AJC > NorthSide > Blog > Archives > 2006 > October
October 2006
Should one mayor have this much power?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
meetings.
For 20 years, Max Bacon has served as mayor of Smyrna, but he still can’t appoint the city manager.
And Jere Wood, the long-time mayor of Roswell, can’t veto actions taken by the City Council, though there are certainly times he wishes he could.
But, when Mike Bodker is sworn in as the first mayor of Johns Creek later this year, he’ll be able to do all those things — making him one of the strongest mayors in the state.
He can hire and fire the city manager, who controls all other city employees. He can veto a decision by the City Council, and it takes a supermajority — five of the six council members — to override it. It doesn’t hurt, either, that Bodker will be able to vote at City Council meetings (most big city mayors vote only in the event of a tie).
“While we see all kinds of variations — strong mayor, weak mayor, strong city manager — [Johns Creek] is probably the strongest form of mayor I’ve seen,” said Susan Pruett, general counsel for the Georgia Municipal Association.
Read the full story | Visit Mike Bodker’s web site
Should the city put this much power in the hands of one person?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Johns Creek
How will Milton manage growth?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The long-planned Publix opened last week in the heart of the Birmingham community, at the corner of Birmingham Road and Birmingham Highway.
It’s a sign that life is changing quickly in the traditionally rural part of the county that is soon to be the city of Milton.
And it comes as a new Atlanta Regional Commission report is out about growth in north Fulton and the rest of metro.
A news story in AJC’s NorthSide section by D.L. Bennett said the ARC forecasts that Fulton’s population will grow from 816,006 in 2000 to more than 1.1 million residents by 2030. The county should also have more than 1 million jobs by then, compared with an estimated 730,000 in 2000.
In Johns Creek and Milton, two soon-to-be cities, residents likely will struggle with developers seeking to cram more homes per acre than the areas now accept.
Doug McCurry, who lives in his grandfather’s former home next to the Birmingham Crossroads, said he’s resigned to more and more development of the remaining open land in rural northwest Fulton. He said his concerns are not about how many new folks come in but about making sure any new development doesn’t wipe away north Fulton’s rural character.
“We’ve already seen it change dramatically,” McCurry said. “It has been able to retain the ambience of what people are looking for. What’s saved this area so far has been lack of sewage.”
NorthSide asked the candidates for mayor and city council in the new city how they would manage growth. The answers would make good reading before you cast your ballots next Tuesday (or this week if you’re voting early). Here are the candidate’s answers about land use and commerical development.
Have you seen the new Publix and the other development planned and underway near Birmingham Crossroads? Has Fulton County done a good job of managing growth in the Milton area? How would you like the new city to guide future proposals for residential and commercial growth?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Milton
Is Sandy Springs cheap or thrifty?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Photo by Cynthia Daniels/AJC
Last week Take to Task asked whether anybody found it weird that Sandy Springs keeps trash bags taped to the MARTA bus stop poles. And it learned that the city reads Take to Task.
Mayor Eva Galambos responded with an e-mail reminding Take to Task that the new city deployed the trash bags shortly after the city began operation. The reason: No trash cans at most bus stops.
“To prevent litter, we decided that plastic trash bags would do the job until we could install trash cans. We are thrilled that once again Sandy Springs is exhibiting public/private initiative to solve the problem,” Galambos wrote. “Newell Rubbermaid is donating 170 trash cans for all the stops, which the city will install. This should happen shortly,” the mayor wrote.
The answer might lead to another question. The notion of tacking trash bags onto the bus stops might strike some as silly, but it’s also absolutely a frugal solution to a problem that nobody else had addressed. And it bought the city time to find a cost-effective way of getting permanent trash cans at the bus stops.
The question we’re wondering today: How do you rate Sandy Springs on its spending. Is the city frugal and thrifty, and are residents getting good stewardship of their tax dollars. Your thoughts?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Sandy Springs
Are you ready to vote?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Early voting begins Oct. 30, and election day is not far behind.
AJC Northside has posted the online version of our Nov. 7 voters guide, including information for all of the City Council races in Johns Creek, contested races for county commission, school board and the state Legislature.
To see the guide, click here.
If you know somebody who might want to know about our guide, please pass the word.
Permalink | | Categories: Johns Creek
The law in Sandy Springs: Too much or just right?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC staff writer Cynthia Daniels has taken a look at the work done by the new Sandy Springs police department. Among her findings are two facts that should give drivers pause as they tool around the streets of the new city:
(1) Of the 501 speeding tickets issued by the city in September, nearly half (43 percent) of those were given to drivers who were at least 24 miles above the posted speed limit.
(2) Of some 2,000 tickets issued, 138 were for following too closely.
That tells us they’re driving fast and close in Sandy Springs.
Here are some other details from her news story:
Some questions for the room:
Have you had any experiences with Sandy Springs police or courts, good bad or indifferent? Please tell us about them
For residents: Is this what you had in mind when you voted to create your own city?
Permalink | Comments (43) | Categories: Sandy Springs
Priorities for your new leaders
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The candidates for mayor and city council are coming into the final weeks of their campaigns for the first-ever elections in Milton and Johns Creek.
