why are they so brazen as to think they can try the same exact thing next year and get away with it? Yes, next year. They are already gearing up to go down this same path again for 2015.

Government, I thought, was supposed to be by the people and for the people. But, upon further review, it was easy to learn that these people are not ordinary people. They are wealthy, well connected people who are lobbyists or owners of political PR firms, political marketing firms, or already serving as the leadership in other public groups like our parent councils and PTAs. That might not sound so bad if we were talking about school reform, but they claim their new city will have nothing to do with the school system. They have not made their sponsors or donors public and many of their board members have refused to reveal their names because they are currently employed or otherwise working for our existing county government or school system.

If they aren't elected, we can't vote them out. If our own elected representatives can't stop them from moving forward, then perhaps they can at least insist that the rules that were established are the ones that remain in effect. The city advocates are now saying they will have special consideration next year and will no longer have to follow the same two-year process that they told all of us was mandatory.

Recession can bring out the worst in everyone, I suppose. Regardless of how much money you have, some think that it is still never enough. I hope there are enough honest people remaining after our elections this year to stop these out of control special interest groups from getting everything they want at the expense of the taxpayers. Don't these people understand that there may not be anything further for the taxpayers to give? Maybe it isn't "us" they really are concerned about after all. Their vision of a new city probably means all new people, too.

Question is: where do they intend to find these people and how will they convince them to move here? I don't have the answers, but at least I still have one small voice. When added to others, we were able to speak louder this year than the special interests. If more people don't step up to help, though, I don't know if we will be able to do it again. For all the community building they said they wanted to do, what ended up happening is that a lot of people moved away. No one has time to try and solve problems for rich people these days. I hope they at least have time to show up and vote.