Northside writers Paul Kaplan and Jennifer Scholten have compiled a series of candidate Q&As on such topics as spending priorities, how to manage commercial and residential development and the use of private contractors to provide city services.
Here’s a question for you the voter: What are your top three spending priorities for the new city?
Give your answers below, and then go see how your answers compare to the candidates.
(By the way, the AJC Northside voter guide will go live online this week and it will also appear in print in the Northside section before the Nov. 7 vote. Most likely date in print is Thursday, Nov. 2)
To read the candidates’ answers, click here or go to www.ajc.com/milton.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Milton
Priorities for the new city
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The candidates for mayor and city council are coming into the final weeks of their campaigns for the first-ever elections in Milton and Johns Creek.
Northside writers Paul Kaplan and Jennifer Scholten have compiled a series of candidate Q&As on such topics as spending priorities, how to manage commercial and residential development and the use of private contractors to provide city services.
Here’s a question for you the voter: What are your top three spending priorities for the new city?
Give your answers below, and then go see how your answers compare to the candidates.
(By the way, the AJC Northside voter guide will go live online this week and it will also appear in print in the Northside section before the Nov. 7 vote. Most likely date in print is Thursday, Nov. 2)
To read the candidates’ answers, click here or go to www.ajc.com/johnscreek
Permalink | | Categories: Johns Creek
Ethics Board: Who Should Choose?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mayor or Council?
That’s what the Sandy Springs City Council will have to decide on Tuesday when it votes on its Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct.
It’s not that the Council disagrees on proper conduct for city employees and officials, it’s just they can’t seem to agree on who should appoint a 5-member Board of Ethics that will hear cases focused on whether or not the ethics code was violated.
On one side, there’s Mayor Eva Galambos, City Councilman Rusty Paul and Councilman Tibby DeJulio who think the Mayor should choose the board’s members much in the same way she chooses other committee or board members with the Council’s approval.
City Councilwoman Ashley Jenkins and City Councilman Dave Greenspan want the Council to choose the board’s members, with a few conditions. The pair believes the board should be as independent as possible. Nothing against Galambos’ judgment, they say, but what happens if 10 years from now an ethics violation against the mayor is brought before the board and its members feel some allegiance to the person who appointed them.
What do you think? Who should choose the city’s Board of Ethics?
Read the proposal on the city’s Website (page 22)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Sandy Springs
Let Johns Creek have its own address?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A recent article in the Journal-Constitution about the future of the PGA at the Atlanta Athletic Club says, “When the best professionals in the world return to Duluth for the tournament in 2011, they’ll find the course they left behind has grown a few more teeth.”
The course isn’t in Duluth, nor is the surrounding area.
And yet a mile down the road from the course the reference to Duluth can be found again. A sign at a Home Depot store reads “Welcome to Duluth.”
Neither place has ever been in that city. Both places are in the part of unincorporated north Fulton that will become the city of Johns Creek on Dec. 1. This identity problem is pervasive in the nascent city. All of the hundreds of businesses and more than 60,000 residents currently have Alpharetta, Duluth or Suwanee addresses. How will this change with incorporation? Possibly not at all. The prized Johns Creek address (cityhood promoters have constantly touted the area as having higher household incomes than neighboring cities) will not appear anywhere unless some changes are made.
The cause of this confusion is that addresses are provided by the U.S. Postal Service. USPS agency spokesman Michael Miles stated (see the Aug. 15 Q&A item in the AJC) that no decision had been made on possible changes to mailing addresses for Johns Creek residents, and cautioned that “ZIP codes don’t necessarily reflect municipal boundaries.”
But in this case, it would be fairly easy for the codes to accurately reflect the new Johns Creek boundaries. Read the full article from Northside Opinion page.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Johns Creek
Does firefighter pay raise alarms?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When Sandy Springs launches its own fire department in late December, some Fulton County firefighters who work there now won’t be answering alarms in the city.
The problems, some say, are lower pay and inadequate benefits, including reduced vacation and leave time. Some Sandy Springs-based firefighters will choose instead to stay with Fulton County or put out fires somewhere else.
But Sandy Springs officials say although they’re not offering as much as Fulton County, they’re still within the market value for the metro area. Read the full story
Does the lower pay scale make you worry about fire safety, or is Sandy Springs just getting a good deal for the taxpayers in the new city?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Sandy Springs
How should Milton deal with developers?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Unlike Sandy Springs and even Johns Creek, the new city of Milton is still semi-rural with large lot sizes and a number of working horse farms.
When the new city government takes office in December, how strictly should they regulate development? Commercial properties bring the possibility of higher tax revenues, but it might change the character of the area. If you were the new mayor, what approach would you adopt for land use and zoning?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Milton
Is Fulton stepping on Johns Creek?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The folks in Johns Creek said they wanted to become a city because taxpayers were tired of being stepped on by the county.
Now they say the Fulton County school board has just stomped out plans to create their town center.
The board has announced it purchased a 42-acre tract for a new high school, effectively killing a plan among residents, developers, and the Fulton County Commission to make this area at State Bridge and Medlock Bridge roads a community hub.
The move also aborted a quiet plan being discussed to plant the new City Hall on the land. See related story
Should the board have waited to make this purchase, or should they have consulted with the organizers of the new city before buying the land?
Permalink | | Categories: Johns Creek
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